Read at your own risk

Land of the free? The last two decades or so politically have been interesting, to say the least. There has also been a lot of clamoring about how the U.S. is this thing or that thing. Depending on where you stand in the political arena that thing is not generally the same. One sameness that seems to come up, regardless where you are politically is freedom. Freedom, we are all supposed to be granted, not by the governing body but, by a higher power. That we are innately supposed to be free as part of the natural order of things, or at least that is what is on the bill. Just so it’s clear the discussion isn’t about free from cost, because ain’t nothing free here. The economic woes of the nation are not the subject, just the concept of being and living freely. The very concept of this nation was founded in freedom. Freedom from oppression, freedom from tyranny, freedom to be independent. We all seem to agree the U.S. is a nation of freedoms. That is unless you are on the wrong side of the equation. As much as we claim to be a beacon of freedom, we are also a nation which marginalizes and disenfranchises so many of our people. From the very beginning, only land owners and most typically only males were truly considered citizens and protected fully by the laws, everyone else was literally chattel; the property of someone. Some more literally than others. Slowly, and at nearly glacial speed, rights and “freedoms” have been expanded to include more and more people but not everyone. Nearly two and half centuries have past and we are still marginalizing whole groups of people. This is not talking about immigration or how we treat people in other countries. This is right in every town, burg, borough, village and city. These are our citizens, these are “WE THE PEOPLE” being treated unfairly and unjustly. Take some time and think about our history, with the presumption there is some uniformity in how our nation has risen and how those living here have been treated. Every decade and generation there are groups or people who should be protected under the law and have freedoms, but they are denied those rights and freedoms, with vigor. The native peoples of this land can certainly site so many infringements on their rights and freedoms, up to and including this last half decade. We ignore the treaties, marginalize their culture, and we are still usurping their lands. No, we don’t send the cavalry raiding into their settlements any longer…well we still sort of do that, but we only fire rubber bullets and tear gas now. The racial problems in this country have improved considerably but racism is alive and well in the land of the free. If you are not a white Christian, in most of this nation, you have known bigotry, hate, belittling, cruelty and injustice as some point in your lifetime. It may even be going on right now. Brown v. Board of Education should have seen the end of segregation, but it still exists. The Civil Rights movement should have ended disparity in the public entities, however systemic racism is built in to the culture, we do not even recognize the advantages of not being black, brown, etc. Deny it all you want. We are not a harmonious society to non-white people. Depending on when your people came here only certain white people were acceptable, but those were largely based in religious reason, Catholics and Jewish people need not apply. In 2020 women will have been allowed to vote for 100 years, but there are still patriarchal limits on how much freedom women should have in this nation. Yes, we are light years ahead of other places in the world and where we were. Yet women are denied fair treatment daily. Just read the news of the day. How does some doctor abuse young girls on the US Gymnastics Team for decades, unless there is a culture in place that women are considered to be lesser in our society. How is it in the nation that is supposed to be the land of the free that so much oppression is still going on. There is no apology from me for saying what I have said, or any room for debate. We are not the nation we pretend to be. Yes, we are better than so many other places but being better isn’t enough if we are going to beat our chests and stomp our feet and say we are free, shouldn’t all of us be free. Shouldn’t we strive to be the model for the rest of the world to follow. Yet we still see race, religion, gender, sexual identity and so many other things as disqualifiers to rights and freedom not to outsiders but with our citizens. Our Independence Day is coming up. A day we choose to celebrate the grandness of our experiment in a fair and representative governance of the people, by the people. This year think about how much work we still have left to do before we really have a nation which is free. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it is your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it is not your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, follow, or give a like. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Unpopular Opinion: Star Wars films aren't really that good

