February 5th 2007

Over the past few days listening to the news, sifting through the dead, the  wounded, the drowning polar bears and the now confirmed fact that , yes, we are experiencing Global warming and it is caused by human activity, I've noticed at least one common denominator that connect these rudimentary crisis. These crisis of war and destruction of our environment (or world war)  together could spell the end of humanity. There is one name that stands out as the Patron of these cataclysmic events and that name is Exxon Mobile. Most of you have heard by now of yet another record breaking annual profit for the Oil Giant of 32.9 billion dollars for 2006 and according to NPR that's about 4 million dollars an hour.  Four million dollars an hour. Think of the people we could feed, heal, educate and house! but instead it goes in the pocket of the ones who provide the ingredients of the daily destruction of our terribly fragile flesh and blood and our earth's  balance.  They profit hourly from the oil from the MIddle East and Africa where people are dying everyday to feed their coffers. Blood for oil. There has been a boycott of Exxon Mobile going on for some time,  but it's time to turn up the heat so to speak. You can go to Exxpose Exxon.com and find out more about Exxon's profiteering abroad and their fraternal connection to the American Enterprise Institute. As reported by CNN and the Guardian  the American Enterprise Institute, one of hundreds of right wing think tanks, wrote letters to and offered scientists and professors a $10,000 fee to critique findings of Global Warming statistics. Do I hear boos and hisses? I hope so. And coincidentally it was Frederic Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute who advised Bush to escalate our troops to Iraq. Ah, the plot thickens. On the Exxpose Exxon website you can download simple fact sheets about the Company's shenanigans and even adopt your local Exxon Station as a way to influence consumption. If you have the time to whip up a handy dandy Boycott sign you can stand in front of the station in your neighborhood and educate consumers. A Generic Boycott sign is a wonderful tool to have with you at all times.  Because my friends, the time has come to do something that exposes the nasty business as usual and sometimes the small gestures like standing with a sign or holding back at least one dollar from your taxes indicating that that dollar will not go to war can make a difference  So along with Boycotting Exxon may I respectfully suggest switching to an alternative vehicle of some kind? A hybrid, a diesel, or commit to a driving fast 2 days a week.  We have got to take responsibility right now because it's going to take every single one of us to outsmart the think-tanks. 



January 29th 2007


Hundreds of thousands showed up all over the United States this weekend to call for an end to the Bush Administration's reckless, mindless tragic and criminal policies both foreign and domestic. Busloads from all over the country descended on the Capitol to make clear that we the people dissent.  Voices of children, veterans, housewives, elders, Hollywood Celebrities, even Jane Fonda broke her 34 year silence to speak, members of Congress like John Conyers and Maxine Waters and of course Dennis Kucinich who has had a vision of a peace department for years. So many many people spent time, money and energy, stopped what they were doing to do the job that our representatives should truly be doing. On Democracy Now! you could hear the throngs screaming for change. Speaker after speaker indicted George Bush and his Clan for ignorance and terrible atrocities.  People are angry and they are not mincing words. But what we want, what each one is desperately asking for is Peace.  How does one promote peace, demonstrate peace, bring about peace when we are in constant conflict. I've learned in therapy that one of the most important aspects of conflict resolution is to keep the problem separate from the people.  We can blame so many people. But blame is war too. We have problems, we have enormous threats. We have enormous sorrow. We have enormous possibilities. And we need to care for ourselves and practice peace daily and with discipline on every level. I was on Mt. Shasta this weekend, I and my two kids. We stood for an hour with our banner calling for Troops to come home, in Downtown Shasta  handing out the bill of rights and ten things you can do to stop war every day. yet another family for peace. We also walked gently over the snowy mountain side, we prayed for the land and the people and the weather. We laughed ourselves silly, We cried when we were too tired and grumpy. We breathed in the precious air and we played story games and the game of life. We resolved all conflicts with consideration and understanding.  On the road we listened to MIchael Franti's new release Yell Fire with lyrics like, When I wake up in the morning  I hope I see you in the light, loveliness and tenderness, happiness and openness and, togetherness. you want to scare away the vampire guide them into the light.  He sings, All walls will fall, I never quit I never give up. Music is love, love for the masses, love for all classes love conquers all, love accepts all love respects all love dares to dream a love supreme. ,  Soldier of fortune open your cookie, unfold the paper, then march to the kitchen food for the masses that's the new mission, salaam, shalom. My mind flooded with solutions. In solidarity with all the actions this weekend  In a quiet and steady way we had become a living, moving breathing peace demonstration. Power to the peaceful. 


