IF WE COULD ONLY LISTEN TO JIMI

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

- Jimi Hendrix

A DAY FOR MOURNING

I lost my iPod....... I want to die. My little pocket buddy is gone. My companion at work, my partner in the gym... gone. He's probably in the pocket of the lucky prick who stole it or found it. Which one of the two it is, I do not know. I can't remember. It's all a blur. It happened so quickly. What do I do? I've searched everywhere... gym bag, briefcase, laptop bag, under the couch.... nowhere, nothing, nada, zilch.... I cry.

HAVE YOU SEEN MY iPOD

A moment of silence please
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Thank you.

Please return to your normal daily life. As it does go on.

I'll just have to endure it, without my little izzy pizzy.

Inconceivable

Meet Bryan. Me. I'm your average Joe (take your pick from six pack or the plumber). My wife and I make a pretty decent living. I love what I do, as does she. She's an employee of a large law firm, I, an employee of a small business with an absolutely bright future. You can say we fall under that category of "the Middle Class". We have a brand-spanking new, right-out-of-the-dealer, fully loaded, 12 cylinder, 200 horse power....... baby boy, Gavin. He's a wonderful kid. Brings an immediate smile to my face knowing that i'll hopefully get to see him turn into an amazing man one day. However, I can't help but also wonder about his future. What will the world be like when he's my age? What's the condition of the planet going to be when he's growing up? What will be the landscape of this planet if we continue on the track and at the pace we've been on up to now both environmentally and militarily?

I hate to be so sour, but let's look at the world we're living in. The more nukes you have, the bigger your balls are. So if you've got em, I've gotta get em, bigger and badder at that. Who invented the gun anyway? And was it really necessary? Damn you, gun inventor. Rocks, swords and arrows were working pretty well for a while. Not that they're any better but you can't argue that a rock has the capabilty to annihilate a nation in one throw. The threat of nuclear war is real. Really really real. More real than the "reality" we find on TV that consumes our evenings in front of the Tell Lie Vision. It's more real than Flavor Flave's next girlfriend or Hugh Hefner's next bang. It's time we wake the fuck up.But if you think for a second that flexing our military might is the solution, you;re wrong. It makes people mad. It makes countries like Iran and North Korea want to destroy us even more.

We're at another point in our history where our government is putting it's citizen's tax money into building a stronger military and rebuilding countries that can't stand us. At an astronomical rate of 10 billion dollars a month. Sit back for a second and try to swallow that, i mean we've heard the number over and over again throughout this political season, but really try to get a grasp on that figure. I'll give you a few seconds.......... go ahead......... take your time.......... That's a shitload of money, huh? I told you. Now, this is the part that gets me.... I thought Iraq had something to do with those few planes that came crashing down on 3,000 innocent civilians on September 11, 2001. Wait, wait... first it was weapons of mass destruction, how could I forget?Over the past 6-7 years we've turned that country upside down, crashed statues to the ground, killed innocent civilians, shot Korans with rifles, humiliated and tortured Iraqi prisoners, raped their woman and now we have to rebuild it and leave as liberators? We shouldn't have been there in the first place! We were lied to and now we have 4000 dead soldiers to mourn, embarrasing accusations against our soldiers and in the meantime the real sons of bitches that supposedly blasted us on our turf are chillin somewhere in a fkn cave in Pakistan, drinkin Starbucks lattes, and smokin some hash over a campfire planning to kill the next American. It's time we pull out of the desert use the money at home. Let's start paying some of that debt, eh? And here's a thought, maybe.. just maybe... we can put our military efforts into catching Bin Laden (we found Hussein in a frickin hole in the ground... are you telling me we can't find Osammer?) Really?

All the while we've lost the respect of nation's across the Globe. A country once hailed as a trustworthy peace-keeping force now has its Olympic teams travelling in unmarked vehicles. A country once viewd as democratic and diplomatic is now seen as the country invading, bomb dropping, world police. We are no longer that country that sits across the table from its enemy and confronts the issue face to face. We now bypass the help from the United Nations and go into wars alone or with limited allies. While we're fighting over oil and religious ideology (if you don't believe this is a religious war, you must be blind. They're the extremist fanatical muslim terrorists and we're the Zionist Judeau-Christian infidels, remember?). So, we're fighting over oil and who's GOD is bigger and better, while there is genocide in Africa, natural disaster victims in Cuba, Haiti, New Orleans, China, India, etc., poor people going hungry, and your own country in economic peril.

What gives? Who and what is the priority here? Are we so consumed with power, money, and materialistic things that the mere notion of sitting across the table from your enemy and discussing your differences in a diplomatic fashion has become inconceivable and erratic? What happened to the power and appeal of diplomacy?

