In Passing

If you have been following my blog then you know that for awhile my Grandmother had been on a steady decline health wise. Well on December 13th at 11:53 pm she passed. I was so lucky to get to Chicago in time to spend time with her in her last days. She went with no pain and no fuss and as comfortably as she could in her home surrounded by her family and her memories. She left behind myself my mother and my uncle.

I know i have been really behind on my postings and I feel really out of touch...

4 days later

Sorry it's been so quiet on the window. My Grandmother is ill and I had to fly back to Chicago to see her so my political, cultural,personal, and hate of AIG observations have not been forthcoming. Should be back to regular posting soon!

Oh just to throw this out... AIG is the reason the Big 3 are having such a hard time getting assistance from the government.

A story that never goes stale....

It has been a long time since I have told my coming out story.

I came out over 15 years ago right before being gay was really a gateway to being cool and interesting. When I was growing up I was that quiet moody but oh so bright kid that didn’t seem to make many friends. Not only was I a social misfit in school but because of test scores I skipped the 5th grade so everyone was a little older than me for a lot of my school life. On top of that, I was gay. I knew it and I think my mother knew it too. But somewhere along the way we had both made a pact of secrecy to never ever bring it up. I remember trying to talk to her about it once I had to be about 13 years old and her eyes literally pleaded with me to not have the conversation so I back peddled. I stuffed it all deep inside me and sat on it. Every time I thought it might come up I threw food on top of it so now I am a fat social misfit.

It took me another 7 years of torment and torture to get myself to a place where I just didn’t give a damn anymore. My mother was the first family member I came out to, luckily she too had grown some and when we had the conversation she didn’t beg me not to. My grandmother was a very different story. Now for those that know me outside the internet machine know how much I love my grandmother. A psychic even told me once that she and I have shared many past lives together and I am inclined to believe that. So imagine how hard it was for me when she could not accept her gay grandson. Not only did we have a huge fight followed by a series of smaller ones but we pretty much spent a year away from each other. And while her reasons were not biblical she just could not understand why I would choose to be gay. That statement told me more about then and still holds true to this day about how straight people tend to see gay people. And I guess that is why even if I have told this story 100 times I should tell it 500 more, just for those in the cheap seats.

As I told her that day in a rather sarcastic manner (hey I was 20) when she asked me why I would choose this I responded with “ I am a young intelligent black man in America, I feel I didn’t have enough strikes against me so I figured if I was gay I might win some kind of Nobel prize!”

Coming out is rarely easy for regular folks, I have seen and heard of people getting disowned, thrown out of their houses, beaten etc and that is from family member. People who are suppose to love you and have your back. And while I am sure it is hard all over I can speak from experience how hard coming out is in the black community. I picked my Tuesday invite to go out to Wanda Sykes because she did something quite courageous. She came out as a black lesbian. She just lost a third of her audience. She may never be cast in any of the African American orientated Christmas or church movies now (on the surface not a bad thing) but this will affect her career. My only hope is that others will follow suit and join her on this side of the closet.

And for all my religious friends out there who are going to use the bible against me when it comes to homosexuality I am posting one of my favorite scenes from the West Wing.

Obama's Grandmother Toot passes away

A thought and a prayer now I have to go call my grandmother....

Today's Favorite Photo Granny Deals

All this talk of Grandmothers who raise you got me feeling emotional. I called my granny today and since she insist on having something to worry about we made a deal. I would let her worry about me as long as it didn't effect her health.

Who the Fuck is “That One”?

As many of you did this evening I settled in for the second Presidential debate/first town hall meeting. Everything was going along fine. There was the usual points/counter points being made and As Obama was looking young energetic and knowledgeable, McCain seems at times to be teetering (literally) across the stage while trying to engage the audience.

The conversation turned to Energy and McCain in his old time folksy jokeresqe speech began to discuss who voted for a failed energy bill. He then referred to his opponent, a fellow senator as “That One”!

Screech Freeze Put on the Breaks! What did he say? Who the fuck is “That One”! Let me tell you a little something about me. I was raised by my grandmother, back in the days when you could whoop/beat your kids within an inch of their life for displaying behavior you deemed inappropriate. My grandmother was also the main person in me learning to read. Which in turn lead to my love of speaking and writing and all other things literate. She would have never ever (I have proof) allowed me to refer to anyone as “That One”. She would deem it rude and disrespectful and she having grown up in West Virginia racist. She would have in fact slapped the taste out of my mouth!

That One huh???!!! I mean someone explain to me how in this race where we have skittered along the cusp of racism on so many little levels. We have made it thru the Obama the terrorist, Rev. Wright hating America, and Michelle being proud of her country for the first time, terms of elitism, calls that Obama is uppity, lipstick on a pig, what on God’s green earth would allow anything in you to refer to your opponent as “That One.”

Well that is it, I am done! I gave some money to Obama 08 but now I am going out door to door. I am searching the net for blogs supporting McCain and those undecided and I am doing everything possible to make sure that this (possible) racist as far away from the White house as possible.

Also before he ran out of the Town Hall (his strong suit) he refused to shake Obama’s hand when they all met in the middle of the room.

Point OBAMA!!!!!!