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It has been an astounding year. The two biggest events were certainly February 7th when my Mother celebrated her 100th birthday and then, a few days after proudly telling the Vitas hospice workers that she was “one hundred and a half,” she passed on June 28th.
Funny, it took her one hundred years before she would divulge her age. Usually when someone asked her age, she would ask: “Can you keep a secret?” Her visitor would always agree. Then she would say with a smile, “So can I!”
Both my folks lived long lives. Each was alert and active until just days before their passing. When I came back home in what seems like a lifetime ago, I was “just going to be here for a while;” until "FB" (my Dad) recovered from an automobile accident. I never guessed that in my coming home I would see them both “home.”
I think life is that way, you never know what is around the corner.
I am grateful for both of them as I am for you and all our friends who made my mother’s last years a blessing. Allow me to share two stories – forgive me if you have heard them.
I was overwhelmed with the idea of a 100th birthday party. Everyone had a different idea. Then one day at our church office, the priest said: “Well, if she can’t come to church, then we will just take the church to her!” Everything fell into place with that simple statement.
And so on Sunday, February 7th, nearly 100 people with as many balloons showed up on the front lawn for a surprise birthday. When I opened up the front door, she peered outside and said, “Why are all those people here?” For months afterward she would moved over to the couch; open the photo album she was to weak to hold and we talked about the pictures: “That’s the mayor.” “These are our neighbors.” “That’s our mail carrier.” “That’s the lady who helped me.” “That’s Mary Jean, . . .Johnnie …Donnie…”
And on June 28th when she was passing in the home she loved, surrounded by friends and family, someone started to sing the words, “Swing low sweet chariot comin’ for to carry you home…” At one point the hospice worker looked at me and said, “Please note the time of passing at 5:23 p.m.”
During the past year, no matter how hard the care-giving got, she would always say, “I know what you are doing!” She did. She cared for her mother much as I did for her. Her last words to me were, “I have to stay alive, I have to take care of you.” Mine to her were, “It’s okay, I promise I will take care of myself.”
Almost immediately, I was on a plane that took me to Belize, farther away from home than any of my direct ancestors have been since our family came to America in the 1600s. It’s a wonderful country; and, as I sat on the edge of a pier over the warm Caribbean, I realized that I would not have been able to be there if I were still care-giving. I know Mother was glad I was able to be there.
Shortly after that, I was in Oklahoma with long-time friends; over my birthday and Thanksgiving I was in Palm Springs, the Mojave National Preserve and Las Vegas; and then this last week to Riverside, California at the wonderful Mission Inn for a church event. It has been a long time since I have been able to travel. I am grateful that I can.
I am not sure what these Christmas letters are supposed to say, but if I am to be honest, I would say that while there is sadness in her passing, these last three years have been the best of our lives.
As trustee of the estate I am closing it down. I have time to figure out where my journey will take me now…but if that journey is as exciting, meaningful and loving as the one I have been on, I have nothing to fear.
Blessings...
“Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.” Ruth 1 16-17
Showing posts with label yarddog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yarddog. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Monday, December 7, 2009
Old Hymns and Hope - revised
"The Dust Bin of History" was the name of a column I wrote. Its sole purpose was to bring attention to 21st century people who just "didn't get it.” Usually, they were very odd and second-rate characters found on the third paragraph of a news story who were caught up in ideas popular a hundred years ago, or even worse, pretending they understood how concepts expressed a hundred or even a thousand years ago should be interpreted today.
But located on the front or back of a newspaper, each of them had one common characteristic: their voice and/or actions represented ideas, faiths or political points of view that people in the successive generations from now, will just shake their head and wonder, “Why?”
History is filled with “dust bins” – ideas and people whose names and ideas are forgotten like flecks of dust. Does anyone remember the names of folks who nailed Jesus to a cross, who believed in slavery or who relegated women to the kitchen? Names like Caligula, Jefferson and Hitler come to mind but they were the leaders of lost causes.
I wonder how many of the "common" folks from those times went along with their leaders’ thinking. Did they say, “Well, I’d rather keep my old fashion belief." or "He represents how I feel." or “My tried and true feelings always worked in the past.”
I can never know how people felt then; all I can ask now is; why do change or the future frighten them so.
When I was in college I had a conversation with the Chair of the English department which ended with her saying: “Oh, Frank, logically prejudice cannot survive … not in America.” So in the 70s I thought that if this country could move beyond the “gay" issue, beyond narrow-minded folks and divisive rhetoric, then perhaps, just perhaps, we could move into a brighter future.
