The Global Warming Cover Up

I was watching 60 Minutes tonight and one of NASA's top staff, James Hansen who has studied the Earth's ecology and global warming problem for several years openly talked in an interview tonight about the Bush administrations attempt to cover up the severity of the problem. Yet another secret our government is keeping from us; one that was disastrous consequences if it's not dealt with.

Hansen believes that if we don't decrease the amount of Carbon Dioxide and other gases that are being released into the atmosphere, within the next 10 years, we will not be able to reverse the rapid effects that global warming is having on the Earth. But you won't find this theory in any report that comes out of the White House, because to quote Hansen "In my more than three decades in the government I've never witnessed such restrictions on the ability of scientists to communicate with the public,". Hansen states that several reports he's written have been altered to downplay the impact Global Warming is having on the Earth. These changes have been made before the report even makes it to Congress, which makes the covering up even more malicious.

This process of covering up the truth is deeply disturbing, because if we don't face the reality of what we as humans are doing today and how our behavior is having a negative impact on the Earth, we won't be able to save future generations from paying for our mistakes. As I understand it, there are things that can be done to decrease the amount of Carbon Dioxide and other gases in the air. One of the major causes of pollution comes from cars and fuel emissions. If we put more money into technology to create better fuel burning methods or better yet, cars that don't need to run on fuel at all or only on limited amounts, we'd be better off. Hybrid cars are the future, but I think the Bush Administration has too much invested in the fuel industry to think about the possibility of eliminating or decreasing fuel usage in the United States. His selfishness WILL cost the world a great deal, but his old ass probably won't be around to see the impact his poor decisions will have on the world’s future.

I'm not exactly sure what will happen if the polar caps continue to melt as quickly as they are, but I would imagine in 40 or 50 years it could cause major flooding and climate shifts that would become increasingly disastrous to human life. Look at how warm the winters have become in the North and how hot the summers are and how disastrous the hurricane seasons are becoming. I can only pray that we won't have a hurricane season this year like we did last year, because we can only take so much.

I hope that George Dubya and his White House cronies will take heed to science and stop the secrecy, because it's future generations of human life that will pay the price. At some point, this man has to serve the best interest of the people of our country, which he has yet to do. We don't know the half of what's going on in America and we are continually being fed small, manipulated, censored pieces of information while there are all kinds of shady things going on behind the scenes in our government. Will we ever have honest leadership again in this country? A president who cares about the people and not their own agenda(s)? Given the current landscape, it's hard to believe the American people will be able to really trust our Commander in Chief, because our trust has been so deeply damaged. Let’s hope that our next president will invest in our global ecology.

What I've Been Up To

Hey everyone, I hope all have been well. I have been pretty busy that past couple of weeks and had some interesting experiences. It has been madd cold here in Philadelphia the past few days, but happenings here in Philly have been hot. I'll get to some of what's going down throughout this post.

Many Men, Many Voices Retreat
The first weekend in March I was away in the Catskill Mountains area in New York State at a Many Men, Many Voices Retreat. As I have mentioned on here before, I'm one of the facilitators that's been hired to facilitate for the evaluation portion of the project. We had another successful turnout and it was good to meet all the new people I did at the retreat, both in the group I facilitated and the one I didn't. But I had a few issues with the retreat site. We ended up at a different place than the prior time, because of a last minute issue that happened with the place we were supposed to be at.

So we pull up to the resort and I wasn't too impressed and then we went inside, and I saw that my initial impression was reinforced. It was a medieval theme to the place and parts of it were dark and old looking. That wasn't the worse though. During the same weekend, there was a straight Black ski weekend party going on, with some people from the DC, VA, Maryland area. When I say GHETTO, I mean that shit. They were loud at all times of the night, no regard at all for others that were in the space with them. One morning I was walking through the main lobby and when I got to the other side I thought I was high! The stench of weed was so strong I could have swore they were smoking right in the main lobby! One of the more disturbing parts though, was the homophobia that came from them. They arrived the same night we did, and a few of the “children” in our contingent were fem and of course the "str8" boyz picked up on this and started making homophobic comments. You know the usual, "there's some faggots up in here", that kind of thing. Some of the participants in our contingent were scared to come into the dining area, which was a large open space shared by everyone, though we had our own tables. Luckily no one was physically attacked, but I could definitely feel some of the tension in the air. Not just from the homophobia, but also the ig’nant assed attitudes that the people had.

In relation to homophobia, I definitely feel that Black people and White people express homophobia differently. I think that Black folks, especially men are much more verbally assaultive, which sometimes leads to physical attacks. Some of that has to do with them trying to assert their "manhood" and in many cases trying to draw attention away from their own homosexual feelings or less than masculine ways. I have always felt that if you're truly comfortable with your heterosexuality, then you don't need to say overtly discriminatory things against gays and try to make us out to be less than a man. I can tell you now, that I may be gay, but I am just as much a man as any heterosexual, because to me being a man is more about having a sense of responsibility, being able to support yourself and having the ability to think outside the box and be your own person, versus blindly following an unwritten code of behavior that many Black men feel they need to ascribe to. Aiiight, I'm stepping off the soap box now....LOL.

