Do What You Live For

#Leadership

A World Inspired

Stop Talking In Slogans

People are behaving badly and have been on both "sides" of the whatever for 20+ years. During the Reagan administration there at least seemed to be more unity and cohesion. Politics have become too personal for people. We can't agree that someone may not be the best for a job or a (insert whatever justifiable/provable label) proven criminal without that “side” acting personally persecuted or that their beliefs/rights/morals are being attacked. The two sides (liberals and conservatives) are talking in slogans (“love conquers hate”, “one man, one woman”) instead of having real dialogue about issues, problems, and “sides”. And yes, both sides have acted out depending on which alternate side is in power at the time. The media is filled with “haters” and “trolls” who accentuate all of this. So why are we playing on these platforms, only dividing us more?

Buying a ticket and taking a seat to a circus of clowns doesn’t mean you get input on the show. If you want real change, real progress – start by reserving comment and not reacting every time a politician takes a shit on a media platform.

Give Peace, Prosperity, and Positivity the same attention given to Politics, Power, and Protest.

Then, what stands to win? 

Media

#Value

Instead of getting that paper, find real value and real substance. 

Why conform to what society, the government, corporate and big business, wants or expects?

Material possessions, things, more stuff, bigger, newer, latest, luxurious, brand, labels.

Don’t allow yourself to be a slave to the system.

Always seek your spirit and live for your soul.

Stay true to yourself hold value to what no one can take away.

Balls2SayIt - The Book!

An equal opportunity offender of gays, rednecks, women, Christians, millennials, and people of color shares his brazen rants, jokes, and random thoughts suitable for the age of social media. The slogan worthy one-liners on drinking, sex, stupidity, stereotypes, rudeness, apathy, and anti-social behavior are political, provocative, immature, and hilarious.

Balls2SayIt

Working with the GLBT Population

Flock of Sheep

from the "Some People Feel Like This" exhibit by Jim Roche

Neil deGrasse Tyson Selects the Eight Books Every Intelligent Person on the Planet Should Read

Tyson's Eight Books for Intelligent People

1. The Bible (public library; free ebook), to learn that it’s easier to be told by others what to think and believe than it is to think for yourself
2. The System of the World (public library; free ebook) by Isaac Newton, to learn that the universe is a knowable place
3. On the Origin of Species (public library; free ebook) by Charles Darwin, to learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth
4. Gulliver’s Travels (public library; free ebook) by Jonathan Swift, to learn, among other satirical lessons, that most of the time humans are Yahoos
5. The Age of Reason (public library; free ebook) by Thomas Paine, to learn how the power of rational thought is the primary source of freedom in the world
6. The Wealth of Nations (public library; free ebook) by Adam Smith, to learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself
7. The Art of War (public library; free ebook) by Sun Tzu, to learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art
8. The Prince (public library; free ebook) by Machiavelli, to learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it.

If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world.

Where We Are, Where We Are Going (?)

In the 1930s, Langston Hughes wrote a poem, "Lenox Avenue Mural":

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore-

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over-

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

The following is from the compelling book, "A People's History Of the United States" by Howard Zinn.

With the Establishment's inability either to solve severe economic problems at home or to manufacture abroad a safety valve for domestic discontent, Americans might be ready to demand not just more tinkering, more reform laws, another reshuffling of the same deck, another New Deal, but radical change. Let us be Utopian for a moment so that when we get realistic again it is not that "realism" so useful to the Establishment in its discouragement of action, that "realism" anchored to a certain kind of history empty of surprise. Let us imagine what radical change would require of us all.

The society's levers of powers would have to be taken away from those whose drives have led to the present state-the giant corporations, the military, and their politician collaborators. We would need-by a coordinated effort of local groups all over the country-to reconstruct the economy for both efficiency and justice, producing in a cooperative way what people need most. We would start on our neighborhoods, our cities, our workplaces. Work of some kind would be needed by everyone, including people now kept out of the work force-children, old people, "handicapped" people. Society could use the enormous energy now idle, the skills and talents now unused. Everyone could share the routine but necessary jobs for a few hours a day, and leave most of the time free for enjoyment, creativity, labors of love, and yet produce enough for an equal and ample distribution of goods. Certain basic things would be abundant enough to be taken out of the money system and be available-free-to everyone: food, housing, health care, education, transportation.