Decades later I now realize that some women died before they had the vote; that slaves died enslaved and that many gay persons will never see a world of equal rights...
There is an old Christian hymn whose first line reads: "The strife is o'er, the battle done, the victory of life is won." I can hear the tone as I write those words. It is a restoration song whose words point to that better future.
I live in the hope that the strife surrounding gay persons will be o’er and that the victory of life will be won.
But located on the front or back of a newspaper, each of them had one common characteristic: their voice and/or actions represented ideas, faiths or political points of view that people in the successive generations from now, will just shake their head and wonder, “Why?”
History is filled with “dust bins” – ideas and people whose names and ideas are forgotten like flecks of dust. Does anyone remember the names of folks who nailed Jesus to a cross, who believed in slavery or who relegated women to the kitchen? Names like Caligula, Jefferson and Hitler come to mind but they were the leaders of lost causes.
I wonder how many of the "common" folks from those times went along with their leaders’ thinking. Did they say, “Well, I’d rather keep my old fashion belief." or "He represents how I feel." or “My tried and true feelings always worked in the past.”
I can never know how people felt then; all I can ask now is; why do change or the future frighten them so.
When I was in college I had a conversation with the Chair of the English department which ended with her saying: “Oh, Frank, logically prejudice cannot survive … not in America.” So in the 70s I thought that if this country could move beyond the “gay" issue, beyond narrow-minded folks and divisive rhetoric, then perhaps, just perhaps, we could move into a brighter future.
Decades later I now realize that some women died before they had the vote; that slaves died enslaved and that many gay persons will never see a world of equal rights...
There is an old Christian hymn whose first line reads: "The strife is o'er, the battle done, the victory of life is won." I can hear the tone as I write those words. It is a restoration song whose words point to that better future.
I live in the hope that the strife surrounding gay persons will be o’er and that the victory of life will be won.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
I GOT SO MAD ..
The fanatic La Rouche people showed up at my local market with this poster. I got so mad I walked into the market found the manager who just happen to be standing around 20 people and very loudly insisted that "I objected to that awful poster and that if you don't remove it I would never, never come back here." I must admit to surprising even myself; I don't think I have ever done anything like that before.
The manager immediately moved away allowing me to follow him and told me that he had called the police who at that moment came driving up. I didn't stay around to find out what happened. As I left I said to the two people at the table, "Take your poster and crawl back into the hole you came from."
My family was deeply effect by WWII. Friends of mine had family who died in concentration camps ... I can't go on. But to compare President Obama's plans for health overhaul to something from the Nazi era is ludicrous and just plan insane!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
A Letter to Equality California
Mr. Kors,
I may have been fighting this "battle" longer than you have been alive ... well, I really don't know your age, but...
Personally, I am one of folks who "knew the 'first' generation” of gay activists but am a member of the "second generation that got wipe out by AIDS" group. Those years ago, I moved "back home" to escape a confusing world, to avoid the "cancer" and to escape the pain of the early AIDS death of the man who these days would have been "my husband."
And so it has turned out that this gay man has lived out most of his life in a "str'8" world ... even if it was in a suburban of Los Angeles. There are many of us here. And I discovered that "out here" and just being "me" worked ... even without a lover or kids.
I worked in the religious world, went to church, tended my garden, took care of my parents, smiled at my neighbors, joined the local Rotary, set up neighborhood associations, did my share of volunteering and in a small ways tried to create a better world. It has been a world outside of political wonks and ghettos. Life is about walking around the neighborhood with friends and, at some point or other, coming out in small ways.
It is the idea of those "small ways" that make me think that you and "Equality California" have done the right thing in delaying the vote on marriage equality. And to be frank, I am not sure there are not enough of "me" around and just being good neighbors now.
One more thing ... many of the ground folks in last year’s campaign to defeat Prop 8 were clueless. I can get on a phone and talk to anyone ... that's what I have been doing for 30 years. But the guys you hired to run the campaign on the local level? They were clueless. I imagine they were all working they way up the political ladder and had no idea of why my next door neighbor cried when I told her about Jimmy; Jimmy, who these days "would have been my husband'" ... and for whom I will always say, "Better once than ever, for never too late ..."
So spend some time and get some folks around you who know what winning this "fight" is all about ... Please?
I may have been fighting this "battle" longer than you have been alive ... well, I really don't know your age, but...
Personally, I am one of folks who "knew the 'first' generation” of gay activists but am a member of the "second generation that got wipe out by AIDS" group. Those years ago, I moved "back home" to escape a confusing world, to avoid the "cancer" and to escape the pain of the early AIDS death of the man who these days would have been "my husband."
