Jay – Page 24 – The Boring Old Man

Road Trip!

Today is our daughter’s birthday and to celebrate with her we’ve taken a trip up to Napa CA, the *world famous California Wine Country.

Personally, I don’t drink wine with the occasional exception of sparkling wines, so Napa comes in at about #437 on my Top 10 places to visist. But it is pretty, I’ll give ’em that.

The Mrs. and I are thrilled that at this age she still wants to hang out with her parents on her birthday and are happy to be here with her, we just can’t help but wonder how our kid ended up liking such sedate, boring stuff!

Nonetheless, it’s been a really nice trip. This town has one thing down to a science, customer service. Everybody we’ve encountered has been extremely helpful and nice. If we were more into wine we’d probably make more of an effort to come here, but it is a pretty nice (and quiet) place to spend a couple days.

Good food, good drink (from what I’m told) and a friendly atmosphere, what’s not to like? Nine thumbs up for Cole’s Chop House. The best pork chop I’ve ever had, hands down.

Happy Birthday kiddo! Hope you enjoyed your time up north!

Concert Review: Magic City Hippies at The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA

Ah, the historic Fillmore in San Francisco! What a place! One of those “…if these walls could speak!” kind of places.

Countless legendary performers have graced the stage there since the equally legendary Bill Graham started booking acts there back in 1965. The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, the Who, even Frank Zappa! The list goes on and on of the pioneers, the all-out musical legends that have played there. To say it is a special venue doesn’t even come close. That being said, it’s been a LONG time since we’ve had an excuse to visit the Fillmore. As memory serves, our last show there was Dogstar back in 1997 or so (which was an epic show actually) Regardless, we were excited to get back there and share the place with our daughter who’s never had the pleasure.

I was surprised to learn there was a opener for the opening band, a Jake Pinto, who also happens to be “the new guy” I mentioned in my review from last night’s show. He started the night off with a half hour solo set, just him and a vintage Wurlitzer electric piano. He was quite good. I liked his songs, some more than others of course. But as I said to the Mrs.; I like his sound, but it really isn’t conducive to a live music setting. Just a little too mellow. I’m absolutely going to check out his recordings, as he’s a fine musician with a nice voice, but in a live setting his music was more appropriate to a dark lounge, where you’d be dropping in for the drinks, not the show. But, new discovery for listening AND solved the mystery of who the new guy with MCH is, so I give it a thumbs up!

Bay Ledges was up next and Wow! What a difference from the night before! They looked better, they played better and their energy level was off the charts. I was pretty impressed this time around. They definitely won me over and now they too are on my follow-up listening list to check out their recorded work.

Magic City Hippies came out with essentially the same set as last night. But with the bigger stage to roam and a bigger crowd to vibe with (and the vibe of the room was ELECTRIC!), the boys just let it RIP!

The Hippies’ guitarist John Coughlin was in rare form, I think the best I’ve ever seen him. In my opinion this guy is the best guitarist nobody knows about. Seriously. The way he so effortlessly blends so many styles together- rock, funk, jazz, reggae – is impressive and his slide work is spectacular. But then, he’ll go and play a bunch of stuff that doesn’t even seem like sounds POSSIBLE from a guitar! The only other guitarist I can think to compare him to is Adrian Belew, who is a living legend.

And this is not to diminish Robby Hunter’s guitar playing. He’s such a compelling vocalist and front man that I always forget what stellar guitarist he is until I see him on stage. He takes the first lead section in the song Modern Animal and its a scorcher! And when he and John solo in harmony? Nothing finer on a stage, let me tell you.

The rest of the band was on point, solid as a rock as always. It was another great night of outstanding music, played by outstanding musicians, leaving everything they had on stage. And further reinforcement of Magic City Hippies being our favorite live band, ever.

Thank you gentlemen, it was a night to remember!

Thanks for reading!

Concert Review: Magic City Hippies at The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA

There have been a lot of things over the last 2 years that have really taken the wind out of our sails. This “plague” that they’re still trying to convince of us nearly destroyed live music, but thankfully it’s starting to trickle back and last night we got to see one of our favorite live bands, Magic City Hippies!