January 15th
The Manchurian President

I  was compelled to listen to George Bush's explanation to the nation as to why he was feeding 21, 500 more troops to the hungry jaws of war.  I braced myself for the initial assault of the sound of his voice, which to me always brings a mild feeling of dizziness and nausea. George began his speech and I waited for a sense of logic, a shred m of decency and then it happened. George Bush skipped like a needle on a record. He skipped. I've always been suspicious that George Bush and his pals, Dick, Condi, Don, Alberto are not entirely human. I believe there has been technological tampering with the Executive Branch. I think Dick Cheney Died a long time ago, Come on folks,  five heart attacks. I think when Dick Cheney's clicker goes on the fritz  he doesn't go the the hospital, he goes to Radio Shack. What else could explain the arrogant detachment, deluded perspective, that we should send more troops to Baghdad, when we shouldn't have been there in the first place. Not for one moment in George's diatribe did he acknowledge the terrible abuses by the U.S. military against the Iraqi people. Not for a moment. He tells us to expect more casualties, both U.S. and Iraqi and we've just got to accept that fact. He tells us that Iran and Syria are in his sights and three hours after the speech we take over a consulate in Iran. He's run amok. But it's got to be some sort of cooperative effort with the Industrial war machine, the Corporate sponsors and profiteers that would collapse if we should ever find ourselves at peace. This whole situation reminds me of the Manchurian Candidate, the latest version with Denzell Washington and Lieve Schieber two Gulf War heroes who were brainwashed and implanted in a secret experiment in a desert laboratory. Liev is the golden boy chosen by Manchurian Global to take over the world and make it a police state and institute global slavery. This guy, Schreiber, is a mechanized cold blooded killer, basically run by his conniving mother, (Meryl Streep) who will stoop to anything to have power. Denzell uncovers the plot through his ptsd dreams that just won't quit and he becomes the avenging angel and we're saved, for now. Or are we? There seem to be a few human beings left in Washington D.C. you can tell by the way they highlight the human cost of war like John Murtha, or Denis Kucinich or as Barbara Boxer did when she confronted Condileeza Rice at the Senate Foreign Relations commitee hearings and pointed out that neither She or Ms. Rice will pay a high price for this war. Ms. Rice was "confused by this statement wondering if Ms. Boxer was talking about her being a better decision maker had she gone through the birth process" Well, gosh one would think that Giving birth gives one an enormous sense of life. The miracles that can happen and the value of being alive, bringing a child into this world and loving it beyond your wildest imagination.. If Ms. Rice or Mr. Bush, or Mr. Cheney could for one moment  physically relate to the endless tragedy of burying your kid,  we would bare witness to their humanity, their acknowledgment that life is more important that spreading Democracy in the MIddle East and sending the checks to Manchurian Global. Stay tuned tomorrow night for George's state of the Union. Watch out for technical difficulties.

