My dad is busy playing cards with his buddies this evening so I asked if he would mind if I filled in for him on his blog. I know I don’t have the advantage of his many years of experience to work with, but there are a couple of things I’ve learned in my months upon the planet so far and I’d like to share them with you.

Is there a bigger idiot on the face of the planet right now than, Michael Vick? I wasn’t much of a fan of him because of how he treats doggies but now he has violated my dad’s number two rule of being cool. My daddy always says, “Remember, Micah, it is always read and not weed that makes a person smart and cool.” He teaches me all kinds of smart stuff like that. I sure do hope my daddy never has to look at me and say, "Wow, Micah, you really pulled a Michael Vick with that stunt.”

Listening to my dad talk I have come to believe that the only, Bushes, allowed on White House property should be the ones growing in the rose garden. Based on what my dad says I’m guessing there are times when Michael Vick’s mom is looking at her son and saying, “Boy, you sure pulled a, George W. Bush, with that stunt."

Based both upon what I’ve seen and what my dad says every time the man is on television I do not think I ever want to go to the circus. If circus clowns are anything like the ass-clown Kanye West is when he performs, then I don’t think the circus would be any fun at all. My dad always says, “Micah, hip hop is a game played by girls with chalk on the sidewalk, it ain’t got nothing at all to do with music.”

Last but not least, my dad is pretty much intolerant of most Republicans. Daddy is always saying, “Micah, the only good republican is a non-voting republican.” He says they got the flag so far up their butts they poop red, white and blue and they ain’t got no more sense than Ronald Regan with Alzheimer’s disease. Now I don’t know about all that because the only two Republicans I’ve ever met were, Pepper and her mom and the only thing I ever saw them waving was their hands to say either hello or goodbye. They seemed like very nice people and I never once saw either of them pull a Michael Vick or a George W. Bush. Based on what I saw of those two women I’d say a lady like Mrs. Clinton would probably make a pretty good president.

Thanks, dad, I really enjoyed filling in for you today. I sure wish everyone in the world was as smart as you.

The first Earth Day was held in 1970 and the junior high school I was attending at the time decided to participate and do something to commemorate the occasion. Three of the most radical individuals on campus were selected to design and construct a concrete slab marker that would serve two purposes. The first purpose was to provide a mud free short cut for students as they traveled from the art department into the main building of the campus. The second purpose was to leave a memorial to future generations of our participation in the first ever Earth Day. Bob Jackson, Bob Ritchie and I began working on the project about a month before the big celebration.

The slab was a triangle shaped marker with the words End Pollution written in blue tiles across the longest of the three sides. A series of structures with smoke stacks spewed pollution into the air. It represented our vision of the corporate lack of concern with the greater world around it and the threat we considered selfish greed to be to the future of humanity. It represented the one great threat to planetary survival we hoped would be under control by the time we reached adulthood and inherited the world.

Thirty-seven years have passed since the day we put that marker into the ground. In that time I have walked in Washington D.C. to protest war, have marched on the campus of Kent State University to protest an out of control government opening fire upon its own children to silence criticism of its activities and I have walked to support civil rights for all of our citizenry on an equal basis. Every step of the journey as I spoke about my beliefs and what I felt was good for the overall welfare of the people I was looked at by the grownups around me and told, “Wait until you get a few years on you and then you’ll change your naïve point of view. Wait until you have a family of your own and then you’ll see the value of the Republican way.”

It always struck me as incredulous that the supposedly mature grownups around me believed that as I aged I would come to realize the wisdom of self interest as opposed to that of caring for the welfare of all men. For all the flag waving, preaching of family values and non-stop bible thumping of the Republican Party I have yet to hear any Republican leader ever run a campaign based on the human rights record of the Republican Party. NEVER! It has always been the platform of the G.O.P. to proclaim that only they are capable of leading the country in times of war, only they are good for the economy and only they are follow the teachings of Jesus Christ in a proper manner.

For thirty-seven years I have been told how someday I would mature into an individual who would swallow the lie of the Republican way and realize the value of putting my own welfare above that of the people around me. I am proud to report that as usual the Republican Party is wrong.

Thirty-seven years later I am now fifty-three years of age with a family of my own. I still believe that whatever is good for the greater number of my fellow beings at any given time is greater than the right of any one individual’s right to profit at the expense of the rest of us. Caring and sharing with our fellow man is superior to exploiting and cashing in on our fellow man. I still believe that walking into the future with as many of my fellow man in stride beside me as educated and enlightened beings is superior to any amount of riches I could accrue by exploiting everyone around me for personal profit.