Ladies and gentlemen, if we don't fix our reputation in this world, if we don't reach out to the people and all nations, if we (citizens and govt) don't get more involved in real humanitarian efforts, invoke peace and prosperity through diplomacy, there will be more attacks on us, there will be more wars... and the reason this bothers me is because it will be my little innocent Gavin fighting for the mistakes we are making. That's not the future my child or yours deserves.

We have a chance now to place someone in office that has my and many others concerns at the forefront of his priority list. He is a true example of that AMERICAN DREAM. He's black, educated and articulate. And all he wants is for everyone to get their fair share, because I, like those major corporations, have worked hard for everything I have. With that being said, I want to know that the money i'm giving in taxes is going to rebuild the COUNTRY I LIVE IN. I want to know that the taxes I pay are an actual investment in my family's future. I want to be able to afford putting Gavin through the top schools. I want to know that I can one day travel to England, South America, Asia, and the Middle East and not have to worry about Anti-American sentiment. I want to trust my government again. I want to know that I'm not getting screwed by my insurance company or by my mortgage broker. I want to know that Gavin will be able to enjoy this simple little thing we call life. It's so short, dammit. It's so fragile. If we understood that the purpose of life is not how much money we make or what god we believe in but it's more about family and how you treat the person next to you, how you, as an individual, community, and country can make life better for those that follow you.... Once that notion is conceived, than the inconceivable will be inconceivable no more. I'm using my power to vote to take a chance on change... you should use yours too.

Bry

Who's the Boss?

At an intimidating 2ft tall, 20 pound frame and with the bite of a pit bull, Gavin Bryan is on a roll. In a matter of two weeks he's learned how to crawl at the speed of sound, walk at the pace of a drunken midget, lunge himself from furniture in Ultimate Warrior fashion, go up the stairs, open cabinets, eat dog food and splash their water, use the full capacity of his healthy little lungs to shout and dance to any funky beat. Little punk knows what he wants and when he wants it. I thought I was supposed to be the boss here? NOT THE CASE.

Baby food? What's that? Homie likes that grown folk grub. Let me lay it out for you... this future linebacker's menu goes as such... Rice and Beans (c'mon, I'm Cuban, you knew that was coming), Red Meat, Chicken, Fish, Macaroni and Cheese, Sushi (cooked), lasagna, etc. Add on top of that 21 ounces of whole milk and you have a diaper full of fun.... at least three of them a day. NEVER IN MY LIFE could I have imagined that such an adorable little human being can produce such a potent and powerful punch in a matter of seconds. And you can tell when it's coming too. He gets super red and he holds his breath when he pushes... You can tell in his face that he's thinking, "Yeah, pops. This one's for you. Mom says you deserve this one for not plugging in the TiVo." Mom misses her novela, I get to change a diaper containing weapons of mass destruction that i believe our government is actually looking for somewhere in the Middle East. They're over here, Mr. Bush! And I've been quietly containing the threat in Kendall without complaint.

The average person goes to the gym to do cardio, or goes for a morning jog. I, on the other hand, change diapers. Karla, bless her soul, does it most of the time, which probably explains her recent weight loss. But when I do, it's like disarming a bomb every time. He twists and turns, giggles and bounces... I try to contain his behavior but I've got one finger stuck in a tub of Desitin, a bandana laced with febreeze over my nose and mouth to block the radiation eminating from this little thing's bunghole, two little feet in the other hand, and trying to place and seal a diaper at the same time. Literally, that's like 1200 calories burned right there. Fuck the gym, have a child..

But before he poops it, he's got to eat it, right? Feeding this bottomless little pit is no easy task. He's discovered that if you don't like it, you don't have to swallow it. Instead you can shoot it out of your mouth in dad's direction faster than Palin can take down a moose. As cute as it is to see him spit it out (if you can actually see thru the food dripping off your eyelids), it's quite the mess. Luckily I have two dogs that are more than willing to act as vacuum cleaners. Sometimes they don't even have to wait for Gavin to toss it or spit it out. Gav's more than happy to feed them when I'm not looking.

Parenthood has been quite the experience, almost a year in and I find myself doing the craziest, oddest, most absurd shit ever... I find myself dancing in every mall store because little man needs to shake his wild thang to the music being played, creating the most ridiculous of contraptions (two chairs, a pair of shoes, and a changing pad) to block the stair case until we get the gate to block it. My dogs eat their food like its the last meal on earth because their's a new predator in town and he also walks on four, he can strike at any time, and he comes silently.

Crazy as he is, detrimental to society and global warming as his diapers might be, demanding as the situation is, I wouldn't have it any other way. The payoff comes in his smile, his giggle, his attempts at a kiss. He's got me by the huevos and i'm not ashamed to admit it.

See what I mean....