ice cream vendors

Come on, thieves, seriously! What are you guys doing?

First in Oxnard, now in Moorpark–you guys have been robbing push-cart ice cream vendors? Really? What the hell??? Why?

“The two men attacked the vendor from behind about 7:45 p.m. near the intersection of Flory Avenue and 3rd Street, said Capt. Patti Salas of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

As he was trying to get away, the vendor fell and some coins spilled from his fanny pack, Salas said.

The two robbers grabbed the loose coins and ran.”

Loose coins? My god!

I know horrible and terrible things have been happening with robbery lately, especially the horrific incident outside the U.S. Bank when that foul and soulless man shot the hard working businessman in the chest in broad daylight, but ice cream vendors?

Couldn’t you guys go get a minimum wage job somewhere and make more money in a day than what you stole from both ice cream vendors?

How ridiculous and petty! This can’t be about money…maybe a gang initiation…Rob the vendor and we won’t jump you?

No, that even sounds too stupid for even a gang initiation.

I am far from a violent person and would never condone such selfish acts for miniscule or large amounts of money, but if you think you’re freedom is worth only a few coins, then have at it! Rob those literally poor vendors.

Idiots. Go get a job, seriously. It really isn’t worth it. It’s never worth it. Karma is a bitch, and so is the law.

Proposition 8 and preserving the traditional definition of marriage

Yep…ignorance and basic stupidity is out there in abundance.

First off, the traditional definition of marriage: Til’ death do us part.

Yea, right! Til times get tough or until we don’t like each other any more or until one gets too old and wants a younger or better looking mate! irreconcilable differences…mmm hmm, surrrre!!

Sorry organizers of prop. 8, but I think you have been living in a bomb shelter if you really think there is a “traditional” definition of marriage to be preserved. Ok, i get it–between a man and a woman–but not really! It is between a man and a woman, then the two separate then it is between a man and a new woman while the former wife looks for the best mate then some man cheats on his wife with the newly divorced wife and marries then the divorcee and then…

these types of scenarios can be reversed and switched around and whatever. According to laborlawtalk.com, California has divorce rates from 69 to 83 percent.

Nice! So for every 10 people who get married, 7 - 8 of them will get divorced. Nice tradition! It won’t be homosexuals that will ruin the traditional definition of marriage, but divorce. And divorce seems to be the only reason straights aren’t getting married the way they did 40 years ago.

So throw your stupid excuses out the door–marriage must be preserved only between a man and a woman! Hogwash!

So what? Preserve it so they can raise a family? I heard it’s something like 50 percent of all children in the country are being raised by single parents.

And nevermind the tens of thousands of children in homes hoping to live in a loving home!

Why not let the gays and lesbians get married! Let them get as muddled up with their finances as the heteros when it doesn’t work out! But who knows, they might have a better run of it than the straights anyhow.

Why hate? Just love. Let them be. They are just as human as anyone else. Love is love no matter who you love. And if two people love each other, let them be married and have the same rights as we do.

Stop breeding hate. For love’s sake and for the children… including children like Larry King. Stop the hate.

Vote no on proposition 8!

Together we stand? Nah, not really.

I remember hearing about the death of Brad Nowell, the lead singer of Sublime who overdosed on heroine, when i was just a teenager, and i remember thinking, how selfish can one man be to not think of his kids first?

Then i grew up and became a parent and began to realize that nothing is ever that simple.

In the world of parenthood, i guess society, i.e., singles and the perfect parents, are quick to judge individuals who are doing their best to raise their children and basically learn how to be an adult. Now I don’t condone daddy for shooting up while baby Bobby cooks dad’s heroine, but in the world where we can’t escape being human, maybe we should stop assuming we would do better.

One thing this country sadly lacks and could possibly be to our detriment is compassion and unity. WE are divided by our homes, our neighborhoods, the schools we go to and the jobs we have. We judge each other based on the colleges we went to and the degrees we received. Blue collar workers think white collar workers are wimps and white collar workers think blue collar workers are dumb.

We judge and judge until we are locked away in our single family homes, letting our televisions lead the way we think. We are disenfranchised from our neighbors and communities to the the point that suicide, drug and alcohol abuse and adultery are just common in today’s society. We are being deprived of true connections, so we escape into other realms, which are much more selfish and destructive than disparaging lack of social interaction.

We fear what and who we don’t know, and lock ourselves away to our own destruction and to the point of destruction.