Thirty-seven years ago I wrote it in stone. I stated who I thought had the greatest power to destroy the planet and the inhabitants who depend upon it for life itself. Yesterday I went to see if the message was still there. It was. Not only was the original message there but surrounding it were markers left by other young radicals who obviously agreed with the simple message left by three students thirty-seven years ago. It made me feel like I’d reached an awful lot of people with what I really want to say. The evil is in selfishness. When all that is cared for is immediate profit at the expense of the long term welfare of our fellow beings we can be sure we are living in an unhealthy environment.

Where will the millions of lead contaminated toys wind up buried? Who will pay the price as these toys degrade and enter our water supplies? How many children will take sick from chewing on toys purchased in garage sales and dollar stores never even knowing they were eating poison? For thirty-seven years I have watched as my country fell into an unhealthy and potentially fatal state of disease. As flags have waved and bibles have thumped like war drums about the dangers of homosexuality to our children I have continued speaking about what I believe is a far greater threat to their survival.

If you visit Van Buren Junior High School in Kettering, Ohio you will find a warning written in stone thirty-seven years ago. I stood upon that message as a young man and I still stand upon it today. Corporate America is killing us for the sake of a handful of silver. Their greed is the single greatest threat to the future of our planet and the beings that inhabit it. In thirty-seven years I’ve seen more actual damage done in the world by the corporate entity than the savage homosexual horde that somehow never materialized.

Today is my birthday and I thought I’d post about the years of my life and where the journey of my days currently finds me. I was born in nineteen-fifty-four. Dwight D. Eisenhower was president of the United States and Richard M. Nixon was the vice-president. Until the George W. Bush administration I believed Tricky Dick to be the worst president our country had ever seen. Between these two incompetent buffoons I’ve seen more years of war during my lifetime than I would have ever thought possible during my pre-birth imaginings. Thank you goes out to the Republican Party for bringing so much death and destruction into my life.

My father was cutting my hair and sobbing the day J.F.K. was buried. I remember it as if it was yesterday. Then we landed on the moon and it was one of the greatest moments in the entire course of human history. Then four astronauts died on the launch pad during the Apollo series of missions and it seemed we were not nearly as godlike as we’d imagined ourselves to be. Gus Grissom was a hero to me and it tore my young heart out to see him die in such a terrible manner.

The Beatles were my first musical love and they still continue to be favorites of mine to this very day. Why John Lennon had to die in such a tragic and senseless fashion still saddens me when I think about it. It was a Monday night and it was during the Raiders game on Monday Night Football that I heard about it from the mouth of Howard Cosell. That put a damper on Monday Night football for a long time.

Did I mention that prick, Richard M. Nixon or the even bigger prick currently sacrificing the sons and daughters of our land for the sole benefit of corporate profits and personal glory, George W. Bush? How about Ronald Regan who didn’t even know his own name during most of his presidency and whose wife ran the White House with the aid of her personal astrologer? Ketchup is a vegetable, God I hate the Republican Party.

Among the events I thought I’d never live to see is the destruction of the Planet-thanks in large part to the people who care more about the stupid antics of ass-clowns like Kanye West and Fifty-cent than they do for the world they depend upon for life itself. (Sometimes I think I must be living in the land of the stupidest people in the world.) Today I’m going to make a stop on my birthday and take a picture of something that I’ll tell you the story of tomorrow.

After fifty-three years I find myself living in days more fucked up than any I’ve ever witnessed. A country that used to be so respected in the world is now reviled and hated. A people that used to be so looked up to by everyone now considered nothing more than selfish self indulgent pigs. Why would anyone want our armies in their midst attempting to cookie stamp our corrupted brand of democracy upon their soil? Man have we fucked up big time...

I am embarrassed to be an American right now. Not because of stem cell research, not because of homosexuals or drug crazed criminals. I’m embarrassed because of the self indulgent, non-caring, self righteous bunch of arrogant assholes we’ve become. Thank god I am not a follower of the Republican principles of individual profit at the expense of everyone and anyone around me.

Thank God for my wonderful wife, Felicia and our amazing son Micah. Thank god for my blogger friends and those good souls who spend time with me each and every day trying to better the world in which we live. Thank god for these people who keep me believing in the greater good of humanity because it just gets harder to see it with every passing day.

Fifty-three years old and I just can’t believe what a shit-hole my country has become. And it’s because so many are so unconcerned with anything other than their immediate need for feeling happy at everyone else’s expense.

Thank you Republicans everywhere...