Wow... its been awhile since I checked in to my own damn website! How sick is that? I'd been away for so long, that the editing software had changed, my login information had gone corrupt, and I basically had no real access to my own website. To make matters worse, my old laptop, on which I built this site, took a crap on me, so rebuilding my credentials was a challenge.

But after spending a morning with my web provider technical support, I've got the wheels back on the axels and I'm ready to roll with this thing. I promise to check in more often just to see that the pulse is still good. My good intention is to blog more often and to make some interesting updates and revisions to the genealogy section of the site. Of course, this means that I'm going to have to brush up on my web editing skills, but I've done it before and I know I can do it again. I also hope to link this to my Facebook account (if I can figure out how to do that!), so that you can see what's going on here.

Because I live in Wisconsin, I'm likely to turn Angry Chris loose on you all, so you're going to have to have to put up with him. He's actually a pretty reasonable guy when you get to know him... he's just rather opinionated, and you have to take him with a grain of salt. But he'll grow on you, I promise!

So... if you've been watching for something to begin happening here, you can suspect that it finally will. If so, let folks know that the place actually has a pulse. Enjoy!

This morning, as I was having my Saturday morning coffee, I was checking out my Facebook page, and noticed an entry from a distant cousin in Colorado. I found her post to be a bit disturbing, if not totally out of character for her. This is a lovely, strong woman, who wears her Christian faith unabashedly on her sleeve. And yet, she posted one of those Facebook "I Likes" about how God has taken one's favorite actor, a favorite actress, and a favorite singer, and that now it would be nice if God took the author's favorite president, Barack Obama. Not a very Christian sentiment, to be sure; but politically, I'm not going to begrudge anyone their opinion, although a desire that the President of the United States die (by whatever means) goes a bit over the line of political opinion. Now, to her credit, I suspect that my cousin is a bit ashamed of her post, and I say that because she did not offer the normal and customary opportunity to comment on her post. I suspect she does not want to have to defend her post, because it is not defensible and she knows it.

This leads me to lament the loss of my country.

My country was one that grew up and got over the growing pains of its youth. My country learned the hard way how important it is to have civil political discourse. My country seemed to have matured its way beyond racial violence, hatred and intolerance. But suddenly, I find myself living among a people who are willing to compromise their spirituality in favor of expressing their frustrations by mimicking and distributing hateful platitudes. I lament the loss of my country, but I don't pretend to be at a loss for what has happened to it.

Any thinking person knows what has happened, and any person with a conscience understands who is responsible. You don't have to be a raging cynic to perceive the manipulation of our culture and to recognize the perpetrators. The nebulous political middle serves as the fence that divides our relative sense of "what is and what ain't". If the sentences in this paragraph seem ambiguous, give yourself extra credit for comprehension. They have been intentionally crafted to be just that - ambiguous as hell, and I won't apologize for it.

Its all about where your moral and political center is anchored; mine happens to be on the left of that fence if you're facing north. I'm on its right as you're facing south. In other words, it matters not to me how anyone else views my perceptions. All that matters to me is my confidence and conviction in my views.

Not that anyone's asked, by my perception of the group calling themselves The Tea Party is that collectively they don't have the same conviction in their views, outside of a very limited scope, which I will adress briefly and first. By their own definition, the "TEA" stands for "Taxed Enough Already". Get over yourselves. Polls and studies show that your membership is primarily well-educated and well-paid. You've had your economic stimulus. Bend over; now I'm coming in to get mine. You're far undertaxed and you know it.

That's it... that is the sum total of their collective conviction. Everything else, all of their bluster about loss of liberties, about their paranoic fear of the left's "socialist" agenda, about constitutional "purity"; is all a smoke screen to cover up their prime objective, which is to free themselves from the fetters of government and for the rest of us to pay for their share of benefits provided by it. They will not offer any examples of lost liberties; no proof that they understand socialism, or that we are under any threat from it; and they certainly have only a limited understanding and affinity for those parts of the Constitution that they favor.

Allow me to illuminate from my moral and political anchor point.

LOSS OF LIBERTIES

This is almost too easy. The Tea Party is big on gun rights and the threat that the current administration intends to abridge them. Nevermind the fact that Mr. Obama has signed legislation allowing guns to be carried openly in national parks, or the fact that the automatic weapons ban has been lifted. There is an insistance by this group that the liberal elites are out to take their guns; the real issue is the disdain they have for the fact that their own paranoia has driven the price of ammunition through the roof, due to their own fearful hoarding. They claim, of course, that these costs are artificial and driven somehow by the left. They've literally shot themselves in the foot on this one. Let's face it. There is no foreseeable need for anyone to own a cache of guns and ammunition for self protection. First off, you haven't got the guts to pull the trigger. But if you do, you're no patriot... you're a common criminal.

