Our Wealth

It has been a while since I have been posted and I've been getting some flack about it. I appreciate that.

I have been thinking lately about what wealth means to my generation and the generations to follow. I am a generation X-er, a term I tend to disdain. It is only useful in so far as it classifies a group of people born between 1965 and 1981, more or less. The classification isn't useful for much else, particularly if you try to attribute a set of values, work ethic, or anything else to a group this large and diverse. What Gen X-ers do have in common is a forced paradigm shift when it comes to the accumulation and utilization of money.

My Dad gets pissed off when my brother and I say we want to take our money out of Social Security and invest it ourselves. My Dad thinks the whole system will tank and that he'll stop getting his SS. Well, Pops, our generation has already been told there won't be anything left for us. So every two weeks I am pissing away money for what? To keep pay those who already paid. I'm working on my class action suit. I figure at the rate SS is going, I will file my suit within twenty years. Thanks, Uncle Sam.

But wait, there is more. My generation is not poised for home ownership. Many of those who got a house through declared income at the height of the housing stupidity, have now lost their homes. Not only are they worse off financially then they were before, with that little mark on their credit, they won't own for at least another 15 years. For the rest of us who didn't buy, we're still looking at the market saying, "Who the hell can afford these homes?" My generation has been set up for failure.

After 9/11, Bush said, "Spend!" That was his solution. Well, Mr. President, Gen X has been spending their whole lives and not saving a whole lot because there isn't a whole lot to save for. We are forced to look at wealth differently. Wealth to us is time. Wealth to us is freedom. I recently read Tim Ferris' book The 4-Hour Workweek. It is a quick read, but profound. Ferris essentially says that time is the new wealth and traveling is the capitalization of that wealth.

The idea of Gen X isn't to cash out now by traveling around the world and coming home broke. Instead it is to make the most out of every day, get friends and family you love around you, get a job you truly enjoy, and go to bed each night in eager expectation of tomorrow. Not a bad plan. I think that is a wealth paradigm shift I can live with.

Good-Bye Golden Girl

News just broke that Estelle Getty of The Golden Girls fame has passed away. What I truly apprecaite about Estelle is that she spent 40 years struggling to make it as an actress before getting the role of a lifetime on Golden Girls. All in all, perhaps Estelle's fame was short-lived. She started on The Golden Girls in 1985, and by 1998 was dealing with ill health. For the past four years she has been too sick to make public appearances.

And who cares? This wonderful woman brought us so much joy. Her legacy will live on forever. There are fewer and fewer people I care to say that about. When I was at San Francisco Pride in June, a friend of mine from Rochester said when he is flipping channels and sees The Golden Girls, he will always stop to watch. So will I. Despite the fact I've seen every episode at least five times, I will continue to watch. And I will continue to laugh. God Bless You, Estelle.

Swimming Upstream

Sometimes it takes a whole lot to keep up. I don't mean just getting up in the morning and dragging your ass to work. There is just so much more to it than that. In order to succeed, it takes being a lot smarter than everyone around you, even though being smarter more often than not merely means paying attention.

I went out for drinks with a very good friend of mine this week. We hadn't seen each other in a long time, which is to say two months. Truth be known, we've been drifting apart for a while, but who wants to dwell on that. So my friend and I are drinking and telling stories, then he tells me that I have changed. He says I am more focused on money than I used to be. I don't want to seem rude, but since I don't drive a new car, wear designer clothes, or sleep with expensive prostitutes, I had to wonder where he was coming from. Turns out my friend has opted out.

With twins just over a year old, a job in a call center, and a wife who makes way more than he does, I would think my friend would be clamoring for a more lucrative career. Instead he has decided to live life one day at a time and whatever happens happens. So my lifestyle is now by contrast some strange mission of greed because I am still talking about owning a home and weird stuff like that.

As much as I may have tried to absorb the criticism, I couldn't. I just realize the frustration of my generation growing up in L.A. We won't have the houses are parents had. We won't have the job with longevity our parents had. Our generation is mobile and transitory. Our futures are just completely different and there is no model. So my friend has decided to simply conform to the reality that is. He hasn't opted out of anything, he isn't running on empty, he has merely turned downstream and is floating with the current.