Unpopular Opinion: Star Wars films aren’t really all that good. Love it, hate it, or somewhere in between, there is no denying Star Wars is a part of the popular culture. The films are at the very least entertaining, but they aren’t really good stories. There is an argument to be made because the films have stirred the imagination of thousands of people, who have created an extended universe but that doesn’t make the films good stories. Good things were inspired by the films, yes but not so much with the story in the films. Telling a good story makes you care about what happens to the characters and/or their cause but I don’t get that sense with Star Wars. I don’t know enough about any of the characters to care about them or what they are trying to accomplish. Watching the story there is never the sense that the characters are in any real danger, ever and part of that is because the story is out of order. You know if someone is in a film later in the time line they will live, no drama. Telling a story out of order is fine and it works sometimes but other times it doesn’t. It seems to be working in West World and it worked in Pulp Fiction, but with Star Wars it seems to be missing beats. Star Wars is 4, 5, 6, then 1, 2, 3, then 7, then Rouge One happens just before 4, then 8, and now with Solo probably before 1, but maybe not, certainly before 2. If you add in all the animated series stuff going on between the end of 1 and the start of 3 there is a lot of Star Wars on film. Before I go further, I will say I enjoy seeing the Star Wars films, they are entertaining but that is really about all. They serve their purpose as entertainment. As I said before I don’t know enough to care for any of the characters or their causes. The film stories aren’t really particularly compelling, they start out suddenly in the lives of characters and you are expected to bond with them instantly and care if something happens but it isn’t there. Star Wars started this, meh people die attitude in the first movie. Obi Wan is vaporized I guess by Darth Vader chopping him in half. This seems to really befuddle the great dark force user. He is all WTF that hasn’t ever happened before tapping his foot on the cloak like are you dead or what. Other than Luke screaming No, everyone just is like meh. Vader is supposed to be the most feared, ruthless person in the galaxy but you never really get that sense about him, except once in Rogue One. Vader is a BAMF in that last scene, otherwise he is dark and raspy but not menacing, sure he choked that one dude from a few feet away but you never get the sense that he killed a bunch of little kids. Which, he totally did. It’s the same with all the bad guys they just aren’t threatening. Which is a fault of the entire franchise, I never had any feelings good or bad about any of the characters. There is no real sense they may not succeed. Everyone who dies is either, a Wilhelm Scream death in the back ground or it’s a main character dying in an expected way. Even when they are about to die it is so telegraphed I’m surprised there isn’t a western union fee attached to the ticket cost. If you didn’t see Han dying in 7, were you even watching the film. The stories are so recycled within the franchise. Seriously if there is another planet killer base in the series…I don’t know … What they holy fuck, the empire can take over a whole star system but can’t seem to come up with a better way to spend their military resources. 4 is really the only good film and Lucas recut it so much afterward it is a mess as well. I don’t really get why people are so bent out of shape and ranting stuff like; Disney is ruining Star Wars, Kathleen Kennedy is the worst person in the world, that Rian guy sucks and J. J. Abrams is a hack. I agree they haven’t made the franchise any better but relax it was always mediocre at best, these people haven’t really made it any worse. It’s just a movie people or it is just a bunch of movies it’s entertainment be entertained. Solo at least settles the who shot first argument. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it is your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it is not your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, follow, or give a like. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Don't dream it, be it

Seeing beyond our own circle, our own struggle, our own circumstances takes effort. Effort most of us are not willing to give, because even when you make the effort to see beyond our own day in and day out, it does not last because our default is what about me, what about mine. That does not make any of us bad, unmindful, selfish or cruel. It does make us human though. The effort to see is hard and that is only one thing, you have, to hear the real problems and do the right thing to fix the problems. We look but not for very long and then our own issues need tending. Even well-meaning people only see there is a problem, and mostly we assume because we don’t have that, fill in the blank, problem we think we know how to fix that problem. Our most common answers are to throw money at the problem or to blame the person with the problem for their condition. Now we can look away again, or into our own circumstances with some satisfaction that we care, or it is not our problem. We don’t even look at our own problems how we should, we shift blame or site this set of circumstances or bad luck as the cause but never own our actions. We bemoan It’s not fair. This is true even god will tell you, it is not fair that is the default for life. The world does not care if you live or die from the poorest of the poor to the wealthiest of the wealthy. The world will shrug off your passing like the dust on the wind. For any of us to have any amount of success we have, to work together. If we all were just out for ourselves there would be anarchy and chaos. History is filled to the choking point with the stories of those who are able, taking what they want from those who can not defend themselves. Most of us end up on the losing end of that scenario. No matter how bad ass you think you are. Many of the solutions we put in place to off set the things we see, don’t address the problems because we don’t listen. We think we know better because it isn’t our problem. When the solution fails we can blame those who have the problem for it and move on satisfied in the idea that we have done something. Hunger and Famine in parts of the world most of us will never go, we can see the problems because some person went and filmed it, overlaid sad music and then told you for just a few cents a day you can make this person’s life better not just that one person their whole family. Buy this pair of shoes and we will send some shoeless kiddo a pair for free. Back to your regularly scheduled drama, guilt free because we “did” something about it. We know we haven’t done anything meaningful, but we can fool ourselves into thinking because we have done something effortless the problem is solved. Out of sight out of mind. It isn’t our fault that there is hunger or famine in the world. There are many reasons why that happens. It isn’t our fault any number of things happen in the world. Life isn’t fair. Even if we try to make it fairer, Life is still not fair. Little children will die, faithful spouses will be cheated on, one person will take advantage of another and the litany of sins cascades like a river swollen after a storm. We are human, and life isn’t fair. Just because life is not fair and we are not without transgressions does not mean we should not try, to not only see but to hear and to do something more than just throw money or blame all the ills of the world on those who live in them. We can do so much more than we do if we only dare enough to dream it and then commit to making it happen. John F. Kennedy said, “I believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshaled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule or managed our resources and our time so as to insure their fulfillment. “These words were spoken about the race to space and the moon. These same words can be set to any problem we face; the opioid crisis, poverty, healthcare, education, guns, immigration, terrorism, racism, and the list can go on. The facts of the matter are that we are too much focused on our own side of the equation for me and mine not for you and yours. Our leaders focus too much on dividing us rather than bringing us together and too much on short sighted bandages rather than long term solutions. History shows us again and again and again. Those at the top can only keep the people at the bottom fighting each other for so long before the sparks set fire to the world. The only question is do we want a violent revolution or do we want a revolution which leads us to a new height for humankind. Dare to dream we are better and then be brave enough to make it real. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it is your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it is not your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, follow, or give a like. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

