Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Current Events’ Category

The New Face of Evil?

Posted in Biographical, Current Events, Opinion, tagged on February 7, 2010| 2 Comments »

This is Alexa Gonzalez.

She’s 12 years old and attends junior high school in Queens, NY.

She loves her friends, Abby and Faith.

Probably knows every show on the Disney Channel.

You probably wouldn’t guess that she’s a menace to society.  A threat to the very fabric of our civilization.

You see, this past week Alexa was arrested and taken from her school in handcuffs by police.

Drugs, you ask? Bullying?  One of those horrible videotaped girlfights?  Did she stab a teacher?

Worse.

She wrote on her desk.

Terrible things.

I love my friends Abby and Faith and worst of all, Lex was here 2/1/2010.

Then she punctuated the whole bit of obscenity with a lewd symbol– a smiley face.

Omigod!  Monster!

You know, when I heard this the first thing that came to mind is that I would be in prison today for almost anything I did  on a regular basis from the ages of 12 to 16.  Talking during class.  Running in the hallways.  Yelling during lunch.

Actually, I probably should have been in prison for some of the things I did that I won’t mention here but I’m trying to illustrate a point here.

Kids are still kids.  Kids will do goofy, rebellious things.  Our job is not to go insane, not to overreact.

I used to write little stories with illustrations on the tables of a study room a group of friends and I occupied during lunch hours at my school.  They were goofy tall tales of a character I called General Billy Bob Buckles. Not great stuff but they filled the time and satisfied a creative outlet.  Not obscene, although they were far more inflammatory than I love my friends.

But in the end, they were saying the same thing.  Like Lexa was here, I was saying I was here.  It’s that eternal need to be heard, especially when you’re a 12 year old child in a world where you often feel powerless and voiceless.

Now I knew at that time that if I had been caught by someone in authority  (particularly our principal who was very much irked by these stories and whose ire only served to make me want to write even more on the desks)  that I would have been in for trouble.  But the thought that I could have been hauled from the school in cuffs would have seemed ludicrous, beyond belief.  It would have seemed, even to a kid with limited life experience, to have been way out of scale for the crime, especially when so many far worse  crimes were occurring within walking distance.

It seems we have lost scale for we react to many things, this incident just being a highlight.  It feels as though we are teaching these children to be reactionary, to not step back and take measure with a calmer eye and common sense.

And where this lesson leads is far worse than a 12 year old girl writing I love my friends.

Read Full Post »

Last Whistle

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged , , on February 4, 2010| 10 Comments »

Yesterday, I received this photo in an e-mail from my friend, Bill Boland.  It’s a picture he snapped at 8 AM on Tuesday morning of the the steam whistle blowing for the last time at the south side location of the old Corning Glass Works plant in Corning, NY.  For over a hundred years, this whistle has bellowed out over this small city eight times a day, signaling the workers to the different times in the work day.  It was a sound that was part of the background of your life if you lived in any of the many factory towns throughout this country.

Corning has very much been a company town for the last century, and as Corning Glass Works grew so did the local workforce.  But the company, like any big company, evolved.  Corning Glass Works became Corning Inc and  they became part of the global community of high tech firms, opening plants and offices all over the world.

But with this change came the end of most of the local manufacturing, most of it moved to foreign shores.  Gone were many of the blue-collar jobs that supported the community for a century.  It’s a familiar story throughout the country.  The local company that anchors a community becomes larger and eventually finds greener pastures for their factories overseas or across borders, leaving behind a large portion of the locals to scramble  to find new jobs in this new global economy.

To be fair, Corning Inc  still dominates Corning  and has worked hard to uphold its paternal responsibility in the area.  It is still the largest employer in the area and still is responsible for much of the business that flows through all other local businesses.  It invests a  lot of effort in supporting this area and in keeping Corning a vibrant little city that is a fitting home for the headquarters of a global corporation.

But there’s something bittersweet in the last blast of this whistle that has sounded its shrill call over this city for over a century.  It has the feel of a symbolic end to an era that many people in this country remember with fond nostalgia,  especially those who are struggling to find a way to survive and prosper in a new globalized economy.

Read Full Post »

Pandora’s Box

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged , , , on January 22, 2010| 2 Comments »

You know, sometimes you try to practice happiness and it just doesn’t want to work out.

It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions lately, watching the horrors of Haiti on a daily basis.  Too much suffering.  But the outpouring of generosity and aid to this badly shaken country began to raise my spirits and I started to think that maybe the better angels of our national persona will prevail.

But there were two stories in the news yesterday that put a bleak pall over my efforts for sunny optimism.