On health care, the Tea Party claims that the left has imposed a mandate on them to purchase health care insurance. I'm going to give them this one. Its true! They WILL be required to purchase health insurance. What this will mean is that I will no longer have to pay for THEIR propensity to practice emergency room health care. No longer will I have to pay for THEIR use of expensive medical facilities, or for THEIR failure to care for themselves. Its a wash... THEY lose a liberty, I gain one.

On taxation, the Tea Party will have you believe that we are overtaxed. Wrong... what they REALLY mean is that THEY are overtaxed. In fact, their opinion is that they are overtaxed with the first penny they send to the government. I have a proposal for you. Don't pay your taxes. We'll let you off the hook. In return, keep your kids out of my schools. Keep your automobiles and pickup trucks off my roads. Get rid of your own garbage. Move out of my community, because when I pay for my street upkeep, snow removal, water works improvements, waste treatment plants and all of the infrastructure that is paid for by my tax dollars, I want to see to it that these deadbeats have no access to it... none. In fact, here's a pack of seeds and a ticket to an island in the middle of the ocean. Good luck with that.

THE SOCIALIST AGENDA

Again, this is almost too easy. The platitudinist right wing press trumpets that our country is headed toward socialism, and the Tea Party is only too happy to amplify the message. In no way do they attempt to define socialism, except to frame it as a system that encourages a despotic, tyrannical overlord to come to power and press their blackboot across our throat. The weaker minded public buys into this without question. The thinking person challenges it.

Social Security and Medicare are among the best and most far-reaching social programs in the world. Tossing aside the rhetoric, one can also argue that they are among the most successful and best funded of such programs. Reality suggests, however, that our ability to maintain these programs is tenuous at best, due to our "buy now, pay later" raiding (ok, technically, borrowing) from these systems' respective funding pools for things such as military buildups, wars, banking and business bailouts, and so on. You can look it up (www.network-democracy.org , et al). The Tea Party decries the new health care legislation as "socialized medicine". To which, I might add, "not that that's a BAD thing!".

Real socialism provides for the protection and well-being of the family; paid maternity leave for new-borns and their moms, paid post-secondary education for our children, paid annual vacation benefits for our working people, paid medical care for all of us, and paid retirement and care for our elderly. This all sounds like pure evil to me... not. The Tea Party loudly espouses the protest that the collective should NEVER be required to help the lesser within it. They tag this as un-American; self-reliance is the ONLY way to go. Really? Is the condemnation of the family and its well-being a code that we, as Americans, want to be associated with? The Tea Party appears to think so.

CONSTITUTIONAL PURITY

Recently, I saw an interview with a Tea Party spokesman who was asked, specifically, what they (the Tea Party) would like to see from President Obama. The spokesman indicated that all he wanted to see was an "inclination of any kind that he (President Obama) would read the Constituiton." Fair enough. Let's all forget for the moment that Barack Obama served as a senior lecturer of constitutional law. No, wait. Let's not. He WAS a senior lecturer of constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1996 to 2004 (FactCheck.org). Its safe to say that he had, before and during that time, read the Constitution on one or two occasions.

At a town hall meeting on April 7, 2010, Congressman Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) was asked if he was familiar with Article 1, Section 1 of the Constitution. He acted like a kid caught not doing his homework by answering with a question... "Uhhh... Freedom of Speech?". Wrong... Article 1, Section 1 actually provides for the creation of the House of Representatives, to which, along with the voters of his district, Mr. LoBiondo owes his position. The gentleman asking the question of the Hon. Mr. LoBiondo is a self-described constitutional activist (read that as Tea Party member), but I would ask the gentleman what his point was. Is he likely to vote against the congressman in November? I doubt it... although I do appreciate the fact that he held Mr. LoBiondo's feet to the fire on this one.

Wouldn't it be interesting to ask a spokesman of the Tea Party what its stand is on the 16th Amendment of the Constitution? Or the third paragraph of Article 6? OOOhhh... and what about Article 1, Section 2? I'll bet they really like that one... especially that infamous paragraph 3... but then again, the second half of that paragraph... where do they get off requiring a census?

