Don’s Place

If there is life after death, I would really like to buy Purgatory when there is no longer a use for it. I would call it Don’s Place, and it would be a last repose for people that are not that bad and not that good. It will be a refuge for the people in heaven who want to get away from all the choirs of singing angels for a while and for the people in hell who need a break from the heat.

I am a voice for the liberals – and I’ve often been in trouble because of these views. My writing sends a strong message to all of the hard-working middle class Americans out there who are tired of the government (and especially the Republican right) usurping their hard-earned tax dollars for the personal gain of the GOP’s right wingers and that of corporate America.

I would relish the opportunity to become their senior-citizen-working-class spokesperson and demonstrate that even someone like me, a former street gang teenager turned middle-class, blue-collar worker turned writer can “make it” in this environment of governmental and corporate greed in America. I am a come-from-behind guy who has grown tremendously over my 76 years.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was my hero and I champion his cause. I also champion the Native Americans and their plight, both past and present, perpetrated by the federal government. When we can, my wife and I donate to 8 Native American schools, including 1 college which has a nursing program (my wife Mary is an RN). I am one-eighth Cherokee and Mary is one-quarter Chippewa.

A final piece of my guiding philosophy:

If there is a God, I’m a product of his malfunctioning.