Change is upon us

Barack Obama is the President of the United States. I'll say it again, because I'm not sure it has quite set in yet. Barack Obama is the President of the United States. It would be easy for me to say "I can't believe it," but the bottom line, the truth of the matter, is that I've been believing 'it' for well over a year or two now. I've followed Barack with every word, every sentence of every news article I could get my hands on. I would look and look and look for that one sentence that had the potential to thrust Barack Obama out of the stratospheric pedestal I held him in. It never came and the person I wished would lead this country was only further delineated with every speech given; every action taken. Through the nay-sayers, the pundits, the haters, the right-wingers, and even the wacked-out Hillary fans, I held my ground because I believed. I believed that simply by the way the man spoke, the eloquence of this speeches, the sound of his voice and his soothing intonation, ...that, was enough to tell me everything I needed to know about him. It was that glimmer of intelligence that attracted me in large part to what he had to say. Not a day has gone by where I'm not impressed by who this man is.

Now, today, he has been elected to be our 44th President. In one night of overwhelming news coverage of the election, the United States came to see exactly what is possible in this country. President Obama is the very personification of the American dream. When I was younger, my Father always told me that I could do anything I wanted to in life, as long as I put my mind to it. I believed every word, but somewhere along the way, somewhere in the last 8 years, I lost sight of that vision. That ambition. That vacancy was to become filled with mundane jobs, meager wages, and what I can only describe as an under-valuing of myself.

Seeing Barack on stage tonight with the whole world watching him speak, I realized my Father's words once more. He asks no more from all of us that our parents did when we started school and he touts the rewards made available by that very same hard work.

Earlier in the year, I wrote a blog where I coined a catch phrase for the year 2008. I said "hardcore GREAT in 08." And so far, this year has been really good to me in precisely the way in needs to be, right now. As for the future, 08 has become a springboard year for the acceleration of my ambition and a foundation of hope for the change that is to come.

Today I'm happy. Happy because I listened to all the phone calls from the rest of the world stream across the BBC last night. I'm happy because I know that our country can finally start healing from the last 8 years. I'm happy because I know that when my kids and and grandkids talk about the day the first African-American was elected President, I can say that I watched it all go down, and it was a great day across out country, ...a great day indeed.

Goodbye July, Goodbye.

Thought this would be funny as I was just prattling on to someone the other day about being flagged for using the word "terrorism" on Facebook. David Rees is brilliant and I’m glad that this cartoon has now officially premiered online. After reading the comic for years now and again and seeing a play, aptly titled, Get Your War On here in Austin, I knew that it would make a perfect introduction to my last entry for the hot ass month of July.

Speaking of hot asses, mine was very much on fire today, …and I’m not just talking about the normal level of enticement by my ass, I mean the mercury got up to 101 degrees today down in South Austin where I call home and the heat index, which is what the “weatherman” says it actually “feels like” outside, made it seem closer to 107. August, will of course be even hotter and it appears that for the next week, temps will climb and stay in the land of triple-digits for the next 7 to 10 days. It makes me sick to think of what life will be like when I’m fifty and the summers get so hot that people are forced to work from home, tires melt, water evaporates, and chromosomes are inexorable altered for future generations. It kind of reminds me of that Twilight Episode entitled The Midnight Sun.

Here’s Rod Serling’s introduction:

“The word that Mrs. Bronson is unable to put into the hot, still, sodden air is ‘doomed,’ because the people you’ve just seen have been handed a death sentence. One month ago, the Earth suddenly changed its elliptical orbit and in doing so began to follow a path, which gradually, moment by moment, day by day, took it closer to the Sun. And all of man’s little devices to stir up the air are now no longer luxuries - they happen to be pitiful and panicky keys to survival. The time is five minutes to twelve, midnight. There is no more darkness. The place is New York City and this is the eve of the end, because even at midnight it’s high noon, the hottest day in history, and you’re about to spend it in the Twilight Zone.”

Well at least California knows what to do. They’re suing the EPA.
That’s right, they’ve filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency for “ignoring its duty to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.” They wouldn’t be alone and this wouldn’t be the first time. As many as 12 to 18 other states have filed similar lawsuits on more than one occasion calling for the resignation of the EPA Administrator, Stephen Johnson and accusing the organization of violating the Clean Air Act.

Why would Mr. Johnson violate laws and mandates for cleaner air and water in the U.S.? Just follow the money.