And looking up I noticed I was late...

Following along with the news today … A familiar chorus of the same meaningless phrases, worn and tired words spilled out everywhere. Words which allow us all to have some comfort in the lies we tell ourselves. You know the ones, like we are good people, and we really do care about our fellow man. Thoughts and prayers… Heroic people in (insert public servant job) … Senseless tragedy … Can’t understand how this can happen… Et al, ad nauseum … I am honestly hard pressed to pick which is worse; the horrific act of the gunman in yet another in an increasing series of unspeakable acts or the lies we tell ourselves after each new horror which is all too soon forgotten and replaced with the next trivial thing to be pissed off about. We are stuck in this demented and psychotic mind set of, “us versus them thinking” and that every issue is some dichotomy of ideas. Everything is either this way or that way and if you aren’t the winner well then you are the loser. One mistake and you are finished there is no forgiving our transgressions. Despite the phrase so many like to mutter on their holy day, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”. How does anyone say it with a straight face? How can anyone honestly say they are living a moral life when most everything we do and say is a lie. So much hypocrisy. The question which just simply baffles me is; How do these things keep happening? We allow them to happen, that is how. We do nothing every time something like this happens and we expect that things will get better. Someone else will do something to change things. Then the hate comes back bubbling in this issue or that one and seething up little by little then there is the next event. More sadness and mutterings about something should be done. Then the bickering we can’t fix the problem now because if we do it while party X is in power then party Y will never get elected again and vice versa. The babbling non- sense that fills the airwaves, internet and printed word all pandering to their side about how bad the other side is at this or that. How bad the plans that the other side make are for this group or that issue. No one in power really wants things to get better because there is no money in it. What the fuck people make your public officials be something more than a rubber stamp for special interest groups and lobbyist. If we bicker and fight and never do anything to really solve problems these things will continue to happen. People will die in the streets, be set on fire on back roads in Mississippi, drug behind pickup trucks in Texas, be left for dead tied to a barbed wire fence in Wyoming, have their eyes torn out and then stabbed, or be gunned down in a movie theater, kindergarten class, open air concert…. When will we finally say … ENOUGH … ENOUGH … ENOUGH … And truly work together. Sadly, I don’t think it will be tomorrow or the next day. Our current leadership represents the very worst of our society all parties not just one, not just at the federal level but all levels. Our media feeds on the hate because it makes them money. Ask yourself, have you had enough of nothing being done. Now ask yourself what have you done to make your street or block just a little better, your schools, your neighborhood, or your town. You don’t even have to get bigger than that. If one person in five hundred of us did something it would make an unbelievable difference. Imagine if 20 percent of us really tried to make a change … what a wonder it would be. Any more than that we would not even recognize our own country anymore it would be that amazing. I have no faith that anyone will do anything because it is too easy to just turn off the noise and forget that tragic stuff and then lie to ourselves the next time it happens Maybe someday we will really be tired of all it… maybe. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