Full disclosure, I (and my family) LOVE this band! We’ve got all their CDs, I’ve got everything they’ve put out on vinyl, the Mrs. and our daughter both sport their t-shirts…our Spotify libraries are chock-full of their music, the girls follow them on IG, and we’ve been to every Bay Area show they’ve done. If there was a fan club for them, like in the old days, one of the 3 of us would probably be the president of it! So yes, I am biased.

The Catalyst in Santa Cruz is *somewhat legendary. It’s been around for DECADES. I’ve been catching shows there since the 1980s and in fact even played a gig or two there myself way back when. I still love it there. Very cool vibe, great bands coming through, cheap drinks…what’s not to love?

To say we were anxiously awaiting this show would be the understatement of the century. We got in a groove of seeing roughly 20 shows a year, then Covid hit… and boy, did we need a fix!!! We’d been sitting on the tickets for months, and this show is our scheduled kick-off for a plethora of shows we’ll be attending over the next several months.

The opening band was Bay Ledges. I’d never heard of them, but MCH has had some great opening acts in the past, so our hopes were high.

The band was a two piece outfit, a drummer and a multi-instrumentalist/vocalist. Right off the bat, the odds are stacked against them in a live music setting. It’s tough to put on a compelling show with only two people up there.

I’ll give them this, their songs were pretty good. As a two piece they are relying on a lot of samples and loops to fill out their sound. For a drummer, this is an arduous task, as you’re locked in to a computer generated tempo that does.not.deviate. Bay Ledges’ drummer was rock solid in this regard and literally didn’t miss a beat. The vocalist had a decent voice and was not bad on guitar. He also spent a lot of time tapping pads and tweaking knobs…much like watching a DJ, which is slightly more fun than watching paint dry. That is honestly my only point of criticism for these guys. They played live music, they did NOT put on a show. They presented themselves as though they’d just returned from a day of checking out garage sales and they just generally lacked charisma. It had the feel of watching a couple buddies practice… The good news is that is easily overcome. With some effort and more gigs under their belts I’m sure they’ll become more entertaining.

Then the Hippies hit the stage. They opened with “Diamond”, one of thier newer tunes, and the crowd was drawn right in. Until this point I had wondered how they would pull off their new material live, as it is much more “studio-esque” than their earlier stuff, but I had NOTHING to worry about! The room was enthusiastic and in high spirits, and the band was simply on fire. They had a new guy sitting in on keys and guitar, and he fit in seamlessly.

The Hippies ripped out a solid 90 minute set, which unbelievably contained the entirety of my personal Top-10 from their catalog. Wrapping up the set with my all-time favorite song of theirs “Fanfare”, was the cherry on top of an unbelievably excellent show!

Close enough to the stage that I was able to capture the set list!

Then after the shortest break ever, they came back and just knocked it out of the park with the encore, rounding out my Top 10 by including “Indiana”, perhaps my favorite song from their Modern Animal album.

This show allows marked the return of their original drummer Pat, who’d (for reasons unknown to me) sat out the first portion of the tour. Pat is a fantastic, if unconventional, drummer and it was great to see him at the kit. The guys were obviously stoked to have him back on stage with them and they all seemed to be having the time of their lives.

Magic City Hippies are one of those bands that, in my not-so-humble view, are BETTER live than on record. And their records kick ass. There are only a few bands I’d put in this category, and they’re all heavy hitters – U2, Dave Matthew’s Band, and Primus come to mind… That’s pretty good company.

Overall, I can’t say enough great things about this show. It was exciting, it was a great vibe, and it showcased some spectacular musicians at the top of their game!

Welcome back to California MCH! Thanks for an amazing night! We can’t wait for the next one, which thankfully is TONIGHT in San Francisco! We’ll see ya there, front row like always!!

Thanks for reading!