The first was the bonuses announced for some of the Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs‘ announcement that their bonuses would total 16.2 billion dollars.

$ 16, 200, 000, 000.00

That is enough money to rebuild Haiti, estimated at 10 billion dollars, and still leave them with an incredible 6.2 billion.  It’s enough to pay off the deficits of all the states of the union.

It’s serious coin, folks.  And this is only one company.

I think everyone deserves the opportunity to make as much money as they wish but there seems to be something amiss here, something that gnaws at me.  There’s an obscenity to this bonus amount that I can’t fully explain.  I can’t see the productive part they’re playing  throughout our society that says they deserve such a huge amount.  Are they truly that productive?  How many jobs did they create?   I’m certainly no economist but I really need to have it explained to me how in this economy a company can pay bonuses that average nearly $500, 000 per employee.  For every employee, although I’m sure the office staff is seeing much, much less.

I could go on and on but I want to save part of my venting today for yesterday’s news that the Supreme Court had rolled back long-standing (back to the time of Teddy Roosevelt) restrictions on campaign financing, allowing corporations to unlimitedly support the candidate of their choice.

There is your classic Pandora’s Box.

This is creates the potential for a virtual Wild West atmosphere for special interest campaign spending.  You thought that the political races had been toxic in the past?  Think again because you ain’t seen nothing yet.

And it’s not going to affect us in just the obvious ways where state and national candidates who are the beck and call of  certain industries and corporations will be even more difficult to bring down.  It’s at the base of our legal system where local and regional judicial races will take place where this spending will have it’s greatest effect as judges who are beholden to the special interests who paid to get them elected will take over the lower levels of our legal system, making it harder and harder to challenge these special interests in court.  If at all.

And there would be no more recusals for conflict of interest because it would be legal for these special interests to back the judicial  candidate openly.  The rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer and more numerous.  See Goldman-Sachs above.  This will only help them as well to become more and more insulated from any legal recourse.

But like any Pandora’s Box, there are results that the person who opened the box never imagined.  Those who opened it yesterday obviously were more attuned to the corporate voice than that of the common man and perhaps thought that this would only serve to strengthen the grip of Big Business on this country.  It was more about allowing the powers that be to continue to gain even more strength than it was ever about First Amendment rights.  If anything, this will only serve to obscure true First Amendment concerns in the future.

But we’ll have to wait a bit and see.   There’s a part of me that thinks this whole thing could turn around and bite them right on their black-robed asses and  that they could unleash a sea change they never envisioned.

Just a feeling.  Can’t quite see it yet but there’s a feeling.

Anyway, I’ve got to stop this before I become any more agitated.  Maybe I’ll be able to paint myself into a trance with some semblance of tranquility today.

Hope so.

Read Full Post »

Keeping Optimism

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged , , on January 20, 2010| 2 Comments »

Well,  the auction to raise some funds for the relief effort in Haiti has ended and $5000 was raised, which will be dispersed in the next day or so.  In relative terms, it’s a small amount but it was the result of the donations of a handful of regular people, not Wall Street financiers .  If this is happening all over the country, all over the world, it becomes a massive amount.  An amount that can bring a suffering nation back to its feet.  I think  the thing that can be taken from this is that when small actions are tied together, great things can be achieved.  It’s about creating an atmosphere of optimistic effort.

I wanted to write about how we could use this as a starting point to battle our natural tendencies towards cynicism, selfish greed and so many other negative traits that hinder us as a people.  Intolerance.  Schadenfreude.  The negative region of our identity that is the playground for perennial negativists like Limbaugh and his ilk, whose incredible wealth is supported by keeping the masses apart.  The last thing people like that want is any type of unity of spirit.

Their pessimism is an easy tonic to sell.  Unfortunately.  And all too many of us are ready to take a swig of this terrible tonic.

But I ‘ve already deleted two paragraphs.  It’s too easy when examining such a subject to be sucked into the vortex of negativity these people espouse.   All I will say is that nothing great has ever been achieved by such negative thinkers throughout history.  Every great achievement has been accomplished despite these pessimists by people with vision and optimism, people who focused on broadening human possibility.

Hallelujah.

That being said, here’s one of my favorite versions of Leonard Cohen‘s wonderful composition, Hallelujah.  It’s from the late Jeff Buckley.  Powerful tonic…

Read Full Post »

Auction to Aid Haiti Ends!

Posted in Current Events, tagged , on January 19, 2010| 6 Comments »

THE AUCTION HAS ENDED!

Many thanks to everyone who participated over the last few days and congratulations to the three high bidders.  Hopefully, their generosity will make a difference in Haiti and help the people of that country back on their feet after suffering such a devastating blow.