I have lived in many places, from Atlanta to San Diego and Los angeles up to Fresno and back, and the one thing that I missed most above anything else was the neighborliness i remember from my childhood living on the lanes of Pierpont. Never anywhere else, even in east Ventura, have  I met and befriended so many people in such a short amount of time. And with this friendliness, this sheer community has transformed my working days and free time into something i would never run from.

So when it comes to life, reaching out and being a community is vital to our health. Instead of judging from afar maybe we should walk in and ask if someone needs a hand. I have never heard of anyone who actually died from being killed with kindness.

I can’t help but wonder if i were there with Nowell, if my neighborhood were there, if we were all there to help, maybe this legend wouldn’t be dead. Maybe Kurbain wouldn’t have shot himself if his neighbors kept insisting on potlucks every Sunday. I wonder if the dual murder suicide up in Fresno that happened near my friend would have occurred if when the guy with the gun who lost his job, some people stepped in and helped him with his kids, maintaining his house… anything would have been better than that.

I also have a friend who was born as an epileptic with serious stomach problems who can’t find a job. She has to find a really good job wtih REALLY GREAT benefits because she was born with some severe health problems. I told her I thought it would be great if the strong helped the weak by having universal health care for every american. She suggested that i might be happier living in a communist country.

I am not sure when the individual was deemed stronger than the mass…but as a single parent myself, this is no just time for ‘every man for himself.’ I would love my neighborhood to be like that everywhere. And fortunately for me, II have no shame believing in a community that cares.

And no, i am not a communist.

Camarillo prison hospital

Over and over again i keep hearing about the Camarillo prison hospital. After talking to my staff writer about the situation, I just keep shaking my head at the sad reality that no one gets what is going on.

First, these are not going to be agile prisoners looking to rape and pillage the community. These people are dibilitated and unable to escape from jail. Even the sheriff said these prisoners are not likely, or basically, would not escape from the hospital.

Then residents say it will be out of character. What isn’t these days? People are fighting the county to stop the construction of a huge eye sore (hospital) in midtown Ventura…People fought against life guard tower stands on the Ventura beaches… and, i am sure the list goes on. But one thing these all have in common–this is for OUR safety and health! How are we so blind to what is going on here!

And now, to say it would drain Camarillo’s medical resources… Well, number one i don’t know any medical professional who will be skipping and clicking his heels into the doors of the prison system. My dad gave it shot in the prison system, a retired teacher who was promised $100,000 per year on top of his pension from teaching. As soon as he got his first class he quit. You get paid so much to work with prisoners because it is not a good situation. Trust me, I seriously doubt a mass exodus is on its way. And people will come to work there from across the country. I mean, seriously, who wouldn’t want to live in Ventura County?

We made laws, people break them, then they are shoved into living quarters where basically one convict dies a week due to the poor conditions.

We have written about it, editorialized about it and now the Receiver Kelso is forcing tax payers to give up another $8 billion.

But it’s not because the receiver wants to pocket it and go on a safari to the Amazon rain forest… the receiver is just doing his job to give these prisoners at the very least a step up from a horrible health care system.

And yet, we still scream–No! Not here! Not my tax dollars!

FIne then. Why don’t we just lock these men and women up and throw some scraps to them every once in a while and call it a day?

As i have said before, I will say it again, this is about being civilized and being humane. How do we forget that?

We need to stop resisting the issue that this is for a good cause and let Kelso do his job.

music

I took my mom to the Beach Boys concert on Monday. I have never seen my mom so, um, ecstatic, to put it mildly. She grew up listening to the Beach Boys and despite all the good and bad things that my mom has endured during the last year, including the loss of several close friends to cancer, something about their music wiped away all her pain and gave her some sort of renewed vigor for life.

I remember being a teenager, being young and naive to the world, a time when a  man named Vanilla Ice couldn’t come up with his own music and had to steal his tune from a talented and creative genius named David Bowie. I remember thinking that at some point everyone would just continue to rip off other people’s tunes because there was no other tunes that could be made.

Then I grew up and saw how much music and how much creativity the world has and will continue to have.

SO much so it is beyond comprehension. Just as my colleague has filled up his 60 gig ipod with music, the need for good tunes never ends.

As i work through my day with music playing in the background, i realize now i need music almost as much as i need air. While a quiet day is always appreciated, music is the spokes to the wheels that keeps my world spinning.

SO i want to thank all those talented and ambitious musicians who give us not so talented folks something to keep our day going and renewing our vigor for life.

hunger, a great driving factor; soda, a cruel enemy.

So in the last couple of weeks i gave up caffeine, sodas and breads–noodles, cookies and the delicious sub sandwich.

Instead i eat fruits, vegetables and meat and cheese.