I don't know where the current will take him. As for me, I am going to continue swimming upstream hoping that I am the one headed in the right direction.

Long Beach Gay Pride

And so we have it, this weekend is Gay Pride again in my home city of Long Beach, CA. The gayness of Long Beach was one of the things that drew me to the city. My oh so conservative brother, with whom I am very close, recommended Long Beach to me many years ago. He said there were a lot of my people there. He was right.

So every year there is the tired debate about how irrelevant, tired, and uncreative Gay Pride events are. Tomorrow, the California Supreme Court is set to release its decision on whether to legalize same-sex marriage. The way I see it, Gay Pride and the court decision are closely related. Gay Pride started as a celebration of freedom and a socio-political statement regarding the right of the LGBTQ population to be whoever the hell they wanted to be. It is also a statement about equality. You can't shut us up, we're not going away, and we demand same entitlements, protection, and voice as the rest of society.

So if Gay Pride started as a celebration of who we are and a statement that we want our share too, the Gay Pride event cannot become irrelevant until we have equal everything. As corporation continue to get low scores for the way they treat LGBTQ employees, as gay bashings continue, as same-sex marriage is continually denied, and as gay students are getting shot in the head, it is obvious to me that our work is not done.

So look past the assless chaps if you must. Look past the drag queens if you must. But don't look past what they stand for - freedom and equality.

Ban on travelers with HIV into U.S. reviewed

The United States always seems to find itself in the most elite company. The U.S., for example, is among only 13 nations in the world that prohibit HIV-positive foreign visitors and immigrants. The U.S. shares this dubioius honor with other countries such as Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Qatar. There might be a war on terror being waged in the Middle East, but their isn't certainly a solidarity of ignorance.

WWW.chron.com reports that the ban on HIV-positive foreign visitors and immigrants stems back to an immigration law in the 1800's that prohibited the entry of "persons suffering from a loathsome or dangerous disease." Patient Zero of the U.S. HIV epidemic was a French-Canadian airline attendant. Of course, nothing about this guy being French-Canadian made a bit of difference. He could have just as easily been a U.S. citizen, in fact, by all accounts it was a whole lot of U.S. men that were joining the mile high club with Zero.

The point is closing the borders to people who are HIV-positive never has stopped the spread of the disease, nor will it ever. Education on how the disease is transmitted and superior research are the only ways to win this deadly battle. While I am not convinced the government created HIV, I am convinced that there is a cottage industry created over the past 28 years that is dependent upon "the search for a cure" - and limitless government funding - for their survival. This is a zero sum game where a winner will ultimately prevail and get a patent, and the other players will wither on the vine. If insurance companies are paying for cocktails and interim treatments, what incentive do researchers have to rush to the cure, particularly if there is no clear path in their mind where to look?

Perhaps I am being a little cynical here and I don't apologize for it. When we have had one President after another in this country ignore, minimize, or admonish the LGBTQ Community as a whole, it is no wonder that HIV-positive foreign visitors and immigrants still can't enter the U.S. and after 28 years there still isn't a cure.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

My brother is a sheet metal worker and has often used the saying, "Measure twice, but once." It is good advice for avoiding stupid ass mistakes. Speaking of stupid ass mistakes, I am very disappointed to hear about Whoopi Goldberg's omission from the Oscar montage of former hosts. Whoopi was incredibly gracious on the View, where the hosts brought up the issue.

Whoopi didn't rant and rave, she instead was quiet, teary eyed, and clearly saddened by what had happened. The View hosts went on to list all of Whoopi's firsts and near firsts - first black woman to host the show, second black woman to win an oscar, first oscar winner to host the show, etc. So how doesn't something this stupid happen? My answer is oversight.

