| I can see why manic-depressives need medication. The ultra-high/devastatingly-low experiences I can’t do everyday. Hell, it was hard enough going through Act III, Scene ii of Romeo and Juliet: I’m married to the best guy on earth and tonight he is all mine! What??? He just killed my cousin and he is BANISHED? At least I had a paycheck and an amazing Romeo to help balance the mood-swings. My recent trip to the Bay Area was a bit of a high-low roller coaster and might have been eased with a bit of lithium. Last week I had the amazing opportunity to meet and pal around San Francisco with two of my favorite writers and consummate gentlemen, Isaac Peterson, and Jim Higdon. (Thank the Goddess for them, or it would have been utterly depressing!) They were sweet enough to invite me up to a speaking engagement of Vincent Bugliosi’s at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland. Even though I couldn’t really afford it, I knew I’d kick myself endlessly and have deep regrets if I passed this up, besides, if just one person pays me to write, it’s a business trip, right? I can’t tell you how excited I was to have this opportunity! Meeting two other writers who I have been applauding over endless emails, and to get a chance to hear one of the best prosecutors in the country speak about what I consider the greatest crime in the history of the United States, the theft of a presidential election. I was full of boundless hope. The first day and a half were amazing. Isaac and I met at the airport and shared a ride into the city and were even fortunate enough to be staying mere blocks from each other just off Union Square. Isaac is a gentle giant of a man, very soft-spoken and determined, full of passion. He misses his new girlfriend who is in Australia visiting her family, very much. It was so wonderful to hear him talk of her. Jim Higdon is the very definition of a Bay Area Liberal. Cute, tan, sexy grayish hair, lean, kid at heart, fellow thespian, knows and is proud of his California wine heritage. The first night we drove down to Jim’s neck-o-the-bay for dinner. We had a great time along with fabulous food! I confess I had to steal Isaac’s camera at one point after he snapped a photo of me in my white cotton Gap top, sans bra, (hey, they’re ok for a gal my age!), attempting to club soda a bit of sauce off my left breast. No wet-tee-shirt action here guys! Fortunately, he managed to grab the wrong camera out of my purse. (Both identical Kodak disposables.) So I apparently have the photo in question, yet to be developed. All of us met early the next morning to show Isaac the city, since he’d never been there before. We walked from Union Square down through China Town, to Pier 39, snacking on shellfish cocktails and chowder along Fisherman’s Wharf, then down to Ghirardelli Square for lunch, (such touristas!) hanging out, and talking politics. I must say it felt like we were making history, sort of like George Bernard Shaw sitting at the Museum pub in London conversing with Karl Marx, or something like that. Jim, having joined Voter March West, and being seen as the charismatic, witty, and relaxed speaker that he is, was set to chair the event, which included other speakers in addition to Mr. Bugliosi. (Isaac, having joined Voter March in Minneapolis, is already on the Board of Directors! Go Isaac!) The Amazing Mr. Higdon! He even tried to get us into the dinner that was scheduled with Bugliosi and some of the folks from Voter March. Well, Vincent was running late, and didn’t make dinner, which was a shame, but didn’t stop us from enjoying a great little Italian Trattoria. We arrived at the theatre about thirty minutes before the event was scheduled to begin so Jim could get squared away. The Grand Lake Theatre, built in 1926 originally as a Vaudeville and silent movie house, has breathtaking art-deco fixtures and retains the original orchestra pit. It even has that wonderful musty smell of dusty curtains and aging wood. There is nothing like the smell of a theatre. The excitement in the air was palpable. There were tables set up in the lobby with information on Voter March, and one with a great assortment of bumper stickers ranging from “I Will Never Get Over It” to “I’m a Pagan and I Vote”. Ha ha. We took our seats and anxiously waited for the event to begin. Within a matter of moments, all my hopes and optimism were extinguished like the day I learned from my best friend there was no Santa Clause. From the very moment the first speaker reached the microphone after Jim’s introduction, things went straight to hell. I felt I was in a low rent comedy club on open mic amateur night, with a bunch of drunken hecklers in the crowd. I have never seen such blatant disrespect in my life. Every speaker had something valid to say, but there were many who weren’t listening. There were screams and shouts from the audience of every kind, constantly interrupting. Democrats blaming the Greens and Ralph Nader’s ego. The Greens and Independents blaming Al Gore for not using Clinton and running on his own legacy. “It’s your fault! No, it’s your fault!” It was like being in a room with a bunch of children fighting over who broke the lamp. The anger and resentment was such that all I wanted to do was get on the next flight back to Burbank. I could totally see how the Students for a Democratic Society disbanded after the other liberal