Get over it, Tea Party. When it comes to the Constitution, you must be either all in, or all out. You can't pick and choose. Stop playing games with my Constitution and my country. It also won't hurt for you to read, not just ALL of the Constitution (even the parts you don't like), but "The Federalist", which will give you some insight into the genesis of this remarkable, evolving, and enduring document. You think you mold yourselves after our Founding Fathers? Trust me... based on your behavior, you're not worthy of toting their piss bucket.

And finally...

THE TEA PARTY ENDORSES RACISM

I'm going to be brief on this. You don't get to hide behind some of those signs and pretend you aren't a bunch of hateful racist bigots. The cameras are on. We can see you. The costumes don't disguise who you are. Don't claim that the signs are placed by plants and infiltrators... you aren't condemning the signs, therefore you ARE endorsing them. You may as well be wearing sheets, and you're ALL guilty, if only by association!

WELL THOUGHT CONCLUSIONS (THANK YOU VERY MUCH)

This fake storefront organization is owned and operated by far right conservative wing of the Republican Party. They're not fooling anyone, except, perhaps, themselves. Their purpose is to put an end to what they perceive as this foolish attempt to return our country, MY country to me, you and others like us.

They are trying to do so like they always have... but pushing buttons, using propaganda, telling lies, and using slick, platitudinous marketing in an ever-expanding media. They use catch words such as "patriot", "socialist", "communist", and even "Tea Party". Let's not forget that the original Tea Party activists were considered as terrorists by a large portion of the population of their day. Today, encouraging the desire that Barack Obama's presidency end, by death if necessary, is seditious and criminal in the same vein.

To that cousin in Colorado, let me say, I understand. I forgive. But please, don't hate. I know you're better than that.

I, too, want MY country back!

Has anyone ELSE noticed that there is a particularly loud segment of the population that doesn't seem to know how their government works? You know them... they're the ones who are happy when their needs (or wants) are being attended to, and when that stops happening, they think they are entitled to take matters into their own hands, and damn anyone that gets in their way. If government doesn't acceed to THEIR needs (or wants), they immediately issue a call to revolution. Damn the democratic process. It only gets in their way.

This group, who seem to fancy themselves true revolutionaries in the vein of our Founding Fathers, call themselves the Tea Party. They flaunt their "values" as purer than the general public's. Nevermind the fact that those in the eighteenth century whom they adopt as their role models would today be tossed in a cell at Gitmo for pulling that little act of economic terrorism. They are not yet really a party, in the political sense. They are simply a loose federation of disgruntled Republicans who are in deep denial about 2008 and the end of their "permanent majority". Various adherent groups have pet issues ranging from a persistent belief that Barack Obama was not born in the US to a belief that rampant socialism is destroying the very fiber of this great nation. (By the way, a recent CNN/USAToday poll showed that fully one-third of Americans do NOT have a negative association with the term "socialism".)

And of course, no Tea Party would be complete without a Barbie doll. We all know who that is. Let me ask the men in the room something, since Sarah Palin appeals to men more then to women. When you see Sarah walk onto a stage, what is it about her that you notice first? I thought so. Ok, now eyes up. Try to admire her for her mind. Just try.

Now, while you're doing that, consider this.

The stimulus package that was passed in early 2009 remains largely unspent. Yet those in the Tea Party bowel movement continue to intentionally confuse the stimulus with bank bailouts that occurred in October/November of 2008, charging the Obama administration with spending billions to float failed banks. Health care reform has been derailed by the insurance industry and big Pharm, as well as by a loss of focus by the Democrats who have been duped by a well-orchestrated and violently vocal minority.

Meanwhile, next year's federal budget assumes the end of the biggest and least effective stimulus of all. Nobody in the Tea Party bowel movement will admit that the Bush tax cuts were a stimulus narrowly targeted to the wealthiest Americans. The theory, evidently, was that the more fortunate among us would spend more, consume more, and thus put us all to work selling German cars, Japanese yachts, and Austrian crystal. In the meantime, we continued to fight two wars on the far side of the world, using the fear of terrorism as the justification for them both. Think about that; our elected government used terror on its own citizens to justify its war on terror. How'd that work out for us?

Now, of course, the Tea Party bowel movement will have you believe that the end of the Bush stimulus is equivalent to a tax increase. Tell you what. I'll show you mine if you show me yours. I'm looking at my 1040 right now. My wife and I are in our mid-fifties, we own our home mostly outright, the kids are gone, and the only real tax leverage we've got are our standard deduction, our IRA's, our 401-k's and our HSA. Our 2009 tax liability to Uncle Sam is just under 10% of our combined wages for the year. Ok; whatcha got?