And so it has turned out that this gay man has lived out most of his life in a "str'8" world ... even if it was in a suburban of Los Angeles. There are many of us here. And I discovered that "out here" and just being "me" worked ... even without a lover or kids.
I worked in the religious world, went to church, tended my garden, took care of my parents, smiled at my neighbors, joined the local Rotary, set up neighborhood associations, did my share of volunteering and in a small ways tried to create a better world. It has been a world outside of political wonks and ghettos. Life is about walking around the neighborhood with friends and, at some point or other, coming out in small ways.
It is the idea of those "small ways" that make me think that you and "Equality California" have done the right thing in delaying the vote on marriage equality. And to be frank, I am not sure there are not enough of "me" around and just being good neighbors now.
One more thing ... many of the ground folks in last year’s campaign to defeat Prop 8 were clueless. I can get on a phone and talk to anyone ... that's what I have been doing for 30 years. But the guys you hired to run the campaign on the local level? They were clueless. I imagine they were all working they way up the political ladder and had no idea of why my next door neighbor cried when I told her about Jimmy; Jimmy, who these days "would have been my husband'" ... and for whom I will always say, "Better once than ever, for never too late ..."
So spend some time and get some folks around you who know what winning this "fight" is all about ... Please?
Sunday, August 9, 2009
GOP can go South
Published last week:
I love the South; the memories I have of long ago family “car” trips through it, and more recently one particular former Pasadena resident who has now moved back to her home in Alabama. But it was in the South many years ago that I discovered that people hated “Negros”; that there were black and white drinking fountains and when I heard my father firmly say to his two boys, “We don’t think like that; we don’t live like that!”
Years later I remember hearing the commentators say that the Democratic Party would “lose the South” if they move forward on issues of justice and equal rights. “Demand and implement equal rights in voting and in education and the South will go Republican,” they said. Somewhere in my teens I thought, “Well let them go; let bigotry go, let hatred go. It’s okay.” That was not the America I learned about in school or the one my parents believed in.
Today Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio said the Republican Party was being “taken over by the Southerners,” with their “extremist ideas.” Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana shot back, calling Voinovich "a moderate, really wishy-washy.”
I think it is time to let the Republican Party become “Southern.” Let them dwell there with the uglier parts of our historical and political life. Free up the rest of us to remember everything that has makes our country great. Leave the bigotry and hatred there and hope that someday it will wither away and die in the swamps of South Florida.
Frank Clark
I love the South; the memories I have of long ago family “car” trips through it, and more recently one particular former Pasadena resident who has now moved back to her home in Alabama. But it was in the South many years ago that I discovered that people hated “Negros”; that there were black and white drinking fountains and when I heard my father firmly say to his two boys, “We don’t think like that; we don’t live like that!”
Years later I remember hearing the commentators say that the Democratic Party would “lose the South” if they move forward on issues of justice and equal rights. “Demand and implement equal rights in voting and in education and the South will go Republican,” they said. Somewhere in my teens I thought, “Well let them go; let bigotry go, let hatred go. It’s okay.” That was not the America I learned about in school or the one my parents believed in.
Today Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio said the Republican Party was being “taken over by the Southerners,” with their “extremist ideas.” Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana shot back, calling Voinovich "a moderate, really wishy-washy.”
I think it is time to let the Republican Party become “Southern.” Let them dwell there with the uglier parts of our historical and political life. Free up the rest of us to remember everything that has makes our country great. Leave the bigotry and hatred there and hope that someday it will wither away and die in the swamps of South Florida.
Frank Clark
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
A Budget? or Punishment!
Letters to the editor: All are punished
Posted: 07/21/2009 05:18:20 PM PDT
Tuesday's headlines read, "California governor, lawmakers reach budget deal."
I wonder how many of these "lawmakers" will attend the funerals of people who die for lack of care; how many will visit the elderly who are forced into nursing homes; how many of their children will have to attend over sized classrooms; how many of their children go without college - the list is endless as are the numbers of people who "care" but who will lose their "caring" jobs.
At the end of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," the Prince shouts at the players as he views the sorrow that surround them: "All are punish'd!"
All are "punish'd": Democrats for forgetting "the least of these." And Republicans who do not care.
Posted: 07/21/2009 05:18:20 PM PDT
Tuesday's headlines read, "California governor, lawmakers reach budget deal."
I wonder how many of these "lawmakers" will attend the funerals of people who die for lack of care; how many will visit the elderly who are forced into nursing homes; how many of their children will have to attend over sized classrooms; how many of their children go without college - the list is endless as are the numbers of people who "care" but who will lose their "caring" jobs.