Book Review: Zombie Bake-Off by Stephen Graham Jones

Okay, first of all I must admit that I’m not exactly “into” zombie stuff. But then again I’ve had some fun within the genre. The movie Zombieland a few years back was fantastic and I did watch some of the first season of the Walking Dead, so I don’t find the subject matter without merit. This is however, my first zombie novel.

This book was gift from the Mrs. She’s not exactly into the genre either ( tho she does love shooting zombies in the Left 4 Dead games with our daughter!), she picked this up after reading a recommendation of the author, (whom neither of us had heard of) not this particular book, but she chose this title, because OF the title! I mean seriously, how can you NOT be intrigued by the idea of a zombie bake-off?

It was a quick read and although I cannot say it was well-written, I will say I did enjoy it. For what it was. There were several moments that literally made me burst out laughing, and that isn’t something you find in a lot of novels, especially in horror.

Sadly, (SPOILER ALERT!) the premise wasn’t actually about zombies HAVING a bake-off, but actually about zombies (an infected rag-tag group of professional wrestlers no less!) over-running a convention center that was hosting a cooking exposition.

If that isn’t one of the weirdest premises for a novel, I don’t know what is!

The book was pretty short, tho I can’t recall the exact page count…maybe 250? This short length works for what was essentially an extended length short story. There was virtually no character development, though there was certainly no shortage of “characters”, if you know what I mean. The action scenes were plentiful but those were the areas where the writing kind of fell flat. I get it though, describing an ultra violent, gory encounter with pro-wrestler zombies I’m sure is easier said than done. There was a lot of gore, so this is definitely not a book for the squeamish. But like I said, it’s also laugh out loud funny at times. It’s a great, fun read for a rainy weekend or a day at the beach, but just know it is essentially cheap thrills with no substance. If you go into it with those lowered expectations, you’ll probably enjoy it. Then again, if you have high expectations for a zombie novel…well, you might want to call your doctor because something is wrong with you.

I sincerely doubt this book will get a second reading by me, but it will get passed on to the family and friends that might get kick out of it. That being said, I will absolutely read more from this author. If I recall, this book was published in 2012(?) so he’s had a lot of time to hone his craft since this one came out.

So there you have it. If you like outbursts of laughter with your gore, give Zombie Bake-Off a spin, you’ll probably like it!

Thanks for reading!

Empathy Fatigue

The other night, the Mrs. and I were watching the toob and an all-too-familiar commercial started playing, imploring the viewers to donate “just” a few cents day to help the poor and impoverished in Africa that are starving and have no medical care.

It was, as I’m sure was intended, a heart wrenching sight. Anyone with any sense of humanity would feel for these people and want to “help” these less fortunate souls.

But what struck me, was how this commercial in 2022 was almost EXACTLY like the ones all over the airwaves in the 1970s. And all throughout every decade since. And those are just what I can personally remember, they may have started earlier, I just have no personal recollection prior to maybe 1972. Geez, it got so common the South Park guys took a run at it, at least 10 years ago. Anybody remember Starvin’ Marvin from Ethiopia?

So this got me thinking… We’ve been “helping” the poor and impoverished of that continent for at least 50 years and nothing has improved? How can this be?

I’m as sure as can be without having actual proof that corruption on the part of the charities and any and all government agencies and/ NGOs is part of the problem, but surely that isn’t the only problem.

And it isn’t just Africa, we’ve seen this same plea for kids in Central and South America and Haiti too. And yet millions of dollars and thousands of voluneer hours later, all these places are still in squalor, with sick and malnourished people dying on the vine at every turn.

Have we disturbed the natural cycle of things? Is that why, in spite of decades long attempts to bring a better life to the less fortunate, its as bad or worse than it ever was?