Over most of the past decade, I've been at 80% salary; in three of those years my 401-k contributions were unmatched by my employer; in half of the 2000's, I received no annual raise, and no end-of-year bonus. My health insurance costs (to my employer and to myself) continued to rise, as did the costs of energy, food, clothing and everything else. All of these were due to failed economic and foreign policies; well at least as far as our middle class is concerned. The wealthy fared far better. Excuse my bitterness, but again, I've got to ask. Whatcha got? I'm not in the least interested in the dollar amount of your taxes. My dollar measures the same as yours. As a percentage of your income, how much did you pay?

The "naught" decade is over; so is the party. I want my money back. The money that the Bush tax cuts took from me. I want it back. Am I going to get it back? Not likely. But I am confident that the new sheriff's policies will eventually lead to a more even handed prosperity. Will the Tea Party be unhappy about this? You Betcha! To them this will be considered "redistribution of wealth". I, for one, can't wait for those big bucks to come rolling in while I sit on my fat ass.

To them I say, too bad! Welcome to the crappy side of the street.

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus..."

Thus begins Francis Pharcellus Church's response to 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon's letter to the New York Sun, in which she expressed her concerns about the rumors that Santa Claus does not exist. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN, its so.'", she wrote.

Mr. Church's response to young Miss O'Hanlon is as enduring today, after over 100 years, as it is endearing. Who among us hasn't read his marvelous argument for the existence of the jolly old elf and not wiped a tear from their eye? I try to read it every year, just as a reminder to myself of what it was like to sneak down the stairs in the very earliest hours of Christmas morning to stand in awe and wonder of what had transpired only hours earlier.

But the Church brief notwithstanding, what purpose does the Santa legend serve? Why, in our culture of immediate gratification, do we torture our younger brethren by hyping the coming of a fat old German guy with white hair and a red suit, bearing toys and gifts?

And we do this for months, extolling the little ones to behave, to brush their teeth, to do their chores, and clean their rooms. We (and they) know they can't hold up under all that pressure! And when they stumble, we find ourselves in the uncomfortable position, as the holiday draws near, of following through with all our threats and warnings, reminding the little tykes that they've just crossed over into very questionable territory, quite possibly making the "naughty list", where they may find themselves the recipients of so many lumps of coal instead of that red wagon, or that flashy new bike or that favorite doll. Ah, but there's the catch... a teaching moment!

Redemption and forgiveness. These are abstracts that are taught to us in our non-secular education systems... Sunday schools, religious education classes and such. We can spend the whole of our lives being honest, never curse, with a perfect record when it comes to covetous behavior, and thus avoiding the temptation to steal. But stub your toe once, and slip into a recitation of every swear word you ever heard your father utter, and before you can stop yourself, you KNOW you've screwed up, and its impossible to push those words back into your larynx from whence they came. But God, Jesus, Allah, Yahweh, the Buddha... let's face it, none of THEM is going to show up to TELL you that they know what you've done. Nor are they going to tell you how to parlay a fresh start into a return to their good graces.

If only there was someONE, an intermediary, perhaps, that you could appeal to. The Catholics have their priests, playing the roll of confessor, meting out penance which is supposed to be construed as a palatible punishment that somehow cleanses our filthy souls of the stains of our transgressions. I know this only because I survived it. I have no idea of what the rest of you use.

But Santa Claus... now THERE is a forgiving soul! The proof, tangible proof, of our redemption is that wagon, that bike or doll. All that effort to redeem oneself has paid off, and it MUST have been enough to obtain real forgiveness. Tangible proof! "They do not believe except what they see", wrote Francis Church.

"If you see it in THE SUN, its so." How true! Santa sets the great example for our little ones. He teaches us, each in our time, that we all deserve another chance. As well, he teaches us that all those who might dare to trespass against us deserve a break and are worthy of our forgiveness.

So yes, Virginia, Santa matters. In many ways, he matters more today than ever. Children today need real heroes and true role models. They need someone who can demonstrate how its done... how to redeem oneself, and how to allow others to do likewise, in return for one of the few commodities that mean much today... forgiveness.

Back in February of this year, as Joy and I were preparing to travel to Jamaica, I found a link on the Negril.com website to some videos of performances covering a couple of Bob Marley tunes, "War/No More Trouble" and "One Love". In truth, I found so very much more!

