I know what I know,
I’ll sing what I said,
We come and we go,
It’s a thing that I keep
In the back of my head
--Paul Simon
The kind of man that lived his own life.
We first met John Ross, Suzanne and I, when we bought our house in Sonoma in 1985, and John was one of a small group of contractors that worked on the place with us. It was an older house, probably a summer bungalow when it was built around 1945, so there was a lot of remodeling, basically a make-over, and over time everyone who worked on it got to know each other fairly well. It was at this time we were introduced to John’s sense of humor: quick, erudite, far ranging and hilarious. There were always laughs when I was with John, no matter how serious the conversation got. And they got pretty serious, about serious matters, as we are (or were) both very political and very opinionated.
Suzanne’s favorite John Ross story is when we were all working on the house one time and my friend, Coop, another contractor asked if we, John, Suzanne and I were going to watch the “big game” that night. I can’t remember if it was a football or baseball game. And John said without skipping a beat, “No, I think I’ll just drop acid and listen to it on the radio.” That was my official introduction to the mind of John Ross.
So we’ve known John for 24,25 years now, my family and I. He was a friend when my daughter was born and adopted, and when she graduated high school and went to college. We’ve been friends since our country started wars and started killing people in the Middle East, and locally we fought battles to keep developers from sticking resorts on our immediate hillsides. We’ve gossiped about people we know and what they’re up to and traded some pretty juicy stories. John was a great storyteller and a treasure trove of classified information, all heavily redacted.
There’s no way to sum up a man’s life, especially a man as complex and in-depth as John: a master gardener and grower of exquisite tasting vegetables in the patch adjacent to his house; an accomplished musician and music collector; an extraordinarily well read person and book collector; electrician; builder and community minded man. And as another friend recently pointed out – a gentle soul.
I knew John in times of adversity – a break-up with a long-time girlfriend, the death of his dog, Tommy, his aborted trip to Romania and a violent encounter and illness there, and the dark night of American politics after 9/11. I felt privileged to share his grief over these things and I did my fair bit of unloading on him when I came apart at the seams.
The happiest times with John were when he, Ken Brown and I got together at his place, ate the always excellent dinner he’d prepare, drink the wines we brought, smoked the best grass we’d gotten a hold of and talked and laughed into the night. I don’t know how I drove down Ghericke Road those nights, bagged and toasted to the gills, but completely in control of things. I knew what I was doing and what I’m capable of or not. Ask Ken. We did this maybe 3 or 4 times a year for a bunch of years. I’ll miss those times until the day I die.
Even though I didn’t see or hang out with John all that often he was one of those handful of friends I could count on in a pinch, as I had to do once. Some years back I had an operation and afterward it didn’t go so well, and because Suzanne was out of town I needed to call on a few friends over a few nights to stay the night in case I started bleeding and needed to get to the ER. Turned out I didn’t, but John was one of the people I could count on. That meant more to me than I can ever say. I hope I told him that. I think I did.
It’s funny how we rarely get to really say good-bye to people when they’re alive; we wind up doing it after they’ve died. Death should have taught us that every time we’re with people we like, and especially people we love; we might hold the thought that we might never see that person. I thought I’d learned that lesson, but I haven’t. I usually end my conversations with, “See ya” and take that for granted. But it ain’t so. Every moment with someone who really means something to you one should hold the thought, somewhere, this might be the last time I’ll ‘see ya.’ It needn’t be said, and then maybe these last good-byes wouldn’t be necessary. It would have been conveyed in life.
So I’ll say good-bye to my friend John Ross, who honored me with his friendship. If there’s a life after this one, I’ll see ya pal.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
You Gotta Wonder or WTF
I’m no bloody genius, I’m not even particularly smart, but when I hear or read what some of these people in Congress say I can’t believe how stupid they are in comparison with most of the people I know. Take the so-called Republican leadership – Boehner, McConnell, Sessions, Kyle and Cantor – please. These are either some of the dumbest people in America, or they’ve become addled by their years in politics, or their motives for acting moronic and irrational serve some arcane, hidden purpose unbeknown to the rest of us.