This money will help but so will every small donation.  This is going to be an effort that will take a great deal of time and money to get the survivors to a point where they are once again leading somewhat normal lives.  Thank you so much for everyone who understands this and realizes that a real difference can be made if we act together.

The Results are:

“Proclamation” –    $1500   Eliza S.

“Archaeology: The New Phoenix”  – $1000  Denny S.

“New Day of Hope”  – $500  G. Edwards

That comes to a nice neat sum of $3000.  On top of that is an additional $1000 from a friend who wishes to remain anonymous, bringing the sum to $4000.  As promised, I am adding 25% to the bids as well as the anonymous gift which comes out to an additional $ 1000.

THE FINAL TOTAL IS AN EVEN $5000 !

After confirming the bids and the chosen organizations with the winning bidders, I will disclose where this money has been donated.

Again, thank you to everyone who contributed and try to keep this spirit of generosity alive throughout the year.



Read Full Post »

Auction of Paintings to Aid Haiti- Bids Close at Noon Today

Posted in Current Events, tagged , on January 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Well, the deadline for bids, 12 noon EST today, in this auction of three of my paintings is nearing.  All proceeds will go to the relief organization of the high bidder’s choice , as described below.

Thus far, the results have surpassed my original hope for this effort. Bids to this point total almost $3000 and a very generous donor who wishes to remain anonymous has contributed $1000.  With the addition of the 25% that I pledged, this puts the total at nearly $5000. With the ability of these relief organizations to multiply the effect of monetary donations, this money may have a significant effect on a number of earthquake victims.

Here’s how it goes:  If you wish to participate, you can bid on any of the paintings shown by bidding in the Comments section below or by e-mailing me at info@gcmyers.com . Bidding closes today, Tuesday January 19th, at 12 noon EST.

Please make bids at least $25 above the current high bid.

The winning bidder receives:

*   Their choice of what organization receives the donation. For every $1.00 bid, a donation of $1.25 will be made — your donation provides 125% of effective support. Confirmation of donation to the organization of your choice will be provided.

*    The painting they have bid on, shipped and insured without cost to them.  The painting will be dedicated on its back to the winning bidder.

*    A signed copy of my book.

*    The satisfaction of knowing they have tried to make a difference.

So, if you wish to participate, please bid, and if you can’t, pass this along to someone you  know who may be interested.

–

AUCTION UPDATE

“Proclamation”

12″ by 16″  on canvas/ Value $1400

Current High Bid——- $ 1500

Current High Bidder– Eliza Schissel

_____________________________________________________________

“Archaeology: The New Phoenix

8″ by 16″ on canvas/ Value $1450

Current High Bid——— $ 1000

Current High Bidder–  Denny Springmann

______________________________________________________________

“New Day of Hope”

6″ by 10″ image on paper/ 16″ by 20″ frame/ Value $ 1000

Current High Bid———$ 500

Current High Bidder-   G. Edwards

______________________________________________________________________

Maximum Bid  To Be Accepted-  $10,000.00

Thank You!  Good Luck!


Read Full Post »

Auction of Paintings to Aid Haiti Update/ One More Day

Posted in Current Events, tagged , on January 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

As noted in the posts of the past few days, an auction of three paintings to raise funds to go to the  Haitian relief organization of the winning bidder’s choice has been put in action.  I suggest you read the prior posts for more detail but this is a general outline and update of the auction.

Here’s how it goes:  If you wish to participate, you can bid on any of the paintings shown by bidding in the Comments section below or by e-mailing me at info@gcmyers.com .  Bidding closes Tuesday January 19th, at 12 noon EST.

Please make bids at least $25 above the current high bid.

The winning bidder receives:

*   Their choice of what organization receives the donation. For every $1.00 bid, a donation of $1.25 will be made — your donation provides 125% of effective support. Confirmation of donation to the organization of your choice will be provided.

*    The painting they have bid on, shipped and insured without cost to them.  The painting will be dedicated on its back to the winning bidder.

*    A signed copy of my book.

*    The satisfaction of knowing they have tried to make a difference.

So, if you wish to participate, please bid, and if you can’t, pass this along to someone you  know who may be interested.

–

AUCTION UPDATE


“Proclamation”

12″ by 16″  on canvas/ Value $1400

Current High Bid——- $ 1500

Current High Bidder– Eliza Schissel

_____________________________________________________________

“Archaeology: The New Phoenix

8″ by 16″ on canvas/ Value $1450

Current High Bid——— $ 1000

Current High Bidder–  Denny Springmann

______________________________________________________________

“New Day of Hope”

6″ by 10″ image on paper/ 16″ by 20″ frame/ Value $ 1000

Current High Bid———$ 500

Current High Bidder-   G. Edwards

______________________________________________________________________

Maximum Bid  To Be Accepted-  $10,000.00

Thank You!  Good Luck!


