Tag Archives: bigotry

Cancer

Waxing Philosophical

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My hair is coming back!  And my surgery takes place tomorrow morning, Tuesday, Nov. 29.

So what’s a one-time author and former lifestyle journalist to do?  Wax philosophical?

Yes, indeed, so here goes.

Recruited to Be a Christian

After I opted for surgery a few weeks ago a few weeks ago, my brother Chris phoned and asked, “Have you accepted our Lord, Jesus Christ, as your personal savior?”

I did not take the question well.  I responded by saying I went through the Christian born-again process at the age of 5.  My conversion to matters about the Cross took place in 1948 in a Hialeah, Fla. assembly hall on a Sunday evening.  My mother from English and Scottish descent, maiden name Johnston, had taken me to a Billy Graham crusade in a town infamous during the ’40s for notorious KKK-leaning denizens.

Graham’s ministry partner/music director was Cliff Barrows, who routinely set a tear-provoking introduction.  Well-rehearsed words and background music inspired me to walk down an aisle along with others to dedicate our lives to Christ.  With my penchant for singing in the shower, I eventually became a featured boy soprano on some of Miami’s more-notable, South Florida-produced religious TV programs.

At the age of 11, I attended the Columbus Boychoir School (now American Boychoir School) in Princeton, New Jersey, and played the piano for the First Presbyterian Church of Hialeah’s early-morning Sunday worship service.  Without question, I was regarded then as a Christian.

But eventually, my spiritual practice metamorphosed during my hippie years in Los Angeles at the same time I became a deejay for K-POT, where “you’re always one hit away from another hit away.”  I had my share of experiences in Southern California environs, some of which I’m planning to relate in my book, including becoming pals with three witches, one of whom worked in the district attorney’s office during Charles Manson’s reign of horror.

Looking Forth, Looking Back

Tonight, though, I come face to face with mortality, and I ask nobody in particular, “Was the promise of future everlasting life predicated on one Christian moment of testimony when I was a child?  That’s what Billy Graham promised the assemblage – and me – back then.

But looking back at what I became, a few childhood experiences where I witnessed men and women being denied basic human rights because of their skin color, or religious practices, affected me greatly.  It offended me even more than the pedophile encounter in Princeton.  And as I grew up, I shuddered when my peers uttered crude remarks to people unknown to them.  Unlike my brothers, I turned as brown as a berry on weekends on South Beach in the 1950s.  That physical characteristic taught me plenty before my tan faded.

My family still related to me back then as a fellow Caucasian.  Yet my musician father, Virgil, instructed the family to never make eye contact with an inhabitant of Miami’s Central Negro District when he drove us downtown.  This was at a time when he wrote arrangements and played trombone for Louis Armstrong!

After Virgil’s suicide, in 1960 a Native American Mohawk, Ed Walters, tried to court my mother and catered to my brothers and me.  Nevertheless that proud Mohawk was mercilessly humiliated in front of me and my brother, Jon, by two Village of Medley cops as we set off on an Everglades camping trip.  Granted, Ed was full of “fire water” at 9 in the morning, but yes indeed, I saw enough cruelty to turn my blood red.

Over 40 years later, I enthusiastically auditioned as an extra for the 2013 movie “The North Star.”  I wanted to portray a Quaker, but was cast instead as a cruel slave hunter, circa mid-1850s.  The historical movie was shot in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the northern end of the Underground Railroad.

(I hate to admit what a bad actor I was, because saying the N-word with bigoted passion turned out to be contrary to my Quakerism, even with a mostly black production crew urging me on.  The movie was released on schedule and, although you cannot identify me in the film, my name does appear in the credits.  I know, because I bought my own copy of “The North Star” through Comcast.)

Putting It in Perspective

But that’s all history.  As an openly professed devotee to meditation, I tell prospective joiners whereas prayer is talking to God, meditation is listening and opening oneself to a higher power.  I find contemplation without any set agenda to be a pure spiritual practice, capable of raising one’s self-awareness.  Albert Einstein’s spiritual leanings, I believe, are superior to much of the blather served up to spiritual wannabes.