panem at circenses

Here is a thought if you don’t like the NFL or more specifically how some players are acting in the NFL. Don’t watch the NFL. I don’t really care much for the spectacle of professional sport or even for what we call “amateur” sport on TV. So, I don’t watch it not because of the protest because I think it is pointless. It isn’t any more a waste of time than any other TV, so I won’t point fingers. However, I do have to ask why does anyone expect to find great role models or morality or social guidance from an organization whose one and only function is to play a game to make money. Why are you so pissed off that some over paid ball players are protesting? Why? If you don’t like it turn off the TV. I get that we are in “Rome” and that professional sport is a large part of the “arena” there are other things you can be doing rather than getting pissed off at football players. Why are you angry though? They aren’t disrespecting anything by not standing. The flag of the United States is the flag of the nation. It is not the banner for our dead. It isn’t just for our men and women in military uniform past and present. It isn’t a banner for any one party over another. It is for all people who live here in this nation. If standing for our national anthem is the only time you acknowledge those who serve in our military, perhaps that effort might be better spent on a call to your representatives and say something about how poorly we treat our service men and women after they serve in combat. The flag is the banner which represents the collective ideas of a nation. One of the most important is the right to protest and speak out against the country and the government when it is failing some of the citizens, without fear of persecution for speaking out. You need not be in the oppressed group to say, “that thing there, happening to those people is not right, it is not just and it should not be that way”. If you are upset because some football players protest social ills in this country, you are missing the point of why this is a great nation or at least was once better than it is now. You are also free to say that you don’t like what they are doing. However, take a minute and ask why are they doing this? Is there a reason behind there action? Don’t see if the person protesting is impacted by why they are protesting really look at why they are protesting. We don’t have to look that far back in our history to see mobs of people screaming, kicking, punching people of color for sitting at lunch counters asking only to be served food as paying customers or students walking into school houses amid jeers, taunts and threats only for asking to obtain a fair education. We have come a long way since the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, however we are not finished, there are many social wrongs going on in our nation many inspired by hate, racism and intolerance. Yes, there are people of all walks of life who commit crimes, squander the advantages they are afforded by living in this country. Yet there are many who are still locked out of legitimate opportunity because of social injustice, racism, bigotry, sexism, hate and intolerance. The oppressed need champions, people who will stand up (or not stand) and say, what is going on is not right and it needs to change. Peaceful protest need not be performed by those who are most directly impacted by injustice, in many cases those who are the most impacted are not able to protest because it will be worse for them if they do speak up, stand up, or otherwise make themselves more visible to those who hate them. If you are pissed off because someone says, things in this nation are not right for many here, you are really missing the point. However, if you aren’t going to be sitting on your sofa watching football maybe help make your community a better place. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Everyone's a critic

There are a lot of things I would like to be, proverbially when I grow up, however I never really knew I wanted to be them until recently. There are many reasons for that some I can put my finger on and other’s that are more uncertain. The list is far too long to put down and this issue of invisible don would only be a list of things I want to be, there may be something to be learned there as well. Perhaps another time. Onward. The title should lead you to where this rambling verbal path is going but if it has not, I would like to be a tester of things and then talk(write) about my experience with said thing, in other words a critic. This would be the ultimate job. Hell, I would even go to the producers in my own house on wheels. I don’t currently have a house on wheels but in theory if this were my job, I would have my very own traveling yurt. The problem is that everyone seems to be a critic these days and the art of the critic seems to be lost. Mostly people think of being a critic this is spouting on and on about what I did not like about this or that and the open forum of the internet has produced a tsunami of bad vibes and ugly words for everything. There are trolls enough for every bridge no matter how small. The art of being the critic is not just to say oh this sucked and here is why. It is to explain how a product, did or did not meet it’s intended purpose. A film has a purpose to tell a story and to entertain. For example, the film “Star Wars The Force Awakens”, it is certainly entertaining and it tells a story, unfortunately it tells a story we already know. I’m not going to fully review the film here in this issue. The job of the critic is to offer commentary concerning facts about that the film, such as it borrows heavily from episodes four and six for the story and plot lines and how this does or does not impacts the overall entertainment value of the film. The argument can be made that purely from an entertainment standpoint that it is a good film especially for the genre or Fantasy Action Adventure; there is a lot of action and likable / unlikeable characters. But as a film in an ongoing series of stories it does falter in establishing/explaining the world the characters are in, moving the series forward and leaves more questions than answers. The more questions thing can be and is really a good thing in that it paves the way for the next film in the series. Ultimately it is not a horrible film but it is one that is not a great film either, but it does entertain and is a must see if you are going to continue watching the series because it does establish new characters and story arcs. Being the critic means balancing the good and the bad and coming up with a useful analysis of the product to inform the next consumer if they want to invest their money / time with the product. The “This thing sucks and I am unhappy” critical review is all that seems to be out there. Which is less than helpful, because for all I know you are always unhappy and your idea of a good dinner and movie combo is Micky D’s drive through and the director’s cut of “Joe Dirt”. Having useful critical reviews is necessary, especially when you do not have unlimited funds for whatever budget area you are spending your time and money be it housewares, food, or entertainment. If you are going to be a critic about something put some effort in to it. If you are not going to put in the effort go be unhappy elsewhere and stop using up the bandwidth. My adventure as a beer reviewer or critic has really meet this dream job desire thing on some small level but as you may have noticed I have not really been reviewing any lately. I hope to change that soon many things have stood in the way of that but fear not they will be returning. I do not have the time funding to be much of a critic of other things but in the interest of reaching for my dreams and to some degree informing the readership I will review things as I can in a somewhat regular or irregular part of the reemerging of the invisible don writing series. Sponsorships are welcome and encouraged. So, if you would like to fund Invisible Don get in touch with me at the PO Box listed below and I will review your product or just send a post card from your patch of the mudball. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it is your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it is not your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, follow, and or like, depending on where you read this issue. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards

