Happy New Year, everybody!

I’m posting this with a great deal of trepidation, wondering what I may be letting myself in for if it takes off; I mean, c’mon. . . I’m a guitar player, not a political activist, but things in our country have been going South so quickly, that I just can’t stand it!  I guess I can always call it quits and just climb back into the sound hole of the guitar, if things get too crazy, so. . .

You may be wondering why I called this blog, “Making Waves”, so let me tell you that I actually hope to accomplish something with it, starting out by tossing a pebble into this huge pond that we call the internet and seeing if ripples can turn into waves.  It will, hopefully, be concise (taking no longer than 10 minutes, at the most, to read), and posted once a week on Monday, and covering various things that I’m interested in: music, motorcycles, movies, books, photography, etc, but some part of it will almost always touch on politics, and that’s where I’m starting.

I don’t know that there is any way that we can change the two party system; with the electoral college, the 2 parties have pretty well locked things up.  I am a “rabid independent”, because neither party seems to represent me, and chances are that if you vote either a straight Republican or Democratic ticket, you will not appreciate my stated intentions.  However, if you reflect on the changes that have taken place in our nation, over the last 10 years, I don’t understand how you would not want to become involved.  I’m hoping that you will choose to comment (click on the “pencil” button at the bottom of the page) on what I write, or “link” it to one or more of your more thoughtful friends in order to generate some ideas, and more responses.  I am not interested in having people get into a war of words here; that is what led me to leave techsurvivors.net, which I helped to establish and run for 7 years, and which continues without me.  I believe that people are entitled to their opinions, and that “we can disagree without being disagreeable”, and that to accomplish anything, we must work together.

Most of us, I think, will agree that our government, on every level, is severely damaged, if not broken.  The local level is the one that affects our daily life the most, and is the one that we can, individually, affect most directly, but since these issues are regional, I will not attempt to address them.  The only way we can influence our national government is by banding together in a mass large enough that they may  start to pay attention. 

It seems to me, that the overriding concern of all politicians is job security; the day that they take office, is the day they start planning for their next campaign, and how to garner funds for it.  It is up to us, the American public, to threaten their job security, if we wish to have an impact on their thinking and influence the way they vote.  Last year, slightly over 12,000 lobbyists in Washington D.C. spent about $2.5 billion to influence our senators and congressmen/women, so our votes are really the only power we have to influence them.  If we can make them understand that by catering to “special interest” groups, they are endangering their political future, perhaps they will start to work for the good of our nation. 

At the same time that our politicians are heralding the “Arab Spring”, made possible by the social media, are you aware that there are 2 bills (S.O.P.A. and P.I.P.A.)in front of the Congress and Senate that would enable them to control what is said on the internet by taking down web sites such as this one, which may criticize them and the things they do?  The name of the legislation (google it!) sounds good, but the language is so loosely crafted, that many companies, individuals, and, thank God, even some politicians, are now actively working to defeat it

OK, enough of that for now!

Just before the holiday season started, I read a wonderful book, beautifully written by Erin Morgenstern, called, “The Night Circus”, which was kind of whimsical and magical, and just a tad “dark”.  I thought about giving it to a friend who has a 10 year old daughter, but decided to hold off for another year.  For those of you who love to read, I cannot reccomend it highly enough.

On the music front, my newest “discovery” is an English lady named Thea Gilmore, an alto, who writes and performs a range of music that is pretty amazing.  She’s not a very exciting performer, but check her out on YouTube.com, anyway.  For a really exciting performance, by 2 of my favorite musicians, check out:  http://tinyurl.com/6n6nsco  Joe Satriani is a world class guitar player, and you team him up with Grace Potter, an outstanding "new" vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and you get one incredible performance!  As they reach the end of the tune, Grace just "comes undone", and I can almost guarantee, she'll tickle your heartstrings!

Have a great week!