The great problem would be to work out a way of accomplishing this without a centralized bureaucracy, using not the incentives of prison and punishment, but those incentives of cooperation which spring from natural human desires, which in the past have been used by the state in times of war, but also by social movements that gave hints of how people might behave in different conditions. Decisions would be made by small groups of people in their workplaces, their neighborhoods-a network of cooperatives, in communication with one another, a neighborly socialism avoiding the class hierarchies of capitalism and the harsh dictatorships that have taken the name "socialist."

People in time, in friendly communities, might create a new, diversified, nonviolent culture, in which all forms of personal and group expression would be possible. Men and women, black and white, old and young, could then cherish their differences as positive attributes, not as reasons for domination. New values of cooperation and freedom might then show up in the relations of people, the upbringing of children.

To do all that, in the complex conditions of control in the United States, would require combining the energy of all previous movements in American history-of labor insurgents, black rebels, Native Americans, women, young people-along with the new energy of an angry middle class. People would need to begin to transform their immediate environments-the workplace, the family, the school, the community-by a series of struggles against absentee authority, to give control of these places to the people who live and work there.

These struggles would involve all the tactics used at various times in the past by people's movements: demonstrations, marches, civil disobedience; strikes and boycotts and general strikes; direct action to redistribute wealth, to reconstruct institutions, to revamp relationships; creating-in music, literature, drama, all the arts, and all the areas of work and play in everyday life-a new culture of sharing, of respect, a new joy in the collaboration of people to help themselves and one another.

There would be many defeats. But when such a movement took hold in hundreds of thousands of places all over the country it would be impossible to suppress, because the very guards the system depends on to crush such a movement would be among the rebels. It would be a new kind of revolution, the only kind that could happen, I believe, in a country like the United States. It would take enormous energy, sacrifice, commitment, patience. But because it would be a process over time, starting without delay, there would be the immediate satisfactions that people have always found in the affectionate ties of groups striving together for a common goal.

All this takes us far from American history, into the realm of imagination. But not totally removed from history. There are at least glimpses in the past of such a possibility. In the sixties and seventies, for the first time, the Establishment failed to produce national unity and patriotic fervor in a war. There was a flood of cultural changes such as the country had never seen-in sex, family, personal relations-exactly those situations most difficult to control from the ordinary centers of power. And never before was there such a general withdrawal of confidence from so many elements of the political and economic system. In every period of history, people have found ways to help one another-even in the midst of a culture of competition and violence-if only for brief periods, to find joy in work, struggle, companionship, nature.

The prospect is for times of turmoil, struggle, but also inspiration. There is a chance that such a movement could succeed in doing what the system itself has never done-bring about great change with little violence. This is possible because the more of the 99 percent that begin to see themselves as sharing needs, the more the guards and the prisoners see their common interest, the more the Establishment becomes isolated, ineffectual. The elite's weapons, money, control of information would be useless in the face of a determined population. The servants of the system would refuse to work to continue the old, deadly order, and would begin using their time, their space-the very things given them by the system to keep them quiet-to dismantle that system while creating a new one.

The prisoners of the system will continue to rebel, as before, in ways that cannot be foreseen, at times that cannot be predicted. The new fact of our era is the chance that they may be joined by the guards. We readers and writers of books have been, for the most part, among the guards. If we understand that, and act on it, not only will life be more satisfying, right off, but our grandchildren, or our great grandchildren, might possibly see a different and marvelous world.

Percy Shelley was a radical poet, polemicist and political activist. Jacqueline Mulhallen traces the revolutionary thread that ran through this extraordinary writer’s life and work;

Rise like lions after slumber

In unfathomable number

Shake your chains to earth like dew

That in sleep have fallen on you

Ye are many, they are few.

That verse is perhaps one of the best known pieces of poetry in any movement of the oppressed all over the world. The Chartists knew it in the 19th century and so did the striking women garment workers in 1909 New York. It was chanted on demonstrations in Tiananmen Square (1989) and Tahrir Square (2011).

