A kiss good-bye

I found this touching article on the internet


What better way to celebrate the end of the week than with some pure, unadulterated sob-fuel? Witness Mario--just Mario--a 54-year-old man who spent most of his life working at Holland's Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo in Rotterdamn. Dying of terminal cancer, Mario requested that his hospital bed be wheeled into the giraffe enclosure. What happened next is...well, just look at the pictures. 

Soon after Mario was brought into the enclosure, one giraffe approached to give him a kiss goodbye.

"These animals recognized him, and felt that [things aren't] going well with him," Kees Veldboer, founder of the Ambulance Wish Foundation told Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. Veldboer's charity, which grants dying wishes to the terminally ill, transported Mario to the zoo.

"[It was] a very special moment. You saw him beaming."

Daily Mail reported that after meeting with the giraffes, Mario, who is mentally disabled, requested a moment to say goodbye to his colleagues at the zoo where he worked for most of his adult life.

All right, fine. The cynics out there might be saying that the giraffe wasn't really giving him a kiss, that it was only looking for food, or performing some kind of giraffe greeting behavior. To which we say, pah! This giraffe was giving his beloved companion a goodbye kiss. If there's a world where a giraffe kiss is not a giraffe kiss, that's not a world we want to live in.

My gut vs. my heart

My gut tells me to fly to wherever this man is lying on deaths bed. 

My gut tells me to picket outside the hospice where he lies on the verge of his next journey. 

My gut tells me to picket outside his family's house and yell nasty obscenities about what an Un-God like people they really are.

My gut tells me to picket his funeral with a sign that says "God hates you Fred" or "Good luck at the Pearly Gates".

My guts tells me to gather all the families and friends that he and his family have harmed and raise a toast.

My gut tells me to dance in the street.

But my heart …

Tells me to pray for his soul.

Tells me to pray for him on his journey to the other side.

Tells me to pray for his family that they may learn from his evil.

Tells me to let my anger go with him to wherever he may be going.

My heart tells me to love.

Who is doing the REAL damage?

   I was on the internet today, something I do at least once a day to get my news. CNN, Yahoo, Huffpost Gay Voices  and yes FOX News. Naturally being the stylish gay man that I am I like to keep up with the gay news of the day. Ellen and Portia getting a divorce. Gay marriage approved in _____ (fill in the state). Gay marriage denied in _____ (fill in the state). My recent personal fav was … "Frozen will teach kids to be gay and is the work of the devil". I also love the stories where a group (normally a religious group) boycotts or pickets a store for giving gays equality. They must spend a lot of money for this form of bigotry, sorry … freedom of speech. It might be more "Christian" to donate to a local food bank, woman's shelter or animal rescue. I like the stories that in general upset the right wing and the power they seem to think we have over the world (i.e. The Velvet Mafia). 

   I really love the stories where a political figure takes the time to address his/her audience about the evils of the gay agenda. 

Side note … I never got the memo from the GAC (Gay Agenda Committee). I'm not really sure what I should be doing as a gay man in order to further our cause. So … if you received it, please forward to me. I would not want to get kicked out of the club. 

Anyway. It seems that "Gay" is big news. 

Today I came across this today ...

Man drowns own child

   Even without being a parent I can not comprehend this story. It's beyond my scope of reality. But from what I understand this happens more times than we want to believe. A few weeks ago a mother drove her minivan into the Atlantic Ocean with her 3 children on board screaming to passerby's "My mommy is trying to kill us". The internet is also full of stories of child abuse. Mothers chaining their kid(s) in the basement. Fathers kidnapping children and speeding away in their car to the freeway where the police are forced to pursue in a high speed chase. And these are just the stories that make the news. It goes on 24/7 365 days a year.

   Where are Michelle Backman, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and the many others who spend so much time and energy on the gay community? Why aren't they rallying the masses to try to inform the public on these mentally ill parents. Why aren't they supporting the many, many public institutions that could help these individuals BEFORE the tragedy happens?  Why aren't they spending their time working with The American Psychiatric Association filming PSA's (public service announcements). Why aren't they pushing for better health insurance for all? 

   Who is doing REAL damage here. The gay community? The officials that WE elected into office. The religious right? 

I think we know the answer.

Redneck City

Duck Dynasty

Axmen

Swamp People 

The Legend Of Shelby, The Swampman

American Jungle

Buckwild

Bayou Millionaires

Redneck Island

Hillbilly Hardfishin'

Lady Hoggers

Rocket City Rednecks

My Big Redneck Wedding

Barkyard Oil

And the others - 

Jersey Shores

The Kardashians

The Real Housewives of BH,Miami,NY,NJ,Atlanta,OC,DC

Vanderpump Rules

I could go on for days with this list. Why are we so obsessed with the antics of these crazy people? They all spotlight the worst in humanity. But we continue to watch. 

Picture it … Los Angeles 2014

Its a gorgeous day in Los Angeles. The sun is out. The high is going to be in the mid 70's. I've got Sergio Mendes on the iPad. What more could you ask for? 

I am thankful for ...

I was reading the news yesterday … yes it was on-line and not an actual newspaper (hey, I went old school with my daily planer, don't take away ALL of my 21st century vices). I came across an article about a teenager that lost her fight with cancer. As a last wish she got to record Katy Perry's "Roar". The internet is full of articles like this. We read them, we cry, we thank God (or our higher power) for what we have, we spend an hour or so truly thankful and then we forget and start to complain again about how rough we have it. Traffic, bills, fights with our (ex)partners.    

