I did a thing on the radio… in Berlin

https://kcrwberlin.com/shows/wednesday-3-p-m/

Last week I got asked to record a short essay for KCRW Berlin. They are the sister station to KCRW Los Angeles. I’ve lived in both cities and so I figured, sure, why not. It’s called, “Why I Love Social Distancing” which is, indeed, the truth.

Slow news month, amiright? Like hardly anything has happened since the last time I wrote. My mom is FREAKING OUT over all the news because she was born in South Georgia in the late 1930’s and so whenever there’s a whiff of acrimony over how black people have been treated in this country she automatically goes into a defensive crouch. My mom is not actively or consciously racist (anymore) but she was, oh do I remember. And now she’s a much more enlightened person — but still, given her upbringing, it’s not out of the question to hear her defend confederate monuments as “heritage.” I have gently tried to remind her that in Germany they don’t have any memorials to the third reich’s army. You don’t see swastikas, the “hitler salute” is banned and punished with fines and jail time. Adolf is not a popular baby name. There’s a reason for all this and it has nothing to do with erasing history. My German friends told me about their history education in high school and it included field trips to the concentration camps. So, yeah, they know their history. My mom, on the other hand, could not tell me who the president of the confederacy was. Jefferson Davis, as it turns out, who at the end of the civil war, took his wife’s scarf and coat and pretended to be a woman while he fled from the advancing Union Army, thus leaving his soldiers to be killed. That, actually, would make for a good memorial. I suspect the second president of the confederacy, Donald Trump, is too big to fit into any of Melania’s frocks. Not even the one with the “pussy bow” that she wore to the debates. But he might be able to squeeze into her “I don’t really care, do u?” coat.

A Catholic Church in my neighborhood decided that hanging an anti-marriage equality banner across their front during pride month is exactly what we need in these troubling times to help heal our wounds. This is happening in Silverlake where the political spectrum runs from Far Left to KARL MARX. So I guess they feel safe to be openly bigoted or maybe they’re looking to drum up some controversy to bring in parishioners to their no-doubt flagging flock. Church attendance is way down and with brand ambassadors like Fr. Roberto Pirrone of St. Teresa of Avila (323) 664-8426, it’s easy to see why. Plus there’s the whole centuries of child rape thing. You might have heard about how the church has had a spot of trouble in recent times when some of the top Pedos got a bit too handsy and found their billions of dollars and political power network were ineffective in hushing the whole thing up. So yeah, cool banner. Hey, did I mention the rate of suicide amongst LGBTQ youth due to bigotry and hatred is really high? Pro life much? What I’m trying to say is  the Catholic Church is an organization of billionaire pedophiles. Maybe they should take the log out of their own eye before throwing glass houses or whatever?