We see similar things roll out here stateside, but more often from the grifting political class than charity organizations, but they do it too. It’s often for the children, or that’s how it’s framed anyway. “We’ve got kids that can’t learn on empty stomachs” so we NEED to raise taxes (or your donation) to provide discounted lunches to the poor. Then free lunches. Then free breakfast AND lunch. Then breakfast, lunch AND after-school care… The government’s solution is ALWAYS to take more from the “haves” to give away to the “underserved”. And the massive, decades long investment has brought dropping grades, lower graduation rates, and fewer kids ready for the real world. The “solution” to these drastic failures is always more money for more “programs” from the tax payer. Toward the end of that line we get the sob stories of the debt-burdoned; they’ve amassed six-figure debt to get their Bachelor’s degree in grievance studies, but now nobody will “give” them a job. They can’t pay back their student loans AND pay their lease payments on the new Lexus on a barista’s wages, so it’s back to the government’s trough for “relief” from their bad decisions… And then they have the gall to shout they’re protesting for “economic justice”?!?

Justice for who? Certainly not the tax payer bailing you out of a really bad life choice. I have a crazy, outside the box idea…I think all those people that paid those exorbitant tuitions and wound up with a useless degree and zero employment opportunities should ask the universities for refunds. After all, they sold a defective product, right? Many universities have endowments that reach into the BILLIONS of dollars, AND they already get government monies. If they are graduating students with no marketable skills, why should the taxpayers be further responsible for the costs? Maybe if the universities had some skin in the game, they would stop with the foolish feel-good degrees and indoctrination and get back to teaching valuable skills.

The last few years the pleas have started to rachet up to help the “unhoused”… No doubt there are many folks that ended up on the streets due to forces beyond their control, but far more are there only because of the choices they made and continue to make. In fact, just last weekend we encountered one, walking down the street on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, screaming obscenities and being generally aggressive to everyone in his path. And since this person clearly has nowhere to go, he will just roam the town, accosting everyone unfortunate enough to be in his path.

And the government’s “solution” to this problem, when anything is done at all, is to build housing units that come in at 6-figures per unit? Really? And the home and business owners who are unfortunate enough to be in the crosshairs when tent cities and squalor show up on their doorstep? Nothing is done for them. If they try to do something on their own, or <gasp> try to organize amongst themselves without bureaucratic nonsense, they are now the bad guys. Not the person shooting up in their doorway. Not the person breaking into their cars to steal anything that will get their next fix… There is such a weird logic surrounding this stuff… “Your problems are less important than theirs because you have more than them. So because you are “privileged” to have a roof over your head (note that what YOU have is never earned or deserved, regardless of how hard you worked to get it!) you have no right to complain about a junkie passed out in your doorstep.”

I don’t begin to think I know all the answers, but it seems pretty apparent that what we’re doing now, and for the last several decades, sure isn’t doing the trick. Things are worse in every metric.

I think I’ve reached maximum empathy. Looking out for me and mine is exhausting as it is, and no small amount of elbow grease and sweat equity goes into what little we have. This is not to say “every man for himself!”, or to even imply that we should no longer help our fellow man. But let’s face it, your twelve cents a day isn’t going to amount to a hill of beans (figuratively OR literally) for the kids in third-world hell holes. How about instead, make a sandwich for a hungry person in your city? Or get involved in a community garden? Hell, even picking up trash off the road has social benefits. There are a dozen things you can do in your own neighborhood to make your “world” a better place. If everyone concentrated on their own street/town/county and made small improvements individually or with small, self-contained groups, lives would be changed.

The next time your local ballot asks “should we raise taxes/issue bonds/increase fees for…?” the answer should be a resounding NO. Nobody is more careless with your hard-earned money or accomplishes less with it than your government. Despite ever increasing tax rates, the problems compound annually. This isn’t news, it’s common knowledge. Don’t belive me? Spend 10 minutes here: https://www.openthebooks.com/ and you’ll never look at “government spending” the same. Its beyond outrageous! I’m not sure how Americans came to believe that the answer to all of everybody’s problems is MORE government, more regulation, more taxation. I will never understand this mindset.

And the next time your guilt compells you to call that 1-800 number and bust out your credit card to “help”, ask yourself “how much of somebody else’s 60-cents-a-day was used to film that commercial?” And how much are they paying to air it? That airtime, even on cheesy late-night stations isn’t inexpensive. I do believe -100%- that a business can be charitable, but I also believe any business set up as a charity, is suspect at best.