That’s all the time I have left for musing, though.  In a few hours, urologist Daniel Janoff and his surgical team will perform a six-to-seven-hour operation – beginning at 7:30 am – to remove my bladder and prostate at St. Vincent Hospital in Portland.  I believe Creator will guide those hands to cut out the offending body parts and put the rest back together.

And if I’m approached by any more fervently proselytizing evangelicals as I face after-life issues, I will be tempted to tell them, “Please don’t bother me.  I’m Jewish.”

My father’s origins are wrapped in mystery, so it could be true.

Meanwhile, I live in the present.  Alice will keep my family and friends up to date with post-operative progress, and eventually I will write more – at least, I hope I do.  I continue to tell friends that I deserve to survive longer so I can irritate people for a substantial period of time.

With age, I evolved, and I trust my closest allies will entrust St. Peter to welcome me through the pearly gates when my time is up.  Personally, I will not deny Christ, but I intend to walk with arms outstretched welcoming the primordial ooze from whence I came.

Bodies might decay, but our spirits reign supreme forever.  The only request I have about my demise is that, when it’s time, the end shall be simple, straightforward and as painless as possible.

Like Danawa, Grandfather Many Crows, and others before me, the spirit in this body identified as Mason Loika will never die.  It shall pass over.

 

21st Century Politics

Donald Trump Mouths Off Against Immigrants

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The silly season is well under way.

In a bid to have their egos and “values” stroked on another televised episode of “America’s Politicians and How They Got That Way,” seventeen candidates for President of these United States threw their straw hats into the Republican ring earlier this year.

While shedding themselves of Rick Perry and Scott Walker, one of their ilk made an extraordinary mess.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures and declares "You're fired!" at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, June 17, 2015. Reuters
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures and declares “You’re fired!” at a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, June 17, 2015. Reuters

Trump Is Not a Happy Guy

Donald Trump, emboldened on past celebrity exposure, became the Koch Brothers’ pandering ringleader by riling the masses with outrageous epithets toward Mexican-American citizens, while Jeb Bush forthrightly held his temper.  I don’t need to requote “The Donald” here, except to express astonishment over his latest salvo: He says his Republican rivals plan to start the next world war over Syria.  Where do they plan to recruit soldiers: from immigrants?

On this website is “Virgil’s Story,” where anyone can deduce that Virgil’s contribution to my ancestry was a rabbi’s ingenious ruse enabling him to slip by U.S. immigration gendarmes on Ellis Island.  You can read it here.  My father’s later fame to claim was that of a renowned big-band musician; he’s one of many immigrants who excelled once arriving on these shores.

What would Donald Trump do with everyone whose descent evolved from ploys similar to my father’s?  Would he subject our nation of immigrants to checking, double-checking and eventual deportation?

Of course not.  That’s why I see the aftermath of Trump’s obnoxious mouth as a sign of the silly season.

Is Marco Rubio looking aghast at the photographer?
Marco Rubio at a political rally

Anti-Communism as a hammer

But why hasn’t Marco Rubio raised holy hell about Trump?  As the photogenic son of an immigrant Cuban, certainly he sees behind the inherent danger of the “blame game,” in which politicians conjure up scapegoats to explain tough financial times, i.e. targeting immigrants whose ethnic experience differs vastly from Europeans.

How would Rubio answer the question, “Do Cubans think of themselves as better than Mexicans?

That’s not a stupid question, either.  In Miami for 50 years, I became familiar with Cuban social circles ever since Cubanos left their island nation to avoid political persecution.  Their exodus eventually transformed politics in Miami, and their brain-trust Latin Builders Association became South Florida’s money machine.

On their way up the ladder, Cubans pushed African-Americans to the back of the bus once again.  I wonder if Cuban exile politics finds it expedient to expose the whole country to unfair categorizations of Mexican-Americans.  When I lived in Southern California in the late 1960s and early ’70s, I discovered Mexican immigrants to be mostly deferential and anxious to stay below the radar.

Only when an undocumented immigrant commits an unspeakable crime does the reputation of that ethnicity become viral.  I say, “None of these accusations and innuendos is good for the country.”  Intolerant generalizations of ethnic groups divide us, and dash the concept of nobility against the rocks of vile behavior.

