When I started my day, I wasn’t looking for a barometer on homophobia in this country, but I found out anyway. During a lull in the work day I was asked about my weekend plans, to which I had to make a calculated decision: do I tell her I’m going to Pride? I felt almost, ‘closeted’ in my heterosexual support of the movement, but it’s 2023 right?

‘I’m going to Pride with my roommate and his friend.’ When I reflected on the blank stare that followed, I thought, ‘I might as well have told her I was walking on the sun.’ That last part was just to get the Smashmouth clicks, but like the song that has aged over 25 years, so was the viewpoint that followed. At least the song has aged pretty well, the response has not, but it played like classic rock radio to my catholic upbringing.

I said, ‘The LGBTQ festival that’s downtown (Columbus), I think at Goodale Park.’ The very much ‘in the workplace’ response was triggered by the letters and a pretty horrifying diatribe followed. Luckily, my long history of proximity to religious bigotry prepared me for the vibrating bullet points. Do you know how the right keeps saying we are exaggerating and overreacting when we talk about how backward the rural areas of this country can be? We really, really, are not. This story takes place 27 miles West of I-270.

First there was the ceremonial mocking of the letters, ‘LBGTQ…H, R, I…whatever, why do they have a whole month? I mean what about veterans? They only get one day!’ Followed closely by, ‘what people do in their bedrooms, they need to keep it there.’ Eloquently transitioned into how, ‘wrong’ and ‘gross’ They are. A few more tropes were repeated and despite the younger girl in the cubicle next to me trying to reason with her, no avail. I have to give her credit for turning to me at the end and adding, ‘not like, you Justin’ to the end of it.

This kind of overt homophobia with no recourse is something that has bothered me personally for a long time, and this level of stupidity stunned me today. My face was beet red, I could feel it, but I didn’t stop her because it served no purpose and in an unrelated matter she won’t be in that desk by next week. Good riddance, but needless to say I didn’t have the time of my life today.

The thing is I know she’s not the only one, there are so many people who wrongfully conflate this type of speech as, ‘telling it how it is’ or ‘not being politically correct’ It’s not! It’s hateful to an entire group of people who just want to love each other for who they are. It is also a completely unacceptable thing to speak so openly about at work in this day and age, conservatives you aren’t being ‘silenced’ you are being corrected. Wear your colors with pride this month, and every month, whatever the color is, whoever you love, whoever you are.

‘Why did he take it with his left?!’ Andrew exclaimed after a FIFA video game player missed a shot early on in life as I recall. To which his father could not believe that he knew the dominant foot of the player taking the shot in something so insignificant as a game. The semester I lived with him, we played more games of FIFA soccer than could be approved of by the FDA, CDC, FBI, or anyone really. Liverpool vs. Chelsea, his relentless Frank Lampard attack against my Steven Gerrard counter-attack, he would play guys out of position because it would affect me. ‘Heady’ in the best way.

When we weren’t screaming obscenities at each other about soccer that semester, we were making our own Guitar Hero songs as a prologue to our future band years. I bought the Squire Bullet guitar I later sold to him that semester to teach myself how to play. We still have the best cover of The Who’s, ‘Baba O’Riley’ on YouTube. More on that in a moment, but we were from the beginning in it for the love of music, and as long as there was another beer within arm’s reach the chords kept playing.

Andrew moved on to Ohio Northern University and I had a guest pass to the, ‘Delphos House’ there. A more likable group you could not put together organically, by sheer force of beer pong and will, they persevered. One of the house’s favorite drinking games was, ‘Pop Culture.’ Beautiful in its simplicity and everyone could bring something to the table and play, really the way we all felt about each other and life at the time. Like Maya Angelou said, ‘people will forget what you said at the Ada house, people will forget what you did at the Ada house, but people will never forget the way the Ada house made them feel.’

Going back to soccer again, I have to mention this memory to balance this with what comes later on the Chelsea front. The 2007/08 UEFA Champions League Final, the, ‘Super Bowl’ of soccer was played between my Manchester United, and his Chelsea. We watched it together, agonizingly, to its’ post 120 minute conclusion. My recollection is when it got to the penalty shootout, we both were on our knees, hiding behind the couch, so afraid of watching the result. The penalties went in my favor 6-5 for Manchester United, despite a missed one by Andrew favorite Christiano Ronaldo. Glory, Glory Man United!