Before the new President took over, these stalwarts went along with just about every utterance out of the Bush Administration. Bush and Cheney and the rest of that hapless crew were so wrong about so many things – I’ll leave out the litany – and yet the putative Republican leadership, almost all the Republicans in Congress and a good many Democrats went along with all of it, and ballyhooed it in the process. And now this same Republican crew can’t offer any viable solutions to the myriad problems they and Bush Co. created and are directly responsible for. Yeah, there are fewer Democrats in their sing-a-long chorus now because of a change in election fortune, but there are still plenty of them – the aptly named Blue Dogs – who stand with the current moronic minority. As Olbermann says, “WTF!”
Stephen Colbert has a running segment on his show called, “Get to know a Congressman/woman,” that easily proves the case that these people are no smarter than your average amoeba. They say things that are just so dumb, so uninformed, so jaw-dropping moronic that you’ve got to wonder how they got anyone besides their immediate family (probably using bribery) to vote for them. It’s world-class idiocy. How can anyone beyond a fifth-grade education give an ounce of credence to one word that comes out of their collective mouths? How did these people get to sit in the halls of Congress?
Now I know I’m supposed to back up all these allegations with examples of what I’m talking about, but that would take volumes and far too much time to compile. And yes, I’m not talking about all those in Congress, House and Senate, in which there are some fine and learned minds, and strong and independent spirits. But that doesn’t negate the fact that there are many, far too many, dolts in both houses that do not display the ordinary, basic intelligence needed in almost any line of work. In this august grouping I include 95% of Republicans, who are now 90% hard-rock, far-right leaning conservatives, and a whole slew of Democrats who don’t seem to have the basic brain package handed out at birth. If there’s any doubt in anyone’s mind about this behold the last eight years of Republican leadership and Democratic pathetic acquiescence.
It just leaves one going around muttering WTF almost all the time. For instance: Americans accrue far too much debt in proportion to what they earn or will probably even be able to pay back. They do this with the eager encouragement and ceaseless proselytizing of banks and other lenders because conning and usury are more popular and widespread than they’ve ever been. But still Americans fall for it big time, just like naïve adolescents and screw themselves royally. And what has our genius government done about it? We know the answer – virtually nothing. Pass a couple of weak-kneed bills that don’t even address the heart of the problem, spout a little high-sounding lip service about controlling the debtor industry, and move on to the next toothless, worthless solution.
Healthcare? A vast majority of Americans want some kind of a single-payer plan because that’s what every advanced industrial society on the planet has, and because the healthcare insurance industry has cheated and robbed and bankrupted tens of millions of us. The greedy, immoral pharmaceutical industry is right up there with the insurance mobsters, and everyone, all of us, know this to be true. What has or will our government done about this? The answer is as plain as graffiti on a wall – bold and ugly – nothing. What will be done about this after Congress gets through talking and picking the issue to death? Take a guess.
All the evidence shows, and has shown for years now, that insurance-run healthcare is bankrupting the nation. This is so plainly evident by any conceivable measurement as to defy credible argument. So what does Congress do to avert this fiscal and human-suffering disaster? It refuses to even consider, consider, a single-payer solution. Doctors, nurses, healthcare experts go to Congress to talk about what single-payer is and why it’s the best viable answer, in great detail, and they’re told to get lost. They’re not allowed a seat at the table or a voice in the debates. WTF!
The eminent genius of the Congressional Committee holding hearings about supposed healthcare reform is its Chair, Max Baucus of Montana. It was good ‘ol Maxie that stuck his fingers in his ears and made loud guttural noises so as not to hear anything these professional healthcare people had to say. “We need more police,” (to get these people out of here) was Max’s response to a proven system of healthcare effective in nineteen nations.
This is more than stupidity. This is more than being too dumb to see the floor beneath your feet. This is so blatantly foolish as to be suspect. And what do we find looking into where the healthcare insurance companies and their drug industry counterparts drop its seed money to gain a little clout? Why right in the campaign pockets of Senators Baucus, Dodd, Rockefeller, Harkin, Coburn, Kyle, Hatch, Gregg et al. But Baucus is the big winner in the insurance sweepstakes when it comes to greasing the skids.