So far, my skin has completely cleared up. I would say that is because of the lack of soda and the fact my body doesn’t have to process aspartame any more. So the $200 i spent on face products well, i could have saved in not buying my favorites, Dr. pepper, Diet pepsi and my favorite Coke Zero Vanilla.

Pretty amazing, don’t ya think?

SO now my diet…everyone says they could never live just off of fruit and vegetables and a little meat and cheese. They say they wouldn’t be able to ignore the hunger pains.

Instead of feeding the pain to be rid of it I just think of feeling bloated with too much food and complex carbs and how hard it is for my body to digest it. Now, I haven’t exactly given up my love of beer – finding out that has been truly the hardest vice to give up — but now my body feels pretty good, despite a wrestless and demanding tummy.

I feel like maybe I have found some sort of freedom in not indulging in processes foods. And fruit and veggies are actually pretty cheap and you would be surprised how little fuel our body needs, nevertheless caffeine.

My advice: Give it a shot, i think you may surprise yourself.

i’m pretty happy about it.

Now, beer…hmmm….

dealing with death

So first my friend loses two friends and one cousin in one month due to pharmaceutical drug overdose.

Then my mom loses one close friend to breast cancer, another to ovarian cancer and one kind spirited man to a tragic hit and run accident.

So death. Although I did not personally know any one that died in the last month, still I carry the weight of these tragedies.

I advise the only way to grieve is to feel the love of those still living around you.

I tell my mom she has the memories that will be with her forever.

But still they grieve, they hurt, they feel pain I simply do not understand.

But I feel the weight of their sorrow on my own heart and wonder what can we do to help each other.

Holding on, letting go, appreciating life, leaving behind malfeasances and hoping today will be better than yesterday.

The only remedy i have is love. A walk on the beach, a shared moment, a beautiful sunrise, cuddling a Saturday morning away.

I want to tell my friend and my mom I am sorry that i am not more compassionate and understanding.

I try to help but all i can do is love.

I feel that when a person dies tragically, these unfortunate occurrences can help the living expand their conscientiousness while allowing them to understand how precious life truly is and appreciate their own existence.

All we need is love, not more police

So in the city of Ventura the council decided to charge for 911 calls to free up dollars to put more police officers on the street?

Wait a minute.  Why do we need more police officers? Why is the best way to handle crime is with incarceration?

Where are we going wrong?

Did we ever have the proper homeostasis to prevent crime?

A good loving home, educators who treated their students as the future leaders of the world, bigotry put behind us, a healthy middle class… dignity in helping the poor and the rich spreading the wealth.

Why more police?

I am simply perplexed.

I wish there was an answer. John Lennon seemed to understand.

All we need is love.

Then he was shot by someone that perhaps didn’t have a loving home. Or perhaps he didn’t value human life.

I know I am looking for a Utopian society but you would think as human beings evolved, as we become more civilized that crime would definitely not grow relative as the population would grow.

But it is. And thanks to the media in general over glorifying violence, if it bleeds it leads, we are certain the world is getting worse.

We have to do something to change our mindset in society.

We need to love more, hate less; we need to care more about our children and their happiness than our own. We need to find a homeostasis balancing out the pursuit of our happiness with our children to make this world a better place.

Let’s just hope we haven’t gone past the point of no return.

killer pharmies

In the past few months, it has come to my attention this epidemic of the abuse of pharmaceutical drugs. This abuse has led to the deaths of a number of people due to an overdose or a lethal combination of doctor prescribed drugs.

These people, whether they are Hollywood heroes (that play great villains) like Heath Ledger or familiar faces from high school or garage bands in our neighborhoods, are dying.

But why?

And the worst part is the people left behind, who are confused and grieving these random and pointless losses.

Has life really become that bad for some people that they can’t bear to embrace their own emotions and must cover them up with legally-produced drugs?

I don’t understand.

Not only are these familiar faces gone, but I am personally losing people to the grief.

While these people are still alive, they are so lost trying to understand these deaths that they can’t bear to embrace the joy that is still in the life in and around them.

The reasons why people must take these drugs to deal with life are difficult if not nearly impossible to quantify.

So what can I do?

Support those left behind and grieve for those who simply could not value life?

Without a doubt, yes.

But maybe, more importantly, I and those grieving should take a deep breath and realize these irrational decisions are not for us to understand.

Letting go of what we can’t understand and holding onto and relishing in the life we do have is the only option.

There is too much life and beauty in the world for us to drown in such confusing sorrow.

Grieve and enjoy life at the same time and just hope we can get to those on the verge before these stupid pharmies get them first.