Rise like lions after slumber

In unfathomable number

Shake your chains to earth like dew

That in sleep have fallen on you

Ye are many, they are few.

Speaking Spanish

We live and work in a multicultural world, speaking different languages. However, this notion that I as an USA born and raised citizen should have to learn Spanish to accommodate an ever growing population, a huge percentage of which is in my home country illegally, is outrageous! Americans don’t go to other countries and expect everyone to speak English. I am refusing to speak Spanish. I refuse to even say “Un momento por favor (while I get a translator)”. This is not a racist rant. This is nothing against Spanish speaking people.  I do not get paid extra as Bilingual employees do and if I spoke a single word for my job I should charge per word.  I took 14 years of English, two of which I paid for. I refuse to speak Spanish!

The Story of a Nonconformist

I am a Freedom Fighter. 

My message is Freedom. Freedom from everything, freedom for everyone, and freedom to be.

I was never on the “inside” and when occasionally invited in I was uncomfortable having to put on a coat and gloves for the chill. I was forced to be outside. But I never stood looking in the window motioning for someone to open the door and let me in. I ventured to explore the world outside. Being gay and growing up in a small town at a time when it was still unacceptable has given me an incredibly mysterious gift and curse. I can’t say I’d ever change my sexual orientation if given the chance for I would be a completely different person all together. An easy ride would not take me down the road I am on.

In elementary school, they said I ran like a girl. Walking up to bat, throw, or kick in gym, classmates would yell “easy out”. I didn't have the skills for ball games. I could run and I was fast. I always placed 2nd or 3rd in annual sprints throughout public schooling. Amazingly enough, I was good at more competitive sports like hockey - much to everyone's surprise. Perhaps I was more motivated to race my classmates for the puck. They were always a little taken back by my sudden aggression played out during. 

Although I was known to be gay or different, I was still rumored to be involved in sexual trysts with skanky girls. To my uneducated peers I was just a pervert. This strange aura I wore attracted the curiosity of a rebellious troubled sort in middle school. He was my first hard crush. He taunted and teased me in a way that was oddly sexual, oddly bully-ish. By high school we had wandered in different circles. Any association with me had become too uneasy for most by this point. In retrospect, I think he had an adolescent flirtation with bisexuality, but this is my story not his. 

So I introduced myself as a high school freshman by bleaching my hair strawberry blond (it was kind of orange). A fairly rebellious act as this was before the boy bands of the late 90s made it a trend. I was nicknamed “Goldie” and enjoyed my controversial celebrity status. I believe this is when the narcissism kicked in. I enjoyed making up things about myself just to see what absurdities my peers were willing to believe. None of these stories were flattering, quite the opposite. I made myself the celebrity, school the tabloid, and my classmates the losers reading it. When I couldn’t get into Journalism class, I found a direct route to writing for the school paper. I wrote to the editor of the state newspaper who published the county school paper. I was able to get my pieces published in the school paper (more often than the journalism class) and the state paper. I used this perfect outlet to tell the school exactly what I thought and how I felt about them, while of course doting on myself (Read those article clippings here). Everybody was pissed and miffed by my blatant “in your face” diss. One coach/part-time teacher read the article to his class and all but insisted I stand in front of a firing squad. Prior to this, I had exercised my teenage angst by setting school trash cans on fire (sad attempt at burning down the school), a fist fight, and setting off firecrackers in the stairwell to mimic bombs (it actually sounded like an air raid). Needless to say, I stood like a pleased fan of The Anarchist’s Cookbook watching the terror of my schoolmates running around aimlessly. Now the idea of terrorism seems to be in opposition to the fight for freedom. But doesn’t every waged war hope for freedom? I have since evolved from that boy who acted out of fear and hurt.

