Hey Elizabeth, that is super cool that you're in Washington D.C! If I ever have a chance to do some travelling, D.C. would be high on my list of first choices just because of all the history there. One thing I would love to see is the Smithsonian, and after some Googling I see that the Hirshhorn Museum, which you vistied, is part of the larger Smithsonian complex. That is so cool! Man, I would love to see the Air & Space Museum especially. If by any chance you go there, take a picture of the X-15, lol.
I know you are in D.C. for the Capitol Fest (not sure I have the name right) and I am assuming it is an independent film festival and perhaps "Elemental" is an entry? If so, you will certainly get a great reception for it, as you have already at the other showings. If the D.C. Festival is for something else, I am sure you will post the project. :)
I like the pictures you posted on FB Stories, and especially the one with the doggie. His or her face isn't visible in the photo, but the body type and short blond fur reminded me of my very special dog Trixie, who I had in the 1990s. She was a Lab mix.
Wow, what an incredible time to be in Washington D.C.! Politics aside, it is a very historical time to be there. Have an absolute blast, see as much stuff as you can, and post a ton of pics if you get the chance. :)
I didn't watch a movie tonight because Grimsley came over. We walked over to CSUN as we have been doing and hung out at the business center food court, closed and empty on a Friday night. He wanted to play me some bootleg cassettes of some local bands he likes, but mostly the talk was of the news, which is unavoidable nowdays, and as far as I am concerned we should not avoid it, though I try not to harp on it too much here at the blog because we've got CNN and MSNBC for that purpose.
I am several chapters into Bill Clinton's book with James Patterson, "The President Is Missing", and it hits me in a visceral way because it is written as a first-person narrative, with the President telling the story as it is happening, and for me, it strikes me as being the story (or one story) of what I will call The Real Bill Clinton. It brings out the personality we witnessed in 1989, those of us who were present, and the narrative also demonstrates the kind of situations a President must sometimes deal with, and how, in a best case scenario when we have an extremely competent President, how he must be part James Bond, not only smart and administrative but also tough as nails and tactical and ready to take on the world's worst people.
This is what we witnessed.
You know how cops have to take on the worst and most violent criminals in a given city? Think of the LAPD and the bad guys they encounter.
Then imagine the threats a President must deal with on a world scale, involving people who are Of The Devil and are willing to use weapons of war or weapons of mass destruction to commit their crimes. In the book, Clinton describes an Immediate Threat Response Team. I may not have that title exactly correct but I am close in any case.
The point is that we saw an Immediate Threat Response Team. That is what we saw at the intersection of Roscoe and Reseda Boulevards on the night of September 1st, 1989, when we saw a helicopter land in that intersection.
I will stop now, because my story is far out, and requires a book's worth of context. I write about it only because it still dominates my life 29 years later. I have never been given any type of closure about what happened, and to this day it has never been acknowledged by anyone besides myself.
I think that, as hard as it has been for me to deal with the silence, it must be equally hard for the other side to deal with the secrecy. It must be a heavy weight on all their backs, to go ever forward in life, pretending that something so unusual and unprecedented never happened.
In "The President Is Missing" I am getting a glimpse into how the National Security apparatus operates, and I am impressed, and again it feels familiar because I know The Real Bill Clinton.
But I also feel left out in the cold, because nobody has given a hoot about me in all these 29 years. As I have said, the criminals in 1989 fared better than I did, as did my friends who were on the bad side but at least know what happened and why. Me, I know almost nothing.
To sum up, I have a saying I repeat to myself on occasion. I hate to say this saying because I know that there are some situations that must be kept secret for National Security reasons. But in 1989, when I was involved in a National Security situation, I was at the center of that situation, and still I have been left out in the darkness, left out in the cold.
And so my saying, to the people who left me out in the cold, is this:
"You guys are not Marine Corps".
I say that to myself, to remind me that how I have been treated is profoundly wrong, whether it be by the CIA, or whomever, and whether it be for National Security reasons or whatever excuse is given.
"You Guys are not Marine Corps".
Because Marines would never leave a person behind, would never treat a comrade with deception, would never ignore for three decades the pleas of a victim of a shared circumstance, one whom they know is there, and is asking for assistance, and is looking to them for answers.
Marines would never ignore a person in such a circumstance, because Marines don't leave people behind to twist in the wind. Their credo is "Semper Fi", always faithful.
So yeah, sorry all of you National Security guys and gals, including my friends at the CIA.
I like and admire you, and I appreciate what you do for this country, but.....
You Guys are not Marine Corps.
You aren't even close. /////
See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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