Moving on, by senior year, Mark, Geoff, Andrew, Kurt and I were the band Disagreeable Henry. The beer pong room was requisitioned to be the rehearsal room, and as Mark insisted, we got songs, ‘polished.’ We played two shows at Little Mexico in Ada, but the life experiences were in the practice space. While the others were working a few things out, Mark and I made the tree stump just outside the room our personal Neil Young stage to each other. We never played a Neil Young song as a band, my remembrance of this is the Andrew quote, “‘Heart of Gold’ isn’t a panty peeler.” Despite this, we kept on, ‘Rockin’ in the Free World.’

Going back a bit, the most affectionate name I’ve ever been called is, ‘Dude’ by my best friends after we became obsessed with referencing the movie, ‘The Big Lebowski.’ We called Andrew, ‘Walter’ although he fit the character the least between the three of us, Adam, ‘Donnie’ being the third. Andrew would call me, ‘Duder’ and every manner of the expression for my remembered life after we became fans of the movie and got together to make White Russians and jokes together. We went to Catholic school for 13 years, and despite all the scripture, nothing comes close to the ethos: “Nobody fucks with the Jesus!”

He loved the original Matrix movie, like I did, for both the visual and philosophical reasons. I also tried to introduce him to as many of the great movies I was exploring while I was minoring in film at Toledo. I screened him Sidney Lumet’s, ’12 Angry Men’ and in another existence I hope he was thinking about that jury every time he would have been defending someone as the greatest lawyer in existence. How many dollars per hour? Andrew dollars per hour.

There is nothing I can say to fix the hurt. In the spirit of movies, however, take the quote from the end of, ‘Saving Private Ryan.’ ‘Earn this…earn it.’ His death was like all the heartbreak and loss that went into saving private Ryan in the movie. To move forward without him we must earn this life we are so lucky to have. Everyone should be doing something every day to earn this, this existence that he doesn’t get to have. Not out of guilt mind you, but for the love, for the love of life he so consumed in every way he could. Count us in, 4/4, I wanna play a few more bars for you, brother.

‘Blue is the Colour’ – I wanted to pay tribute to Andrew and his favorite team, Chelsea FC, that I loathe. Their anthem is this wonderful collectivist chant: ‘Blue is the Colour.’ So I continued to tweak this song over the last 10 years and I hope you enjoy.

Let me start where it begins with the, ‘Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act.’ Signed into Florida law April 22, 2022 by the dishonorable governor Ron DeSantis. This is one of the most horrific pieces of Florida legislation in competition with House Bill 839, which bans local governments in Florida from requiring gas stations to add electric car charging stations. Ronnie, I’m not asking you to be progressive, but you are more and more making me wish for climate change to put your state more under water than it already is. Every time the blue states bail you out from a hurricane you seem to have some pretty white boots though.

This week it’s news that publishers of Florida public school textbooks are having their social studies textbooks scrutinized now. As a history major this is extremely troubling to me considering the lengths that these textbook makers are taking to comply with your obscene law. It was reported that a publisher so diluted the story of Rosa Parks and the struggle for civil rights in response to the law to this text: ‘Rosa Parks showed courage. One day, she rode the bus. She was told to move to a different seat. She did not. She did what she believed was right.’

No, I know what you’re thinking, that was a real attempt at complying with Florida’s law to avoid hurting little white kids’ feelings. Should they ever be so bold as to read a real source on the smartphone they possess, imagine their discomfort! Maybe Ronnie Dangerous should have it on the agenda to ban smartphones with internet access from aspiring learners who don’t want to be in the dark until they complete their K-12. Keep in mind, by then, they would probably be irreparably stupid, pregnant, and trying to get on the public assistance you don’t want to provide.

Just for fun, to lighten the mood. Let’s dilute some more history for Florida’s youth. On 8–9 November 1923 in Munich, Germany a young Adolf Hitler during an incident called the, ‘Beer Hall Putsch’ the Nazi leader led an attempted coup, (edit: visit to a government building) and improved his public speaking skills and satisfied his followers with a nice speech. Then from 1939 to 1945 German football clubs had frequent hooligan fights with other clubs of Europe, Paris Saint Germain hooligans didn’t put up much of a fight, but the English Premier League held their own. Eventually, even though the United States didn’t have a league at the time, they allied with FC Lokomotiv Moscow hooligans to calm the Germans down. Adolf Hitler died from a Tylenol overdose.