Growing up, I was really skinny and insecure about it until I arrived at the gay bar. So when I put on some weight I felt a little more comfortable. My personality had to shine through because I couldn't rely on my boyish charm and innocent looks anymore. So my sense of humor came through and won people over. I felt more masculine. And the real me (I was insecure about sharing) was accepted. People often mistake me for being vain. When the truth is I am working out my own issues and insecurities through sharing. I do not share pictures of myself because I think I’m hot or sexy and seek validation. I seek acceptance of self by not hiding. I have what has been an ethnically confusing face and a body that has fluctuated from scarecrow to twink to cherub to man-boy. So, I have a love/hate relationship with my weight. But I think the "hate" is from external forces.

As a new adult, I came out to the world outside my hometown. I had that deceptive idyllic notion of the gay bar as being this happy wonderland where I would be welcomed with open arms. As if I had finally, found my tribe. Truth is, I don’t have a tribe. There isn’t a group of people like me. I wasted too much of my early adulthood searching for such a tribe. When the gays tried to label me “twink” or exercise their preconceived notions based on my youth and appearance, I rejected them. I went to the club to dance and participate in the theatre of it, not to hook up. I still did things to stand out.  I wore "art" shirts and did odd things to my hair that entertained me. I danced on stage by myself. I danced to music no one else would get up for.

I was in a waffle shop around 3am after a night out of wearing some fairly flaming attire for Halloween. There my partner and I were accosted by some local rednecks with rude anti-gay slurs. I denounced them all as trash. There was no way I would concede on a stare-down with a 300 pound man who didn’t like being told he was trash. My passion was greater. I was confident I was not their ideas, he was not so confident he was not mine. He eventually took his seat. 

Living in the south (northern Florida), for a couple of years I experienced a twist on the traditional white vs. black type of racism. The white people were so afraid of being accused of racism; they allowed the black people to be the exception to any rule. The black people at my place of work were not held to the same standard and it wasn’t exactly a hidden truth. I am all about equality. Equality has no exceptions. I of course did not stand for this inequality. It wasn’t long before my use of the word “ghetto” in reference to a black co-worker’s attitude was turned into a racist rant. Explaining the origin of the word and its usage saved me from ultimate demise. Afterward, my supervisor sent me the Ebonics Dictionary --- to reference diverse communication? I still can’t justify that act. However, later when a co-worker voiced her disgust in a meeting over Disneyworld’s “gay days” stating “That’s a family place!” management merely shrugged. I also became a member and lead coordinator of the Diversity Committee which appalled some. But what better way to educate the alleged ignorant?

I’ve been fired for being gay (Read that story here) and I’ve combated the evils of jealous gay managers and closeted gay co-workers at Ricoh.  There, was the kind of homophobia that manifests from jealousy and by bitter gays who are unable to mesh or integrate into “straight society” in the same fashion as I am able to do, for instance. I was unapologetic about being myself, loud and proud---and that always rubs certain people the wrong way. It was someone’s fear of being outted or likened to homosexuality that ignited the spark that burned homophobic fires again. Ricoh is a place where otherwise hopeless bottom feeders get hired to do menial tasks with constant harassment from their under qualified and inexperienced management team. Thus, creating a cesspool of misery. In the end, I realized the torment and suffering of some individuals who caused me harm. For they have not the freedom I do. They are slaves to societal norms. I retracted plans for revenge and left them with their envy. 

I have studied Christianity and Buddhism, taken up Yoga, and vowed to be a better citizen of the planet all at my own pace and never to be trendy or righteous. I have always been an optimist. I guess you could say, I rarely let people see my private pain. I rarely share my troubles or worries. And instead put out all that is good with me – happy go lucky I am often known to be. I do not share my spirituality to preach or act as a guru, but rather to help myself stay on the path. I do not share my writing to insinuate mine is the work of brilliance, but rather I share my story through it and even in fiction lies elements of truth.

I always felt society expected people like me to apologize for having ambition and determination. There are going to be times when you are not liked and are treated like you have a curse. Telling the truth, standing up for what’s right can be a lonely way of life.  

Much controversy has been made in my presence and of course it has never been my style to avoid that. I am not afraid of controversy or being unpopular. People have been afraid of losing their jobs by mere association with me. As a writer, I must write about my experiences. The only way to be free is to put the truth out there.

I must tell my truth.

I must let them know of my humanity.

I cannot stand silent.

I cannot cower.

