Rise you mighty bird, rise. Spread your wings and fly high.

Last night was a historical night here in the USA. Senator Barrack Obama became the first African American in the history of the United States to get the nomination of any major political party for a chance to run for President!

In what should have been his night to shine, Senator Clinton, [D-NYS] announced that she was not ready to stop campaigning. She reiterated that the 18+ million people that voted for her must be heard and, said she, while there were many decisions to be made, she [Clinton] ‘will make no decision tonight’.

I was under the impression that the Democratic Party had a winner take all policy. Obama reached the so-called magic number of 2118 and some, yet Clinton refuses to acknowledge him as the nominee. As recent as Monday on the Today Show, Clinton’s campaign strategist, Terry McAuliffe, told Matt Lauer that when Obama reaches the magic number of 2118 she, meaning Clinton, would be the first to congratulate him and begin to unite the Democratic Party.

Now, as I write this, I am listening to Terry McAuliffe on the MSNBC’s Morning Joe, it seems like Hillary is ready to concede. Let just say this, before Obama jumped into the race I was all about Hillary R. Clinton for President. But, once Senator Obama announced his desire to run the game plan changed. But make no mistakes, this primary contest will go down in the annuls of American History as one of historical proportions. The First African American and the First Women to be serious contenders for the nomination. I knew that whatever the outcome it was history in the making. I knew it would be Hillary or Obama. With that said, let me predict that there will be no dream team ticket of Obama & Clinton. I say Obama and Edwards, but who knows. As the old saying goes, politics makes strange bedfellows. What comes to mind is John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Those two hated each other, Johnson always felt that Kennedy didn’t pay his dues and stole the nomination from him but for the sake of party unity they formed a ticket. One of my main concerns is how ready the Secret Service are to protect Obama. We all know that there are some crazies out there that just can not accept the fact that a Black Man may actually be the President of the United States. That can not accept the fact that there really is a new America and that in my life time (I am 54 years old), Whites will for once be the minority. In the real world, that should have no baring. But many whites (those crazies, you know who I mean) feel guilty for the sins of their fathers, and feel that if “Blacks get into power” the tables will be reversed. Rest assured crazies that will not happen. We, so-called minorities, love this country as much as you do. We, so-called minorities, have shed blood for this flag in every major battle dating back to the Civil War. We have always felt American even when you (crazies) denied us that right. So, 2008 - Century 21 if you will, and everything has come full circle. The best person has risen to the occasion and it just so happens that he is a mixed race individual. But, that person- Mr. Senator Barrack Obama will be the Commander in Chief, will uphold the U.S. Constitution and life will go on.

Now comes the next phase of this historic quest. Mr. Obama must revise his game plan from one of seeking the nomination, to that of running for President. This means selecting a running mate that together can beat the Republican machine because we know it will be geared up full force against Obama, and one that meshes or blends in with his ideals and goals for this country. That also means identifying someone that will uphold his legacy in the aweful event that he is assasinated.

So while Hillary was not going to make a desion last night, Obama to will not be making a desion yet. For that, Hillary and all the pundits will have to wait.

Hilary Clinton has won big in Puerto Rico or so some of the pundits say. However if you do the math she still trails behind Senator Obama. The question on many peoples mind’s today is whether she will bow out gracefully or continue on and risk being labeled a spoiler?

Personaly, I think she will concide and will congratulate Senator Obama is a big press confrence tonight in New York city. Many do not think that Hilary will concide and will try to pursuade the Superdelegates that she has in fact won the popular vote and can beat Senator McCaine in the general election.

What do you think?  [poll id="4"]

Is the Internet saturated with blogs already?

There are blogs just about on any subject, category or topic you can think of. How is a person supposed to create a unique blog these days? There are software applications, and websites, designed to search the Internet to see if the content you write is unique or if it has been posted elsewhere already. How can one guarantee that what they are writing is unique?

Suppose I have a blog about recipes. I post a blog about my favorite spaghetti sauce, it’s a family favorite. Someone in Italy post a blog about spaghetti sauce is this unique? We both will be using the same ingredients. That person may write “…into the boiling water you will add…” while I may write “…after the water begins to boil I will add…” but the fact remains, we are both using boiling water.