Read Full Post »

Why Give? / Auction For Haiti Update

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged , , on January 17, 2010| 6 Comments »

When news of the earthquake first hits the airwaves this past week, I, like many others , gave a quick look up from my own concerns and tried to put it behind me as being out of my realm.

Other people’s problems, you know?  You’ve got problems. I’ve got problems.  We all have problems of our own so why should I put myself out to help people I will likely never meet in a country I will likely never visit?

To my shame, that self-serving part of me took over for the first days of this tragedy.  I tried to avoid the coverage as if by not seeing it, it didn’t exist in my little world.  But the scope of the tragedy made it unavoidable and as I watched and saw the suffering written in those faces, I realized that the worst day in my life would be a moment of relief for these folks.

I have been down to the last penny I had in this world.  I have walked the streets of strange cities in desperation.  I have been near the end of my rope.

But seeing a stunned mother sitting in front of a pile of rubble where her home once stood, with her four children dead underneath and no one there to help her get to them so she might see them once more and bury them, made me realize that my problems were insignificant by comparison.  I had not known true need.  I had not known true desperation.  My rope was nowhere near its end.

The Haitian people are in true need and know all too well the meaning of desperation and loss.  Too many are near the end of their ropes.

So what could I do that would be of some help to these people?  At first, I gave cash to Americares, a relief organization that I have donated to in the past.  They have had a long relationship, over 26 years,  with Haiti and the local agencies there and less than 1% of my donation goes to administration and fundraising.

But it didn’t seem like enough.  Cheri suggested I auction off a painting which at first, I resisted.  There was a cynical part of me that felt that there was something self-serving in this, as though it would be perceived as promoting myself rather than a sincere effort to do what was best.  But Cheri pointed out that this was a genuine way to raise more needed money using the only tools at my disposal, my paintings.  Perhaps by rewarding the donor with an article of value they would bid higher and more money would be raised and in some small way we, the bidder and I, could be of more help together than separately.

So this auction started.

Here’s how it goes:  If you wish to participate, you can bid on any of the paintings shown by bidding in the Comments section below or by e-mailing me at info@gcmyers.com .  Bidding closes Tuesday January 19th, at 12 noon EST.

The winning bidder receives:

*   Their choice of what organization receives the donation. For every $1.00 bid, a donation of $1.25 will be made.

*    The painting they have bid on, shipped and insured without cost to them.  The painting will be dedicated on its back to the winning bidder.

*    A signed copy of my book.

*    The satisfaction of knowing they have tried to make a difference.

So, if you wish to participate, please bid, and if you can’t, pass this along to someone you  know who may be interested.

–

AUCTION UPDATE

“Proclamation”

12″ by 16″  on canvas/ Value $1400

Current High Bid——- $ 1500

Current High Bidder– Eliza Schissel

_____________________________________________________________

“Archaeology: The New Phoenix

8″ by 16″ on canvas/ Value $1450

Current High Bid——— $ 1000

Current High Bidder–  Denny Springmann

*

______________________________________________________________

“New Day of Hope”

6″ by 10″ image on paper/ 16″ by 20″ frame/ Value $ 1000

Current High Bid———$ 500

*

Current High Bidder-  G. Edwards

______________________________________________________________________

Thank You!

Read Full Post »

Auction of Paintings to Aid Haiti- 125% of Bid to go to Relief Orgs

Posted in Current Events, tagged , on January 16, 2010| 13 Comments »

In an effort to raise money to aid the victims of the earthquake in Haiti this week, I started an auction yesterday on this site.  I offered a painting of mine,Proclamation, a 12″ by 16″ framed piece valued at $1400, to the highest bidder, with the bidding to end at 12 noon EST, Tuesday, January 19.  The high bidder will receive free shipping and insurance for the painting, a dedication honoring them on the back of the piece, a signed copy of my book and, most importantly, 125% ( 100% of their bid plus an additional 25% from me) of their winning bid to go to the relief effort of their choice.

That means that for every $1.00  you bid,  $1.25  will be donated. This way, you can increase the effectiveness of your charitable donation and receive a painting.

I have put forth several options to choose from, including Americares, Red Cross International Relief, Yele ( a Haitian based relief organization) and Habitat For Humanity, which has a long history of aid to Haiti.  There are other organizations as well, if you so choose, including Mercy Corps, Oxfam, Unicef and Doctors Without Borders.  The important thing is to get support to these organizations and have them well stocked as they hit the ground in Haiti.  This is a dire situation for these people and anything we can do is vital to their survival in the near future.

