PS1, You're our Only Hope The issues at hand Ummm, let's see.  Artificial Intelligence in Facebook, Google, and Twitter have changed the world by manipulating human opinions and bringing crowds into common cause - even if the cause is nefarious.  And, like the Coronavirus Pandemic, it's not even smart.  I mean, it's a relatively stupid, compared to human general intelligence, collection of algorithms that is doing this work.  The Pandemic has shifted so many aspects of our lives and some of these changes will stay.  Similarly, social media has shifted so many aspects of our lives and some of these changes will stay.  Of course, few people are talking about the threat of nuclear annihilation even though the computers are set to respond automatically if they detect nukes in the atmosphere but they have been tricked by flocks of birds and glare... yeah, like the glare from the Sun.  whoops, humanity is gone.  The threat of cybersecurity is real but i...

If Trump were a character in the Breakfast Club, who would he be? I think Trump is most like the abstract human-like sculpture in the center of the library. He is large, imposing, and looks kind of strange but doesn't do much.  The fact that the statue is visible in almost every scene is reminiscent of Trump's tweets. They are constantly there but not saying much. Unfortunately, like the statue, if Trump falters he could do real damage to everybody around him. The statue's highlight in the film is having a piece of cold cut slapped on its face by Ally Sheedy. That would be the representation of his Presidency. He looked at that cold cut from a distance and thought he deserved it, thought it would be good, thought he would know what to do with it better than anyone else. But in the end, it just slapped him in the face. Come on, the statue doesn't even have a mouth! And this is a lot like Trump because he has none of the requisite skills required to handle the Pres...

Dreamers are Asleep You know, as I get older, I keep losing my dreamers.  They used to be all around me but now they're gone.  My people are still around me but many of them can't really imagine themselves as superheroes anymore.  As the person who's gonna change it all and save the world. Naively, that's me - a motherfucking superhero. I mean, I've had my doubts about who I am many times.  But the more I think about it, the more I realize who I am and what I'm supposed to do.  I'm supposed to get fucked up occasionally and occasionally fuck up but mostly, I'm supposed to change the world. I have another consistent dreamer in my life.  He's in the inner circle, you know?  He's a motherfucking superhero too.  Oh, don't get it wrong... I'm surrounded by superheroes in my world, it's just that most of em don't realize it. When we were kids, we were all superheroes though - and we all knew it.  We knew we would be the hero, or the pri...

Change my Mind Let’s be honest, it’ll be hard for any of you to change my mind.  I mean, that’s the way it is, isn’t it?  We believe what we believe at the time we believe it and it’ll take a shift in the way we see the world to make us change our minds. But I’m opening the door and promising I’ll try.  Will you? Race is an insignificant difference between people much like height, hair color, eye color, or propensity for cancer.  You’re born with it, you can’t erase it, and ultimately it relates to very little in your life... until it does. See, some people found it a useful tool.  Populations were branded with a race that then determined a whole collection of rights, privileges, suffering, or destinies.   “In Virginia in the 1600s, Anthony Johnson secured his freedom from indentured servitude, acquired land, and became a respected member of his community. Elizabeth Key successfully appealed to the colony’s legal system to set her free after she had be...

Teaching The Grind I spend far too much time trying to avoid, or climb out of, feeling crappy about teaching. I love the job, I really do, but there are so many days (too many?) where I really want to be pursuing my personal interests.  I also want to be helping the students pursue theirs, and learning new things together.  I actually enjoy just about every day that I show up there but there is this persistent feeling that I am not making much of a difference to them or even for myself in my own life.  That the system of teaching that I entered to change is, if anything, bolstered by my work. My personal children go to (and went) the school system that I teach in, so, I cannot retire - yet.  But that’s the thing, isn’t it?  Whatever job we do, and whatever we think about it, it pays the bills.  After many years of teaching, I have a decent salary and good benefits.  Do I give up my home and entire lifestyle?  Do I leave my kids straddled with impe...

Here I am crying again. It apparently happens to people more and more as they get older. They get more emotional. Is that true? I don’t know. But it’s true for me.  When I was a kid, like everyone else, I watched TV, read books and comics, and went to the movies. And in all of those spaces, my mind was slowly trained to believe that the US is good. Not perfect. Not without some really disgusting history, but striving to be something good. While the whole world divides into ethnicities and races, we keep trying to live together. While the world flirts with dictators and fascists, the US defeats them and expands freedom more and more, year by year. And when things are dark, and scary - hope, or a hero, will show up and guide us through it. For the world, that is often the beacon of light atop Lady Liberty or food and supplies stamped Made in the USA, or a tank with the Stars and Stripes coming to liberate them from tyranny. It’s not the whole story of the US, to be sure. It i...