I have an old friend dating from early New York days. He met his first wife at a Hydra (science fiction club of professionals) meeting held at our apartment on 8th Avenue in Manhattan's Chelsea section. He was tall, very handsome in a Jon Hamm kind of way, a flamenco and classical guitarist, lived on Charles Street in the Village. He and Jay and I became close. Mary, the woman who became his wife, was from Texas. She was 6 feet tall, slim, athletic, and absolutely lovely. She and I became super close.

His name is Steve and I have referred to him before in various posts. My friend, Mary, died of a melanoma diagnosed too late, when she was only 30. Her death affected me deeply. I have never forgotten her and keep her photo on my piano.

Steve came to our house the night Mary died, spent the night, told us he planned to leave the country for a totally different scene in order to heal. He decided to go to Sweden to study math. Steve didn’t know any Swedish. Steve never did things the easy way. He left and was gone a couple of years. He came back and moved to California where he met his second wife and they have been together ever since.

Sometime between those hippie New York days, and the wonderful meeting of minds we had then, Steve became severely right wing. A couple of years ago he was failing mentally with the beginnings of Alzheimers. That seems to have been arrested because now I am getting e mails from him that are coherent and thorough. I am pleased his treatment is working.

He has friends who send him supposedly humorous items designed to inform everyone of how off the wall Democrats are … and he sends them on to me. Here are excerpts from his most recent offering … these are poorly written and reach for each “point” with a gemeralization that is desperate.

***
If a Republican is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church. A Democrat non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.

If a Republican decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. A Democrat demands that the rest of us pay for his.

If a Republican reads this, he'll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.

A Democrat will delete it because he's "offended".
***


I haven’t bothered tilting at Steve a lot but this time I did send him a long E mail in response where I took him to task. I don’t think it will change him, but I feel better having done it. One point I did make and I wonder why I didn’t think of it a lot sooner. In all the time we knew Steve in New York, he did not work. I accepted his daily freedom without wondering where it came from. He worked on his guitar pieces, he hung out, he came over, he partied. When he went to Sweden, it never occurred to me to wonder where he got the money. It is obvious now that he inherited it from his mother who was a very successful artist (Google Clare E. Newberry – she painted cats). Mary also had an inheritance from her father, who invented the odor used in kitchen gas to alert one that it’s on. She no doubt left her inheritance to Steve as well. How easy it is for the monied to think they are doing okay without help so why shouldn’t everyone. They don’t even see that they don’t need help because they have been unusually fortunate.

Meanwhile, I don’t get e mails from progressives, liberals and Democrats, humorous or otherwise, describing how infantile, stupid, out of touch and idiotic, self-involved and pathetic the right wing is. If you know of any, send them on.

xx from the boonies, Teal