I understand that this post might make me out to be a cold, heartless bastard. And I am, sometimes. But generally speaking, I believe most people, like 90%, are genuinely “good” and Americans overall can be exceptionally giving and generous. Unfortunately that leaves a large pool of suckers to be preyed upon, by tugging at your heartstrings, for the 10% that have no conscience or morals…

I guess what I’m saying is try to be a good person, but be smart about it. Don’t let your kindness be taken advantage of by the unscrupulous.

I’m not trying to be a downer, and I do really try to keep this a positive place here, but this situation has been nagging at me for days now, just had to get it off my chest.

Thanks for reading!

Please, be extra kind today!

I am a very lucky man, married to a wonderful, gorgeous woman for over 30 years now. We still enjoy each other’s company, we still make each other laugh and we still have more in common than not, even after 3 decades.

But on this notoriously difficult “holiday” of Valentine’s Day, I know that most folks aren’t in the same boat as I. And for those without somebody special in their lives, or worse, if they’ve recently lost that someone special, today is especially difficult.

I just want to out it out there, to try to be just little more kind and compassionate towards those you encounter today. A friendly hello, a kind smile, those little things can go a long way for someone feeling the blues today.

And if you are fortunate enough to have someone special in your life, make sure you let them know. It doesn’t take money or a bunch of time, just tell that person how much you appreciate them being part of your life.

Helping someone have a better day isn’t difficult and we if all give it a try, we might just find ourselves in a better place.

Just some food for thought…

Thanks for reading!

Flashback Friday

Some of my favorites from Freshman year, 1982. Lots of wonderful, adventurous new sounds back then.

Enjoy!

One of the reasons…

Anyone that’s known me for the last 15 years or so, knows that I am anxious to move out of California. The reasons to leave are legion, but having been born and raised here, it’s not that easy to say goodbye either.

There are still a few good things about California, and today I got to experience one of those good things that make me grateful to be where I am despite the many, many problems inherent in the Bay Area.

Lunch with the beautiful Mrs. in Half Moon Bay today. It’s a bit of a drive from home, just under an hour, but fresh seafood, on the deck overlooking the harbor, nothing but sunshine at a balmy 81 degrees…in February! Yeah, it doesn’t get much better than that!

Say what you will about how screwed up this place is, and I will likely agree and tell you even more things about it that are lousy, but days like today almost make the aggravation worth while.

Sometimes it really is the little things that make your day!

Thanks for reading!

Another Betty lost…

R.I.P. Betty Davis, whom I just learned this afternoon has passed at 77 years old.

If you don’t know who Betty Davis is, you’re not alone. If fact I, a relentless music hound, didn’t even hear of her until a few years ago, several decades past her prime.

Her music was considered controversial at the time, though compared to say Cardi B, it’s pretty tame. But for original, old school funk? Yeah, she could – and did- slay.

I’ve got a soft spot for any artist that “goes against the grain”, and she certainly did that!

May she meet back up with Miles and Sly and put some sweet grooves out in the afterlife!

So long Betty, we’ll see you on the other side!

Cognitive Dissonance: Does your past define your future?

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my future and how I’m going to go about living through my “golden years” when/if I’m ever able to retire.

Now, full disclosure, I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, some of them were very costly, some that certainly changed the course of my life. Some, there is simply no going back to “fix”, as they were time-sensitive so to speak. But this isn’t really about me…

I’ve noticed several instances lately where someone’s past has directly interfered with their present/future. And not because what they did in their past was so egregious but because somebody NOW doesn’t like what they did THEN.