Anywho, to be totally honest, I’ve spent a large portion of my time this summer indoors exactly for the above stated reason. I wake up, usually in a dark, cooled home, cringe at a warm shower, get in my hot car, ridden with guilt about even turning the key, blast my way to work, and remain inside for eight hours while I watch the asphalt and the people walking on it bake. I’ve even started going to a gym and running on a treadmill because as much as I’d like to think running outside at 4 o’clock in the afternoon is the ultimate in being a hardcore member of the Y chromosome world, it’s just really become quite dangerous.

Besides, you can still be hardcore indoors, right? I mean, yesterday, on my day off I answered the call of a very good friend of mine who just took the helm at a local theatre company here in town called Salvage Vanguard Theatre that was not left in the best of condition, to say the very least. He needed some sort of archived video clip of a play my theatre company, the St Idiot Collective, put on last August at SVT’s space on Manor Road, for a grant submission. I immediately jumped onto my computer, plugged some wires into shit, and put together a two minute, rrrrrrough, ohhhh so rough trailer for the show and threw it at him across the ether into his computer. I also posted it on You Tube. It’s called The Rainbow Family of the Serendipitous Now and it would be the last show we all would work on together before taking a hiatus.

Have a look:


Oh, I almost forgot, look what finally came in the mail…
That’s right, my very own Obama car magnet. I haven’t actually decided where to put it on my car, or maybe I’m thinking of a way to quantify my emotional state when I find out that someone’s realized it’s a magnet and stolen it. Until then, it’ll have to stay cool and undamaged by the threats of the outside world, sort of like our next President, Barack Obama. BAM, SUCKA! WHAT?

I’m flying up to New York City in two weeks to visit the plethora of friends I know cohabitating in places like Manhattan, Brooklyn, and even New Jersey. I’ve been to NYC several times, but not since 9/11, so I’m expecting it to be on par with my visit to post-Katrina New Orleans last year, just way more intense. Especially with the weather. When I was younger, my parents sent me upstate every summer to escape the heat of the inner city and let me just say this, that area, is the SHIZNIT and everyone living in NYC should be putting money away to buy real estate up there to escape to so the heat doesn't make you want to kill someone. No shit, it's absolutely gorgeous and possibly one of the best kept secrets in this country with the world's attention aimed at NYC. While visiting the hot, hot city, I will do many things. The list thus far includes, but is not limited to: The Met, The MOMA, David Byrnes Installation in Battery Park followed by the Staten Island Ferry, check out the waterfalls, and see a play my friends are in during the New York Fringe Fest. There is also talk of a comeback from my basketball retirement for a one-time-only, West coast v. East coast battle somewhere in Brooklyn on Friday night, but I have to buy high tops first. My ankle deserves better. Suggestions?

This Saturday, I will go back to the IMAX to view The Dark Knight once more with friends as it pushes it's way well past the $300 million dollar mark amassing the economic and mythic strength to de-throne the number 1 money making movie of all time. Titanic. This time, I will be taking notes to write a full review when I get back home. I realized two nights ago, that the movie had been carrying some weight with me since I saw it last. Interviews and commentaries heard on NPR throughout the week about the way the world is spinning, intermingled inside my head with thoughts of Christopher Nolan’s fatalistic interpretation of Batman and I totally spat out a very dark and dystopian comparison of his new film as metaphor for the very uncertain world we live in now, while out with friends at a bar the other night. It definitely made for some interesting conversation. To be totally honest, I really enjoyed talking about the stresses of pushing through the first years of the 21st century, but it felt like our conversation ended in stalemate, with no pragmatic answer for hope in the near future. I digress, too much.

Other than that, tonight, before I head to dreamy land, I will put that last ‘X’ on my calendar signifying that it’s been 65 days since my last cigarette. “How’s it going,” you ask? For the first time in my adult life, I FEEL good. I feel free from the almost 600 additives that people in white coats are getting paid exuberant amounts of money to synthesize. Additives that make me, ... that force me, psychosomatically, to want nothing more than to burn the aforementioned additives, turning them into very toxic chemicals you never hear about and since you're not actually buying the shit you inhale, the FDA could care less. I've given ten years of my life and money to big tobacco so that I can slowly kill myself, fuck my body chemistry, damage my genes, and do God knows what to people around me. So "how's it going," you say? Fucking great!

