squirrel's birdfeeder rag

almost june

A Sixties Story will soon be available in print and in four e-publishing formats, including the latest, iBookstore for the iPad. Veddy exciting.

I've been keeping away from too much news since the oil spill. It's so depressing that we have unleashed into our ocean what the earth kept wisely buried for billions of years. And there's been another hit to the economy because Europe's PIIGS are going under: Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain--all overextended with no good solution except to be bailed out by other countries. Doesn't seem fair. And it's scary so the stock market drops. Greed runs the world unwisely.

In order to make sure that the younger folks can have jobs, we feel it is our civic duty to retire. Sitting in the back yard looking at our flowers and basking in the warmth and sunlight of our hard-earned good fortune seems the best option at this point. It's a lovely day every day in our back yard.  The roses are blooming. Playing around with photoshop earlier this month gave me this photo of our amazingly giant tulips.

pre-self-publishing jitters

A Sixties Story will be published this summer. I'm excited and nervous. It's amazing to me that at last my goal of telling this story will be met. I hope that it adds depth to the image of the sixties and what it meant to us. It was much more than getting high and jumping around like crazy people at be-ins, although that was undeniably part of it. What drove me and many others was the desire to change the world for the better. I started trying in the civil rights movement and haven't really stopped since. I participate in politics differently now, mostly as a voter, an internet activist and a donator to causes I believe in. 

When I heard us called "hippy dippies," I knew I had to get the book out. Even though George Carlin coined the phrase and I loved his comedy, there was more to hippy than dippiness. My determination was reinforced when I was at the '68-'96 reunion of the Democratic Convention in Chicago and a woman labor organizer pointed out into the audience and said, "your stories have not been told. You need to tell your stories." My friend poked me and said, "get that book written." I started writing in earnest. It's 2010 and I'm self-publishing my sixties story at last. 

rock 'n' roll reunion

It's time to send the final version of A Sixties Story to dog ear, my self-publisher. Doing the final tweaking of my book brings back so many memories and on the social networking sites many of us are back in touch. So many years ago we lived our sixties lives and now we are all adults.

Here are a few of us last fall at The Abbey in Chicago for the 60s and 70s music reunion. Maybe you recognize Fred Glickstein (second from right). He played with the group The Flock, that recorded in the 60s and 70s and played on the same bill with many of the major groups of the day. The four of us in the photo went to high school together.

I am so heartened by the effect pressure from online activists is having on the political process. We are all still here and have found a way to be heard. So far, people are still the only ones allowed in the voting booths. The Supreme Court hasn't let corporations vote yet. 

health insurance reform blues

So today is the first day in the Senate with 59 votes, which will scotch health insurance reform. I know the teabaggers are happy that they have found yet another way to shoot themselves in the foot. They are OK with giving bankers hundreds of billions of dollars, but god forbid that they should have their government give them decent health insurance reform for the taxes they pay. Better for Congress to keep giving the money to corrupt defense contractors, bankers and the like. 

I have good health insurance, why should I worry about others if they aren't worried about themselves? But I do and they aren't. In fact, to them, I am the enemy. Strange world we live in.

In our neck of the woods, our lives are simple and uncomplicated and we are so grateful. We are both working at decent pay levels and we have great health insurance through a union, which is another thing the teabaggers are dead set against. God forbid that a union should get people better pay, hours and benefits. They have been told that unions are bad and they believe it. Sad, really. People keep themselves and millions of others down out of sheer stupidity and blind faith. 

And we are forced to be ruled by them. Fortunately, we have our lives arranged so that they aren't hurting us much yet. I know things will be very bad with social security and medicare so I am trying to get as healthy as possible so I won't need to go to doctors. I seriously wonder how much of my money I will get back on my 50-year social security investment.

Doom and gloom for the country. Why would Obama want to be President? What a waste of a beautiful mind. He'd get more respect as a Constitutional lawyer (or anything) than as President of millions of stupids who think nothing through and are only good at name calling. It's sad that honest debate about issues and policies that affect all of our lives degenerate into people wearing teabags and carrying signs saying Obama is a nazi and worse. 

Well, on we go.