one of many in the wild, wild net.

When I first encountered Michael Moore, it was through his documentary Farenheit 911.  I was disgusted at the whole thing, really… I don’t remember much about it because I saw it years ago (at work during a mid-shift, no less), but it seemed like he focused on the seedy underbelly of government what with the aggressive profiling USMC recriters, or the supposed hypocrisy of the Senate for favoring war while allegedly being very far removed from the fight.  I really don’t like Michael Moore.  When there was a Google-bomb set up to link the word “Failure” to Pres. Bush, I joined the opposition that was linking the word “Failure” to Michael Moore.  I personally think he is irrationally vitriolic and quite divisive.

I have no qualms, however, with his beliefs.  It’s not that I share them, but as my friend Lorenzo told me many years ago, in America, “you have the right to be wrong.”  I love this country primarily for that reason.  As of today, I can walk down the street with a big sign saying “OBAMA SUCKS” or “OBAMA IS AWESOME.”  It would be absurd, but I won’t go to jail for it.  The presidential death squad won’t execute me for being an ideological enemy of the nation.  I won’t get jailed by the local justice system that may disagree with whatever I’m yelling about.  I can be wrong and protest about it, but that’s fine… it’s my right.  This is why I love this country.

And this takes me to why I’m writing this note right now.  I was reading his latest open letter to the President (President Obama, Replace Rahm With Me: An Open Letter From Michael Moore, it happened to pop up in my visit to news.google.com).  It dawned on me that as much as I dislike Michael Moore, I appreciated how he fought for what he believed in… I respect him that much.  That’s a quality that I want more within myself.  But my focus right now is on the 36 pages of comments that are attached to this article.  Alot of them cheer for this guy like he’s their savior…  my question is, what do these people do on their own to fight for what they believe in?  Mr. Moore isn’t just a loud-mouthed asshole, he does research (I know… it’s very little, and the results are questionable)… but what about the thousands of people that share his views?  If you’re going to be a far-left radical, you might need to get some discussion going. You shouldn’t believe in a position, you should know it’s right because  you did the research. Alot of people today say they “believe” in stuff.  They “believe” in the constitution.  They “believe” in global warming.  There’s alot of faith put into Rush Limbaugh, megachurches, government, the effectiveness of universal healthcare, the words from CNN, MSNBC, and FOXNews (or Faux News, as some may call it).  It’s not just the common public, but the 21st century version of the yellow press does it to a lesser extent as well.

My point is this, who’s showing up to the town hall meetings for the community?  Who’s running for office?  Only the most hardcore of devotees to the community who actually give a damn enough to take time out of their lives to work for the public in jobs like town mayor, congress(wo)man, etc.  These people find a platform, be it public office, music, TV, film, or just a literal soapbox on the literal street, literally.  You keep looking to a savior.  I don’t normally finger-wag the general public, but I made the decision a few days ago that I would remove the filters from my brain to my blog, so here goes.  If you’re looking for a savior to rescue you/your community/your state/your nation, you need to look in the mirror, because that’s who’s going to do it.  Assholes like Michael Moore and Rush Limbaugh are two sides of the same coin, and who’s to say you can’t become that asshole as well??  You literally have the power, even more so than He-man had “the power”.  You can form words using your lungs, vocal box, tongue, and lips, and you can’t get into trouble for it!  If the white supremacists movement can still hold rallies under a Black president, then you can speak on abortion, gay marriage, illegal immigration, health care, etc. and not worry about repercussions.

But don’t worry, ladies and gentlemen.  I have a plan for all of us.  I’m going to figure out how Joe Bag-o-Donuts can self-initiate off the ass he sits on (much like I do now) and become an effective contributor to deciding the direction of this Nation.  Then you don’t need to look to assholes to speak out on your behalf… you can do it for yourself.

You can be your own savior.

-TJ

Today I said goodbye to a friend.

I worked with Bill at Wright Patterson for about 9 months.  In those months, I met a guy who had truly lived a life less ordinary.  He was a man who spoke the truth, especially when it needed to be spoken.  He was an awesome friend that I wish I met when I was younger.  And now, he is with God.

I didn’t know Bill all that long.  But I learned two things from him.  The first, I need to be honest with people when it comes to negative feedback.  Especially when it comes to negative feedback.  Problems can be avoided in a professional setting if differences are resolved quickly and early on, instead of letting lots of petty minutiae pile up until it becomes a mountain of festering resentment.  That wasn’t Bill’s problem, but he told me a story where someone had these problems with him and affected that person accordingly.

The second, I need to see as much of this world as I can, while I’m still here.  Bill took trips down to NYC when he lived in Rhode Island a long time ago.  He knew NYC so well, it seemed to me that he had lived there, but he never did.  The short of it is that I will be taking 8 trips to NYC this year, and I will learn it well while I’m still young.

All I can say now is I wish I knew him better.  I kept putting it off, and now I’ll have to wait until later.

Ah well.  We will all see each other in the end.  In the meantime, goodbye Bill.

-TJ

(Read his obituary here: http://www.legacy.com/Dayton/Obituaries.asp?page=lifestory&personid=138944416)

It’s been quite a while since I’ve went from one weekend to the next feeling like alot has happened. I went to Melbourne FL for business this week, and when I wasn’t predisposed to meetings I took the time to get out of my hotel room and shoot pictures. I shot about 120 pictures, but I only have about 8 worthy of sharing. Alot of the pictures I took were of birds and trying to capture them doing something cool, but apparently I need a bigger zoom lens to shoot good wildlife pictures.

Yesterday, though, was pretty cool. I had a flight out of Orlando at 9:54 AM, but due to weather and mechanical troubles I ended up getting rebooked for another flight. My options were either to make a 5PM connection (instead of 1PM) in Atlanta, which would have left me sitting around in the Atlanta airport for 4 hours, or take a nonstop to Dayton at 7:17PM. I ended up going with the nonstop, because I thought that was the only way I’d get a free roundtrip ticket that they were actually offering all of us Dayton travelers.

So I started thinking about what I’d do in Orlando for the next couple of hours… I effectively had about 7 hours to kill at that point. I contemplated getting a cab to go down to International Drive, but I was holding a laptop bag that was particularly heavy and a backpack with some real estate books and my camera, and I honestly didn’t want to walk around town carrying all that crap… it would have been a screaming “MUG ME!” sign.

I had lunch at the Airport, and while I was figuring out what I could be doing, I saw red cross workers leaving the restaurant area and remembered that there was a relief effort at the Airport. So, I figured… what the hell.

I ended up helping the team at Orlando with making sure refugees got tickets and made flights to their relatives for 7 hours. It wasn’t all that stressful, but now I think I will sign up to be official on the Disaster Relief Team. I think at the very least it will help me learn to deal with managing an emergency response, and I think as an Officer that would be a good experience to gain.

-TJ

http://picasaweb.google.com/psychogears

I’m putting pictures here now.