Amazing Grace In The UNITED States

This has been the week we needed in these United States Of America. After weeks and months of pain and tragedy and awful news everywhere you turn ... we finally got some victories. The Supreme Court yesterday voted 6-3 in favor of the Affordable Care Act, ensuring that millions of Americans will continue to receive the damn expensive health care they need. This is HUGE. And long overdue.

Then this morning, the Supreme Court votes 5-4 in favor of Marriage Equality. The rights of marriage upheld for everyone, no matter who you love. This is MASSIVE. And way past time. Our President gave a wonderful speech celebrating this landmark decision. Please watch - and appreciate - how very far we've come.

Then after that, President Obama gave the eulogy at the memorial service for the slain North Carolina minister, Reverend Clementa Pinckney. It is an incredibly moving speech, showing us again that yes, we've come so far, but also how very far we have to go. But today, across the nation, we are able to revel in the AMAZING Grace that is possible when hearts and minds are open, and acting in the name of love. Our President breaks into that very song at the end of the memorial speech, and it is a special moment ...

...one that shows how incredible and amazing everything can be when we are all truly UNITED.

Today, I can say it and truly mean it, with pride ... God Bless America.


*I bet it's gonna be going OFF tonight at The Roosterfish! Cheers, Friends!

Solidarity Forever!

I was zooming back from the beach this morning, when I saw this poster on one of those power box things along Venice Boulevard:


I love it, of course ... but I would raise this poster's "Spring" to "Forever". That's the whole point, that we're all in this together, and we simply must look out for each other. From little things like watching someone's baby or bringing them produce as a surprise on their doorstep, to big things like not voting like a crazy person for crazy people and policies. And when those crazy people and policies somehow weasel their ways into being, then banding together to oppose them and make things right.

If you've watched any of the Republican debates or read anything at all about any of the front runners on that side, you simply have to laugh. Out LOUD. Watch the State Of The Union tonight, and sigh in relief that even though President Obama has had his hands tied behind his back by BOTH parties the entire time he's been in Office, and has wussed out on some things (but triumphed in many others, I mean, c'mon!), the guy is smart. Compassionate. A daily dynamo amid super daunting circumstances. And still manages to be cool (did you see him sing Al Green?!). That's the guy I want at least TRYING to lead with some dignity and some fairness, since this is the system we currently have in place. Meanwhile, the PEOPLE can be creating positive change with the POPULIST Movements, hands free. By demanding it.

The Party System has to be abolished. No one can get anything done, and it's way too far past corrupt to really fix at this point. Everyone's in everyone's pockets, and we all know it. Which begat the Occupy Movements. Which will surge again this Spring. With leadership. And Solidarity - because that's the only way anything that has ever elevated the spirits and character of this country - or the World - has ever happened.

Get smart. Chins up. Fists raised. Together.

Legalize It, California! VOTE TODAY!

Imagine if Peter Tosh were alive today ...



He might see California become the first state to legalize marajuana in the United States! As Jim Morrison says in The Doors movie, "We're trying to change the world out here in California!"

Sure, it will be a big mess to figure out, and Mexico will go nuts with their drug trade and border stuff, and federal government is gonna get its mitts in there, and Monsanto is in on it, and Evil Empire stuff rages all about ... but at least you're not gonna keep having young men (mostly) thrown in prison for having a little weed on them.

This is historic stuff. I hope so much that it passes, for all the benefits it can offer, and for Peter Tosh and Bob Marley and anyone who has ever listened to them and felt irie.

Today is an absolutely beautiful day in Venice - I saw a Rainbow Wave this morning! - and the sand looks like gold dust. I have a lot more to say about a lot more things (Happy Dia de Los Muertos too!) but I have to get outside, for goodness sakes! We are lucky people.

Let's hope the rest of the country can feel the same, and SUPPORT our President, not battle him. Duh.

Now ... crank up that reggae!

Medicine, with a Spoonful of Sugar.

Whoa. Memorial Weekend already?! Time is flying ... and I'm concerned that we're not paying attention to that, and wasting a whole lot of time being dissatisfied, and bickering - in the media and among ourselves - over things that divide us, while preventing anything from going forward in a positive fashion. Again.

I cannot bear some of the criticism I'm hearing lately about our President - who thank GOODNESS is our President these days, over anyone else even put up for the post in recent memory - and hearing comparisons to Katrina. That is so ridiculous I could (and do) cry. People were stranded on rooftops, and bodies lay bloating in the streets of a major American city during Katrina - and Bush said "Brownie's doing a heckuva job", and then went back on vacation in Texas to clear brush. Obama is handling MULTI-crises at all times, and doing so respectfully, and nobly. Accepting responsibility for an Oil disaster, when it is all due to de-regulation in the record-profiting Oil Industry, and BP who wouldn't cough up for a part that would have prevented this whole catastrophy. We have never had to deal with a nightmare of this scale before, and I truly believe our President is doing the best he can with the resources he's able, amid constant street-fighting from oil company execs and lobbyists, and a bunch of jackasses in Congress and the Media (and a swath of the general public who just don't get it, and probably never will).

It might also be time to look into your driveway, or pause during your rush-hour traffic and ask yourselves how much blame YOU should accept with respect to oil, before you go dissing the excellent President we finally have. I've had it with all that. We are a great country when we're working together, not when we look to the entire world like an elementary school playground, tattling and pointing fingers, and missing the big picture entirely. We'd better work together now, before as my main man, Kris Kristofferson, sings, "It's over, nobody wins."


Now that that biz is somewhat off my chest, I again invite and implore you to enjoy and appreciate your beaches (or lakes, rivers, ponds, creeks, mud puddles ... any natural body of water you know and love) now, while you still can - and actively participate in ways of preserving those stunning and sacred resources. The Portraits of Hope Lifeguard Tower panels made their way onto Venice beaches this morning, and reminded me that there IS still Hope for us - but only if we can start appreciating in our hearts and minds both our Earth - and each other. Whatever our differences might be.


Have a beautiful and safe Memorial Weekend, Everybody! Have hope, get involved, and get WET!

RIP Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn died today. There is lots more to say about this great loss of a true Patriot ... but right now I have to go watch The State Of The Union Address. Let's pick up with each other later on ... Rest In Peace, Mr. Zinn.


The Next Day:

Howard Zinn wrote what I believe to be the most crucial History book about The United States of America that exists, The Peoples' History Of The United States: 1492-Present. It should be required reading to graduate high school, to become a citizen, to buy property, to anchor the news, and, most especially, to lead in any capacity. Mr. Zinn was about as smart and GOOD of a human as you could possibly be, and I'd suggest both immediately reading TPHOTUS, and watching the great documentary, You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train, in order to understand the great loss our Country just suffered. I'll let him speak for himself:

"TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
- Mr. Howard Zinn

Wow. The Audacity of HOPE!

And on that note, I'll also let President Obama speak for himself here in his first State Of The Union Address, delivered - and giving renewed inspiration - last night. There were many highlights for me, but none more so than the HOPE it gave.




We can do no better in honoring Mr. Zinn than maintaining our hope, and doing the work, that enables our President to lead, and we citizens to press him to uphold the ideals and rights that we put him into Office to restore. No matter what anyone thinks, we ARE all in this together.