At the End of the Earth, Lives Matter

At the End of the Earth, Lives Matter

by Bill Russo

being a page from my notebook, written after a 'lost' afternoon 

in Provincetown, Cape Cod - at the End of the Earth.

A day in which my friend and I were lost for hours, but found something important.

I've seen the White Sands of New Mexico, 

walked the Grand Canyon with 'Vertigo',

and yet wherever I go,

there's only one 'must go'

…. The Dunes of Provincetown; at the end of the earth.

It is where the 1620 Europeans landed - led by the notorious Indian Killer, 'Musket' Miles Standish. Musky was frightened out of the bay and into Plymouth by sights of a band of Wampanoags with their faces painted half black and half white.

Once a great fishing village, P-town evolved into a center for inclusion where people who were shunned by society could live in peace and harmony. 

In a different way, in 2020, the biggest little city in America has become even more inclusive. Nearly every business along the mile and one half length of Main Street has placed a simple, square, cardboard sign in one or more of its windows. The signs, hand painted in ink of a sepia hue, say: Black Lives Matter!. 

My friend Lynn and I spent a few hours walking back and forth on Main Street on Thursday this week (In June of the year of the virus). 

We paced the pavement for hours, walking more than three miles....because we could not find the lot where we parked our car! At a combined age of more than 150 it was an ordeal.

It was however made more bearable by several people who assisted us with directions and encouragement. The town was fairly quiet, with few cars on the road and no taxis. We finally found our vehicle and left the little city; feeling tired but proud that at least one town in America - a city at the end of the earth, was making a statement that Black Lives Matter. 

They do! .. . . For if they don't then 'lives' do not matter.

The end of the Earth.  Provincetown, Cape Cod. U.S.A.

A place of inclusion. A place where respect for all life, may spread from

the End of the Earth, some 3000 miles, on West. 

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Bill Russo, best known for his appearance on Monsters and Mysteries in America on Destination America, and in the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary; is the author of more than four dozen books and shorts stories, available on all major bookselling sites such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble and more.  Much of his work is FREE on Smashwords.  He also is the producer, writer, and director of the FREE podcast, Short Story Theater.  Season One, with dramatizations of 39 of his short tales, is now playing on all Audio/Video sites.  

Don't Make America Great Again!

Don't Make America Great Again!

By Bill Russo

Notes on a 1600 mile road trip from Lake Worth Beach, 60 miles North of Miami, FLA.

to Harwich, Lower Cape Cod, off the coast of Massachusetts, U.S.A.

In 1867 when the city of Rocky Mount, North Carolina was born, the 'Civil' War was two years in the rear view mirror of a horse drawn buggy, if indeed such a vehicle had such a device. Rocky Mount is about the same distance from Raleigh as Mayberry - but you'd never find Andy Taylor in Rocky Mount. It's a real town where about 65 per cent of the people have dark skin, i.e. they are African Americans.

And yet I did find Sheriff Taylor there, in a warm and heartening sense. I was at the midpoint of my 1600 mile trip from Palm Beach County, SO - F L A to Cape Cod. Due to technical problems I fell off the grid, but stayed on my beat. My desire to speak with the local people took me to the modern day equivalent of the old general mercantile, the Gas Station Convenience Store.

Coffee was brewing in old fashioned in Silex type glass bowls with spooled handles, a dozen of them, lined up in stepped rows of four, offering 6 or more varieties. The aroma from those open top makers, overspread the store like fog rolling onto the Cape from the smaller islands of Nantucket, Elizabeth, and Martha's Vineyard.

I poured a cup of regular, no sugar, 1.5 tsp of Coffee Mate, and started to look around to see who might be willing to chat for a few minutes, when a young black man approached me.

"Excuse me sir, I think you dropped this," he smiled, as he handed me a few bills that had slipped from my wallet when I took out a dollar to pay for my coffee. Almost before I could thank him, he left the store and got in his car.

It was a small moment and yet played very big in my mind. It's the kind of thing you'll never hear on the radio or tv. It won't get spread around in twits on Tweeter (or is it tweets on Twitter. No, I'm pretty sure it is 'twits' on Tweeter.) It is unlikely to be shared on Facebook. And yet it is one of countless thousands of warm and generous actions by the people of the South, both black and white - the untold thousands who go about their daily routines, simply being nice to other people regardless of race or religion. Please remember that there are way more of us good guys than there are bad ones.