At the end of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," the Prince shouts at the players as he views the sorrow that surround them: "All are punish'd!"
All are "punish'd": Democrats for forgetting "the least of these." And Republicans who do not care.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
What Yarddog Thinks
Within my Christian context the word "evil" can mean many things ... and then there is the business of the "one unforgivable sin." These two concepts do not find their way in to my every day faith. But what do you do with folks who for whom these two concepts mean something?
They claim to represent my faith; they claim to know the Truth and they want our larger American family to be subjected to their point of view. Trouble is I don't think like them and I do not believe my Creator and His Son don't think like them.
So what am I to do with this bunch:>
American Association of Christian Counselors
American Family Association
Americans for Prosperity
Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND)
Campaign for Working Families
Catholic Online
Concerned Women for America
Conservative Action Project
Eagle Forum
Exodus International
Faith and Action
Family Research Council
High Impact Leadership
Liberty Alliance Action
Liberty Counsel
Liberty University
Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN)
Marc Nuttle
Morning Star Ministries
National Clergy Council
National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
Renewing American Leadership
Strang Communications
Teen Mania
The Call to Action
Traditional Values Coalition
Vision America
Yarddog
Any clue?
They claim to represent my faith; they claim to know the Truth and they want our larger American family to be subjected to their point of view. Trouble is I don't think like them and I do not believe my Creator and His Son don't think like them.
So what am I to do with this bunch:>
American Association of Christian Counselors
American Family Association
Americans for Prosperity
Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND)
Campaign for Working Families
Catholic Online
Concerned Women for America
Conservative Action Project
Eagle Forum
Exodus International
Faith and Action
Family Research Council
High Impact Leadership
Liberty Alliance Action
Liberty Counsel
Liberty University
Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN)
Marc Nuttle
Morning Star Ministries
National Clergy Council
National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
Renewing American Leadership
Strang Communications
Teen Mania
The Call to Action
Traditional Values Coalition
Vision America
Yarddog
Any clue?
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
PROTEST TONIGHT
By clicking on the link in the title above you will discover where the protests in your area are tonight and in the upcoming days ... more later.
Monday, March 9, 2009
IT HAS BEEN A WHILE
First, this is more of diary entry than a blog but then I think allot of posts on the blog-a-sphere are just that ...
I don't often refer people to another person's blog ... particularly for something I should have written myself but an Episcopal priest here writes a blog called, "An Inch in Time," and her latest post say so much ... heard it HERE.
That writer is much better at updating her blog than I am these days ... but then the past election took a lot out of me...
... end diary entry ...
I don't often refer people to another person's blog ... particularly for something I should have written myself but an Episcopal priest here writes a blog called, "An Inch in Time," and her latest post say so much ... heard it HERE.
That writer is much better at updating her blog than I am these days ... but then the past election took a lot out of me...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Dr. Joseph Lowery delivers Inauguration Benediction for Barack Obama
What is really wonderful about this beside the outstanding words and what they mean is that Pastor Lowery got a standing ovation for his benediction. Say Amen.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
WHICH IS WORSE: USING THE WORD, "CRAP" OR THE WORD, "NEGRO" ...
WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Republican National Committee on Saturday admonished one of his potential successors for giving his fellow Republicans a CD featuring a song called "Barack the Magic Negro."
Apparently someone named Chip Saltsman, who is seeking the Republican National Committee(RNC) chairmanship, sent potential committee members a 41-track CD by conservative comedian Paul Shanklin a Christmas message that included a song to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon." It is about President-elect Barack Obama and was entitled "Obama the 'Magic Negro'".
I can not be the only person who thinks this kind of rhetoric is beyond the pale. And I can only hope that more eloquent "word smiths" than I will condemn Misters Saltsman, Shanklin and others who claim such disgusting, trash talk is simply a "sense of humor."
The question I have is why does this type of thing come from fundamentalist Christians, conservative Republicans, and/or folks who claim to "love America"? I just don't get it. I just don't get it!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
FREE AT LAST ... ALMOST
Few things have shaped my political life like Los Angeles Times political cartoonist, Paul Conrad. For thirty years he shaped the Op/Ed page of the Times thanks in large part to the last and only progressive member of the Chandler family of editors.
Conrad's time at the Times spanned several in a line of the greatest evils in American politics. Until now the worst was a man named Nixon.
Trying to use words to explain his art is never easy but because one of his drawing has always been so important to me, I will try.
On the very last day that former President Richard M. Nixon left office, Conrad drew a picture of two black hands, from the wrist up, hands reaching upward. Around each wrist was a hand cuff. But as those heaven sent hands reach upward, they broke the links of those cuffs between them.