As you sit down with family and friends tomorrow remember what you are thankful for. Try to make the feeling of gratefulness last longer then just one day. Of course we have the obvious … 
Family 
Friends
Home
Job
Health

And my not so obvious ...
My shoes (and clothes in general)
My ability to walk to the market and buy just about any kind of food I want
My books (all 385 of them)
My notebooks and journals (all 523 of them … yes I have a problem)
The fact that I figured out how to hook up my laptop to my TV
My humor
My ability to ignore things (if you ignore something bad it eventually goes away, its called Scarlet Syndrome)

No mater where you are tomorrow try to remember to be thankful for what you have … not for what you want. Yes, their is a difference. 

R.I.P

I just found out (on FaceBook of course) that the Black Rhino is now extinct. Check out www.geekexchange.com for more info.

Its amazing what we put up with day to day and not say or do anything. But … the slightest chance that all people may have the same rights and look out. I mean really, what affect does my marrying a man have on anybody's life but mine?

Sorry, I digress. 

Below is a list of animals/mammals/plants that we have lost since 1960. The list includes animals from North America. I , you , or your children will never see any of these animals in the wild ever again. 

2007	Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit	Brachylagus idahoensispop. 2	Douglas, Grant, Lincoln, Adams and Benton counties of Washington state	mammal
1994	Hadley Lake Limnetic Stickleback	Gasterosteussp. 12	Hadley Lake on Lasqueti Island, British Columbia	fish
1994	Hadley Lake Benthic Stickleback	Gasterosteussp. 13	Hadley Lake on Lasqueti Island, British Columbia	fish
1994	Pearson's Hawthorn	Crataegus pearsonii	Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas	plant
1992	Vancouver Island Wolverine	Gulo gulo vancouverensis	Vancouver Island, British Columbia	mammal
1988	Fish Lake Pyrg	Pyrgulopsis ruinosa	One spring in Esmeralda County, Nevada	mollusc
1988	Maryland Darter	Etheostoma sellare	Streams near the head of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland	fish
1988	Bachman's Warbler	Vermivora bachmanii	Nested in Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama, South Carolina, and Louisiana; wintered in Cuba and Isle of Pines	bird
1987	Dusky Seaside Sparrow	Ammodramus maritimus nigrescens	East coast of Florida	bird
1986	Banff Longnose Dace	Rhinichthys cataractae smithi	A marsh fed by hot springs near Banff, Alberta	fish
1985	Shortnose Cisco	Coregonus reighardi	Lakes Huron, Michigan and Ontario	fish
1984	Green Blossom	Epioblasma torulosa gubernaculum	Tennessee and Virginia	mollusc
1983	San Marcos Gambusia	Gambusia georgei	San Marcos River, Texas	fish
1978	Kingman's Prickly-pear	Opuntia superbospina	Mojave Desert, Arizona	plant
late 1970s	Amistad Gambusia	Gambusia amistadensis	Goodenough Spring, Texas	fish
1975	Phantom Shiner	Notropis orca	Rio Grande River in New Mexico and Texas	fish
mid 1970s	Lewis's Woodpecker, Georgia Depression Population	Melanerpes lewis pop. 1	Southwestern British Columbia and western Washington state	bird
1974	Tacoma Pocket Gopher	Thomomys mazama tacomensis	Pierce County, Washington state	mammal
1973	Carinate Duckwater Pyrg	Pyrgulopsis carinata	Spring in Duckwater Valley, Nye County, Nevada	mollusc
1971	Santa Cruz Pupfish	Cyprinodon arcuatus	Monkey Spring in Arizona	fish
1971	Zion Jimmyweed	Isocoma humilis	Washington County, Utah	plant
1971	Blue Walleye	Sander vitreus glaucus	Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, lower Niagara River and Lake Huron	fish
1970s	Acornshell	Epioblasma haysiana	Cumberland and Tennessee River systems in Alabama, Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky	mollusc
1970	Clear Lake Splittail	Pogonichthys ciscoides	Clear Lake, California	fish
1969	Blackfin Cisco	Coregonus nigripinnis	Lake Huron and Lake Michigan	fish
1969	Tubercled Blossom	Epioblasma torulosa torulosa	Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia	mollusc
1968	Striped Bass, St. Lawrence Estuary population	Morone saxatilis sp. 3	Quebec	fish
1967	Angled Riffleshell	Epioblasma biemarginata	Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee	mollusc
1967	Narrow Catspaw	Epioblasma lenior	Tennessee River system in Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama	mollusc
1967	Lined Pocketbook	Lampsilis binominata	Upper Chattahoochee and Flint River systems in Alabama and Georgia	mollusc
mid 1960s	Turgid Blossom	Epioblasma turgidula	Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee	mollusc
1964	Bluntnose Shiner	Notropis simus simus	Rio Grande River in New Mexico and Texas	fish
1964	Lake Ontario Kiyi	Coregonus kiyi orientalis	Ontario	fish
1964	Bay Springs Salamander	Plethodon ainsworthi	Jasper County, Mississippi	amphibian
1963	Eskimo Curlew	Numenius borealis	Nested in Northwest Territories, wintered in Argentina	bird

I guess it really saddens me that most people don't really care. And yes … I know that extinction is the natural way. But how long until we are on the same list as the Black Rhino. 

R.I.P