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Posts Tagged ‘travel’

Israel Trip 2010

Posted in politics, tagged , on January 23, 2010| 7 Comments »

I recently returned from an amazing trip to Israel—my old friend Davis let me tag along.  After working in D.C. with it’s rich history and sites and after wearing out a passport for the last ten years, I am not easily impressed.  Colin Powell, Newt Gingrich, and members of congress are big but not J.C. big.  We are not talking J.C. Watts or Julius Caesar but the real J.C.

A person who slept through A.M.E. Sunday School has zero business visiting the Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, the Western Wall or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  When the guide said Jesus sat on this bedrock, I walked over there with wobbly legs and kissed that sacred ground.   

The people of Israel are surprisingly diverse with a significant percentage of Muslims. I like a nation where almost 100% of the people are veterans.  Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are worth the serious airport security process.  South Israel and Egypt will hopefully be in my travel future.  Israel is something special so let’s hope the region can find a way to peacefully exist.    

For my travel buddies, T.A. parties to the break of dawn and the women stunning.  Ladies who can fire machines guns—my NRA friends would be in love.

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U.S. Passport: Six Months Rule

Posted in politics, tagged , on January 11, 2010| 1 Comment »

International travelers should know what I just learned the hard way.  If your passport will expire in less than six months, many countries will not let you visit—get a new passport.  I was heading on a trip to visit Jerusalem and the Egyptian pyramids but noticed this rule to late.

The local congressman’s staff was really helpful (good looking out) but the window of time was too small and as we all know, your documents better be just right in that serious region of the world.  I should have jumped in the vehicle and drove to New Orleans for the same day service from Secretary Clinton’s crew.

I could photoshop my picture into pictures next to the Sphinx and the holy sites, but that would be a goon move.

Update:

Thanks the fine work of the congressional staff I have my passport and hopeful will be flying to Israel tomorrow.  

Last Update: Did not make the trip but look forward to checking out that region in the future.

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Travel Key chains

Posted in politics, tagged , , on May 31, 2009| 5 Comments »

keychains

I like key chains from travel so I can be reminded of important stuff.  My current key chain is a melting clock from the Salvador Dali museum in Barcelona.  From Dali’s painting “The Persistence of Memory,” those clocks represent how fast time goes if we are not careful.  Mr. Phillips, my Albany Junior College/Darton College art teacher, really helped me understand the art around us and the concept of form fitting function.  I saw him at the Shoe Station store in Albany days before that trip to Europe (I had to get some Rockports for those cobblestone cities,) and told him was I going to see the museums of Western Europe from north to south.  He told me to really enjoy Amsterdam. 

Mr. Phillips was right about form and function. If it serves no real purpose, get rid of it.  An ugly Volvo is better in a crash than a pretty Pontiac is—I have had six Volvos since his class and my view of public policy reflect this logic.

I have a key chain from Lisbon, Portugal, because people from the Cape Verde Island were nice to me there and would speak initially to me in their native tongue.  Yesterday, my sister gave me a bowl and key chain from South Africa, and I won’t “front” like I have been there.  I almost went to Northern African to see the pyramids and chill in Casablanca and Fez but I knew some loud month was going to slam America or the office of the President and it would have been on and popping.  To be honest, I can beat an egg but that would have be one whupping I would have to take.

When I am standing in the Dairy Queen in south Georgia and thinking about the lyrics to Bruce Springsteen’s Glory Days, I look at my key chain and remember that I can live anywhere in this great nation and chill almost anywhere in is world.  If people are constantly “tripping” in your current location, you should leave because time is melting away and life is too short to argue with fools.  If you don’t get this notion, you might be the fool people are leaving.

 On a political blog, this discussion is important because southerners (Black, White, Red And Brown) who enjoy “fussing” are inadvertently limiting our regions economic growth.  If division and confusion are synonymous with your area, more peaceful regions are more attractive to new industry.  Think about it; who wants to put a multi-million dollar operation in a place that is still fighting a war that was over 140 years ago.  The same can be said about young men who look like me who are mad at the world for spinning.    

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