Trip To California
So I get back from the retreat and then 3 days later I'm off to Guernville, California for a Gay Men's Leadership retreat. I had never been to the West coast so I was excited, but was in a bit of a shock when I got out of the car once we finally arrived at the retreat site. Now mind you, I'm a city boy and have NEVER been camping, nor have I really had any interest in camping, even in a lodge. Well...........there's a first time for everything I suppose. We weren't really told about the site where we were going and now I know why, because they knew that most of us city dwellers probably wouldn't have went. When we got off the main road it was like a 5 mile ride up a mountain, where most of it had room for only one car at a time. Thank God that one of the Philly contingent members, Angel had no problems driving. So we get to the retreat site and the parking lot is all dirt and it's starting to rain. Mind you I'm trying to be cute in my NEW suede Timberlands, and am already having to walk though this muddy assed parking lot and more mud to get to our very small cabin, yes cabin! I'm thinking we're gonna be in a building that has a heating system etc....NOT! So we get in the room and there are 3 beds (one queen and a bunk bed......yes bunk bed! I haven’t slept in a bunk bed since I was 10) and there was 4 of us. Luckily two people volunteered to share a bed, so that was settled and I took the bottom bunk. Of course as we were trying to figure who was going to take which bunk there were all kinds of sexual references made, so I will just clarify for inquiring minds that the bunk I chose doesn't mean anything :-)

Like a true gay man, I had brought 4 pairs of footwear for a 4 day trip, so those Timbs were put away because it rained every day there, so it was pretty much always muddy. There were a total of about 30 gay men at the retreat from various cities, both urban and rural. Overall the retreat was really good and I think we all bonded and learned from each other. I got to learn a little more about the challenges that gay men face in rural communities among other things. It was great to get to connect with gay men that I wouldn't have had the chance to connect with otherwise. There were four of us that came together from Philly and we all bonded really well in what will hopefully be long lasting connections. The retreat also served as a refresher for the need to really start looking at gay men's health here in Philadelphia. We may be the site of the next national LGBT Summit which is taking place in March of 2007.

Overall I'm glad that I went to the retreat and after a day or two I got over the shock of the communal showers, having no cell phone reception, limited Internet service, lack of good food (at least until that last 24 hours) and rural living. The scenery was really pretty though and that, along with the connections I made, was worth going. Here are a few scenic and people pics from the retreat.

This is a picture I took from the back of the main Lodge area

Julie Andrews Point, just up the road from the retreat center

A different view of Julie Andrews Point

Me chilled out and casual at Julie Andrews Point

The Philadelphia contingent representin' in Cali

L to R: Chris, Kevin, J & Me

Other Happenings
There have been some exciting things going on with the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council (BGMLC), which is the name of the grass roots group I've been a part of the past several months. We hosted our first Black Gay professional men's networking event. It was quite successful and we had a good turnout and a demand for us to hold it regularly. The BGMLC is also sponsoring a panel discussion on Civil Rights and the LGBT community during Black Pride here in Philly next month. We are also in the works of planning a structure for the group and identifying our priority areas.

I mentioned in my New Years resolutions that I would like to teach a class at a local university. Well that hasn't happened yet, but I am one step closer. I was able to land the role of being an evaluator for 2 master's level thesis projects by students who attend Lincoln University's Philadelphia campus. I have to read their written thesis projects and then sit in and rate their oral presentations. I have finished reviewing one of the projects and I found it an enjoyable experience and I hope I get to do it more. I really took the time to look at it and make constructive comments as well as give kudos to areas I felt were well thought out and written. It will be interesting to see how the orals go, which are this coming Thursday. The one thing I found odd and a little offensive about one of the projects is that he kept referring to African American's as Africans in his paper as well as in the demographic sections of his survey instruments. I'm going to ask him about that during his oral presentation.

Lastly, there have been some exciting things going on at work that I'm hoping will pan out into future projects. The CDC recently released several research grant opportunities and we are applying for a couple of them. This will be my first time working on a proposal from the beginning stages. At the same time, we are in the process of starting up a new grant we were awarded for looking at episodic substance use and risk for HIV among Young Black and White Men who have Sex with Men in Philadelphia. We are planning our initial focus groups in Philly as well as our comparison community which is Baltimore. On top of that, I've been assigned to a small project for the city of Chester, which is about 20 miles South of Philly to help develop some questionnaires and survey instruments for a physician there who is doing a needs assessment for Barriers to healthcare for LGBT adolescents. I'm not sure how I’m going to get all this done, but I'm sure I'll work it out. A big plus regarding work too is that I recently got my annual review and t was REALLY good, so I got a raise, but I was also pleased with what my supervisor wrote about my work habits.

With all this going on, I have had difficulty balancing other priorities in my life, which is mainly my personal relationships. I feel like I haven't spent as much time as I'd like with my partner and we are quickly coming up on our 1 year anniversary. I can't believe how fast time flies. I've got to get better with giving "us" more time, which has been hard since I've been out of town a bit the past few weeks and he has been working his part time job quite a bit, though he did make me a nice dinner the past two nights, so it's my turn to reciprocate.

Well I know that no one is probably going to read this whole thing, because it’s so dayum long….LOL. I guess I had a lot to say, which is why I need to Blog more often so I can have smaller more manageable posts, but once I started writing, I couldn't stop. Well thanks for stopping by Lee's Space once again, stay posted for more.