In one of my post I wrote that “the last original idea was the wheel, and that everything else is just a permutation” here is what Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary has to say about permutation:

1: often major or fundamental change (as in character or condition) based primarily on rearrangement of existent elements <the system has gone through several permutations>; also : a form or variety resulting from such change <technology available in various permutations>

Everything has been written already in one shape, fashion or form, hasn’t it?

Sunday June 25, 2008

Today is Memorial Day, a day for us as a nation to honor the memory of those American servicemen and women that make the ultimate sacrifice so that the rest of us could live in freedom. For me, I’m sorry to confess, memorial day was just another day. A day that I’d get off from work. A day that I’d go hang out in Orchard Beach when I lived in New York City. A day that was viewed by me as anything other than what it was meant to honor.

It wasn’t until after September 11, 2001 that this day had some meaning to me. For my ignorance I’d sincerely like to apologize to all the men and women, living and passed on, that volunteered to meet the enemy of freedom face to face so that we could live in relative peace. Thank you soldiers, Thank you Vets. Thank you for your bravery.

Without taking anything away from our Vets on this, their day, I would however, like to take a moment to remember my friend Manny Maldonado whom died as a result of another kind of war — the war on drugs.

Please note that it is not my intent to offend any veteran or their family, nor is it my intention to equate the status of drug addicts, active or recovering, to the same level as our military casualties. I simply would like to remember the casualties of the war on drugs. You see, it was President Richard M. Nixon that elevated drug addiction to that status not me. It was Nixon when he declared a war on drugs and recruited the most famous Rock and Roll star of his day, Elvis Presley, as a special federal agent. His war on drugs was destined to be lost from the very beginning because everyone knew that Elvis was a big, fat drug addict himself!

Even more ironic is the parallels between the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the War on Drugs. All three were initiated by Republican Presidents and all three are being lost.

I was born in 1954, was an adolescent during the 1960’s and came of age in the 1970’s. Those three decades marked the dawning of a new America. It was during those decades, especially the ’60’s and 70’s that drugs first came out of the closet.

While we as a nation were fighting in Vietnam, many of our troops were coming back with tremendous heroin addictions. If you are a movie buff you would have learned about Frank Lucas, the “American Gangster” as portrayed by Denzel Washington, and you may also remember Popeye Dole of the French Connection. Those were both large drug importing situations.

As a casualty of the war on drugs myself, and a social worker, I studied the history of drugs in America intensely. And while it is true that the drug situation came to light during the late 1960’s and 70’s, it is also true that there has been a drug problem in America dating back to the Civil war. Yes it’s true this country has a long history of drug abuse, and addiction, and it is also true that alcohol is a drug.

During the 1960’s and early 1970’s this country went through what many consider a second civil war. Woman were burning their bras, college students were taking over their campuses, blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Gays were demanding civil their rights. Mexican American’s were boycotting because of the horrendous

working condition of the [Mexican] farm workers, especially the grape pickers.

In the Attica New York State Prison, the prisoners rioted and took over the facility. The Government must have felt like it was losing control because in one atrocious act after another citizens were being killed. In the south three young civil rights workers

were murdered, two happened to be Black and the third was white. In Kent State Universtiy near Akron Ohio, The Kent State shootings, or the May 4 massacre or Kent State massacre as they came to be known took place. Students were brutality murdered when the State Troopers opened fire on unarmed college protesters.

Needless to say, the civil unrest came to an end, and eventually so did the war in Vietnam, and then life continued. The so-called war on drugs, however, did not end. In fact it had just begun. During the Presidency of Ronald Regan the drug war was escalated. Suddenly there was a new weapon in this unending war on drugs. The new weapon, some say, came out of the Governments arsenal in the form of a vicious illness that at first was killing Blacks, then it was noticed was killing Gays, prompting the religious right to exult that God was punishing the immoral. Yes, that weapon today is called the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or HIV and AIDS respectively.