How would civilization ever move forward if we all just kept quiet and stood in line?

I do not like or follow those who are merely famous, talented, popular, beautiful, acceptable, or the like. My heroes have always been the rebels, the outsiders, the controversial, the game changers --- And like them, I will always dance to the techno beat of a different synth; until the hour my heart gives out from exhaustion. 

I am in debt to no one but myself; for all the time I doubted and discredited myself. 

As I get older and approach my mid-thirties, I live more for simplicity. I allow what is natural, to be. We spend our adolescence imagining what we want to be and our twenties trying to be that. The time of creating oneself passes for the time to be oneself. I am freer from what people think and comparing myself to others or the ideals of what and how I should be. I can’t really say I’m the best at anything --- but I do know that no one does it like I do. 

I am no longer searching, no longer yearning. I know what I have to do. My place, my path --- it's so easy; to be good to others (and forgive my foes), to be grateful (for what I’ve been through), and to be generous (to those on the other end of it). That’s true freedom!

Change

What Are We Learning? What Are We Teaching?

The Time is Right Now

From Kurt Cobain's Journal

"I like to complain and do nothing to make things better. I like to blame my parents generation for coming so close to social change then giving up after a few successful efforts by the media & government to deface the movement by using the Mansons and other Hippie representatives as propaganda examples on how they were nothing but unpatriotic, communist, satanic, inhuman diseases, and in turn the baby boomers became the ultimate, conforming, yuppie hypocrites a generation has ever produced."

“No amount of effort can save you from oblivion.”

I Am The Terrorist

I am the terrorist

I really don’t care for your people

And as for this corporate life

I can’t get in line, I can’t stand idle

Boom Boom go the bombs hiding in your cubes

Sit back, keep on, and flip the tube

I can’t relate to your suburban state of mind

And all your offspring marching in line

And this rage will not subside

Dreaming of lying next to the corpses

Of my enemies (will have all died)

All the Chauvinists were right;

All women are whores

If anyone shall slain my name with lies, rumors, or hate

They themselves shall be slain by tongue

Yes it’s me again

Didn't mean to show up unannounced

It’s really just my style to prey and pounce

Thought I couldn't make a comeback

Thought you burned me down

Thought you chained my drive

But now I’m driving the truck

Shifting gears and dumping your muck

Death comes quickly for those who run

Should I hide my horns?

As they seem to make you uncomfortable, my dear

I really thought they’d turn you on

Your life has no meaning now

Thought what you did was just a flick on my brow

I really have no sympathy, no empathy

It’s just my anti-human nature

To kill and torture and lay you down

Who did it?

You never believed in me

Who knew what you wouldn't tell

Without an invitation…

Who made your reception

Feel like some kind of Hell

By brilliant imitation

Who is it,

The terrorist? I am

Individuality

"Ironically, individuality is not a trait shared by everyone"

Large Bulges are the New Cleavage

I am not the most stylish or up on fashion gay. I suspected such underwear existed and are becoming more popular and affordable. I have noticed many men lately with unusually large bulges;obviously enhanced or even fake. I wonder, what is the motivation? As I am noticing these large bulges more and more at the office I hafta wonder: Is this the new male advancement tool? Men's equivalent to cleavage in the workplace?

Almost a gimmick 

Business Lesson Convoluted by Controversial Political Headline

I am an active member of the Business Culture and Diversity Committee at the company I work for. I shared the following article from DiversityInc with my manager and a few co-workers. DiversityInc is a respected   authority on workplace diversity and the education of. However, the article's title, "What should you do when one of your leaders makes a controversial statement? 'God Intended' Pregnancy After Rape Says Romney's Candidate " was quite misleading. My manager did not respond well to the sharing of this and felt it was too politically biased. I explained that the site is legitimate and that I understand the headline is discrediting, but if you read the article and scroll the site you’ll see what it’s about. I was receiving a bit of a lecture from a manager who has added many of those he supervises onto to his Facebook. A place where he has publicly debated politics, religion, and so on.  I went on to say "Diversity discussions can be very controversial and bring up topics that people are uncomfortable with."  

DiversityInc Article