http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Trailer/8097/
The Danger of Complacency
Last week I went to Denver to visit friends for the holidays.
Old friends. Close friends.
Friends who’ve been through hell & back over the years; I with
them, they with me.
Through all of our various romances, weddings (mostly mine), divorces
(all mine), funerals,
job changes, relocations all across this great land, we’ve been there
for each other unconditionally.
None of us are homeless. We can all afford to go out to a decent
meal at least once a week.
They, being fortunate to live in a more cash friendly environment (Denver,
not Los Angeles)
have become homeowners. I, having spent most of my life struggling
with my ‘art’ and constantly
having different ‘day jobs’ to make ends meet and still get out to
auditions, (not to mention making
bad romantic choices which can be a financial black hole), have managed
to stay in a one bedroom
apartment in a relatively safe neighborhood, close to most auditions
and not too far a commute to
my ‘day-gigs’ (until now – but that’s another rant).
All of us are registered Democrats. We are all well educated,
and gainfully employed.
We all share a love of the arts, have all traveled outside of this
country, and have very
close friends who’ve died of AIDS. None of us have been faced
with the awful situation
of considering abortion, but woe to anyone who attempts to take away
our decision in the process.
None of us have been arrested.
And hardest of all to believe, I am…. Well let’s say at the very very
very very end of the Baby Boom
and have never done illegal drugs. Truly. OK, I do like
a nice glass of White Star now & then….
But no one is going to shoot me for buying it at Pavilions, at least
I hope not.
This week I found myself seeing things I’ve never noticed before.
Things I find very frightening.
Now, I am not a big fan of the film AMERICAN BEAUTY.
Even though there was some brilliant acting going on, especially Chris
Cooper, it was far too
self important for my taste, especially up against the more than brilliant
THE INSIDER, however;
I found myself ‘looking closer’ at what was happening around me.
Even though I was in a tryptophanic stupor for most of the time, (my
friends are amazing cooks),
I could still see it all very clearly. I can’t remember if it
was Wednesday or Thursday morning,
but the headline in the Denver Post was what really started the ball
rolling.
GORE SUFFERS SETBACK IN FLORIDA
MIAMI-DADE HALTS HAND COUNT;
BUSH APPEALS TO TOP U.S. COURT
The first thing that went through my head was disbelief. I just
stared at the headline.
Then, I read the article. It explained they had stopped counting,
but not as to why.
In a startling setback to Vice President Al Gore, election officials
in Miami-Dade County
canceled a manual recount of ballots Wednesday, shutting down a potential
trove of votes
for Gore and throwing a new twist into the ever-swirling presidential
contest in Florida……
I even reread the article, and it never quite mentioned the ‘why’.
I was getting the recent ever
more reoccurring feeling “what’s wrong with this picture”. Later
I heard it was because they
“didn’t have enough time” which I thought absurd. I was also
hearing from people I know,
as well as many interviewed on television that “I can’t worry about
it, since it is out of my hands
and there is nothing I can do to change it…” Or, “I can’t make
a difference, that is why I never vote,
they are all going to do what they want anyway, who cares what my opinion
is.”
And, “I have never been polled, ever. Not ONCE.” I
thought about that last one for a minute,
and realized, that I haven’t either. Ever. (I think the
Neilsens are an Urban Ledgend.)
Then, after I returned to Los Angeles I began seeing small pieces of
the puzzle.
That ABC News had the balls to tell the truth about the Republican
funded “mob” riot in Miami-Dade.
That these people who were doing their job, over the THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
I might add,
were physically threatened and decided it was too much and to stop.
Physically threatened by a MOB.
To me, that is HUGE NEWS. GIGANTIC. As big as the roadblocks
in Florida on Election Day,
registered voters names not being on the rolls, minorities being asked
for TWO forms of ID when
only one was required, polling places handing out pre-punched ballots
or running out of ballots!
Combine that with one candidate’s brother being Governor of the same
state, his campaign co-chairman
being in charge of certifying the states vote totals, and the same
candidates political party illegally marking
absentee ballot applications, and this party’s CONSTANT ATTEMPT TO
HALT VOTE COUNTING
…..this is THE STORY OF THE YEAR, if not the DECADE. To me, this
is much bigger than Watergate,
because the press is either incompetent, blindly complacent, or is
on the party’s PAYROLL.
(I have a friend overseas who could vote by absentee ballot – did you
know it is REALLY HARD
to qualify to get an absentee ballot in the first place?)