Now I’m not saying that Max the Chair was unduly influenced by insurance company gifting – after all, can we impinge on some of the richest companies of the world’s rights to free speech – but you gotta wonder.
The examples of utter head-slapping, mind-twisting, breath-taking idiotic doings in Congress are legion. Senseless wars, elimination of civil rights and habeas corpus, legally trying to justify torture, tax cuts for the wealthiest during periods of crisis, economic near-bankruptcy due to canning regulations and lax oversight, “defense” spending that gobbles 1/3 to ½ of every tax dollar (depending on how it’s calculated), and on and on. Our national infrastructure is falling apart before our eyes, our public education system has been so starved of funding – purposely – that underpaid teachers have to buy classroom materials out of pocket, and every month hundreds of thousands of people are losing jobs.
And what is Congress doing? Finding more and more ways to screw you. At that they’re most proficient. Do we deserve the government we get, as it’s been often suggested? Maybe. We’re certainly at least partly at fault for putting up with a political/electoral system that’s controlled by money – vast sums of it. And who has the larder that feeds the piggies that run the farm? If you don’t know the answer to this you should not have the right to procreate.
If the fault is in the system of politics, and it is, and we (the people) don’t act to fundamentally change that system – public financing of elections; NO private or corporate funding; IRV (instant run-off voting); national and state candidate debates open to all who provably qualify; electronic voting machines that produce paper records and whose programming can be monitored, and equally and limited doled out time on the PUBLIC’S airwaves to candidates to pimp their platforms, then we are getting what we deserve. If we don’t take the vast sums of money out of the election equation – and please no crap about money equaling free speech – then nothing changes. We just continue to go around muttering and sputtering about how the system sucks, unable to figure out why we wound up with the lowest caliber of politicians from the gene pool, and wondering why things never really change. Is anything in this pathetic scenario likely to change? I got $500 here that says “no.” Any takers?
Before the new President took over, these stalwarts went along with just about every utterance out of the Bush Administration. Bush and Cheney and the rest of that hapless crew were so wrong about so many things – I’ll leave out the litany – and yet the putative Republican leadership, almost all the Republicans in Congress and a good many Democrats went along with all of it, and ballyhooed it in the process. And now this same Republican crew can’t offer any viable solutions to the myriad problems they and Bush Co. created and are directly responsible for. Yeah, there are fewer Democrats in their sing-a-long chorus now because of a change in election fortune, but there are still plenty of them – the aptly named Blue Dogs – who stand with the current moronic minority. As Olbermann says, “WTF!”
Stephen Colbert has a running segment on his show called, “Get to know a Congressman/woman,” that easily proves the case that these people are no smarter than your average amoeba. They say things that are just so dumb, so uninformed, so jaw-dropping moronic that you’ve got to wonder how they got anyone besides their immediate family (probably using bribery) to vote for them. It’s world-class idiocy. How can anyone beyond a fifth-grade education give an ounce of credence to one word that comes out of their collective mouths? How did these people get to sit in the halls of Congress?
Now I know I’m supposed to back up all these allegations with examples of what I’m talking about, but that would take volumes and far too much time to compile. And yes, I’m not talking about all those in Congress, House and Senate, in which there are some fine and learned minds, and strong and independent spirits. But that doesn’t negate the fact that there are many, far too many, dolts in both houses that do not display the ordinary, basic intelligence needed in almost any line of work. In this august grouping I include 95% of Republicans, who are now 90% hard-rock, far-right leaning conservatives, and a whole slew of Democrats who don’t seem to have the basic brain package handed out at birth. If there’s any doubt in anyone’s mind about this behold the last eight years of Republican leadership and Democratic pathetic acquiescence.
