New Year’s Resolutions 2018

For 2018, I resolve -

- to spend more time with my parents.

- to travel more than I have in recent years.

- to publish works of my writing and music.

- to take better advantage of opportunities.

- to continue to run and exercise regularly.

- to work hard on meaningful and rewarding projects.

- to work hard on being a little bit better at everything.

- to help others, contribute to important causes, and advocate for the environment.

- to focus less on things that I cannot change and more on ways to make a valuable difference.

- to find something to love about every single day.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Defending Santa Claus

At a dinner party last evening, a self-absorbed individual blurted out the following statement in a loud voice: “Our parents just told us, ‘There’s no such thing as the Tooth Fairy, and there’s no such thing as Santa Claus’.” Apparently, they failed to notice that one of the people seated at the table was a seven-year-old child.

The adults in the room immediately jumped into damage control mode, citing an extensive list of personal interactions with both Santa and the Tooth Fairy. The child’s mother reminded her that she had just seen “the real Santa Claus” at Macy’s, and that her little brother had just received a significant financial windfall from the Tooth Fairy.

Hopefully, our efforts were effective. How can anyone be so idiotically insensitive? 

Please Receive This Wish

I feel sad for people who, upon receiving a “Merry Christmas” wish, feel compelled to explain that they don’t celebrate that occasion. Christmas is my holiday, and I am wishing the cheer and spirit of that day to them. 

Unless you have invited me to your place of worship, I probably don’t know what religion you practice. I don’t keep track of such things. It hardly seems important.

When someone wishes me a Happy Diwali, I accept their wish graciously and wish the same back to them. I’m fairly certain that no one is going to mistake me for a Hindu. They are simply offering a friendly blessing from the tradition in which they were raised. I receive their kind wishes with joy and humility.

An Open Letter To Friends And Family

Dearest Friends, this is my holiday wish for you. It is simple and direct, but I feel that it is critically important. I urge you to consider these words carefully.

If, in the coming days and months and throughout the year ahead, you find yourself having dark or troubling thoughts, a lack of fulfillment, a lack of energy, or feelings of concern, anxiety, despair, grief, anger, or sorrow, even if it’s mild and/or occasional, I would urge you please to talk to someone about it. 

Talk to a friend. Talk to a family member. Talk to a professional. 

The troubles that we keep inside us can and will do us harm. Sometimes that harm turns out to be far more serious and tragic than we ever could have imagined. 

If you tell yourself, “I don’t want to bother anyone with this; it’s not a big deal,” I would urge you to talk about it anyway, even if the person that you talk to does seem bothered at first. It is almost certainly a big deal.

If you’re thinking that it’s not appropriate to talk about a particular issue, ask yourself whether its healthful to disregard something that is causing you stress or worry.

If you think, “this will just blow over and go away,” don’t be surprised when it doesn’t.

If you think that you’ll be judged for mentioning an uncomfortable topic or controversial subject, think of how shocked people are going to feel when an avoidable crisis hits their lives.

If you think, “I’m not going to discuss my private issues,” realize that private issues have a nasty habit of becoming public issues in a very shocking and humiliating way.

Finally, if you tell yourself, “No way! I am never discussing THAT with anyone,” you should probably consider discussing it with someone, because, like an atomic bomb with a malfunctioning detonator, the things that we fear the most can do us the most harm.

Rest assured that you can be discreet. Professional counselors treat sensitive matters with strict confidentiality. Further, the objective is not to incriminate yourself, but rather to feel better about what’s bothering you.

So, please, do me the favor of at least considering the idea. Consider expressing your concerns and feelings to a sympathetic listener if and when you enter a blue mood. Confiding in someone is not as scary as you might imagine, and it can do you a world of good. If you won’t do it for yourself, think of your loved ones and do it for them. They really, really, really do not want to lose you over some issue that could have been resolved through proactive conversation.

2017

As the winter holidays approach, we are inclined to reflect on the events of the previous year, to celebrate our joys and our accomplishments, acknowledge our losses and difficulties, and formulate a vision of how we might like to move forward in the coming months. 