A moment after the young man left the store, a very large black man, about 50 years of age, came in. He was wearing a Red Sox hat! Naturally I went right over to him and introduced myself as a fellow sox fan.

"Are you from Boston?" I queried.
.
"Nope. Never been there. I just like the Red Sox."

When I pressed him for more information, he explained his love for all things Fenway, in just two words: Big Papi.

It's likely that David Ortiz has done more to boost Boston than Sam Adams and Dunkin Donuts put together! The big guy and I spent a pleasant few minutes remembering David as the Key Man in breaking the 'curse' in 2004 and carrying the team again on his back in 2013.

Just a few small moments that are not of great moment, and which will be little noted, but are far more common in this great land than the protests, deadly violence, and all the other ills that give us a jaded perspective of the U. S. and collectively lower our self-esteem. Life is a Mirror. The Face YOU PUT IN, IS THE ONE YOU WILL SEE.

Hello to family and friends. I left Lake Worth Beach hoping to find peace and inspiration in the Deep South - and I did. Don't Make America Great Again. It's already great, though flawed. We need to smooth out the flaws and become better, but we have NEVER stopped being great!

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Bill Russo, best known for his appearance on Monsters and Mysteries in America on Destination America, and in the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary; is the author of more than four dozen books and shorts stories, available on all major bookselling sites such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble and more.  Much of his work is FREE on Smashwords.  He also is the producer, writer, and director of the FREE podcast, Short Story Theater.  Season One, with dramatizations of 39 of his short tales, is now playing on all Audio/Video sites.  

Fearless Leader, We need yer!

In my mailbox today was a photograph and a short, unsigned handwritten scribble. To decipher the scrawl I attempted; and to the best of my ability I have transcribed it faithfully, without comment below: 

Fearless Leader we need-yer!
Don't hunker in your bunker
and play A golf Round every day
in Palm Beach out of our reach.

photo and artwork (C) Bill Russo 2020

Fearless leader we need-yer!
Toss the fiddle & do not diddle
in the middle. While you twiddle
we are split, and you shoot a twit!

Fearless leader get off  yer-tweeter
and do your job or face the mob.
Fearless leader we need-yer
or maybe not, we like Joe a lot. 

(verse by anonymous - photo credit to Bill Russo (C) 2020)

Is Bernie Sanders Actually a Real Person?

Is Bernie Sanders Actually a Real Person?

by Bill Russo

Before you pooh pooh me for even asking such a silly question: here are the facts.  After you peruse the following attested to document, decide for yourself its veracity or its falsity. 

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" As shocking as it may seem, Bernie Sanders does not actually exist. Sanders is a character portrayed by Larry David on a reality show, with Larry playing the part a politician named Sanders. 

His devotion to the part is such that, as a method actor, when he assumes the Sanders persona, he temporarily becomes a person named Bernard Sanders.  

The role is given a veneer of truth when he portrays himself as a Senator from the mythical state of Vermont. It has never been proven that there even is such a place in the 48 states.  

Think about it.  Have you ever met anyone who actually has been to a place called Vermont?  Sanders/David, except for some flings in Washington City and Hollyweird, has never even left his native town of New York City.  He couldn't find his way to New England let alone the mythical place called Vermont.   

Larry David's Seinfeld show was perhaps the best sit-com ever. Curb Your Enthusiasm was okay generally, and sometimes quite funny at least in the first 30 or 40 seasons, but the reality show with Larry David playing the part of a Communist Politician in the U.S. is NOT FUNNY!

In summation, I submit the proof positive that Bernie Sanders is just another Larry David Character: 

This photograph appears to show Sanders and David together.  There are two people in the picture, but only one is Larry David, the other is an actor.  I shall not reveal whether the actor is playing the part of David or Sanders.  It does not matter which is which...

but this unquestionably shows that Sanders does not exist, except when Larry goes into the Bernie Mode.

 (Like Clark Kent and Superman, you will never see Sanders and Larry David in the same place at once!)

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Affadavid: "I attest that the above is true, based on my unbiased investigation."

Signed, Alfred C. Newman, New Yourk City, New Yourk, and formerly of the mythical State of Vermont. 

Attested and certified in the Taunton State Hospital on Febuary 30, 2020.

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