Bidding can be done through the comments section below or if anonymity is desired, by e-mailing me at info@gcmyers.com .

The Current High Bid For Proclamation (shown above) is $ 1500.00

Because of the initial success of this auction and a desire to raise as much money for this effort as possible, I am offering two more paintings with the same offer as listed above with bidding to also end at 12 noon, Tuesday the 19th.

The first is a painting title Archaeology: The New Phoenix (shown to the left) and is an 8″ by 16″ framed canvas with a value of $1450. At first I was hesitant to offer this piece as it might be construed as insensitive as it depicts the remains of a past civilization buried under layers of earth.  But the thought behind this piece is actually about survival and rebirth from the earth, concepts that will be crucial to the rebirth of Haiti.  It is actually anything but insensitive.

__________________________________________________________

The Current High Bid for Archaeology:The New Phoenix is $1000

___________________________________________________________

The final painting to be up for bid to aid Haiti is from my Red Roof series and is titled, fittingly, New Day of Hope.  It is a 6″ by 10″ painting on paper, matted and framed under glass in a 16″x 20″ frame.  It has a value of $1000.

The Current High Bid

for New Day of Hope is $500.00


I think this piece , as well as both of the other paintings above, speaks directly to the concerns and hopes that many hold for the suffering people of Haiti. They will have much to overcome in the coming days and if we, as a generous people, can offer them a glimmer hope, we should do so.

So, if you wish to help, please bid and I will be honored to have my painting live with you for your generosity.  If you wish to help but don’t want to bid, donate what you can to one of the organizations that I spoke of that are hitting the ground in Haiti with desperately needed immediate  relief.

It’s the right thing to do…

Note: Please specify which painting on which you wish your bid to be applied.

Read Full Post »

Bid to Help the People of Haiti

Posted in Current Events, tagged , on January 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

In an earlier post today, I started an auction to raise money that would go to the people of Haiti in the aftermath of the recent earthquake.  Here are the details:

Besides my cash donation, I would like to offer this painting up for an online auction in which all proceeds will go to one of your choice of the three organizations listed above, or another of your choice.  Actually, I will go one better– I will donate 125% of the winning bid, 100% of the bid and an additional 25% from my own pocket. So your winning bid will provide $1.25 of aid for every dollar bid. I will pay for shipping and insurance for the piece. Bids will be accepted through the comments section or, if you prefer anonymity, at my website’s email address, info@gcmyers.com .

This painting is titled Proclamation and is a 12″ by 16″ painting on canvas, framed in my normal floating frame. It is a piece that would normally be priced in the $1400 range in galleries. I will ship it with a dedication to you on the back in honor of your donation as well as a signed copy of my book.

The bidding starts at $300 and runs until Tuesday, January 19, at 12 noon EST.

So, if you’d like to help in a small way the people of Haiti you can bid on this piece with my gratitude in knowing my work would be of some help to these people. If you can’t or don’t want to bid on this, try to give something to an organization set up to help these folks, such as the ones listed above. If you know someone who might be interested in this painting and in giving aid to the Haitian people, pass this post on to them.

Whatever the case, try to help…

BIDDING UPDATE

A short while ago, I received an e-mail from Eliza Schissel, the Resource Development Manager for Habitat For Humanity East Bay in Oakland, CA which read:

I’ve enjoyed reading your blog, and I think it’s a wonderful and generous thing to offer one of your pieces to support recovery efforts in Haiti.

I would like to bid $1,500. If my bid wins, may I allocate the donation towards Habitat for Humanity’s rebuilding efforts? HFH has built 2,000 homes in Haiti, and of the Habitat families who survived, many are left homeless. An HFH assessment team lead by our Director of Field Operations for Disaster Recovery should already be on the ground – they were expected to arrive yesterday afternoon from the Dominican Republic, but it was unclear when they departed if the road conditions would allow passage and if the border would be open. In countries that have experienced disasters of this magnitude, many first responder organizations are able to provide temporary shelter, but families are left in squalid temporary refugee shelters until Habitat for Humanity is able to build permanent housing with them. Habitat is a critical partner in long-term, permanent recovery solutions.

The answer, of course, is yes.  Habitat For Humanity has had a long partnership with the people of Haiti and it will take enormous sums of money to rehouse the survivors.  I would be honored to donate to this wonderful organization.  For more information on their efforts and history in Haiti, visit their site by clicking on the logo shown here.

So the current high bid stands at $1500.

Many thanks to Eliza for the great and generous bid!

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »