A Cherry, Cherry Christmas

Living in Arizona for the winter has its benefits. However, at Christmas time, we begin to wish we could see snow (not feel the cold or drive on the ice!). We turn on our Christmas carol radio stations, and even have downloaded all our favorites holiday songs to my new iPod Touch.

Although there are many of the new generation of singers who put out Christmas albums, we still prefer the old standards, especially White Christmas, written by Irving Berlin, and sung by Bing Crosby. No other version can top that one, but I have many other versions downloaded for variety.

This year we got an early Christmas gift from friends: Neil Diamond's latest, A Cherry, Cherry, Christmas. Always fans of Neil, we loved the new album. My wife said, "Isn't he Jewish?", to which I replied, "So is Irving Berlin" who wrote the quintessential Christmas song. No matter, I thought as I mentally went through my list of Christmas songs I had downloaded. I had picked one from Barry Manilow, a couple from Barbra Streisand, and one for Carly Simon. Today I probably will download a few new ones from good Old Bob Dylan, and maybe even Bette Midler.

I might even pick up a few from Kenny G, with his wailing sax.

You might have guessed the theme here by now. All of these great Christmas "carolers" are Jewish! Isn't that great that Christmas itself transcends religion with these folks? My next blog will be about all the Christian singers who have done Hanukkah albums.

Merry Christmas to all.

All's Fair in Love and War

A couple of weeks ago I was amused reading that the Taliban and possibly other insurgents in Al-Qaeda's mold were complaining that the U.S. was not fighting a fair war. Their main complaint was that our military was using unmanned drones to attack hideouts and other suspected terrorist nests. They didn't seem to like the remotely driven little "bees" buzzing around their people with close to complete impunity.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, how is that for pure irony? The terrorists fight a war against civilians, they target non-military sites, they use women and children to carry their homicide bombs, they wear no country's uniform, and they fight a guerrilla war -not in jungles but in cities full of innocents. And the U.S. is unfairly using unmanned drones? I have no answer for that.

Movie Commentary - Precious

Besides the obvious "must-see" and "Oscar-worthy" appellations that go with good flicks, this film is one to reflect on. A young Black girl, with all the problems of poverty, incest, illiteracy, and then some, takes the viewer on a gut-wrenching tour of her life.

It would be easy to dismiss this movie as just fiction, but the only fiction is that it is not one true story. It is, rather, a composite of true stories in the poor Black experience.

Children are passed on to the next class in school without being able to read, write a cogent paragraph, or add a simple list. Teachers either do not want to deal with the same student again, or fear being thought racist. Poor children are, more often than others, subject to earlier sex, whether it be incest or with strangers. Food and other resources are often scarce and the whole family, or the whole culture, acts more like "hunter-gatherers" spending an inordinate amount of the day seeking the bare essentials of life. Changing homes as often as the middle-class changes its sheets, it is illustrative that Blacks often ask "Where do you stay?" instead of "Where do you live?"

Precious is one film that should be seen not only by middle class white white folk so they can at least see the grinding existence of our poorest citizens, but also by those of the poorer classes so they can see the universality of their experience and learn, just maybe, how to get out from under that repressive way of life.

No one in America should live as Precious does, especially children who have no choice at all. Sometimes it is not enough for those of us who are in better straits to cluck our tongues and say, "You must take responsibility for your own actions." A true statement, for sure, but it does not always apply to those who are children or those who are not given the slightest help to even point them in the right direction. Children learn this existence and it becomes ingrained despite what they might see on TV. And then more children are born, and the dreary saga continues to the next generation.

There is no one answer, heck, there are no one hundred answers, but there are answers, both internal and external. Every one of us has to figure out our part of the solution to make the American Dream as least a reachable possibility. Think about it.

Tiger's Roar is Muted

The truth could hardly be more bizarre than the ideas people (and tabloids) come up with about what happened at Tiger Woods mansion in Florida last week. Now we know that it wasn't just a simple accident that triggered the golfer's fall from grace. Even if the "accident" had never happened, the dirty secrets would have been revealed in some fashion, total truth or not, in a short while.

The hubris of Woods and others in high places is still amazing. That they think they can flaunt "the rules" with impunity forever is beyond belief. Yet one by one these celebs - whether political, sports world, or Hollywood - each fail to grasp the meaning of that old adage, "two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead."

Tiger will recover some of his luster from this current circus, but his image will be forever tarnished in most peoples' minds. Years from now, when the casual observer sees Tiger, he or she will recall the marital infidelity in an instant no matter what he has done from that time (or will recall worse if we haven't heard the whole story yet, and it is a good bet we haven't). Most people over 30 today cannot look at Bill Clinton without recalling his dirty little alcove secret. Tiger will suffer that same process, although maybe not quite as graphic, even though he won't "see" it.

People will still follow him and "glad hand" him when they can, and extol his golfing prowess, as they should. But the burnished image he really wanted to display to the world, and that his sponsors banked on, is gone forever. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.