A man has landed on the moon. Space probes now reach into the outer depths of the universe - in fact one such probe landed on Mars just yesterday, yet there is no cure in sight for HIV/AIDS. Perhaps it is because many people still think of it as a disease that only affects Gays, Drug Addicts and the promiscuous. Which as everyone knows translates into black and brown people.

I struggled with my own heroin addiction for two decades. I did not plan to be an addict nor was it my ambition. I never thought, when I grow up I want to be a drug addict. It just happened. Like I said I grew up during the troublesome 1970’s when drug use was so prevalent that it almost seemed permissible. I am not excusing my past behavior, I am simply saying how it was. And let me tell you it was bad! Help was practically non exsistant. Even the government did not know what to do about the epidemic. For those not alive during that era, heroin addiction was the “crack epidemic” of that time.
Frank Sinatra starred in a movie called the Man with the Golden Arm, and Al Pacino starred in Panic in needle park.

The war on drugs was in full force. By the 1980’s the attitude of society toward drugs had changed. It came to be exemplified by the president’s wife, Nancy Reagan’s “Just say no” campaign.

It wasn’t till much later, like the 1990’s, that the medical professional began to realize that addiction is a medical condition.

Meet Manny
Manny was raised in Brooklyn, NY. Being about my age, he also grew up during those crazy, tumultuous days of the 60’s and 70’s. And just like everyone that drinks alcohol does not become an alcoholic, everyone that experimented with heroin did not become addicts. Unfortunately both Manny and myself did.

Manny tried to do the right thing. He graduated high school, attended collage, held down jobs. But since drug addiction is a progressive disease, it simply continued to get worst as time went by. Like many addicts, seeking help was very difficult and when help was provided it was usually the wrong mode. One of the terrible things about addiction is that once it gets a hold of you it does not want to let go. And before you could realize you are doing things that in a normal state of mind you would even consider. Yes, drugs makes you compromise your morals and values. That is one of the reasons why recovery is so difficult, the shame of the things that one must do in order to get a “fix” can become unbearable. Like many addicts, hospital and treatment centers become a revolving door. Unconsciously for many, hospital and treatment centers and jail become sort of like a respite facility, a pit stop if you will. Or as they say in the twelve step fellowships you are in between highs. Eventually if jails, institutions or death does not claim you, you become sick and tired of being sick and tired and you actually do want to get help. The help is a little more readily available but the mode and method is still wrong. Lucky for many addicts, the Twelve Step Program as brought forth by Bill Wilson of Alcoholics Anonymous fame reached them in the form of Narcotics Anonymous. Manny was one of those. And just as hard as Manny drugged, that is the same voracious appetite he brought with him to NA.

When I met Manny I was a patient in Gracie Square Hospital. Yes, despite my being a drug addict I was able to hold down a job. I like to think that my own recovery process began while in jail in 1977. There was a certain individual in jail with me (jail being Riker’s Island in New York City) that was the Executive Director of a certain drug program (due to confidentiality I will not name him or the program he was associated with). He got caught up in a sting operation and ended up on Riker’s Island with an embezzlement charge. He told me that he was going to get out in a day or two- that the Governor of a State was going to vouch for him. Apparently his wife was a high level official in this governor’s administration. Sure enough he was released a few days later. But while he was in there with me, we struck up a friendship and in talking he shared with me some concepts about alcohol and drugs.

After he was gone a couple of hours and his cell became in demand, I was asked to pack up and clean out his cell by the corrections officer on duty. While cleaning out his cell I came across a book entitled “I’ll quit Tomorrow” by Vern Johnson. The book was about alcoholism and the treatment methods for it. I stuck that book into my waist and packed and cleaned up the cell. That afternoon while in my cell I began to read this book. It was as if the book were written about me. It talked about black outs, a concept I had never heard before and about the cycle of alcoholism. It was there in that jail cell that I had a rude awakening. You see, for me it had started with alcohol, and unbeknownst to me I was an alcoholic.