The Travesty of Republicanism

Republicans of the 21st Century are so dissimilar from their forefathers that they resemble miscreants who will do and say anything to get elected, while pursuing hidden agendas from wealthy contributors who try to remain masked by PACs (political action committees).

As a youngster, “I liked Ike.”  I remember when conservatism was synonymous with “conservation.”  Republicans then espoused protecting the environment; these days, I hear none of them embracing the inescapable fact that global warming is real.

What I despise most is that today’s Republicans have turned this country into a one-party system.  I believe we deserve a choice, but how can anyone deny the rising seas that are a direct result of climate change caused by human activity?

We can only laugh when the sideshow of politics borders on the absurd.  Let’s hope someone steps forward – besides a Democrat – who cares enough about this country to inspire a serious conversation.  Only then will we be able to stop laughing at this train wreck of a long-running stupid, silly season.

Media matters

Gay Intolerance Sucks

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The media is making much of Kim Davis and her old Kentucky homeland refusal to put a legal stamp of approval on “same-sex marriage.”  The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year ruled what her legal duty should be, but she refuses to recognize her constitutional duty, claiming it violates her moral principles.

Some Republican candidates for President already jumped on this illegal bandwagon, and their agendas pander to fear, hatred and ignorance.  Christians have become split about the validity – and wisdom – of Davis’ behavior, and some officials call upon Davis to resign her $80,000-a-year job, because she chooses not to fulfill the duties of office.

In tear-filled statements, Davis addresses the news media portraying herself as torn between moral conscience and duty.  Is she right to stick to her guns (so to speak)?  More importantly, her professed dilemma personifies the underlying conflict I thought the judicial system had supposedly answered once and for all: That it’s okay for two men to marry.  Or two women.

It’s time to debunk the myths about what’s going on here once and for all.

Men vs. Women

What is a man?  On a scale of 1 to 10, how much masculinity must a man display to call himself a man?  Is it the image portrayed by the former advertisers of Marlboro cigarets?  Is a man entitled to be strong-willed and, in a disagreement with a woman, always right?

Must a man always behave as a 10 on the masculine scale, always ready to do battle?

And what about women?  Is there a similar scale of 1 to 10 whereby women must ultimately judge herself?  Is a woman supposed to behave vacuously, without any principles other than what her partner defers to her?  To call herself a woman, must she eschew intellectual pursuits in lieu of putting makeup on and finding ways to enlarge her bust?

Of course, we know the correct answers, but that’s only because of this time in history.

Sexual politics and religion

Across the ocean, fundamentalist Muslims require women to wear head scarves and cover up any bare skin, thereby obeying Sharia law.  Women in mostly Muslim countries are viewed as subservient to men.  And that, I think, is how civilization may have been once upon a time, or at least that’s the attendant fictional legacy.

In America and other forward-looking countries, women are no longer required to be – or act – submissive.  And men are free to become submissive and adopt what traditionally were thought to be feminine traits.

I believe that when two individuals with identical genitalia share intimate contact, one of them is behaving more like a male, and the other like a female.  They may sometimes switch roles, but that’s the exception rather than the norm.  Identifying two men or two women as a homosexual couple is nothing more than a label to help the rest of the world understand what looks like a same-sex relationship.

Considering the nature of my own relationships with women, I can hardly put myself on the Marlboro scale of a “10,” but neither have I become a “1” either.

People like Davis think they walk a higher moral ground, but I disagree.  Instead, they’re the epitome of intolerance and bigotry.  They justify this aberrant behavior on “moral values,” but it’s more the practice of a longstanding justification to be close-minded and impersonal based upon outward appearance.

Leadership requires courage

We need to stop coddling public servants who are supposed to lead by example, not by ridicule.  I see no love or responsibility in her obstinance.

As men and women, we exhibit different forms of transgender tendencies.  For most of us, it’s not as blatant as those who are identified as the LGBT community at large.  But our affinity to one type of behavior has changed and is more diversified than we realize.

That’s why there’s such a fear of homosexuals or transgender people.  They remind us of dark places inside our own identities or past experiences that cause severe discomfort.

In this country, public officials are here to serve all the people, not just the ones who resemble them.