January 10th 2007 
I am going to frame the photo on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle  of  Nancy Pelosi calling the house of representatives  to order. It was an answer to our prayers. Not only was it the first time that a woman banged that gavel, but she was surrounded by a flock of her grandchildren crawling all over the podium. Truly a sight for sore eyes. There are so many metaphors and symbolisms in this image. A woman as head of the house, a woman coming in to clean house. Yes, I don't recall ever seeing any man at that podium surrounded by children. I know they had kin, but I  was never really sure who they were. Imagine that, children in the house of representatives. Because really who do these congress folk represent, but our children who depend on them for ethical behavior, protection, for foresight, for truth and democracy. It was a clear indication of who will be considered in the 110th congress. In Saturday's paper there was the image of Grandma Nancy revisiting her old neighborhood in  Baltimore, strolling by a statue of her father, who was mayor of the city in the 1940's, again she was in good company of four of her grandkids. Just seeing that made me feel safer and I could feel the terror alert fading to yellow.  Politics are in her blood. She is a daughter and a mother and grandmother and she relates to her family as though they still matter. (When was the last time you saw Mr. Bush with the twins?)   In today's paper Pelosi announces that the Democratic House will not stand for an increase of troops to Iraq, no surge of troops. Perhaps because she has given birth a number of times. She knows the rules, you don't bury your children.  In her new position of power she can speak to the horrifying loss of a child to an unjust war and see that this shameful chapter in American History comes to a swift conclusion.  Immediately, In her first 100 hours Ms. Pelosi and a nearly unanimous house passed new ethics rules that prohibit members from taking financial gifts and trips from lobbyists. That's a miracle. That's what we've been praying for, right? For someone to stand up to the outrageous corruption that has plagued this government for years.. Next to this Grand Lady, George Bush looks like a mean little boy, but this time he may get a time out. I hope you realize that as speaker, Ms. Pelosi is only three steps from the presidency. Imagine, in the next hundred hours the house could invoke articles of impeachment which would be completely appropriate for Mrs Bush and Cheney, because there is hard evidence that they have violated so many laws, both domestic and international. It would be an open and shut case and We would have our first Woman in the White House. Madame President. Yes, I believe in miracles. Let us pray.

October 25th 2006

"No Brainers"
"Dunking Terrorism suspects in the water is a "no brainer," said the jovial right wing talk show host, Scott Hennen out of Fargo N. Dakota on WDAY radio, He had the Vice President Dick Cheney on the air with him last week. Mr. Cheney replied, "Well, it's a no brainer to me. "  Mr. Cheney was probably unaware that his words would reach out and touch us like a mindless child molestor. Totally oblvious to his responsibilities and his obligations to uphold the law and protect the people who entrusted him to this high office, it appears that Dick  was just aching to share his views  on the fourth Geneva Convention with his  right wing host. They were  just two good ol' boys  sittitng around the mircrophone not realizing that  the whole world was watching and they were listening too.
Human rights groups immediately responded with righteous disgust at the Vp's arrogance and cruelty. The the White House (including a rare cameo from Mrs. Cheney herself on CNN) and the Press secretary immediately went on a spin cycle to undo the nasty stain on the Dick's collar. "Oh," said White House Spokesperson Tony  Snow "I'll tell you what he said. He was asked the question, "You dunk somebody's head in the water to save a life, is it a no-brainer?" And also, if you read the rest of the answer, he also -- the Vice President, who earlier had also been asked about torture, he said, "We don't torture."Let me give you the no-brainers here. No-brainer number one is, we don't torture. No-brainer number two: We don't break the law, our own or international law. No-brainer number three: The Vice President doesn't give away questioning techniques. And number four, the administration does believe in legal questioning techniques of known killers whose questioning can, in fact, be used to save American lives. The Vice President says he was talking in general terms about a questioning program that is legal to save American lives, and he was not referring to water boarding" 
 It wasn't so much the lying in the face of hard, cold evidence of international torture chambers that caught my attention, (because we all know damn well that the U.S. military and the CIA engages in torture) it was the banter of the "no brainer"  dialogue. You see, I am a lover of language. When I heard the deeply uneloquent phrase, "no brainer" used as a razon de etre, I thought about the profound meaning of those words, that symbol. A "no brainer" is something that does nor require a brain.  It requires no logic, no intelligence, no compassion nor understanding of a situation. The parts of the brain that decipher right from wrong, good from evil,  are absent. or free from information that might inform the participants that their behavior is reprehensible, unacceptable and criminal. Those people are in fact "no brainers."   Hopefully someone with a rank  as high as Mr. Cheney enjoys in our government would come equipped with that basic organ, If he only had a brain. I've been a longtime subscriber to  the theory that these menbots in Washington are hybrids. Maybe not totally techno, but definitely hybrid. Perhaps, if you will, they come with a computer chip instead of a brain. That would certainly explain the irrational, reckless and inhuman actions of the last five years.  A computer cannot duplicate the brilliant, kindred, geometrical, holistic symphony of the brain. They are brain dead or "no brainers"  They have no mind. So when you see George Bush or Dick or Rumsfeld or Karl Rove, just say " Look, it's a "no brainer." Knowing you're dealing with a "no brainer" helps you assess a situation and the capacity for coherence therein.   Perhaps someone with a brain will come to power during this next couple of years  and then maybe we can talk about an central intelligence agency.