Michael Finnegan

Most of my life I have kept a haphazard journal. Journal is a bit misleading in that you might expect to gain some insight into my life by reading the thoughts put to word, both in paper and digital form, however your expectations would be incorrect. Likely you would arrive at the conclusion that some ordinary guy, living a rather ordinary life put down a lot of random stuff for no distinguishable or meaningful reason. How is that for some inspirational self-affirming internal dialogue. I know and that is the PG version of things. My own debasement is not why I decided to write down my musings though. Too much I have become the consumer of entertainment and relied on the external to stimulate my mind and I have put off diving into my own mind for motivation, inspiration, and entertainment. Too often the dark thoughts spoke too loudly or I just allowed them to push back any desire to produce anything that wasn’t vapid or mindless. Passivity and repetitive things filled the little free time I have in the evenings following work. Phobos and Deimos have stood prominently in the way of my doing anything remotely creative. Plans fell undeveloped and even the encouragement from friends with similar interests lost their weight to move me toward producing anything and easy mindless things came up as alternatives to being creative. I could sense their frustration and my own at this growing apathy. Once before I had let “life” crowd out those things I enjoyed. I say “life” in quotes because it isn’t really the truth it is work which is not what I want my life to be. Life shouldn’t be work, especially my work. It is draining and spirit crushing and there are very few shiny bits in all the dust and grit. I’ve seen the toll it takes on people, those who consumed by their work and have nothing really to look forward to at the end of the day. Sadly, putting work before life is seen as a virtue by much of our society. Being alone hasn’t ever really bothered me because I usually would fill my time with art, stories, poetry, and a few other activities. I’ve shared more (but very little) of my art than my poetry (which is to say hardly at all) and rarely (once maybe twice) have I let anyone read any of my stories and no one has ever read a word of my journals. However, my online writing has been read by a few people. Most of that is censored and veiled so that there is a barrier to knowing me from the words I post. I am not completely an introvert but I share very little in common with extroverts, hence the censoring of the things I write. Language has been a kind of magic to me in that, I believe that words can change the world. The trick is knowing which words and who to speak them too. Unfortunately, too many people use words for the wrong reasons. The abuses of words by others has stifled a lot of the things I would write about. I don’t care to debate things with people in my online writing so I avoid many topics because people don’t care to see another perspective and the art of debate or informative argument is largely lost. The exercise of writing and reading for that matter are dying and I was one of the killers because I had stopped putting words into the world. What I write may not mean much but it is something I enjoy doing and who knows perhaps one day I will let someone read a story, but that means they must be somewhere other than in my mind. When I started my online writing over 15 years ago I mused on how does one begin this journey… with one entry and then another. So now to begin again. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it is your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it is not your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, follow, or give a like. Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, Invisible Don PS 3 / PS4 Gamer Tag: invisible don Invisible Don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015 Send me Post Cards … I love Post Cards