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Thankful: Freedom of Speech.

Nov12

Politics and I do not get along. Being a conflict avoider and being surrounded by friends and family with strong political (not to mention religious) opinions it was easier for me to just listen to what I was told to believe rather than think for myself.

“This is what our church believes therefore this is how you should vote.” We have no separation in our church. Our leaders speak very openly about how we as a church should vote. Throw in a little spiritual blackmail, “If you are a true Christian you will vote this way.” and you have the perfect recipe for angst ridden individuals.

I spent years confessing false sins to God and then I met  my first Christian Democrat six years ago.

Before meeting Cynthia, I did not know you could be a Christian AND be a Democrat.

I’ve learned a lot of things in the past six years that I don’t have room for today, for now I’ll simply say I changed my voters registration this fall back to Democrat and I’m happy I did.

I will be the first to admit that I do not fully understand the Occupy Movement taking place across this great country of ours. But I do understand that we as a nation are slowly giving away our rights out of fear. The pentagon has been on my blog more than once. We cannot cross town without having our movements video taped by street corner cameras. Books checked out of the library are registered in a national database. Store purchases, web searches, tweets, are all logged and accounted for in the name of National Security.  Understand this, our government is keeping track of everything you and I do because of laws put into place during DW Bush’s administration. Not only that, the Federal Government has the right to tap my phone anytime they wish.

Post 9-11 fear.

If you want to see a great movie that was ahead of its time – or maybe right on time depending on how you look at it – watch V is for Vendetta. See what happens when a nation allows fear to dictate its laws.

Did you know that it is still legal in this country to openly carry a gun? It’s our second amendment right. We have the right to bear arms. I spoke with a dear friend last night who openly carries and has been harassed more than once and fought it and won every time.

We also have the right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly according to the first amendment. A right that is slowly being chiseled away with curfew laws and red tape. Granted not everyone who is a part of the Occupy Movement really knows what they are protesting – and those are the ones the news likes to cover. Some though, do. The Tulsa Movement wants people to pull their money out of Bank of America with good reason. The executives at BOA used the bailout money to line their own pockets. I’m not anti-capitalism, but I am anti-theft. Why weren’t they prosecuted?

The first video I want you to see is not on YouTube therefore WordPress won’t allow me to embed it, but this is worth seeing. It’s John Colbert’s comedic albeit tongue in cheek commentary on what happened at Berkeley last week. I’ve seen the footage of what happened to those kids. I’m appalled. They began by protesting the corrupt bank officials who took bail out money for personal bonuses and then mass fired employees as well as the state-wide cuts to education. Now, they have something very real to protest.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/402024/november-10-2011/occupy-u-c–berkeley?fb_ref=share_fblike&fb_source=profile_oneline

Our First Amendment allows them the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of speech. After seeing the police attack these kids, you’d think we lived in a third world country. This second video is footage from Berkeley. YouTube has it flagged for over 18 only so you have to sign in to see it. My heart broke when I watched this.

This isn’t going to go away.

This post written by Deana O’Hara for Redemption’s Heart. November 12, 2011.

Thankful November: Acting

Nov3

me 1985.

I wanted to be an actress many moons ago. Unfortunately I look more like Molly Ringwald than Molly Ringwald and couldn’t get cast to save my life.

See what I mean?

They say that possession is 9 tenths of the law. The fact that I had her look before she did is irrelevant. She was already famous. She possessed the coveted contracts with my look before I did.  I didn’t get my movie break but I did get a nice head shot for my efforts and I had a lot of fun pursuing a dream.

Life eventually moves on. Business college, careers, love, marriage and children take over. Along the way I spread my creative wings to pick up an acting gig here and there. Nothing spectacular, but enough to keep me satisfied. I am in several corporate training videos from the 1990′s that are as cheesy as training video notoriously are and I’ve done bit sketches and some comedy.

Believe it or not Tulsa is a great place for acting and major motion pictures. Tulsa has a nice midwestern feel that a lot of producers like and so we see movies being shot here rather frequently.

The upside to that, I get work as an extra. Sometimes I’m paid, sometimes not. Even so, it’s creative and fun.