This year past year cries out for a different approach.

The United States and neighboring island nations were pummeled by three massive hurricanes in 2017. Each of these storms might have been considered the most catastrophic in a generation. They just kept coming.

Hurricane Harvey brought death and destruction to East Texas and Louisiana. Irma, the largest and most powerful hurricane in history, devastated the Florida Keys and destroyed every standing structure on some of the smaller Caribbean. Finally, Maria, the mother of all storms, brought a second wave of devastation to the Caribbean and causes incomprehensible damage on Puerto Rico. Most of the island was left without power or clean drinking water for weeks. The slow and inadequate response from Washington compounded the impact of these problems.

Further afield, a deadly earthquake caused widespread damage in Mexico. Deadly floods ravaged Bangladesh and Sierra Leone. California burned like never before.

But 2017 was not just a year of unprecedented natural disasters. Acts of human cruelty set records as well. According to ABC News, from the first of the year to 15 November, there were 317 mass shootings in the United States, or about one per day. The shooting at the Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas was the deadliest in the history of our nation. A mere thirty-five days later, 26 people were shot to death at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Terrorism continues to be a global problem. An attack on a mosque in Egypt killed over three-hundred people. More than 500 were killed by a truck bomb in Mogadishu, Somalia. An ethnic minority in Myanmar suffered brutal persecution. Attacks of conveniences using motor vehicles increased. Either tourists were killed by such an attack in New York City. A woman protesting a White Supremacist rally in Virgina was killed when someone deliberately drove a car into a crowded street. Note that I have deliberately avoided mention of the appalling state of the political climate, another troubling dimension of life in this era.

Typically, I would post a summary of personal achievements and notable experiences at this time of the year. I may still attempt that - an internal debate has been raging for some time - but I could not in good conscience see myself writing about where I went on vacation before first addressing the unprecedented suffering that has occurred throughout the world over the past twelve months.

This could very well be how 2017 will be remembered by history, as a shocking and horrific time that brutalized our planet and us along with it. That’s how I remember it. Let us pray for a kinder, safer reality in 2018. My worst fear is that things could become even worse.

Winter Solstice 2017

Curse not the darkness, but let it emphasize the value of the light.

A Christmas Present For The Rich

You receive a coupon for a five-dollar discount on a meal at your favorite restaurant. You decide to treat yourself to dinner. You order twenty dollars worth of food expecting to pay only fifteen. 

It seems like a great deal until you ask for the bill, which comes to $19.15.

You ask the staff to send the manager to your table. When she arrives, you tell her that you were expecting to pay $15.00 instead of $19.15. She explains that the coupon is subject to rules that are detailed in the fine print.

“Eighty-three percent of the savings go to the wealthiest families in town,” she explains. “They get $4.15 out of the five dollars that you saved. The other 85 cents is yours.”

Consider now the tax bill that is about to be signed into law in the United States of America, a bill that gives 83 percent of its total benefit to the wealthiest one percent of the population. If you happen to be among the wealthiest one percent, but billionaires and the multi-millionaires among us, congratulations! You just received an absolutely wonderful Christmas present courtesy of your government. 

But here’s something that you might not know. The government didn’t pay for this gift; they bought it on credit. They expect the middle class to pay for it, now and decades into the future. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the bill will add a crushing $1.5 trillion to the national debt, a debt that weakens our position in the world and will take generations to pay off.

But they didn’t just borrow money to pay for this unapologetic transfer of wealth from the people that work to the people that own everything already. The bill automatically cuts funding for programs that help veterans, farmers, research, and families in need. It cuts infrastructure spending and demands a four-percent cut in funding for Medicare. And of course, being a Republican spending plan, it does everything that it can to weaken the Affordable Care Act.

If you’re in the top one percent, Merry Christmas. If you’re among the rest of us, get out and vote next November. Your country is depending on you.

Try It

You might fail, but if you don’t try, you’ll fail with absolute certainty. Why give up before you give it a shot? Try it. Learn. Try again.

