fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station
At a long forgotten antiwar demonstration around 20 odd years ago, I stood tense as the atmosphere grew dank from humidity and angst. We were gathered in front of the federal building on Golden Gate Ave. in San Francisco. We wanted to take the steps, but a police line blocked it off. They were in…
Today California held what was called the Great California Shakeout, an annual earthquake preparedness drill where everyone ducks and covers at the appointed time. At 10:20 a.m. PDT sirens rang out and everyone hit the desks. For those who didn’t, Mother Nature provided a different incentive: a real earthquake. Berkeley, near the gar spot headquarters,…
“My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.” – President Obama, April 2009 First we saw Wisconsin and the movement to save union rights for public service employees, a justified reaction to a gross conservative overreach. Citizens in Ohio followed soon after in reaction to a gross conservative overreach in that state…
Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in the Congressional Record. Without objection, so ordered. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now I’ve come to the floor of this body not to dispute or politely disagree with a particular point that has come to my attention. I have come to scorn….
Graffiti I recently spied in the men’s room at one of my favorite brunch joints said it all. In gaudy yellow felt on the toilet seat sanitary cover dispenser was the phrase “TAX THE RICH,” in all caps and fat letters. Written right below it, in thin-lined blue ink were much smaller letters that read “And…
I was honestly not going to do any political posts for a bit — not enough fiction, you know. But I can’t resist. Eric Cantor. I could say all sorts of rude things about him or say what my nickname for him is, but I’ll refrain. Alright, I call him Gumby-head. Doesn’t his whole head,…
They go through my head in a flash of color like a summer’s bolt of lightening. And they last about as long. In that span exists minutes, hours, days, months, years. Lifespans. Names and places. Streets and cornfields. Hurricanes and tornados. Floods and famines. Boats, cars, ships. Folks in a hurry and folks taking their…
New York makes it legal. What a sweet victory. The thing that likely pushed it over the finished line was the “get out of jail free” card added to the bill that exempted religious institutes from having to conduct or condone same-sex unions in their hallowed halls against their will. And I’m totally fine with…
Young black kids are killing and dying in the streets. Gun fire echoes on quiet nights, on busy streets, in daylight — bodies fall to the ground. Killers stand over the fallen triumphantly and pump in more and more. Then they run away. But it’s not OK to snitch. Young black kids trying to get…
Don’t mean to get down on his ass, especially since he’s not doing too well at the moment, but the more that comes out about Mr. Weiner, the more I’m beginning to think that his resignation would not be a bad thing. Steve Kornacki at Salon.com wrote a story describing how Weiner broke into elected…