The Future is Now

If you google the above phrase, "The Future is Now," and press enter, the first entry you will most certainly come across is a link to an article written by William Greider for The Nation, on June 8th, 2006. Before you ask, yes, The Nation is a left-leaning paper, but keep in mind that it IS the oldest published weekly magazine in the United States and it’s mission statement is as follows:

According to The Nation's founding prospectus of 1865, "The Nation will not be the organ of any party, sect, or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest effort to bring to the discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred."

In the article, Mr. Greider, a prominent political journalist and author with more than 35 years experience, goes on to talk not only about the necessity of change in our economy, but how to untangle the current mess our country has stagnated under for the last 8 years, if not the last 27 years when Ronald Regan took office. To be totally honest, I googled “The Future is Now,” because I was playing around with the name for a title to this very ambitious and lengthy blog entry. I would seriously suggest that everyone who takes the time to read this blog, stops, and reads Mr. Greider’s article from beginning to end, which gives a detailed account of our economy, it’s history, and a possible shift for the future leaders to initiate.

Of course, future leaders are exactly why this blog entry comes to me today. As our country propels itself forward to November 4th, when we will very certainly elect a new Presidential leader, one has to absorb various slogans, policies, promises, commercials, debates and the like. As John McCain sits on cruise control to November, a war of words and promises is being waged inside the Democratic Party as Barack Obama, the Junior Senator from Illinois competes with the Junior Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton, for what is essentially history in the making. It would seem for the moment, that Barack Obama has garnered a lead in the contest for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. His charisma and confidence are starting to lay roots as witnessed by myself and friends at a rally on the steps of the Texas state Capitol building last Friday evening. Now, for the first time in a while, Texas and Ohio will have a big say in who continues on to the final political joust when our primary election occurs on March 4th. For Obama, it would seal the deal, pushing him forward to spar with McCain. For Clinton, it’s precisely what she needs to jump-start her campaign and get her back into this race. If she loses Ohio and Texas, she will more than likely withdraw as the superdelegates follow the momentum on the scale to Obama’s corner. My largest concerns come from the fact that the Democrats appear divided in a time where, if they are looking to fill the oval office, they need to stand united, but I suppose this HAS to happen, we HAVE to choose one candidate. Never mind that Clinton, Obama, and Edwards ran almost similar campaigns. Never mind that during the debate last Thursday night, on the campus of the University of Texas, they debated their almost-identical health plans with great vigor. In a time like this, how can one actually decide which candidate to vote for? How can one distinguish two people running under almost identical banners? This is a great question and for me it was answered last Friday night when I watched and listened with great interest and anticipation to the discourse presented by Barack Obama. My feelings of support and adoration started the first time I heard him speak at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 in support of John Kerry. The passion and truth that emanated from his person on my television sparked an involuntary reaction in me to cease and dissist everything I was doing at that moment to watch.



I hung onto every word that came out of his mouth and sat in amazement of how eloquent this politician sounded. It wakes up that intellectual part of you that feels as if it’s been asleep for so long and instantly recalls all the really wonderful and amazing people that have influenced your life and made an impact, etched in stone. It was that feeling that carried me all the way to today and will most certainly carry me to the polls to vote for him.

