I come in peace

Blogging or Facebooking is not a feigned attempt at hiding my true self from my friends and family. I'm not throwing my rants out for the world to read then ducking behind some imaginary wall to avoid the egg throwing. Yes, I was accused of this. I use blogging as an outlet like some use art, sex, or music. Blogging helps me sort my thoughts and put in order things I cannot find a rhyme or reason or simple understanding. Most times its just to rant. Yeah I am pretty opinionated and if you want to converse about my written opinions over a beer/wine/cheese fries, I'm happy to, just ask! My opinions are never meant to hurt anyone's feelings or be judgmental or insinuate stupidity or raise hackles in any way. Yes, I was accused of this, too. Honestly, if I am going to attack your intelligence I will tag you :) I don't make it a habit to verbalize my perspective to change the minds of those who's opinions differ. I do it to provide a different perspective and raise awareness that there is more than one point of view out there in the big blue world.

My opinions are based on my feelings, thoughts, and perceptions of the events that I witness taking place around me (on the TV, heard on the radio, or read somewhere along the way). Sometimes my reaction is immediate. Sometimes not. I have to add of course, I have a problem when I see others believing and using fallacy as fact. This will always compel me to try to set things right or educate the possibly misinformed. And, oh my, this is super fun for me when it's about the traditions and processes of our government!

What does Inauguration Day mean to me? You've heard it over and over. The presidential inauguration is about the peaceful exchange of power. Its about one president elected by the people in a democratic system handing the reigns over to the next president elected by a democratic system. It isn't about who is elected specifically because, face it, there will never be 100% of the people happy about who was elected to be president. Inauguration Day, the "installment under good omens," is unique to the United States of America in it's deep rooted traditions and ceremony. Anywho...

To me, Inauguration Day in the United States of America is about unity. About patriotism. About peace. The day is reserved for ALL citizens to come together and witness a peaceful transition of power. It's about honoring those who came before and those who will come after. I cannot express enough how awe-inspiring it is for me to witness this dignified exchange whether I voted for the new president being sworn in or not. Someday I will make that trip to our nations capital on Inauguration Day to see this transition with my own eyes.

It didn't sit well with me we had 67 democratic members of Congress choose this day to sit out such an important ceremony. This group decided to override the sentiment and meaning of inauguration in favor of their personal feelings for the person being sworn in. The example set by this group, I fear, will hold those like minded to continue a negative campaign in an attempt to override our President's message of unity and patriotism. It will cause the valley of divisiveness to continue to widen with the rough river waters teeming with disdain, contempt, and derision. As far as the protests go, let them. As long as it's peaceful. When protests turn violent the messages changes though. Observers no longer see a group peacefully assembling to protest a single sentiment when the group turns violent or destructive. The violence removes the sentiment and twists it to a personal agenda, one designed solely for 15 minutes of fame, taking away the voice of the whole group. The focus then becomes on the violence and destruction and no longer the message. And to repeat a friend's point - Protesting is legal and a right. Rioting is not legal and not a right.

More side bar...Hoping for our President to fail is like hoping the United States of America fails. No American wants to see our nation fail. So just STAHP already!

I voted for President Trump as you all know. I voted for him because I believe he will make the changes he promises and if he screws up, I will sorrowfully admit I was wrong about him.

Now, the big question I leave for you...

If President Trump doesn't screw up, will you admit you were wrong about him?

Goodness, me. I thought I was watching an entertainment awards ceremony...

I saw my first Meryl Streep movie in the late of night on HBO when I was supposed to be sleeping in '83ish. Sophie's Choice helped me understand what survivor's of the Holocaust endured - the horrors of a world and time I would never know. I think I had just read the Diary of Anne Frank in school and the movie helped me bring it all together-love triangle aside. I was still a bit young to understand the implications of how mental health wrecks havoc on relationships. I have always enjoyed her roles. Even the silly ones like Death Becomes Her and She Devil. She was the star of Into the Woods by far and omg The Devil Wears Prada? One of the best!

The downhill slide of shit talk started when she opened her mouth of course but mainly began when she started naming all the foreign actors. Those whom are not really foreign but maybe born in foreign lands, like South Carolina, Rhode Island, and Brooklyn (that one I get) and then changed direction and said, "If you kick 'em all out, you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts." That was when I audibly groaned and said, "Way to politicize a friggin' awards show." Dislike with both thumbs down.

I knew what she meant with that "kick 'em all out" comment too. You do as well so don't play dumb or uninformed. By the way, what the hec is wrong with football and mixed martial arts anyway? Both are arts in their own right. I weep, and get angry, and laugh with delight when I watch football. Football requires hours of training and practice. Wait, doesn't acting, too? Mixed martial arts is martial arts - it's fascinating all that fluid movement of the body which takes hours of practice and training. You see where I am going with this right? Anyway, I was riveted by her speech now but not in a good way. It was a train getting ready to derail and I could see it begin to happen. Then it happened. And I kept watching as the train derailed and box cars began flying all over the tracks this way and that with no real direction. All that carnage and horribly twisted metal...yeah, just like her words. 

"Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose." - Uh, aren't you basically using your 3 seconds of live TV feed to do the same thing, lady? You are essentially using your powerful and well known station in the entertainment industry to bully the rest of us, low folks and all. And you called on others like minded to help! Yeah, you are absolutely right disrespect invites disrespect. You obviously have no respect for your audience and the people who chose to honor your work and lifetime achievements on and off the screen by running nonsense at the mouth. I do not care about your opinions. And c'mon. To use a politicized story about disrespect of a disabled person but use NO example of violence just means you are delusional about the events of this world. You know, the third rock from the sun where tacos come from. We are not on Jupiter. And for the love of Pete, doesn't part of being an entertainer mean you have to know your audience? 

And she continues...

"This brings me to the press. We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage. That's why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in our constitution. So I only ask the famously well-heeled Hollywood Foreign Press and all of us in our community to join me in supporting the committee to protect journalists. Because we're going to need them going forward." - Gah! I agree with this sentiment in part, that yes, our press needs to be protected and to continue to be used as a tool of protected freedom. I however do not agree, as she ends this thought with, "And they'll need us to safeguard the truth." Assuming the "us" refers to the others in the show-biz community since she spelled it out two sentences previously, uh, no. Why do we want a bunch of Hollywood types dictating what is safeguarded or not safeguarded? Our journalists today need to take a good hard look in the mirror and decide why they are journalists. Is it to perpetuate the fake news and continue running the pure garbage they spew or is it inform the public of the realities of what is truly happening around the world? Because I do not trust main stream media to report the truth of anything anymore. And as if it is solely up to Hollywood Elite and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association alone to safeguard the TRUTH? My ass. Our journalists are no longer a respected source of information for any reason and nor is HFPA a respected source of news you dolt. The agendas set forth by HFPA are not the views of the world entirely. Get your shit together woman. Yeah, yeah...freedom of speech and all that. She has every right to speak her mind and she got her chance and all she did was vomit vile self righteous slime all over the audience, in house and at home. 

So Meryl, and the rest of you entertainers out there that follow her like lemming to a cliff, I do not give one iota of a F**K for your politics or feelings about what you think is truth in the world. You will NOT bully me in to believing your politics are superior to mine when it comes to how I live my life and what my beliefs and needs are. You have no idea what it is like living in middle-America. You have not nor will you ever walk in my shoes or shoes worn like mine. Not even in cinema, sister. Your self proclaimed responsibility and privilege of the act of empathy? Shut your pie-hole, all of you in Hollywood, and stick to your craft and entertain us. That is what you are being paid to do. Respect.