Maybe you can see how ridiculous that is, but it’s not that different from the previous differentiation from reality. I have had next to no desire to go back to Florida, but I have none now, not even TPC Sawgrass. Taking Disney’s self governance away so you can pay for it? Black Little Mermaid was that traumatizing? It used to be Florida for the no state tax, and I got it, you cheap assholes that don’t want to contribute to society. Now that it means announcing yourself as a racist, ignorant, white supremacist haven, how much do you like Ronnie Dangerous now?

The origins of jazz, the 4/4 timing of most pop music and most famously rock ‘n’ roll are from Congo Square in New Orleans where on Sundays many African Americans would gather to play music together. We owe them all a debt of gratitude for the tremendous art that followed in their footsteps. Robert Johnson famously sold his soul at the crossroads to play guitar the way he did, but he was one of many. There was a great northern migration up the Mississippi to Kansas City and Chicago by these musicians to escape the nightmare of the racist south, but the music spread far wider than that.

The British liked it so much that they perfected it before we had a chance to. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, Queen, Black Sabbath, and dare I say, Oasis. This isn’t an indictment on America, the music is for everyone, but they own the ‘classic rock’ era and it’s not even close. Maybe I was inconsiderate to not include U2, but I didn’t want to escalate tensions in the region, because they are up there too. Where would I be without my first musical memory on State St. being, ‘Where the Streets have No Name.’

The Beatles were something to everyone, because the songs were so damn likable. My perspective on them is skewed by that a bit, and, ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ isn’t my bag. However, when they started doing psychedelics and ‘expanding’ their horizons, that’s when they got me. My favorite Beatles song is, ‘Taxman’ for the Harrison guitar solo, but ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ has to be a close second. When I see things like Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl teaming up to make, ‘Band on the Run’ happen at The White House, I know my music isn’t dead.

‘Mick and the boys makin’ some noise.’ I heard this quip from an old timer at my college job, and upon consideration there isn’t a bigger understatement of their significance that I have ever heard. I wanted to tell him, ‘Gimme Shelter’ but I don’t think he would have gotten the reference. The Rolling Stones have now transcended centuries and are for me, the definition of Rock’n’Roll. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have formed this unshakable core to their band and songwriting with many others swapping in and out. Make no mistake, The Rolling Stones are the greatest rock band of all time.

Every amateur guitarist almost inevitably starts by learning as much of, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ as they can. Jimmy Page is a genius, and it was as if he had a classic riff in every pocket of a pair of jeans with very deep pockets. Led Zeppelin is an institution in rock and will be forever. The talent level of every member of the band may never be matched again, even in so called, ‘super groups.’ ‘Over the Hills and Far Away’ is my favorite of their songs, but there are at least 15 more that you might change your road speed or volume due to the induced adrenaline.

I’ve seen it written that, ‘My Generation’ is the most covered song of all time and I’m not surprised. Released in 1965, it has had a few generations to resonate with. The Who, and by the way, what a great name. The Who were the loudest and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ is classic anthem of protest that is sometimes mis-interpreted as a conservative statement. ‘YEAH!’ There just isn’t anything like that scream anymore. We used to play, ‘Baba O’Riley’ in our college band, so the memory will never leave me of replicating that Daltrey/Townsend magic.

This is not an anti-American post, merely a statement of fact that when it comes to Rock’n’Roll, we have to give it to the British. It’s like the Italians with food, or the French with dropping rifles, sometimes you just have to stand in amazement and not hate the greatest. The best thing that any of this gave me was the influence that made Oasis, and Noel Gallagher, so I could pick up a guitar and mess about myself. As he says, ‘We’re All Part of the Masterplan.’

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My dad always used to talk about Muhammad Ali, and the way he was the biggest thing in the world of sports. I have watched most of the fights, and recognize the social impact he had as well and I would just love to see him fight Tyson one time. He also had Jack Nicklaus to enjoy for all of those majors on Sundays and I don’t want to discount him. I just want to take a look at my two, that I’ve been so lucky to have witnessed. I have seen no greater in my existence in sports than Tiger Woods and LeBron James. Nobody has made my sports life better than these two phenoms.

I have been a golf nerd for my entire life, so I was the only grade schooler I knew watching Tiger Woods win amateur title after amateur title whenever it was on television. I knew I would never play like him, but he was mesmerizing to watch from the very beginning. Early on with the Nike sponsorship and campaigns I remember my mom saying that one of her students after significant improvement and killing a test, turned it over and wrote, ‘I am Tiger Woods’ on the back from the ads. There has never been a greater democratization of the game of golf than when Tiger made everyone want to play.