Now sure, you can start up the argument that words from politicians can be hollow and that actions indeed speak louder than, and we’ve certainly had our fair share of empty promises in the past. OBVIOUSLY, they’re trying to get elected and so there’s a bit of grandstanding, kissing babies, and making damn well certain they look and sound squeaky clean to the hearts and minds of the American public, but you have to look past that. You have to look past the cameras, the lights, the speeches and the media. This man presents himself in a light that I have never witnessed during my lifetime and only heard about in books and films, that told stories of a man that lived when my parents were my age. John F. Kennedy was young, ambitious, and he had a lot of ideas about how to fix what was wrong with the country. Now if you’re reading this and are naïve enough to think there’s nothing wrong with this country and that it’s perfectly fine the way it is, you can stop reading now. I’ll get back to you when Armageddon happens and make sure to shake your hand for doing nothing to change our course when we still had a chance. Barack Obama, like JFK has slowly moved closer and closer to becoming an icon of American hopes and aspirations. He is the embodiment of the American Dream, coming from nothing, working hard throughout his life, and achieving greatness; and he’s YOUNG. That’s right, if elected, Obama would be the third youngest President elected to office and something about that really excites me. His biggest critics will argue that he lacks experience in almost every arena of government. Well, to that I’d say, when did 20 years of public service get equated to “not enough experience?” Senator Obama made an amusing anecdote at the rally last Friday about how it seems everyone who thinks he lacks the necessary experience suggests he should wait until he’s older, until he looks and sounds more like the politicians who are currently occupying the offices of the executive branch today. They say that then, and only then he’ll sound more like them, look more like them, and more than likely, do his part to maintain the status quo. HELLO, this is why I’m all in favor of getting him in there right now before he becomes entangled and tied down by the lies perpetrated by the very shady bureaucracy that is our current administration. It is precisely why I believe Hillary Clinton is the wrong person for the job. She has been wrapped up in politics ever since the day her husband became Governor of Arkansas in 1979. Don’t get me wrong, I like her and being in politics for so long definitely lends her to experience, but it is that longevity in the political arena that I think would lead her to make decisions similar to the ones we’ve seen during the last eight years. Experience, as everyone seems to define in their heads, may not be the best deciding factor for choosing the best candidate. Besides, a long time ago, I made a prediction that the next president would ultimately be known by history as a “martyr” president. This prediction is pulled from a book given to me by mother a few years back called the Sanctus Germanus Prophecies. It lead me to believe that our next elected leader would have to sacrifice his or her term to fix and untangle everything that has gone wrong (and there’s a lot) during the last eight years. Then, in 2012, when the Age of Aquarius comes to be, we will enter into a new era where a “divine” balance is achieved and finally a woman will be elected President. I’m just as excited for either candidate to become President during my lifetime. The gift of witnessing that history of change is exhilarating and anyone present should count himself or herself lucky. However, it would seem, to me anyway, that change in this country, for the better, has always been predicated on the presence of a young mind and a willingness to stand up for what you believe in, against all odds, and sometimes, in the face of great adversity. It has become nothing shy of apparent to me that Barack Obama possesses not only the willingness to speak out for change against the paradigm of our static government (voted against the war in Iraq), but that he also possesses the audacity to perpetuate hope in a time when it feels like there is very little left amongst Americans.

I’ll be the first to admit, that I feel more involved in this election than in any in my entire life. I’ve made certain that if I am going to give my support to the Junior Senator from Illinois and write passionately as to why I think he’s the best option, than it is MY responsibility to have looked at every speech he’s made, goggled every action he’s taken during the course of his tenure in public office, know his biography back and forth, and I must say, that at this point, there has been nothing to make me believe that he is the wrong choice for President. In fact, to be honest, most of the arguments I have encountered with friends and colleagues about his worthiness aren’t even balanced, due to the fact that so many people I talk to have not taken the time to read about who he is and where he comes from. Advocating citizens of the United States to become more actively involved in their government is one of the main points Senator Obama made last Friday night. I have talked to people that have not taken the time to read about his ideas concerning universal health care, or trying to restore the middle class, or even his ambitious attempts to create “green” jobs that would cut our dependency on oil we’re spending billions of dollars and thousands of live on, while simultaneously restoring middle class jobs. No one knows about a bi-partisan bill sponsored by Senator Obama called the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, which is essentially a way for Americans to google the national budget and actually see where all the money is flowing, thus taking a larger role in how are government operates and keeping so called “earmarks” in check.

The man has great ideas and as I stood and listened to him, with the state capitol building, looming behind him, I knew, I knew it in my heart that this man needs to be given a chance to unite us, to show us why he's worked so hard his entire life just to get to this point, and then lead us onto a new page of American history. I feel that he will fan the flame of hope and embolden every American to lead, and thusly live better lives. The only hesitation any one can genuinely claim to have about voting for him will undoubtedly lead to a foundation of fear that has been building inside all of us ever since 9/11 and has been strengthened by the disparaging fear tactics of the Bush Administration and even more so, members of the right. We don’t have to be fearful or disinclined to ask questions anymore. In the future, we can all be brave together and have the audacity to hope again as Barack Obama opens the cob-webbed doors of government to it's people once more. I believe the future is now.

I'm sure at this point most people have a clear idea of who they will be casting their vote for and I didn't write this blog entry to sway voters one way or the next. I just wanted to express the feelings and ideas of one Christopher Shea in the year 2008. Don't forget to vote and try not to be too hasty in passing judgement. Consider all the facts and then listen to your heart. I'm listening to mine.



Oh yeah, did I mention I predicted the New York Giants would win the Superbowl???

Hardcore great in '08'