What I find even more horrifying is who in the hell are they polling????
I do not know of anyone personally who has been asked anything regarding
this election, especially lately
as to who wants this to “be over”. Some of the polls I’ve come
across on MSNBC.COM have been so
heavily right wing favored that it seems unreal. Obviously more
RICH republicans have access to the
Internet that us po’ Democrat folk. Do the press really think
MOST Americans want to have the smug
guy who keeps saying he won, when we actually don’t really know yet,
when MOST Americans voted
for the guy who is getting badmouthed by the majority of the press?
Now I don’t know about MOST Americans, but I do know about most people
I know personally,
and that is this: If someone badmouths someone I like, someone
I admire, to the point it is insulting to me,
then I usually take offense, I lose respect for that person, and cease
to have them in my life. Neither would
I frequent a business that behaved so abominably. The press
is a business. They are in the business of
JOURNALISM, but lately they have become ‘star struck’ and think of
themselves as ‘ENTERTAINERS’.
Well, that is MY business (when I am lucky enough to get work), and
it has nothing to do with Journalism.
I do not want smug insulting “entertainers” telling me their opinions
when I want the NEWS.
If I want smug insulting entertainment, I’ll catch a pro like Don Rickles
in Vegas. He is smarter, funnier,
and more ENTERTAINING. Plus I can play Wild Cherry Dollar Slots,
and have a shot of pretty much
any tequila I want at The Venetian.
ha ha
What I find very disturbing is that MANY Americans, indeed I am starting
to fear MOST, are feeling the
way some of these people feel as though they can’t make a difference,
and that it won’t really affect them
either way it turns out. They are fat & happy in their comfy
lifestyles that have developed over the past
eight years, (THANK YOU MR PRESIDENT), and they see all of this
on their television screens like
it is so much fiction, as if it’s not real. Let me tell you:
IT IS VERY REAL PEOPLE!
Then I wonder how on earth so many people could be blinded by all the
hateful rhetoric that is being
spewed out against Gore & the Democrats. I wonder how soooooo
many people could be persuaded
to vote for such an imbecile as GW Bush when they had a damned decent
choice in McCain? And how
soooooo many could not see through the lies about one of the best presidential
candidates this country
has EVER been offered! HELLO! Gore has more experience
in foreign affairs, economics, government,
and the military - having SERVED IN VIETNAM! Am I living in a
country of empty headed sheep?
Do people really NOT think for themselves? Have ALL these people
forgotten Poppy Bush’s illegal
involvement in the IRAN CONTRA scandal!??!?!?! HELLO!
THERE WERE PRESIDENTAIL PARDONS!
Do you realize what an insult THAT was to our honorable military?????
If I am living in a country where a fast fix is preferred over the truth,
and mob rule works, then I am afraid.
I am sure that many rich happy Germans didn’t think anything bad could
happen to them. I am sure that
rich happy Iranians didn’t think anything bad could happen to them
either. (I have friends who remember
living in Iran when it was more fashionable and richer than Paris,
poverty and unemployment were low,
and when women could wear anything they wanted without fear of being
put to death.)
We are not living in sitcom. This is for real. It has also
become much more than who becomes President.
It is HOW they become President.
I call on THE FOURTH ESTATE, and any REAL JOURNALIST with the BALLS
to expose the TRUTH.
HAVE ANY OF YOU NOT BEEN BOUGHT & PAID FOR?????? ANY OF YOU???
FACT: MOST Americans voted for Al Gore.
MOST.
And most likely a LOT more than we actually know about.
FACT: ALL Votes have NOT been counted.
Do the Electors have ethics? Funny how there was only a blip about
the one Republican Elector
(from Maryland?) who said she could not in ‘good conscience’ vote for
Bush when an overwhelming
majority of her constituents voted for Gore.
Anyone with a brain, who isn’t blinded by seething hate can see the
cover up going on here.
A CHILD can see it. What kind of message are we sending to our
kids? What kind of message
are we sending to the world? Let’s face it; the WHOLE WORLD can
see it, why do you think not
one foreign leader has called to congratulate Gov Bush?
ANY OF YOU?? DO ANY OF YOU HAVE THE BALLS,
or is it just too much trouble for you to actually do your jobs?
Whew! I thought I’d fell better ranting, but I don’t. Now
SWEEPS IS OVER!
But The Sopranos, X-Files & Dune are ALL ON AT THE SAME TIME!
DAMNIT!
I need three TVs and VCRs.