Just For Today...

One of the most surprising, delightful, and certainly humbling aspects of my experience with this blog is that it enjoys a world-wide readership.  Last December while staring at  the "Start Your Own Blog" page, as my nervous fingers hit the 'send' button, I could never have guessed that soon people in Qatar and Tunisia, and Tajikistan would be reading what I had to say.

To my International visitors, I wish to say that I am honored by your presence and hope you enjoy what you find.  And just for today, I ask your indulgence while I specifically address the readers here in the United States.

Though I was born to live in Hollywood and have traveled the world, I did spend my childhood, adolescence and young adulthood in Washington DC, and thus, am a true blue, through and through American.  

I love this country so completely, that there are times that I hate some of the things that go on here.  Like when I see the beautiful contents of this "Great Melting Pot" attempting to be put through a strainer, or when I must sadly concede that "...with Liberty and Justice for All." is really just a pretty and somewhat poetic phrase.

There is, however one thing that no matter how privileged/underprivileged you are; regardless if you are learned or an eighth grade drop-out; cannot be taken away from any of us:  our voting rights.  They were more hard won and took a lot longer for some of us than others, but we all have them now.  I can think of no more effective way to spit in the face of the pride that was felt by the huge turnout of the last election than to meet this one with a defeatist's apathy.

If you were planning to skip it this time around, please, please reconsider.

Attending the HUAC hearings, uninvited, was The Committee For The First Amendment, 1947.  Members included Myrna Loy, John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Henry Fonda, Gene Kelly, John Garfield, William Wyler, Edward G. Robinson, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Dorothy Dandridge, Jane Wyatt, Ira Gershwin, Billy Wilder, Sterling Hayden, June Havoc, Evelyn Keyes, Marsha Hunt, Groucho Marx, Lucille Ball, Danny Kaye, Lena Horne, and Frank Sinatra.