Couldn't sleep . Tried to sum it all up. My life...

My Nutshell

The 50s
Came in kicking and screaming.
I survived..
The 60's
The Wonder Bread Years.
I survived.
The 70s
Discovered Pot.
Moved out.
Dad went to Nam. Came home. Stuck a gun in his mouth and blew his brains out.
Discovered other drugs.
I survived.
The 80s
Woke up from a drugged stupor next to my bisexual nympho wife to the cries of someone yelling down the hallway from our drag queen roomate's room, "You've got a dick!" and a door slamming.
I survived.
The 90s
Bought my first house.
Donated my life juice to my lesbian sister's partner and created a daughter.
Met the love of my life and inherited 3 teenage kids.
Instant Dad the Parent years.
I survived.
The Millenium.
Turned off my computer. Went to bed. Woke up. The world was still here.
I survived.
The Millenium Decade 1
Lost Mom to ALS, the worst thing on this planet.
Got a triple bypass and discovered diabetic since 15.
Became politically active and discovered George Bush.
I hope I survive...

Oh Yes we will survive!

you survived all that you can survive Bush. The love of your life will make it all worth it.

something about that saying, " that which doesn't kill you..."

we can surely make it two more.
Maybe we can turn it around a little bit this fall, lord willing and the neo-nazis don't steal another election.

Hang in there.

you were not the guy shouting from the drag queens room. Pain lets you know your alive, untill it kills you, the key seems to be learning from it. Congrats on the love of your life, that is the best thing anyone can have. Bush too shall pass.

But it sounds like you've had an interesting journey thus far. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't trade my life experiences for anyone else's.

As for surviving, I hope we all survive to see G.W. Bush in the dock at the Hague for war crimes.

Somebody famous said that but I forget who.

not only on surviving...but on having any energy left to give to a cause larger than oneself. A lot of us are awakening from the poppy field to realize just how bad it is. There is no more hiding in a little microcosm...no one is safe from the violations of the current regime. They seek to control everything.

Stick around SSX, expand your time. We will have to work together for anything resembling democracy to survive. What we have now is a sad joke, a sham democracy. Until the events of this millenium I can honestly say I never felt abused in my life. Not in any relationships anyway. I'm not used to it. Now I know how it feels. I feel abused as an American citizen, and I woke up pissed off once again.

May we all survive, who are now awake.

I have no regrets(well maybe some), but I wouldn't be who I am today if I let it get to me and didn't take away a little knowledge that I could pass on to help someone else out. Isn't that the real scheme of it all?
I am currently coaching a college golf team, playing golf professionally on a limited financial basis, trying to get Bennie Thompson reelected and put in charge of Homeland Security when we take back Congress, attempting to open the eyes of Jackson, Ms. citizens to this idiot Mayor they elected who is trying to get martial law imposed on our city and I wake up every day and write at least 2 ltte ( have had over 100 published last 2 years).
At my age the only thing I don't do anymore is jump out of bed. Just kind of put my feet on the floor and hope nothing hurts.

to come now that you have become politically active. How is MS surviving these days? I was living in Bay St. Louis at time of H.Katrina, now living in TX.

Gotta be deja vu.
Here's a letter I got in the Hattiesburg Americcan last week re: our current state of disarray.
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060615/OPINION03/606150328/1014/NEWS17

“As we prepare for the 2006 hurricane season, we face some very different challenges,” MEMA Director Robert Latham said. “More than 100,000 of our citizens now live in excess of 36,000 temporary travel trailers in our state making them more vulnerable than ever before".
Robert Latham is scheduled to retire July 1st.
From Governor Haley Barbour's website, “Experience tells us that advance preparation is the key."
From the same website regarding appointments to positions by the Governor there are no mentions of a successor to Mr. Latham.
On a national note, there is also no Regional Director for FEMA in the Southestern District which covers the 7 most likely states to recieve the brunt of the hurricane season. That deadline was moved twice by Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, to as recently as June 1st and now has been abandoned altogether.
The different challenge we face as Mississippians is really not that different as before Katrina. As the first named storm of the season has already made landfall our government is unprepared to provide anyone in a leadership role in the event of any upcoming disasters. The best they are able to provide as far as help is what most people would call, using your "common sense". Be assured that a lot of head scratching and tax dollars went into the final results of declaring we are basically on our own.
Get your hurricane kits together. If the local areas do not have a plan in place, go meet with your neighbors and discuss evacuation plans and assisting those people who may need medical and transportation assistance in order to escape the wrath of this year's season.
We must make a collective effort on our own to take care of ourselves and others. The attitude of "I'm out of here and you are on your own" can be the government's motto. Ours should be, " We're ready and we have a plan".
Brian Essex
Jackson, Ms.

but 40-ish miles from the coast vs. 2-blocks in The Bay, so I'm not so worried here. Had started a new job first week I got here in September, but was laid off last Friday. There were some politics involved but we didn't talk of that. I had been quiet first few months dealing with new life situation, but they kept making jokes and sending e-mail derogatory of New Orleans refugees, until one day they sent me one about an interview with Ruth Graham who stated God was a gentleman who turned his head during destruction of New Orleans because it was a sin city. That and the discussion that followed was so appalling, so unforgetable, that I spent a sleepless weekend and began adventure in political activism.