This sort of thing has bothered me for a long time, but lately it seems to be at a fever pitch. My first example of this comes from my employment field. I work in what can best be described as a “health care adjacent” role. In other words, it’s a healthcare facility, but my role has nothing to do with providing health care and in fact my interactions with patients is slim to none. And yet, because it’s a licensed facility nobody is allowed to work here if they have a felony record, regardless of what position they apply for. Doesn’t matter what it was for, or how long ago it happened. Doesn’t matter if you “served your time” and have been “rehabilitated”. Doesn’t matter if you just had a short stint of probation and have been squeaky clean for the last 20 years. So you sold bag of weed when you were 18 and got busted and now you’re 28 and want to work as a dishwasher to support yourself? Too bad, you should’ve thought about that 10 years ago! Now, some facilities like mine (former employers) will make exceptions in rare cases (usually only if they are in a major bind and can’t find otherwise eligible candidates) but the exceptions are few and far between and take a spectacular amount of hoop-jumping to obtain. And believe me, they (the employer) are NOT going to jump through those hoops for a dishwasher. Or a housekeeper or maintenance guy. They will simply file your application in the nearest recycling container and move on to the next applicant.

In certain contexts I understand this. If you’re 25 and on your third DUI, I’m not going to hire you to be my delivery driver. But if you screwed up in college and got a DUI, but not so much as a parking ticket for the last 10 or 12 years, I’d suspect its safe to say you learned your lesson and you deserve a chance. If you embezzled from a previous employer and were convicted for it, I probably don’t want you working in my accounting department. But a blanket ban on employment seems really draconian. And frankly, unkind at the base level.

This kind of stuff has irked me for a long, long time, but lately it seems so much worse and it’s showing up in places where really it has no place.

I was recently watching Senate hearings having to do with judicial appointments. (As an aside, if you’ve never watched any of these, you should – very enlightening.) One of the appointees was being grilled by Senator Cruz from Texas. (No, I’m not a fan, he just happened to be the one speaking at the time). Anyhow, he’s grilling the judicial candidate about a paper she wrote over 25 years ago while still a law student. You could tell the candidate was really peeved about it and kept repeating “that was over 25 years ago, Senator” as if to say “don’t hold that against me, I was young and dumb then”.

Now, in that particular instance, I felt the line of questioning WAS at least pertinent to the position and frankly with what she’d written all those years ago, I’d probably have been inclined to disqualify her from the judicial appointment too, but it got me thinking. Aren’t we, as living, evolving human beings allowed to change? And if so, shouldn’t that change account for something? Does life experience count for anything?

I don’t know anything about this particular judge (yes, she’s currently a judge, but had been nominated for spot in a higher court…) but I did find out (‘cuz I looked it up!) that she is just slightly younger than me, so if nothing else we share the same generation as each other. Unlike me, this lady was clearly an overachiever, Harvard Law and an appointment to the bench realitively young. I imagine her to be a very focused, organized person with pretty strong professional ambitions. She’s probably spent her entire life doing all the “right” things, maybe dreaming of one day being on SCOTUS, who knows? And all that effort, all those years of work, all that sacrifice, all those dreams unraveled in 2 minutes over the contents of a school paper from two and a half DECADES back. Do you think that when she was a young, bright eyed law student writing that paper back in the 1990’s she suspected for even a nanosecond that those words on that paper would come back to effectively slam the brakes on her career 25 years later? Highly unlikely. She was probably just doing her best to sound thoughtful and sincere so her Prof would give her a good grade on the paper.

Having “come up” during the same time period, I can tell you with 100% accuracy that my thoughts and opinions changed on damn near everything, SUBSTANTIALLY, over the last 25 years. If the words of 25-year-old me were going to be held against me now? Good grief, I’d be living in a box under a bridge! Nobody would hire me for my current role with my 25 year old attitudes, unless they were clinically insane. That’s the upside of aging, you can actually learn. You can change your mind. You can GROW as a PERSON.

Take the latest Rogen kerfuffle for example. Here’s a guy that’s done quite a few things, he’s met a lot of interesting people and clearly he’s CURIOUS and looking for new information and insights all the time. Hell, you could say he’s “Professionally Curious”. So he talks to people from all walks, across the political spectrum on wildly divergent subjects and puts it out there for the other MILLIONS of curious people. He’s not frothing at the mouth, he’s not insulting anyone that doesn’t agree with him, hes not attempting to indoctrinate anybody, he’s just putting the conversation out there, asking the questions that frankly, most “personalities” are far too scared to ask.

