JPPENS

                               PRIDE MONTH is the time for me to once again answer so many folks who have asked, why is it so important for gay people to come out of "their closets", to parade and shout...  because it is a designated time for a community of people who have been throughout history told and treated as though we were less than, not equal to...   As the LGBT+ community and other marginalized groups continue to see hate and violence escalate in this country,  I want to call to your attention the frightening historical records of what America actually took part in when the war camps in Germany, particularly Dachau, were finally liberated. When members of the camps were liberated, past criminals included, those who had been identified by the pink and black triangles marking them as "homosexuals, inverts and transvestites" were sent to prisons in keeping with the German law which...

This Memorial Day we must continue to see, hear, read and digest it all...the barrage of hate, discrimination and money grabbing that is happening before our eyes because our Congress, Senate and Supreme Court are fearful of one person. We as humans can not turn our backs, become complacent just because they are wearing us out...this is what they want us to do...they want us to be so tired of their trash that we just shut up and go away...we have to SPEAK UP, STAND UP, PROTEST, WRITE to our elected officials so they will indeed fear coming home to face the people who elected them...On this Memorial Day we need to read our history, remember our dead and fight this epidemic of hate and discrimination. NO ONE IS ANY BETTER THAN ANY ONE human and this insanity of inhumanity needs to be stopped. Quiet, tired and worn out are no excuses folks...please do not give up, we are the ones that can make his approval ratings fall and we know how that really defeats him. We are worth the fight, our...

 We see, we hear, we read, we feel, we taste, we chew, we spew and we hope... We shout, we yell, we swear, we hurt, we throw, we cry, we try, we slam and we hope... We listen, we care, we feed, we cover, we dream, we call, we write, we fight, we believe, we hug, we love and we hope... and we hope... and we hope... We hang on to it, we trust it, we wear it, we smell it, we survive with it, we reach for it...  It is ours, no one can take it, no one can kill it... Hope lives... In our souls, our minds, our hearts... We own it and share it... Through hugs, through care... The POWER of HOPE, the POWER of HUGS  will get us through the POWER of HELL...

                                       Maybe I look at life differently because I was trained in teaching motor skills and my graduate work was in observation and evaluation but I know for sure that things I see and witness around me are seen through these paradigms.  Having been a coach and teacher of young women and men I know the skills and wanting needed to master any movement to become the best player of whatever athletic event one chooses; to be part of a team is in and of itself I think one of the best paved highways for a person to learn about themselves, their place in their world and the acknowledgement that teams are called teams because it can't be done alone. Being motivated to work hard and learning real discipline for not only yourself but for the good of others as well is huge in my book. Coaches live and work in the preseason, the season, post season and then preppin...

Adult lives are filled with work, kids and their lives, adult plans, family, grocery shopping, cooking, worries, gatherings, date nights, bedtimes, appointments, alarm clocks and the list goes on... It seemed there was always a struggle to find the time... until the loss of people we treasured stopped our regular hurried routines; took our breath away, at least until we could find that place to store our grief and then attempt to move back into our hectic lives.  That loss, that memory of that person who filled our hearts has always, I believe, left a shadow over our hearts.  Heart shadows have no limits, no magic number, there is always room for more it seems still leaving room for beats.  The other day I was pumping gas and the fueling station had music playing outside over the bays of vehicles; a familiar song came on that stopped my hand squeeze on the hose nozzle. The immediate visual memory of that dear person who had passed was as palpable as if I had just learned ...

...a volatile and difficult issue to discuss and to elucidate. Why is this issue so emotional and so polarizing? People fear what they don't understand so a world of phobias exist...discrimination at every level and of every kind. People that are different than those who view them... religious indoctrination... A lack of appropriate education pertaining to understanding labels like  Bisexual/ Gay/ Lesbian/ Transgender/ Queer/Pansexual/ Non-binary and Transvestite to name a few.  It is  important to know that not all transgendered people are gay. Gay is not synonymous with all of these labels, being different is. These topics cannot be discussed without mentioning the word " SEX " and once that word is read or spoken most people's minds immediately go somewhere else.  Put " sex " and "sports" in the same dialogue and it's volcanic!  Highly combustible words elicit strong emotional convictions. This is why it is so polarizing.  Let me first say t...