When Fifty Was Sixty

How is it that Republicans can pass legislation with a simple majority in the U.S. Senate, whereas Democrats needed a super majority of sixty votes to get anything done? Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act with a supermajority. In the midst of enormous public backlash, the Republicans were unable to repeal the ACA with fifty votes.

Republicans stalled the Obama agenda using every tool at their disposal. Their favorite tool was the filibuster, a procedural rule that allows a senator to object to moving forward with an appointment or a piece of legislation until a super majority of sixty votes senators overrules his objections. 

The Democrats considered changing the rule to thwart the blatant stall tactics of the GOP, but the Republicans warned that if they did that, then the Republican might do the same when they took power. The Democrats chose to let the rule stand. But when the Republicans took power, they weakened the filibuster anyway. 

And so today, an unpopular tax bill that will benefit only the wealthiest citizens and corporations while adding US $1,500,000,000,000 to the national debt, will pass with a simple majority. 

I look forward to supporting the next Democratic majority as they pass a wave of progressive legislation including single-payer healthcare coverage for all citizens, a strong commitment to alternative energy and carbon reduction, massive funding for education and job training, a massive infrastruction bill, and a tax bill that will actually pay down the country’s debt load instead of expanding it, all with simple majorities. 

Thank you, Republicans, for setting the precedent of passing bills with a simple majority in the Senate. Hopefully, this will enable progressives to clean up your mess before you bankrupt the country and destroy the planet.

Deal With It

There’s no SHOULD 

There’s no FAIR 

There’s only SHIT 

And it’s EVERYWHERE 

Don’t get angry! 

Don’t say SCREW it! 

Hold your nose 

And you’ll get through it 

Life’s about 

How you deal with POO 

Don’t blame others -

You make crap, TOO! 

Copyright © 2017 Daniel R. South 

All Rights Reserved

Coffee Line

That feeling when the person ahead of you in line at the coffee shop orders for everyone in their office.

Female Voters In Alabama

Percent of women who voted for Roy Moore, a man who was banned from a mall for hitting on teenaged girls:

White Women: 63 percent

Black Women: 2 percent

Conclusion: Black women are 31.5 times more intelligent than White women.

The Time Is Now

You could be dead in a year. The time is now. Get up off of your butt and do what you need to do.

No Other Action

I’ll be the person that I need to be. I shall say what I feel, write what I need to express, and do what I need to do. No other action is acceptable. 

Do What You Need To Do

Do what you need to do. Write what you need to express. Be the person that you need to be.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters

Until every child has a decent winter coat, no one should spend money on an “ugly” sweater that they’ll wear once and throw away.

New York Minute 69 - Too Close For Comfort

The subway system was in chaos this morning after an explosion injured several people near Times Square. Some trains were cancelled or rerouted. The ones that were running their normal routes were delayed and overcrowded.

I managed to squeeze onto a where passengers were packed together tightly. Imagine “standing room only” with no room to spare. Bodies were pressing against me from every direction.

A guy to my right had set his briefcase on the floor between his legs, presumably to have a free hand to hold onto the handrail. - I couldn’t even reach the handrail where I was standing. Luckily, I’m tall enough to brace myself against the ceiling. 

As the train approached the station where the guy wanted to get off, he squatted down to pick up the briefcase. In the process, he slide the absolute center of his rear end down my leg and back up again. He could not have done it in a more disgusting way if he tried. I felt the crack and both cheeks slide all the way down and all the way back up.

This may not have been a deliberate act. I’m willing to accept that the guy was just picking up his briefcase and that they space was too crowded to him to bend at the waist. But, man, did that ever feel icky!

Copyright © 2017 Daniel R. South 

All Rights Reserved

You Are What You Finish

You are what you finish. What you attempt and dream about and almost did don’t matter.

Tax Bill B.S.

When people say, “We need this tax bill to stimulate the economy and create jobs,” and then those same people say, “Look at the stock market - the economy is doing great!”, I call that bullshit.