RULES TO LIVE BY

AND SOME RANDOM STUFF AS WELL ...

...because the 20/20 last night was too important to ignore.

I had meant to watch it, but the first 20 minutes slipped by me. AKA had to call me to jog my memory. I had wanted to watch, because one of the things that I have always felt, was that poverty in rural America is WAY worse than poverty in urban America.

This is an observation that was seeded as a child, visiting my Dad's peeps in Arkansas. Though we were on the 'black' side of town, the occasional whites (dirty white folk) were no better off. The only thing that they had, was the institutional delusion that by being white, they were better off.

Truth is, being poor, uneducated and without opportunity, they were no better off. It reminded of what I think allowed for the Obama presidency. Camile Paglia made the assertion that the first female president would KNOW football. Hil Clinton is a wishy-washy baseball fan. Condi Rice, who may get the nod, is a huge football fan.

Like a female president would need to know football, for the insight to how the male psyche works, the first black president would not ignore the urban core that would obviously support him, but he would also bring HOPE to rural America. I don't think that it can be argued that not only did President Obama bring hope to a lot of blacks, but he did so to rural America. WHITE rural America.

If you didn't get the chance to watch it, I am SURE that you can catch it somewhere on the internet. Arresting, heart rending viewing.

DON'T HATE

It's Valentine's Day. No cutesy, cynical, a-hole, pseudo-intellectual justification for not celebrating. Funny how all that mess comes out when people DON'T have someone to go out with. If there is a relationship where they 'don't celebrate' the day, and it is the guy who initiates the downplay, see Schopanuer's statement from the other day.

It's crap, it's crap, it's crap, to have some one and not acknowledge them on this day, in a positive, affirming way. Too many things for you to do, to make this day special for the both of you to go the cowardly way out. Period.

And if you are single, see this section's header. DON'T HATE. Quit being a crap person so that you can find someone to share this time with. Period.

CONFIDENCE

"The minute we begin carrying out our decision, a thousand doubt ts arise about the danger which might develop if we have been seriously mistaken in our plan. A feeling of uneasiness, which often takes hold of a person about to perform something great, will take possession of us, and from this uneasiness to indecision, and from there to half measures ..."

I have to tell you that I have often found that people 'cheat' themselves because of their inability to forge ahead with their plans. What is the old saw ... 'people don't plan to fail, but they fail to plan.' When I get to Nebraska, late '09 - early '10, it would be the result of something I had begun in spring of '07, when the fissures in my relationship began to widen. I could have waited until they cracked, but I couldn't. I KNEW BETTER.

Because I understand better than some, what happens when you are the only rowing in the boat, and the other person's oar is idle, I made my decision and started to set my course. Making my experience work for me, and being willing to make decisions with decisiveness (one of my better qualities, IMO) is how I got to spend the good time that I had with the Mook's, and allowed for me to take my leave without either party feeling any more injured than necessary.

No reason to wonder about ANYTHING. At this time, the stray thoughts that come across the wire, are like the odd stories that Jay Leno makes fun of. Laugh and we stumble along in our own spinnings.

THE SHADOWS OF UNCERTAINTY

There are 'questions' to be asked in my plan. I have told myself that I have asked as many of them as I can, and found answers for them. And I will get to them at another time.

20/20 ...

One of the reasons I feel that rural whites resent the minority groups, particularly blacks, is that opportunity abounds everywhere in the Metro areas ... I have spent time in West Virginia ... been in the Mountain regions of Western Carolina, and fought in Tennessee and West Va. THAT is poor. THAT is where there isn't any opportunity. I can only imagine what it is like in the 'big empty' of the plains or the 'Big Sky' country. Or the arid emptiness of the Great American Southwest. Only the odd visit and PBS program has taken me to some of these places. Doesn't matter, been to enough places to get an 'idea' on what it could be like.

And again, if I had to choose between Brightmoor and Beckley ... I will choose Brightmoor every day of the week. Why? Because between the schools, the church, any number of non profit programs in the area, active civic groups and contacts in the media, here, if I want help, it is not far away.

I didn't catch the distance, but there was some lady who walk MILES for real to get her GED. It made me choke, some of the stories, from the drug abuse to the incest, and the kid who couldn't cut it in college. The miners, who couldn't 'speak' about how they did their job, which entailed health hazards, because the company officials were monitoring the interview ... and the fact that there were openings going unfulfilled because even in such a depressed economy, they could not find enough people who could pass a drug test ...

Man, that was real. I haven't an idea as to how you can make things better in areas like the one profiled. Little wonder they resent the programs that are available to urban minorities, programs that go wanting for people to make use of.

What was it on the gates in Dante's Hell ..? 'Abandon hope ye that enter'? I would think that the drug abuse in the mountain communities are at LEAST as bad as the problems in the cities. They face a more profound lack of materials as far as learning is concerned, that is worse IMO, than the want in cities schools. And the distance to anything, from better food to ANY health care, is staggering.

BIG FINISH

May call AKA ... I would like to go see a darn movie! I want to watch 'Gran Torino', 'Frost-Nixon' and '... Button' at a theater! We will see.

Enjoy the weekend. For real. Love and Rockets to you all!!