My high school went to state one of the years that LeBron and company were also involved, and I remember watching their game from the hotel in the morning before ours. He has also been there for me throughout my life, and I want to dispel something that has been a lifelong stain on our sports history as a fellow Ohioan. There was a hatred for LeBron among Ohio people that I never felt when he left, and it was totally unjustified. Jesse Owens to Jim Brown to LeBron James we should feel lucky to have had any of these legends in Ohio, and LeBron has never, and will never, owe you anything. Enjoy that title Dan Gilbert, you don’t deserve it, and you can shove that letter you wrote up your ignorant ass.

The 1997 Masters win by Tiger was indescribably inspiring, seeing a black man dominate and infuriate a stuck up white sport was that revolutionary moment that is only possible in sports. This couldn’t be more personified than by the real time reaction by fellow player Fuzzy Zoeller at the event, ‘You know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Got it.’ Tiger won by 12 strokes that year and that’s the biggest middle finger you could give all the racists, Radio Raheem would be proud.

I was in Paris when I opened my laptop and saw the news of ‘The Decision.’ I couldn’t have been happier for him to go and play with his friend Wade, and ‘go to college’ as he described it. Those four years in Miami were so much fun to watch, and I don’t wanna hear about some Ray Allen bailout 3, LeBron was that team. Erik Spoelstra may have had the greatest juggling act in NBA history dealing with that group, but he deserves credit too, and is very likable. In the end I just wish they would have won all four years, but I don’t fault LeBron for a thing.

The 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines win, for me, is one of the most heroic victories in all of sport. I would put it up there with Jesse Owens sticking it to Hitler at the Olympics, or the, ‘do you believe in miracles? Yes!’ hockey victory over the Soviets. Tiger walking the long south course with a broken leg to win on arguably golf’s toughest test of the year was heroic. He birdied the final hole on Sunday to force a playoff, meaning he would have to walk another 18 holes on the broken leg to win it on Monday. This was simply a testament to his will to do anything to win, and what any athlete should strive for.

Then last night, LeBron James passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the all time scoring leader with a shot that was eerily reminiscent, from the same spot, of Jordan’s game winner against the Jazz in 1998. There is an argument about all time players to be had, it’s LeBron for me, the fact that he now has the most points ever in the game when he spent most of his career not being a points chaser is astonishing. It’s been a joy to watch these two legends, and seeing them beat Steph Curry and Phil Michelson has been an absolute joy.

“Your old road is rapidly agin’, please get out of the new one, if you can’t lend your hand, for the times they are a-changin.’ 1964, before the moon landing, before Vietnam, Bob Dylan was a musical and lyrical genius and I just want to highlight a few lyrics that over the years have meant something to me. ‘Hurricane’ being another Dylan classic I can’t pass by that ends tragically with, ‘Yes, that’s the story of the Hurricane, but it won’t be over ’til they clear his name, and give him back the time he’s done, put in a prison cell, but one time he coulda been, the champion of the world.’

When you hear that acoustic guitar intro come in on, ‘More Than a Feeling’ I don’t know how you don’t turn up the volume involuntarily. Such an amazing rock song with a memorable guitar solo, but for all the happy sounding chords it’s actually sad, ‘When I’m tired and thinking cold, I hide in my music, forget the day, and dream of a girl I used to know, I closed my eyes and she slipped away.’ The one that got away might be a trope, but it’s not untrue. Boston didn’t leave a mis-spent note on this song, and it’s a great one to wake up to.

The iconic intro to, ‘Wonderwall’ is unmistakable and catchy and beautiful. Whoever Noel Gallagher was writing this song to must have been the MVP of womanhood. The guitar is amazing, but I challenge anyone in my generation to find more romantic lyrics than, ‘because maybe, you’re gonna be the one that saves me, and after all, you’re my wonderwall.’ I know it’s a cliche, but I never tire of playing this song on guitar. The composition is perfection like the film, ‘Casablanca’ and I will enjoy strumming this one to death until my passing.