It just leaves one going around muttering WTF almost all the time. For instance: Americans accrue far too much debt in proportion to what they earn or will probably even be able to pay back. They do this with the eager encouragement and ceaseless proselytizing of banks and other lenders because conning and usury are more popular and widespread than they’ve ever been. But still Americans fall for it big time, just like naïve adolescents and screw themselves royally. And what has our genius government done about it? We know the answer – virtually nothing. Pass a couple of weak-kneed bills that don’t even address the heart of the problem, spout a little high-sounding lip service about controlling the debtor industry, and move on to the next toothless, worthless solution.
Healthcare? A vast majority of Americans want some kind of a single-payer plan because that’s what every advanced industrial society on the planet has, and because the healthcare insurance industry has cheated and robbed and bankrupted tens of millions of us. The greedy, immoral pharmaceutical industry is right up there with the insurance mobsters, and everyone, all of us, know this to be true. What has or will our government done about this? The answer is as plain as graffiti on a wall – bold and ugly – nothing. What will be done about this after Congress gets through talking and picking the issue to death? Take a guess.
All the evidence shows, and has shown for years now, that insurance-run healthcare is bankrupting the nation. This is so plainly evident by any conceivable measurement as to defy credible argument. So what does Congress do to avert this fiscal and human-suffering disaster? It refuses to even consider, consider, a single-payer solution. Doctors, nurses, healthcare experts go to Congress to talk about what single-payer is and why it’s the best viable answer, in great detail, and they’re told to get lost. They’re not allowed a seat at the table or a voice in the debates. WTF!
The eminent genius of the Congressional Committee holding hearings about supposed healthcare reform is its Chair, Max Baucus of Montana. It was good ‘ol Maxie that stuck his fingers in his ears and made loud guttural noises so as not to hear anything these professional healthcare people had to say. “We need more police,” (to get these people out of here) was Max’s response to a proven system of healthcare effective in nineteen nations.
This is more than stupidity. This is more than being too dumb to see the floor beneath your feet. This is so blatantly foolish as to be suspect. And what do we find looking into where the healthcare insurance companies and their drug industry counterparts drop its seed money to gain a little clout? Why right in the campaign pockets of Senators Baucus, Dodd, Rockefeller, Harkin, Coburn, Kyle, Hatch, Gregg et al. But Baucus is the big winner in the insurance sweepstakes when it comes to greasing the skids.
Now I’m not saying that Max the Chair was unduly influenced by insurance company gifting – after all, can we impinge on some of the richest companies of the world’s rights to free speech – but you gotta wonder.
The examples of utter head-slapping, mind-twisting, breath-taking idiotic doings in Congress are legion. Senseless wars, elimination of civil rights and habeas corpus, legally trying to justify torture, tax cuts for the wealthiest during periods of crisis, economic near-bankruptcy due to canning regulations and lax oversight, “defense” spending that gobbles 1/3 to ½ of every tax dollar (depending on how it’s calculated), and on and on. Our national infrastructure is falling apart before our eyes, our public education system has been so starved of funding – purposely – that underpaid teachers have to buy classroom materials out of pocket, and every month hundreds of thousands of people are losing jobs.
And what is Congress doing? Finding more and more ways to screw you. At that they’re most proficient. Do we deserve the government we get, as it’s been often suggested? Maybe. We’re certainly at least partly at fault for putting up with a political/electoral system that’s controlled by money – vast sums of it. And who has the larder that feeds the piggies that run the farm? If you don’t know the answer to this you should not have the right to procreate.
If the fault is in the system of politics, and it is, and we (the people) don’t act to fundamentally change that system – public financing of elections; NO private or corporate funding; IRV (instant run-off voting); national and state candidate debates open to all who provably qualify; electronic voting machines that produce paper records and whose programming can be monitored, and equally and limited doled out time on the PUBLIC’S airwaves to candidates to pimp their platforms, then we are getting what we deserve. If we don’t take the vast sums of money out of the election equation – and please no crap about money equaling free speech – then nothing changes. We just continue to go around muttering and sputtering about how the system sucks, unable to figure out why we wound up with the lowest caliber of politicians from the gene pool, and wondering why things never really change. Is anything in this pathetic scenario likely to change? I got $500 here that says “no.” Any takers?
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