Under that drawing was printed the words, "Free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last!"
When even an even greater "evil" leaves office this January 20th 2009, I will once again remember Conrad's art and pray those words, as I did then: "Free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last!"
Free at last! Thank God almighty!
Conrad's time at the Times spanned several in a line of the greatest evils in American politics. Until now the worst was a man named Nixon.
Trying to use words to explain his art is never easy but because one of his drawing has always been so important to me, I will try.
On the very last day that former President Richard M. Nixon left office, Conrad drew a picture of two black hands, from the wrist up, hands reaching upward. Around each wrist was a hand cuff. But as those heaven sent hands reach upward, they broke the links of those cuffs between them.
Under that drawing was printed the words, "Free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last!"
When even an even greater "evil" leaves office this January 20th 2009, I will once again remember Conrad's art and pray those words, as I did then: "Free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last!"
Free at last! Thank God almighty!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
PASADENA PROP 8 DEMONSTRATIION
"If Prop 8 is allowed to stand, it goes much beyond the issue of marriage equality and puts all of our rights at risk," said San Francisco city attorney Dennis Herrera, who is leading the legal fight.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Ashton Kutcher on Prop 8
Ashton Kutcher appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher last night. They discussed Prop 8.
SAD DAY ...
(Episcopal News, Los Angeles) -- The raging Montecito wildfire has destroyed historic Mount Calvary Retreat House, staff and Santa Barbara County officials have confirmed.
This is a place where I found great peace ... I am so sad that it is gone ... more later ...
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
SOME GOOD PROP 8 INFO ...
From the opening argument by SF City Attorney Dennis Herrera:
"No matter what your view of same-sex marriage, the passage of Proposition 8 has pushed California to the brink of a constitutional crisis, and it's important to understand why. This measure sought to do something that no constitutional amendment has ever done in our history: to strip a fundamental right from a protected class of citizens. In doing so, it did not merely undo a narrowly disfavored Supreme Court decision. Its effect is nowhere near so simple or elegant.
"Rather, it upended a doctrine of separation of powers deeply rooted in our system of governance; it trounced upon the independence of our state's judiciary; and it eviscerated the most foundational principle of our state's constitution.
"If allowed to stand, Prop 8 would so devastate the principle of equal protection that it could endanger the fundamental rights of any potential electoral minority — even for protected classes based on race, religion, national origin and gender.
"It would mean that a bare majority of voters could enshrine any manner of discrimination against any unpopular group — and our state constitution would be powerless to disallow it.
"Let us be clear: equal protection of the laws is what separates constitutional democracy from mob rule tyranny. It is a principle reaching back eight centuries to the Magna Carta. And it is what guided the founding of our state and our nation."
"No matter what your view of same-sex marriage, the passage of Proposition 8 has pushed California to the brink of a constitutional crisis, and it's important to understand why. This measure sought to do something that no constitutional amendment has ever done in our history: to strip a fundamental right from a protected class of citizens. In doing so, it did not merely undo a narrowly disfavored Supreme Court decision. Its effect is nowhere near so simple or elegant.
"Rather, it upended a doctrine of separation of powers deeply rooted in our system of governance; it trounced upon the independence of our state's judiciary; and it eviscerated the most foundational principle of our state's constitution.
"If allowed to stand, Prop 8 would so devastate the principle of equal protection that it could endanger the fundamental rights of any potential electoral minority — even for protected classes based on race, religion, national origin and gender.
"It would mean that a bare majority of voters could enshrine any manner of discrimination against any unpopular group — and our state constitution would be powerless to disallow it.
"Let us be clear: equal protection of the laws is what separates constitutional democracy from mob rule tyranny. It is a principle reaching back eight centuries to the Magna Carta. And it is what guided the founding of our state and our nation."
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
PROTEST THE MORMANS AND OTHERS WHO TAKE AWAY CIVIL RIGHTS
There is something amazing about being with 15,000 other people to protest ... protest that the voters in California have taken away my right to marry the person of my choice. What the hell is that anyway?
Friday, November 7, 2008
MORMANS, TAKE AWAY RIGHTS
The election is past, the votes are counted and hate and fear have won out over reason and justice.
I am stuck with the folks who say that "they should get over it ...marriage is defined, the people have spoken. Yes but "they" won with down right lies, distortions and their own hatred of the unknown.
They took away my right and the rights of millions of others ... are they happy now? Well, hopefully this time the community will not let this die down and will never forget who did this. And keep on fighting.
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