A short hurricane story.

Remembering Floyd

Dateline Cleburne TX: August 2008.

Once upon a time there was a hurricane named Floyd.

It was a giant storm that was going to erase Florida in a torrent of wind and rain.

I was in Baltimore when Floyd decided to spare Florida and come roaring ashore on the Jersey coast.

I was one of the last trucks to pass over the Key bridge before it was shut down. The wind was howling a duet with the cables of the bridge. The sea was boiling. Yes the sea does boil in a hurricane.

Physics gone wild.

I spent a white knuckle evening driving from Baltimore to Albany NY. Trees kept blowing onto the road flying out of the darkness into the beams of my headlamps.

By the time I slowly plodded through the sheets of rain poor Albany was flooded. The downtown streets were rivers of white water and garbage. The night was furious. Every object was alive dancing or straining in the wind.

Most of the streets were blocked off but there were no police to be found. In fact i was the only person out on the road. Almost.

At the top of a hill by a barricade was a man in a yellow slicker and rubber boots. He looked like a public works official.

I pulled over to ask him which way was safe to go. The man stepped out of the flooding street onto my running board and leaned in my window. "what do you want?" he asked. "I need to know how to get to the bottom of the hill safely". He looked at me and cocked his head. "What do you need?"

Hmm... what an odd time for philosophical questions I thought.

Then I noticed that even though it was dark, in the middle of a torrential rain, the public works man was wearing pitch black sunglasses."What are you looking for?"

Duh. Man was I astounded by the guys work ethic. Neither wind nor rain nor dark of night or even a full blown hurricane was going to stop this friendly neighborhood dope man.

I thanked him for his concern but assured him all i needed was safe passage to the bottom of the hill

Pride and things we love. A short story.

I'd rather talk about puppies or even cranky smelly old beagles that tell you how they really feel by pissing on the bed.
In truth I'd like to spend the next ten minutes gushing about the cutest little red cheeked Russian ever to set foot on a pitch. Arshavin is so cute I want to put him in my pocket and carry him pulling him out now and then to tussle his hair and watch him run around on his magic feet.
I know what you're thinking, "Is he Gay?"
No, but that does bring us to today's story........

On Saturday I heard a news report from Riverside California about rallies the National Socialists (That's NAZIS for you kids playing along at home) are having and the violence that is breaking out in the dusty streets of that town.
The NAZIS are showing up in full uniform along with swastika flags and taking back their White Pride from the Mud people, Jews, Catholics, Queers and Commies.

Now I'm all for White Pride, hell I thought that was the whole idea behind Oktoberfest , Morris dancing, hockey, and yodeling in general. We do have our moments. Mmmm sausages and sauerkraut.

So I'm not really sure these nimrods quite understand the concept of pride. Hard to be proud when you're shouting how much you hate everyone, but hey that's just me.

The story did remind me of a great day in Atlanta back around 1988.
One spring day the Grand Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and a half dozen of his minions decided to pay a visit to the Little Five Points neighborhood.
L5P was a perfect spot for a rally. The community was home to Hippies, Punks and Queers. A receptive audience for some down home hateful condemnation.

The Wizard had broken out his finest silky robe which was something you just didn't see that much anymore. His cohorts were dressed in snappy looking fatigues and had truncheons strapped in their belts.

In L5P you never knew how people would react on a given day. One day a person could get mugged in broad daylight and people would walk right by the stick up without pause. On another day folks would come storming to your aid like pissed off Amish farmers.

This day the"Farmers" were pissed. Before the klan could unfurl the Stars and Bars an angry mob had pinned them up against the liquor store.
By the time Mr. Wizard started his spiel the parking lot was full of hundreds of people who were not taking kindly to his line of reasoning.
The whole scene was about to turn violent which is what the baton wielding klansmen were waiting for. And then came Benjamin.

Ben was our own little William Burroughs. Heroin thin, with a gravel voice and a whit that comes from a dark journey that one takes alone leaving the rest of us behind in the comfort of the known world.
"I LOVE YOUR DRESS!" Ben screamed this above all the shouting and it was as if a bomb had gone off. Everyone froze on on the improbable words.
"OHH, HOW SILKY. Oh, I WANT YOUR DRESS. IT MAKES ME HORNY JUST LOOKING AT YOU IN IT. DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL HORNY?
The crowd started to howl with laughter which fueled Ben's propositions towards the Grand Wizard. It was about the time Ben was screaming his desire for hot oral sex that the klan knew they were in over their heads.
Angry mobs were one thing but a flaming homosexual in heat was way past their frame of reference. They scurried to their truck completely humiliated. NAZI's and the Klan don't do well with laughter. Hmm, who knew?

So it's moral time..... As much as I despise NAZIS and Supremacists in general they do have a constitutional right to say what they want. Hell they even have the right to marry, breed and raise little NAZIS.
Ironic that Ben does not enjoy these same rights because he likes men.

Because of his sexual orientation he is marginalized by both Church and State and in some states the general public on election day.
I don't get it. We will die for the rights of hateful shits that would love to exterminate marginalized citizens given half the chance but deny basic human rights to people because of who they love. Weird.You can hate anyone but you have to be careful of who you love. Welcome to Crazy World.