When I first read of Neil Young’s “demands” of Spotify, I literally laughed out loud. Here’s a guy that was mediocre, AT BEST, fifty freakin’ years ago. He’s been completely irrelevant for the last 20. And he’s gonna pull the “either he goes or I go” thing over a guy that millions listen to every day?!? What a maroon. When his dusty, crusty cohorts jumped on board with him, I felt sad for THEM. How irrelevant must you feel to hitch your wagon to a horse NOBODY cares about? The bitter irony of bunch of old Hippies demanding censorship is just too much!

When Joe made his apology, I thought, ” well, he’s a better man than I”, cuz honestly I couldn’t have helped myself from making fun of those idiot dinosaurs. But what I didn’t see coming were the other dingbats that saw all this unfolding and thought “ha! he’s on the ropes, what else can we throw at him?!?” So India Aire (another has-been) comes out trying to make folks remember she exists by digging up stuff from YEARS ago to keep the dog pile going? What’s next, some guy from Joe’s middle school complaining about the wedgie Joe gave him in gym class? When is enough, enough? When can we, as HUMANS, recognize that we and the world around us is constantly changing and evolving? When does “society” decide that your past can now stay in the past? Or that your opinions have sufficiently changed enough that now you’re allowed to show your face in public? What ever happened to forgiveness, not to mention the acceptance and inclusion everyone is crowing about these days? What is the point of demanding someone change if you plan to ostricicize them from society regardless, for prior “sins”?

Growing up in the 80’s, we had this…group?… by the name of “The Moral Majority”, led by a skeezy televangelist. As a young teen I despised these people and their Holier-than-thou attitude. (And I grew up in a strict religious household!) I always wondered “who do these people think they are, telling everyone how to live?!?” It seemed patently un-American and it certainly didn’t strike me as “workin’ for the Lord”. It was organized pestering and harassment of people (artists, musicians, etc.) that THEY deemed “wrong” in one way or another and did their best to stamp these people out.

What’s unique this time around is that unlike the 1980s, where it was a bunch of old fogies (such as myself, now) trying to stomp out youth culture, now the youth culture seems to revolve around tearing down or downright destroying anyone and anything that “offends” their tender sensibilities. Which puts me in the weird position of being an old guy that feels compelled to stomp out youth culture, because youth culture these days is bitter, unforgiving, judgemental, and just freakin’ TOXIC!

But seriously, for the life of me I cannot figure out what these people are up to! What is their reward for their incessant outrage? You hear phrases like “cancel culture doesn’t exist” and “we demand justice!” and we’re implored to think of the “marginalized” and the “underserved” above our own self-interests, and yet at every turn as soon as anyone makes a mistake, the rush is on to see who can destroy that person first. And if, heaven forbid, the accused isn’t contrite enough, doesn’t bow deep enough for their accuser, then it turns into a team sport until the accused is finally silenced, bankrupted and/or unemployable. Bonus points for the accusers if they get all 3!

The way I see it, this “culture” we find ourselves in, is destined to end in flames and destruction. When the only “positive” you bring to the table is a willingness and desire to tear others down, you’ll end up with nothing but rubble surrounding you.

It’s easy to condemn. It’s easy to break things. It’s easy to ridicule. These are the actions of the weak and the thoughtless.

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. Remember that old gem?

We are better than that. I don’t just mean Americans, I mean we humans. I don’t care where you’re from, what color your skin is, what religion you practice (or don’t practice, for that matter), you don’t have to be drawn in to the negativity. You don’t need to find that needle in a haystack that will destroy another human if it’s brought to light. Learn to accept the fact that NONE of us are perfect and that ALL of us are going down our own paths, and we’ll learn the lessons we need to learn along the way. Tearing down someone else won’t do anything to raise yourself up. Screaming those lessons in our faces just makes us want to ignore you.

Just my two cents…

Thanks for reading!