It is hard to imagine that the Academy purposefully left out Whoopi. Wait, no its not. People can be very mean and intelligent, articulate women often bear the brunt of society's prejudices. So lets just say for the sake of argument that she was accidentally left out of the montage. Wait, this is the same industry where people make careers out of being congruency specialists, making sure everything on a movie set is identical from scene to scene. So how is it that a black woman that has hosted the academy awards multiple times in left out? It isn't. It was by design.

I do believe that things in Hollywood are often done like things in real life, by underlings. You get the lowest paid person to do the most work, then you have the boss sign off on it. It is a tried and true way of doing business in these United States, just look at our Supreme Court opinions. So I am quite certain that some underling at the Academy threw the montage together, but some boss decide Whoopi didn't need to be in there. S/he was either too lazy to go back and put Whoopi in thinking that no one would notice or that Whoopi didn't deserve to be in and no one would care. In either case, the boss was wrong.

Shame on the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. You made a bad choice and you have not even bothered to put anything on your own website to rectify it. You measured twice, cut once, and still made a stupid ass mistake.

God Bless You, Larry King

I have been hesitant to post anything about the death of eight grader Larry King, the openly gay kid in Oxnard, CA who was shot a week ago. The reason I have hesitated it because it just hurts so damn much. I was born in Oxnard, CA. Although I feel a million miles away from there, the news of this tragedy put me right back in this farm community northwest of Los Angeles.

It seems like youth today are beyond out. It seems like they have embraced the right to identify as LGBTQ. But this veil is thin and when it is pierced, it is deadly. The veil of Larry's shooter was 14 year-old Brandon McInerney.everything is okay was pierced when Larry's classmate, 14 year-old Brandon McInerney shot Larry in the head in the middle of class. After shooting Larry, Brandon stopped and looked at the class, shot Larry again as he lay on the floor, then left the classroom. Brandon, who looks like he could live next to the Cleavers, is being charged as an adult and is being held on a million dollars bail.

In this past week there have been vigils and a large march in Oxnard in rememberance of Larry. This brave kid declared that he was gay and would come to school in heels and makeup. Good for him. Good for his parents. They are the reason that the fight for gay rights will never end. It will never end because no hate crime is tolerable and hate will always exist. I just expect hate to be shoved into the deep recesses of consciousness and if a person is weak enough to let it out, there will be consequences to pay.

Larry's bravery will live on with me. It will live on with many of us. So the next time you think of being anyone else than yourself, remember the 15 year-old who gave his life to be himself. God Bless You, Larry King.

I Did Not Have Sexual Relations with THAT Woman!

Haven't we heard this before? Now its John McCain's turn to deny the allegations of an affair eight years ago. The rumor goes that annonymous former aids to McCain "were concerned" that he may have had an inappropriate relationship with a telecommunications lobbyist some years ago. The New York Times broke this news today and the timing is more than suspect.

With Mitt Romney out of the way, McCain has been free to claim the title of frontrunner for the Republican nomination. As the frontrunner, and only horse in the race, Republican voters and politicians have no one else to be on. The response from other Republicans, predicatably, has been one of solidarity. The New York Times seems to have single-handedly executed the sudden cohesion of the Republican party and their public backing of McCain. Way to go New York Times.

The New York Times, who endorsed McCain in late January, is no doubt trying to shake its liberal persona. Good job. Any paper that would stoop so low as to run a story of this nature without more facts should not be read. Any paper that would endorse a candidate, then run this editorial when there is no more competition should not be read. With the veritable plethora of media outlets, the New York Times is speeding its own demise if they believe that readers won't see through their thinly veiled attempt to influence the Presidential race. This editorial will only weaken the public's opinion of the paper. Besides, thinking that McCain still has the ability to bring his soldier to attention may well serve to bolster McCain image as an elderly, but virile candidate!

While I am not a McCain supporter, I don't agree with the airing of a candidate's eight year old dirty laundry. Particularly when that laundry belongs to two consenting adults. If the allegations are true, the affair did not take place in an airport bathroom or in the Oval Office. That means I couldn't care less. The New York Times and this country should stick to the issues that are most important in this race such as adequate health care for working class Americans, the eradication of the HIV virus, and the impending Recession that no one wants to talk about.