fringe groups at the time shouted them down. Apparently we’ve learned nothing in the art of how to get along. At least they were a bit kinder to Mr. Bugliosi. But I was so disheartened! I didn’t even have the stomach to wait in line to get some copies of The Betrayal of America signed. I just wanted to go. Isaac was much braver and far more tolerant than I to wait in line to speak to Bugilosi. Isaac is a man of infinite patience. I knew it would have fed my anger and disappointment further to even be around the crowd. Not to mention after seven years working at Disneyland, I don’t do crowds of any kind well, so I was content to wait in the darkness of the back of the house. But it was wonderful to see Isaac in his element, towering over everyone and smiling, and finally getting to speak to The Man himself. Jim Higdon, who is a fellow actor, saw and felt my pain, and equated it a bit to us being in a theatre, which somehow deep down is our Temple, which is entirely true but it was also much more than that. I saw exactly how fractured and scattered we are. How unfocused. There is so much finger-pointing going on, so much blame for what happened, that no one is looking at what to do NOW, and I think that is what the GOP is counting on. There were many factors that led to the sinking of the Titanic, just as there were many factors that enabled the pResidency to be handed to Bush. But the main factor, our iceberg if you will, was the disenfranchisement of the nation by the Felonious Supreme Court Five. Many people, including Bugliosi, in my opinion, misstate that they negated the 50 million people who voted for Al Gore. They did much more than that. They negated everyone’s vote, including those who voted for Bush, Nader, Buchanan, et al, by being the only ones whose vote did count. Everyone can scream about Gore and Nader all they want, but without the illegal intervention of the United States Supreme Court, Al would be in the Oval Office, and most of the country, no, the World, knows it. We must focus! We are set on self-destruct and it couldn’t make the far right-wing nut jobs happier. We have to stop the in- fighting. We not only need to come together and build a better ship, we have to build the best and make our vision sharp enough to steer clear of not only the iceberg, but the thousand other details that put Bush in the White House. I learned some things on this trip and believe me, the iceberg and its children are getting more powerful every day. Haven’t we witnessed how they can mobilize into a rioting mob at a moment’s notice? There are many, many changes that need to be made. Yes the Electoral College needs to be abolished, but for now, we have to make sure the Rocks and Coyote states along with the rest of the country do not get any more faux felon lists, and bogus road blocks. Until the rules change, we must make the best of them. Yes, we need instant run-off elections. But we do not have them now, and until we do, we need every candidate and supporter to check their egos and ideologies at the door, and in the event of a close election, get behind whoever turns out to be the next Big Dog. We have to insist on the likes of Katherine Harris not continuing to successfully disenfranchise all but the Republican votes. Don’t think for a minute that she’s not trying to open a nation wide franchise. We must be ruthless in making sure everyone’s voice be heard and everyone’s vote be counted. If we don’t, and continue the in-fighting, back biting, whining, and blaming, then we are going to be subjected to another four more years of Dubya, or worse. There is much work to be done, but we all have to move forward together, in the same direction. Compromises must be made on all sides or we will stay mired in the quicksand we have been unwittingly placed. We must keep the lines of communication open and recognize propaganda for what it is. With the death of The Fairness Doctrine, we can no longer trust the media to tell the truth and get the word out. As we know, and they have proven time and again, they are already on the enemy payroll. We are not the enemy. It is time to come together, and move beyond Nader and Gore. As good points as either have from whatever prospective you see it from, there is far too much damage there to be of use to us now. It's time to cut bait. If we hang on to either of these it will only act as a cancer and eat away at whatever body politic is left, and kill us outright. This is what the Right is betting on. If we succumb to our own fracturing self-destructive nature, and refuse to heal it ourselves by coming together, then they will win, and Devil Spawn Dubya will be locked in for as long as they choose to keep him there. There is only one way to get the government back before it is completely reshaped in the Far Right Wing’s image, and that is to fire them all, while we still have a right to vote, and before the Felonious Five take that privilege away permanently. A hero will rise, and we have to be ready and focused enough to recognize and support them when they do. To be able to return to the west side of the bay with the boys was a very welcome moment, but all in all, it was a lesson well learned. I just hope I am not the only one who sees it. |
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| San Francisco and the Enemy Within? |
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