That guitar intro to, ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ is just something else. From the first second, you are immersed in one of the greatest rock songs of all time. It’s the passionate, protective lyric that makes the song though (in addition to Slash’s fantastic wah-wah solo) ‘She’s got eyes of the bluest skies, as if they thought of rain, I’d hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain.’ That first album was fantastic, and I’m not a fan of them, but this song was a masterpiece. I’ll never be able to play like Slash, but I hope I can write something this meaningful someday.

Catchy guitar intros seem to be a theme here, so Incubus’ ‘Drive’ is no surprise. Their first big hit in the late nineties definitely resonated with me, and Brandon Boyd’s voice and lyrics were unforgettable. ‘Whatever tomorrow brings I’ll be there, with open arms and open eyes yeah.’ How can you not love that? Forget Mike Einziger’s warming acoustic guitar, forget the rest of the song, how can you argue with that line?! They might not have topped this track throughout their career, but I’m so glad they made this one when they did, and you should be too.

I could have picked about five for Foo Fighters, but this is the obvious and forever one. ‘Everlong’ is their best song, and best lyric that Dave Grohl has in his deep catalog of classic ones. ‘If everything could ever feel this real forever, if anything could ever be this good again, the only thing I’ll ever ask of you, you’ve got to promise not to stop when I say when.’ You know what, I’m going to extend this paragraph because, ‘Times Like These’ deserves the recognition too. ‘It’s times like these you learn to live again, it’s times like these you give and give again, it’s times like these you learn to love again, it’s times like these time and time again.’ I know great musicians will keep giving me lyrics to fawn about, so play on.

‘If music be the food of love, play on.’ That’s the Shakespeare quote I would have used for the original iPod campaign that sold me, and it may have worked on a billboard. They used the iconic song, ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’ from the album ‘Get Born’ by the Australian band Jet. I think they made the right choice, because my love of music drove me to spend way too much money on that original iPod generation 3. My thought was, ‘you can put how many songs on there?’ And also, it was the Marilyn Monroe of mp3 players, the clicker wheel, the music game they put on there where you got points based on how quickly you could recognize songs from your library, ‘Some Like it Hot.’

I built PCs with my friends in high school like it was a second job, so any thought of an Apple product back then for any of us was the equivalent of sacrilege. Since we were in Catholic school at the time, that was two counts of sacrilege against me in the same institutional group. When we were all deciding to get our laptops for college, I was incredibly lucky, because Apple had just decided to put Intel processors in their new MacBook. That meant, I could put windows on it too, and hedge my bets. Bet your life I got the most out of that first MacBook and all the creativity possibilities it provided.

After College, after probably some irresponsible ONU student left an iPod Mini at one of the parties, nobody else wanted it so I claimed it. I put a playlist on there from my iTunes and gave it to my young cousin, son of my coolest uncle. Thinking about it now he was so young that when he wrote me a thank you note, it was on three line paper. He said he really liked, ‘More Than a Feeling.’ Recently I found he still has that collection of songs, and without that first inclination to get an iPod, how would that be possible?

There are a lot of conversations about Steve Jobs to be had, I don’t want to get into the weeds about it though, because he was the visionary who made these products happen. Personally, as a nerd, I would give Wozniak far more credit. I say that, like I would give the left tackle credit for making that quarterback’s pass possible. They are in the same band, and The Rolling Stones don’t exist without both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Then came the iPhone, I remember when my cousin had the first one on AT&T because that ancient behemoth somehow secured exclusivity. I got the iPhone 4 as soon as I could when that barbaric arrangement was over. First smartphone, only smartphone. I don’t want to use a marketing slogan because I know the tech, but, ‘It Just Works.’ That’s why I got my parents on the platform, with an iMac almost ten years ago, and the number of tech support calls dropped off considerably.

I achieved what Steve Jobs was dreaming about though, my 110 GB music library in my pocket on my iPhone. Playing guitar into my Mac Mini and recording songs into the abyss. Listening to music based on the shape of my ear with my AirPods Pro like I’ve never heard it before. Typing this sentence on my latest MacBook, something I couldn’t live without since 2006. So when you say Apple is too expensive, or inferior, I don’t need a Jet song to tell you, ‘Think Different.’

‘They haven’t made anything good since Dookie.’ If I had a dime for every time I heard this ignorant trope of the musically stunted I would buy even more Manchester United attire. Not only is this statement untrue, it is laughable in its simplistic absurdity. The Dookie album was no doubt one of the highlights of the 90s with unforgettable classics like, ‘Basket Case’ ‘When I Come Around’ and ‘Welcome to Paradise’ among others. However, one album does not a great band make.