After viewing these two videos, I did a bit more digging on the phenomenon that was rapidly becoming "Playing for Change". Soon, I learned that I could obtain a cd/dvd package of music and videos that had been recorded by a diverse, multi-national group of people, many of which had never met throughout the recording and taping of the material. I quickly purchased the package from Amazon.com.

What was playing out before my eyes was a vision pulled together through the dedication and hard work of Mark Johnson, a Grammy award winning producer, engineer, and film producer.

The video portion of this package, known collectively as "Playing for Change: Songs Around the World", is really a tease for the documentary film that has been shown on PBS in recent months, and should be available soon as a more expansive movie production. About four years before this release, Mark was wandering around the Santa Monica Pier when he came within earshot of a remarkable vocal performance of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me". The voice and acoustic guitar stylings belonged to Roger Ridley, a street musician from Las Vegas who frequently set up on the pier to perform on weekends. Johnson was not only enthralled by Ridley's performance, he had an instant epiphany... what if he were to record this performance, play it for other similar performers around the world, and ask them to provide their own accompaniment? After obtaining Ridley's dismissive permission to do so, Johnson was off. What resulted was a video/musical presentation of the piece by 35 musicians collaborating from around the US and the world. But Johnson didn't stop there.

One accompaniment by an artist led to another musical idea, another piece of original material, to another performer. The final product is a collection of familiar hits, regional folk tunes, and original material performed jointly by artists from places as far flung as Amsterdam (Clarence Bekker), New Orleans (Grandpa Elliott), South Aftrica (Sinamuva, a community choir), Israel (Tal Ben Ari "Tula), and Northern Ireland (the Omagh Community Youth Choir), to name only a few.

If Roger Ridley provided the inspiration, and Mark Johnson, the vision, then Eliot Small, aka Grandpa Elliott, is the heart and soul of the Playing for Change movement. He is the second voice heard on the "Stand by Me" production, and his sweet baritone immediately grabs your attention, and you just know you've got to hear more.

My favorite tune on the cd and video, and indeed on my favorite songs ever, is Bob Marley's "War/No More Trouble". Not only does Johnson find a way to include real footage and audio of Marley into the performance, but he also managed to entice U2's Bono to perform in it with the Omagh Community Youth Choir. The result is incredible. Bono channels Marley's energy and emotion into the performance. If you've never heard any of Marley's live or original recordings of this seminal work, you will want to after hearing it here.

Another high point on the cd is a performance of a folk tune originating from Chennai, India, "Chanda Mama". I challenge anyone to sit on their hands listening to this joyous song of perseverance, performed by "Tula", and incredible voice from Tel Aviv, Nahuel Schajris, and equally energetic performer from Argentina, and the vocal group Oneness Choir from Chennai. Rounding out the vocals is Sinamuva, a community choir in South Africa. If you're keeping track, Johnson has just melded the vocal stylings of artists from four continents, without their never having met.

Speaking of perseverence, I would be remiss for not noting the performance of the spiritual piece, "Love Rescue Me", written by Bob Dylan and Bono. This one is a surprise piece, recorded as it was performed for Bono and his bandmate Ege by the Omagh Community Youth Choir. This remarkable group of youngsters is the current incarnation of this choir, which was founded by its director, Daryl J. Simpson in the aftermath of a terrible bombing in this Northern Ireland town in 1998. In the liner notes, Johnson recalls the look on the faces of the U2 bandmates during this performance, and you will feel it, too.

The final tune on the CD is a live performance of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come". This is a foreshadowing of what happens when some of the artists, represented here by Grandpa Elliott, Clarence Bekker, Louis Mhalnga (guitar), Peter Bunetta (drums), Reggie McBride (bass) and Mohammed Alidu (djembe) actually performed together on the same stage in New Orleans.

Elliott and Bekker have since taken this movement to the next step, and are currently on a nationwide tour of the USA with the Playing for Change Band. This group has sharpened its chops with live performances in New Orleans and Santa Monica, and with appearances on television (The Colbert Report and The Late Show with Conan O'Brien).

I highly recommend that you give this one a listen. Also, keep an eye out for the PBS presentation on your local public television station, and for the general release of the documentary. If you want to try before you buy, this group of musicians and Mark Johnson have graciously permitted wide distribution of many video performances (many of which are NOT on the cd or dvd) on YouTube and on the Playing for Change website (www.playingforchange.com).

Finally, I MUST note that Playing for Change is much, much more than a musical phenomenon. It is a phenomenon with a cause, and a very commendable one at that. I strongly encourage anyone who values musical tradition and musical education to visit the website of the Playing for Change Foundation, found at www.playingforchange.org.