Ad-Agency Sinecure

I'm working at an ad agency in Brea for two and a half weeks while the full-time proofreader is on vacation. Almost immediately after saying "yes" to the gig, I had regrets. I would be missing out on my spring break from Cal State, which is next week. Also, I had wanted to spend some time with Aaron, who is on spring break this week.

As it is, he is working this week, so I wouldn't have seen much of him anyway. And the workload is extremely light--I've probably only spent an hour doing ad-agency work during the past six days there. And when there's nothing for me to proof, I'm free to do other work.

I had worked there twice before for much longer stints when the former proofreader had been out of town, attending to ill parents. So far it's been great, as I've been able to grade papers, record grades, check email, and get lots of editing and correspondence completed for Long Beach Magazine.

The copy writer has just published a book, "Good Dad, Bad Dad," a comedic parenting primer. I'm sure that he must have written the manuscript during down time at the agency. Such a deal!

It's mind-boggling when I consider all the millions of hours that office workers around the world spend doing things other than the work they are paid to do. How many novels and screen plays are written on company time? How many online businesses are managed from 9 to 5? How many Internet romances are launched on the company's dime?

At least this is one way workers can stick it to the corporate machine that otherwise drains the life blood out of them.

You Tube Censorship

You Tube pulled a stream, video, film, whatever they're called that features powerful words by JFK, Martin Luther King Jr. and presidential candidate Ron Paul. The poster was given no reason for the censorship, though he has written to You Tube many times.

Please watch and post to your sites. Spread the message of someone in public life--thank God!--advocating for the Constitution and an end to preemptive war.

Clinton and Obama certainly aren't. When asked, both said that they would continue the illegal and unconstitutional practice of signing statements, in which Congress passes a law and the president signs the bill into law, but then issues a signing statement, picking and choosing what aspects of the law the executive will abide by or negating the law entirely. In this manner, Bush has made a regular practice of the unitary executive, a means by which the judicial and legislative branches of government are nullified and the executive reins supreme. Hmmm...isn't that the definition of a dictatorship?

Wake up, folks! Wake up! Write and call your representatives. Tell them, like I have done many times to Sens. Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, "Why are you such cowards? Why don't you stand up for the Constitution? You're acting as if Bush is a Mafia boss who will have you rubbed out if you cross him. For god's sake, save this country. Do something. Otherwise, history will l look back at you as cowards, absolute cowards."

Well, and of course, history will look back at each and every American who did nothing, said nothing, just as history has harshly judged the German people for the atrocities of the Nazis. If you are doing and saying nothing to save the Constitution and to demand the rule of law, then you, too, are a coward and history will look back at you with scorn.

As Helma, the mother of my deceased boyfriend Mike and someone who lived in Nazi Germany, told me, "This is exactly what happened with Hitler. This is how it started."

How do you want it to end?

Where Were my Fellow Americans Today?

Some 60 percent of Americans now feel it was a big mistake to attack Iraq, and presidential candidates Clinton and Barack are fighting for the prize of whose more anti-war. Yet where were these millions of Americans today, almost five years to the day after the start of the Iraq invasion? Why weren't they marching in the streets with me?

This was my 20th or so protest, post-9/11. Each time I attend a march, the crowds get thinner. This time there were somewhere between two and 10 thousand, depending on if you believe the police or the organizers. But even if you go with the high figure, that's only one out every 2,000 Southern Californians. I guess the other 1,999 were watching TV or drinking or shopping instead.

Or maybe they were scared. Actually, the sheriff department's presence certainly could have deterred some citizens who may have thought of exercising their First Amendment rights. The Blue Line station on Willow Street sported a paddy wagon and five patrol cars, as well as 20 or so officers on the platform. I asked one what this heavy presence was about. She said it was because of the march. "But we're peaceful," I said. Then she came up with a reason: They were making sure that no one carried a stick on board, the kind that's used to support a protest sign. She said these are considered weapons. Oh, my gawd! If that were true, why not have a lone officer stationed at the entrance to the platform to tell any protesters that they could not carry sticks on board! This was intimidation, pure and simple.

My favorite sign of the day--and, yes, unfortunately, I forgot my camera--was "I Love America, But I Miss the World's Respect." Amen to that. Now when I look at my world-map shower curtain--and I do so several times a day--I often think, not "Where would I like to go?" but more "Where can I afford to go?" Afford, not just in terms of the deflated dollar, but in terms of safety and a friendly reception.

Another good one: "I Love America, But I Think We Should Start Seeing Other People." Amen to that!

So, yes, I'm overall disappointed by my fellow Americans, dispassionate, lazy, uninformed, self-absorbed, or scared as they seem to be. But I was also encouraged by the number of young people who took to the streets of Los Angeles today. Perhaps there is hope. As anthropologist Margaret Mead said, "Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

And yet, it sure would be nice if it were a big group of committed people. Yes, that would make things happen a whole lot quicker.

You Look Good for Your Age

Last week I drove to LA to meet Aaron and his new girlfriend, Regine. We had dinner at a retro restaurant, the HMS Bounty. Complete with large, upholstered booths, nautical paraphernalia, and red-glowing buoy lights, the Bounty is adjacent to the Gaylord Apartments, the ample lobby of which sports photos of '20s and '30s film stars and display cases of memorabilia, presumably of those who once graced the rooms of the establishment

On Sunday I saw Aaron again, and he told me that Regine had said I look good for my age and that her father, whom he met last week for the first time, looked good too. I looked at him and said, "Well, Son, and you look good for your age too."

"Thanks, Mom," he said with a bright smile and so the following banter, so typical of our interactions, began.

Aaron: Maybe we should start saying that to young people, you know, like to 16-year-old girls. Just when they're feeling insecure about their bodies.

Heidi: Well, Son, that would take on a whole different meaning. "You look good for your age" would mean "Oh, I see that your breasts are fully developed."

A: Yeah, I see what you mean. How about "You look good for your age." (As he said this, he motioned with his hand as if to include the entire milieu.) Like say that to someone from the Middle Ages.

H: Yeah, like: "Everyone else of your time looks like shit, living as they are in cold, damp, rat-infested hovels, eating moldy bread and rotting meat, and fighting off the plague, but you, you look good for your age."

I just love these insights into the language, these plays on words. What fun language is!