October 30th

Ghost stories  
I just returned from a trip back east where I did  my one woman show Family Secrets in New Haven Connecticut, right across the street from Yale, actually. The beauty of doing this show is that I get to impersonate my family. My father, mother, grandmother. it's also agonizing because my father and grandmother have passed and I miss them terribly. It's powerful at this time of year, because not only is it my father's birthday but it's also  Halloween and having the veil between the worlds so thin, I wonder if I'm acting or the dearly departed are just getting a chance to come out and strut their stuff through me.  To impersonate, or incarnate a dead person is a great responsibility. It communicates on a primary level that's hard to resist., not just to one's audience, but to ones self.  But  the point is I have the opportunity to walk in thier shoes.  Dead and living. This exercise  has given me the most extraordinary insight to understanding others. Walking in my mother's shoes is most challenging at this moment because her monologue is the story of how she went crazy back in  1964 and she had to undergo a course in shock treatment as a remedy for her madness. This wouldn't be so devastating but for the fact that my mom is at this moment going thorugh another course in Electric Shock in L.A. she has already had 15 treatments. Maybe you thought this was a think of the past, a barbaric approach to mental health, yeah, In fact that's what I thought too. In july I ran down to L.A. to try to convince my  mom there is another way. I found her suffering under the influence of depict, Wellburtirn and Iipatrol cocktail. The sight of her previously lively blue eyes and ultra brite smile under the weight of endless side effects broke this daughter's heart. I sad, "mom, I've got to tell you about a plant, a wonderful beautiful healing plant hat will help you relax, stimulate your appetite, maybe even make you laugh, "Oh Marijauna? She asked
Cannabis, I said. I answered her objections to it's legality and promised gentle effectiveness and finally convinced her to experiment the the strawberry cannibis punch.  She agreed to take a small dose and for an hour I got to see her smile and relax in the afternoon sun. That wasn't enough for my brother and sister in law. They held their allopathic model and authority higher above her head and pulled rank and since they also have jurisdiction and I had to come back home my mother acquiesed to Electric convulsive Therapy and new clinical trials with experimental pharmaceuticals. So she remains wedded to the merciless extremes of Western medicine. I slipped into her shoes on Tuesday night on stage at the historic theater in New Haven and felt deeply immersed in her fear, making her choices extremely limited. I felt her dependence on my brother and the almighty doctor man. Somehow she feels secure in that paradigm. I had to surrender my judgments on the "right thing to do." I had to consider her whole life and everything she has at stake.  yes, I walked in those shoes but I took  them off at the end of the evening and I got a chance to distill compassion  from her medicated state as well as a  huge dose of inspiriation to walk in others shoes.  The dead and the living.  I'd like to try on Emma Goldman's shoes,  Rachel Corrie's shoes, or a soldier in the Israeli Army, or a little girl in Bahgdad. Hell, I might even try on George Bush's shoes and see what he sees, what he hears, what he feels.  talk about scary, talk about shock treatment!  But if my mother can take it so can I. Tommorow is the day when we traditionally dress in costume and in essence walk in someone else's shoes. Perhaps we could take this opportunity  when the veil is so thin to truly wear the skins of another person living or dead and truly honor the spirits that are here to not only scare us but guide our way.