fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station
President Barack Obama enjoyed two terms as president. He continues to enjoy mass popularity around the world to this day. That’s why they marched. When Donald Trump won the 2016 election via the Electoral College, masses of people took to the streets to protest. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by over three million, further…
Susan Foreman, an unearthly child. We first saw her grooving to the latest hit on her transistor radio, c. 1963. Her teachers, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, thought her very peculiar, intelligent beyond her years, but still very much a child. Susan seemed from another time. They couldn’t quite put their fingers on it. All…
So what have I been doing that kept me away from blogging for about a month and a half? Writing a book. More on that later. Meanwhile, I’ll be reading from and talking about said book, Sin Against the Race, this coming Wednesday as part of Perfectly Queer‘s reading series. Details! You Are the Author! Wednesday,…
Signs of resistance. I began noticing them on my trips for take-out Cambodian food, just here and there. I thought vaguely that I should photograph them, but then wouldn’t, too distracted. But on each viewing, each time I passed, they kept calling to me. Finally, the Oakland Museum of California opened an excellent exhibit of…
I recall that my older brothers Louis and Robert asked my parents if they could take me to see Star Wars. They likely said, yeah, it’s good, no violence, no sex. My parents trusted their judgement. They said sure. So on one random, wonderful day, 12 year-old gar got to hang with his brothers. The…
Only now as our democracy unravels do we see its vulnerabilities. It functions only so long as participants obey long held protocols and precedences. Once abandoned, chaos rules. Think of driving. You don’t run a red light. You don’t cross the double yellow line. Break these rules and an accident can occur. Last winter, after the…
Mario Savio spent his summer vacation in 1964 doing voter registration work in the South. Racist thugs beat him and a couple of his friends, the price of the ticket for many civil rights workers. One thug had to pay $50 for the crime. Returning to school for the fall semester at UC Berkeley, he intended…
Berkeley’s 30 year-old Farmer’s Market has apparently been cancelled this weekend. It’s only been cancelled once before due to a gale storm. This time, it faces a different type of storm. Some might call them stormtroopers. For the second time in as many months, Trump supporters plan to hold a rally in Berkeley. Their objective is…
A nihilistic, nasty, and cruel healthcare bill that would have hurt millions, including members of my own family, failed in the House of Representative because it was not cruel enough. To this we have descended. I have two thoughts about this. First, Republicans cannot govern because they do not believe in government. In their fantasy land, everyone…
Not surprisingly, the Trump Administration budget calls for the elimination of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, National Public Radio. You know, anything that expresses culture, ideas, independent thought. This is not the first time these institutions have been under attack. This is the first time, however, that…