Last summer I got to be in Cowgirls N Angels which comes out next Spring and yesterday I got to film for So This is Christmas which comes out next fall. Both are wonderful movies with not only an excellent cast, but a great message as well.

Acting seems like a strange thing to be thankful for I admit. Being on a sound stage brings my neurosis to a much higher than normal level. Am I dressed right? oh God I brought the wrong clothes.  The director hates me. Or does the like me. I can’t tell. Why is he looking at me like that? The lighting guy just smiled at me. What? He’s not the lighting guy — he was standing a ladder – oh crap. That’s… never mind.

I am a walking ball of insecurity 24/7.

Acting keeps my right brain alive and allows me to grow as a person. The fact that I get to participate, even slightly, in a dream I laid down years ago is a huge blessing.  For that, I’m thankful.

Thankful November: Friends – Real and Imagined.

Nov2

With American Thanks Giving being in November (My Canadian friends celebrated last month), I thought this would be a good month to write on being thankful.

I was consumed in a post Halloween candy hangover rivaling brown bottle flu yesterday and I was not thankful for anything save perhaps my Tums. So I didn’t write yesterday.

Today, I am thankful for my friends both real and slightly imaginary.

Now let’s talk about friends for a minute. With the advent of the internet we now have real life friends and cyber friends.

  • I have 604 “Friends” on Facebook.
  • I follow 341 people on Twitter including Ruth Buzzi, Melissa Gilbert, Jane Fonda and Steve Martin. (I use twitter simply as a tool to keep up with what’s going on in Tulsa.)
  • I have 996 Followers. – I used to have over 1,000 but I wrote the word “Crappy” in on of my tweets and was quickly unfollowed by the morality police.
  • I have around 50 blog subscribers.
  • I subscribe to about 25 blogs myself.
  • 17 people “like” my Facebook Fan Page
  • There are 9 women in my online writers group
  • One of my earliest childhood memories is a woman singing me lullabies at night. Mom says the house was haunted, my friends think it was my guardian angel, my therapist calls her my imaginary friend. Whichever, she was a comfort and I never forgot her.
  • I have my life friends that I hang out with on a regular basis.
If I were to add up my internet numbers I seem PopUlar! sorta. Other people have much better numbers than I. Truth is though – it’s not about the numbers really.
I’m not really friends with all of these people.
I’m not a creeper either though.
Not counting Twitter, I know most of them.I am actually friend’s or at the very least acquaintances with many of the people on Facebook, I’m just not the call me in the middle of the night kind of friend with them all. Facebook started out as my Rolodex of people I’ve met through various classes, movies, or comedy and then expanded to church, youth group, high school and family. Now it’s a way to keep in touch long distance and play games with my step sister in Tennessee.
Did you know that Facebook now allows you to group friends? I have my close friends, family, high school, comedy, church, writers, and gamers. I can post to everyone or I can post to just one group. I like that.
I gleen a bit from everyone.
    • From you guys who actually read my blog and comment — you give me great feedback and share pieces of your cyber selves with me. I’m thankful for that.
    • From my twitter friends who are now Facebook friends – you know who you are. You are my writer friends. You guys share with me your journey and encouragement.
    • From my comedy friends like TRL and miss C.R. – you taught me to care about life, art, politics, people, and myself. You guys teach me how to love myself by being willing to walk that walk yourselves. We don’t get to share mocha’s on each others back porch or call each other on the phone, but we do chat and we get to hang out when we visit each other’s cities.
    • From my teachers whose classes I’ve been in whether it’s DCW, You Go Girl, SpeakUp, or Finding Your Own Voice. You teach me how to be a better speaker, a better writer, a better L-I-V-E-R of life. I heard recently a teacher had once is teacher for life. You listen to me, and speak back with wisdom, caring, and discernment. You share pieces of your life and stories with me that encourage me to find my own path and live fully alive.

And of course there are my kitchen friends. These are the men and women with whom I share meals, beer or wine, phone calls, disappointments and joys. Oddly none of them read my blog. They don’t need to they already know my life because they are living it with me. For them, I am especially thankful.