Chuck Patterson

A Thought inspired by the late Brittany Murphy

2009-12-21T18:44:00.006-05:00

You know how you can look at something and not see it?

You may be very familiar with an area and you could still drive past your freeway exit.

You might be married to someone for 10years and still have trouble remembering which side the mole is on...

You may be an involved parent but you will forget a teacher’s name.

This is what we’ve come to as a society. Our hearts may be willing but our minds our too busy sorting through the self-important minutia that comprises our lives. We don’t intend to be arrogant, but the fact is...we are.

I realized this; well maybe I re-realized this on Sunday December 20, 2009. It was on this day that the radio news reported the unexpected death of entertainer Brittany Murphy. Her name sounded vaguely familiar. The radio reporter told me that during her short 32 year existence Ms. Murphy had been in several movies, television shows and commercials, and had even begun what was expected to be a successful music career.

I'm not much of a pop-culture guy, so I didn’t see her movies, I didn’t watch any of the television shows they mentioned, and I didn’t know her music. Frankly, if this young woman had kicked me in the shin, I still wouldn’t have known her. It wasn’t until very late in the day, and during typical, generic conversation with a friend that he said "I heard Hank and Peggy lost a niece". Now I understood why her name sounded familiar but her resume did not. I had seen her name on the screen many, many, many times. Brittany Murphy was the voice actor who gave life to LuAnn Platter in the Fox network animated series King of the Hill. As a voice actor, I have a particular respect for those in the business.

Funny isn’t it? I saw her name almost every night and yet I never really did see her name. It is said that you need to "stop and smell the roses". I'm going to suggest that we all take some time to appreciate their beauty as well. When you have a rose in your life, don’t just appreciate the bloom. Take time to notice the stem and the leaves and to understand why you love every thorn.

Breaking Up With Barry

2009-12-16T13:53:00.001-05:00

Dear Barry,

In any relationship we want certain things. We want to be accepted and loved for what we are. We want the other person in the relationship to care more about us and our happiness than they do about their own. We want to be lifted up and encouraged to be the best we can be. This is pretty much standard-issue human need.

This relationship just isn’t giving me what I need.

You came into my life not accepting me for what I was, but stating openly your intention to “fundamentally change” everything I was. You have never looked at me and seen “a thousand points of light”, you see only my faults, frailties and failings.I made a mistake at the very beginning and I regret that. You tried so very hard to get my attention and eventually I gave it. I wasn’t particularly interested in you but you worked so long that I guess I felt a little guilty about ignoring you.

You have hidden things from me and you have threatened me while promising I would know everything that was going on and giving me your promise that you would keep me safe. You have criticized me in public at every opportunity and you have done so with enthusiasm; never trying to mask your contempt.Our finances are a mess and if I express any concern you shout me down, call me names and accuse me to any that will listen of being a mal-content. We are broke and you keep putting more debt on the credit cards. We can’t buy groceries for our family and you are promising the neighbors that you will pay their bills. You do not love me.

We used to have a large group of friends. They were OUR friends, now they are either YOUR friends or they are unwelcome. They don’t listen to me at all anymore. They do what you want them to do and ignore me. My voice is muted and my importance in this relationship is completely diminished.

I never expected you to be perfect. All of us fail sometimes. All of us make mistakes. I can accept failure as long as I can put my head on the pillow each night knowing my hero did his best to win the battle. The issue for me is that you promised so much but delivered nothing and you accept responsibility for none of the shortfalls. Not everything can be blamed on someone else. You either were not as ready as you thought you were or you weren’t as smart as you thought you were or you just lied to get what you wanted from me. None of this matters now; I can’t go on like this.

There is going to be someone new in my life soon. I don’t know who it will be, but I know it will not be you and I know that I have learned a great deal from our time together. Never again will I buy the package without knowing the contents. Never again will I let someone tell me that they can turn water to wine. Never again will I try to be lifted up by someone that looks down on me.

I’m not evil. I will give you some time to get packed and find somewhere to go, but be assured, you are going. This relationship is over.

A. Merica

CASINO...A roll of the dice in Franklin county?

2009-12-12T10:58:00.005-05:00

This is not a liberal versus conservative issue. The stupidity is bipartisan.

Republicans John Kasich, Ohio senators David Goodman, Jim Hughes and state reps. Cheryl Grossman and Kevin Bacon as well as Columbus Democrats Michael Coleman and Mike Mentel
are all pursuing efforts to NULLIFY THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE.

To me, it's pretty simple. We VOTED, the issue PASSED...done deal.

At this point we are beyond arguing the pros and cons of casino gambling, the effects on families, the detriment to people with addictive personalities, etc..

The notion of "protecting us from ourselves" is never ending. You can send me 1000 links to stories about how gambling ruins lives and I can send you 1000 links that demonstrate that obesity is killing our children and drunks are killing pedestrians and factory pollution is killing our wildlife. I can go back in time and show you that bacon will kill us and we will be out of oil by 1995. If we succumb to a puritanical need to stop all gambling in order to save ourselves, we might as well go all the way and eliminate Cheetos, Lays, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Budweiser-Bush, Jack Daniels, Gallo Winery...where would it end?

The casino vote was a STATEWIDE vote. Whether the people of Franklin county approved it or not, the state of Ohio DID APPROVE THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT as it was presented.

I was not in favor of the issue BUT that is not to say that I am against a casino in Columbus.

I did not like the fact that the issue was written by outside interests when THE OHIO LEGISLATURE SHOULD HAVE DONE THE JOB. I was not happy that the location was pre-determined; not because of some silly belief that the Columbus "arena district" is supposed to be "family friendly" but because there are other areas of central Ohio that would benefit GREATLY from a development such as this.

The "arena district" is (for now) the home of a professional sports team that actually recruits and pays for players to be violent. It is (for now) a place with multiple venues serving alcohol that flows freely. Before that, it was home to a place where we strapped people into a chair and sent electricity through their bodies until they were dead. This is not "sacred ground" by any definition.

As I have written on message boards and said in conversations, the STATEWIDE smoking ban passed in 72 of 88 counties, still, it is law in the 16 counties where it failed. In a NATIONAL election, McCain won 22 states but still Obama is president of all 50 states. We can not micro-manage the democratic process. The majority rules and we move on.

IF THE PEOPLE STAND SILENTLY WHILE THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS IS SLAUGHTERED, WE DESERVE THE OPPRESSION THAT IS TO COME!

Your voice in the political process is about to become meaningless background noise. If any psychics can channel Karl Marx, get to work on that. We'll probably need some pointers.