Green Parrot

I’ve been thinking a lot about the next presidential election.    I mean really…who isn’t.    I don’t think it’s going to take much to at least match the qualifications of the current president.    But what are qualifications anyway?    I spent more time scrutinizing qualifications of someone who was going to design shoes or a bag a few years back than than I think we are truly able to do for a presidential candidate.    In this pop culture driven society, how will we ever get what is needed to know to make an informed accurate decision?    I know how many drug test’s Spears missed…or do I?    I finally know that J.Lo is pregnant…or is she?    It’s a very tragic thing, but really an entire CNN Larry King about the death of Kanye West’s mother due to complications from plastic surgery?    Image as qualifier?    I’m thinking that we are about ready to choose candidates to run this country by image.    What are we going to do?    Who can we trust to ask the questions and who will answer them?    I have many for both sides.    Here’s one question I’ve had for some time now.    Finally, I’m actually starting to hear something about this.    I heard writer Wayne Barrett on NPR today.    He’s known and written about Giuliani since before the 80’s.    My questions.    Giuliani, you couldn’t keep New York safe and you want me to believe you can keep an entire country safe?    He wasn’t prepared,  even after the first attack the the trade center.    Qualifications?    He was there in NY on 9/11 and Bush wasn’t, so this makes Giuliani a hero?    You put the command center at WT7 against everyone’s better judgment.    Which left NY with a non-functioning command center on 9/11.    Not having this cost first responders lives.    He says he investigated terror cases, the NY Times said he didn’t.    In 95 the FCC gave NY a unique waiver for additional frequencies to make radio’s inter-operable and Giuliani didn’t act on it.    So Police and Fire could not communicate on 9/11.    He says he’s a terror expert, but had not even had any kind of briefing on Al-Qada until after 9/11.    So this perceived image of Giuliani as some sort of hero has been crafted, and now that somehow makes him presidential?    Will the image and the perception of leader trump facts?    What are the facts?    Someone tell me!

I went to Wordstock yesterday. I wouldn’t have known about it, except that my friend Mary’s sister, the famous author Kathleen O’Dell was there and read from her new book “Bad Ticket”. As I wondered around the expo waiting for Kathleen’s 1:30 reading, I was nearly accosted by a woman pushing Dianetics on the crowd. She wanted me to take a stress test! Right! Of course it was her job to do that, but I know that I must have had a glowing s.t.r.e.s.s across my forehead. I’d still be there if I hadn’t quietly, purposefully kept walking…away from her.   I would have made her day! And by now I’m sure I’d be c lear of reality and enjoying a near-perfect memory! Well actually that might be nice. Since I have no memory. A quick Google search comes with this, “there is a single source of all your problems, stress, unhappiness, depression and self-doubt. It’s called the reactive mind.” Really!? And the non-reactive mind? Dianetics, get rid of your reactive mind. What? I try to stay as far away from Tom Cruise as possible. Anyway, I now have an autographed copy of “Bad Ticket”. And my curiosity as to whether I have anything in me worth a jacket design and hard bound cover is as always, peaked. So this is a step, right? The last time anyone read anything I wrote was fairy tale class at KCAI. I had to write a fairy tale. Well any start is a start. Right?

This response may be peppered with a bit of my own recent frustration with a response, from a company I worked at for nearly 2 years, via an invalid email alias that is generated by someone in the organization.

In my opinion, people just do not know how to say ‘no’. Nor are they willing to just say it. Or have a real conversation with someone. They hide behind tools that allow them to not be known or approached. How long does it take to say, “no, thank you”. How much time do we spend going on an on about how we hate spam or sales calls or…yeah, yeah, I’m doing it here. Granted, clicking a button is easy but also as quick as “no, thank you”. And how much nicer is that tiny bit of human contact that could be your next best greatest thing. I’ve always said, you just never know. My promise, I’ll always respond.