If you need any further testament to the fact that Green Day is in fact a great band, please allow me to evangelize. In 2004, mathematically ten years after Dookie and disproving idiotic claims, ‘American Idiot’ was released to be one of the first seminal albums to Millennials. I was in high school at the time, and this thing was everywhere, uniting all manner of youth across clique lines and something that was palpable socially in a way that only music can be.

For context, it was released in September leading up to the 2004 Bush/Kerry election, and in addition to being a generation defining album it was also one of our first protest statements. The title track screams: ‘Don’t wanna be an American idiot, don’t want a nation under the new media!’ This couldn’t have been more pertinent at the time when Fox News was exploding with Bill O’Riley leading the nauseating march to bring America back to the 1950s Levittown he grew up in. Ah, Levittown, a Long Island residential community with a clause allowing occupancy only to members of the caucasian race.

The title track was amazing, but where this album got its teeth was when ‘Holiday’ became our generation’s ‘Fortunate Son.’ ‘Oh I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies, this is the dawning of the rest of our lives, on holiday!’ With Iraq and Afghanistan flooding every television moment this song spoke to the collective rage against Bush’s flag waving, stay the course, post 9/11 hysteria. I hope George can live with himself, it’s nice that he’s painting now, just like Hitler did.

‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ was another classic that didn’t seem to get old despite radio overplay. I attribute its success to the fact that it is the same chord progression as Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall.’ This was something that Noel Gallagher pointed out jokingly in an interview at the time, but was spot on. The next time you hear someone disparage Green Day for whatever reason, please make a point to tell them ‘Good Riddance.’

I’m not just saying this because I’m dating someone in Chicago, I’m not just saying this because it’s a mind numbingly visual famine of a drive: Indiana sucks. It is as if all intellectual progress stops at the border and doesn’t continue until you pass into one of the bordering states, and keep in mind, one of those is fucking Kentucky.

My route is what I would refer to as connecting the ear-rings of the Midwest, Columbus to Chicago. On the way I was reminded very boldly on a large sign in a farm field that, ‘Jesus is Real.’ Another billboard had a big crossed out circle over the traditional image of the evolutionary progression of species. When I say there were five more evangelical atrocities on my interstate journey, they didn’t get smarter than those.

Let me bite my tongue for a moment, because I have passed by the Purdue University exit 4 times now and stopped once. I have a lot of respect for this institution as I do for Indiana University, but this was my stop: The Wendy’s freestyle machine that has worked everywhere else I’ve ever been, was almost nonfunctional, and the employees said that it was because of the internet speed, in 2022.

When you enter the state you are greeted with: Indiana, ‘The Crossroads of America.’ Except this isn’t the crossroads where you sell your soul to the devil for amazing guitar skills, it’s the crossroads where you get bombarded with bigotry end to end. As soon as you cross the border it is evident that the roads are paved with some sort of inferior asphalt that makes the road noise unbearable. Crank the volume for those Indiana boys on them shitty Indiana nights.

What more can I expect from the state that gave us Mike Pence? What more can I expect from a state where at one point 30% of the male population were members of the Ku Klux Klan? I’m half surprised I didn’t have to present my birth certificate and bible at the border, but I digress. Though I drive through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no hoosier, for you are with me; thy Diet Coke and thy Apple Music comfort me. -Psalm 23:4

As a two time Obama voter and graduate of the Great Recession, I want to give a little perspective on the dream and the reality. America needs a change we can believe in, again. I am grateful for the political band-aid that Joe Biden has put on a fascist-insurrectionist wound, but we need to move toward a more perfect union together.

I don’t agree with all of Bernie Sanders’ ideals, but the only way we can move forward toward a better, more equitable society, is to support more collectivist policies for all Americans. This is coming naturally from more workers trying to unionize, which they absolutely should, but also needs to come from the rest of us millennials who are finally starting to vote.

I think in this new era, we need to demand at minimum a public option on health care, and a system of federally funded community colleges and trade schools for any who wish to attend. No more lip service to the people who scratch and claw for economic security.

It might also be a good idea to turn the green new deal dream into an economical housing new deal. Something for red and blue states and to end homelessness, and promote home ownership. I don’t need to tell you this is unrealistic, it is. Although, when you consider the absurdities of the right and what has happened with the supreme court, let me be clear…it’s up to us.