I was actually sentenced to two and two thirds to seven years to New York State Department of Corrections. Dr. Vern Johnson gave me insight and I was relieved. His book taught me that I was not a bad person trying to get good, but I was a sick person that needed medical intervention. While incarcerated I managed to get a high school equivalency diploma and to attend a few college courses. I made a treatment plan for myself, although at the time I did not know that is what it was called. Basically I decided that I would keep away from the so called friends I had, stay away from my old neighborhood, and not do the things I was doing that got me into trouble with the law.

When I was realized from prison, I lived in a church basement. The Holy Apostle Church on 23rd Street and Eight Avenue. I will never forget that, just like my prison number is embedded in my brain- I will never forget it either. After a while I bumped into one of my ex-wife’s friend and she insisted that I leave the church basement and stay with her and her family until I got back on my feet. I did not want to but she insisted and to tell you the truth, while I truly appreciate the church for giving me a helping hand, I did not want to be there. So back to East Harlem I went. For a while I stuck to my plan. I got a job at the local Legal Clinic, Manhattan Legal Services and I attended John Jay College. With no treatment for my addiction it was inevitable that I relapse. And I did. I was on that vicious cycle for a couple more years until I became sick and tired of being sick and tired. Because I was working, I was now working for an outfit called Richmond Home Needs Services, I had health benefits. I committed myself to Gracie Square Hospital to begin my recovery.

While in the hospital, members of the various twelve step programs would come by to share with us their “experience, strength and hope” and to tell us that there is a better way, that addicts do recover. The stories that were shared with us really rung true. But certain people’s story hit home more than others. There were two such people that I identified with like that. One was Billy, an African American that had a story pretty similar to mine with whom I later forged a very good friendship with, and Manny whose story could have been mine. Manny wore fedora’s and even dressed similar to how I did.

One of the things that is stressed in the 12 Step Fellowships is the identifying of a sponsor. But it is more than just identifying one, it is actually asking that person to sponsor you.

I was discharged from the hospital on a Friday afternoon and I went seeking out Manny. I went to a meeting that he told me he attended regularly but was told that meeting meets on Saturday evenings. While I was really firm in my desire to stay clean and on the right track, I also knew my track record. I was afraid to stay alone because I just may get high and that would send me off to the “races” once again. So I decided to stay close to the meetings. Back then the meetings were pretty much almost around the clock. Many meetings took place on St. Marks Place in the East Village of New York, in what was once a very popular club called the “Electric Circus.”

Finally Saturday night came and I went to the meeting to meet and ask Manny to be my Sponsor. It was a Spanish speaking meeting and I sat toward the front like it was suggested “Come early, stay late. Sit up front so you don’t get distracted and learn to listen and listen to learn”. It was also emphasized that I should take the cotton out of my ears and stick it in my mouth. None of that made any sense to me but out of blind faith I did what I was told. Manny arrived about ten minutes before the meeting was to start. I was very excited and happy to see him. I saw that he knew everyone there, or so it seemed. Then I got cold feet. I could not bring myself to ask him to be my sponsor. All of my insecurities and self worthlessness surfaced. So I stood siting down. The meeting was a very good meeting. I do not remember what was spoken but I do remember it was a very good message. I do remember that a group of us went for coffee after the meeting and that Manny was one. Finally I worked up the courage to go speak to him. When I went up to him him he was genuinely happy to see me and even remembered my name. After the coffee house Manny asked me to hang out, so I did. Manny had a car and said that a group of his friends had a ritual every Saturday to eat at this particular restaurant on the lower east side. Needless to say as a result of Manny I met a lot of people, people that had similar interest as me, people that knew what I went through and what I was going through then.

I finally asked Manny to be my sponsor and instead we became the best of friends. I got back into my community advocacy and organizing. Together with one of my “square” friends I incorporated a non profit agency to help prevent youth from going through what I did. I asked Manny to serve on my Board of Directors and he agreed. Manny then asked me to help him start an agency similar to help out the youth in Brooklyn. Manny chose MAD as the name for his agency, Musica Against Drugs.

Shortly thereafter, Manny was diagnosed to be HIV positive. This was at the beginning of the whole epidemic and even in the rooms of Narcotics Anonymous no one wanted to talk about it. In fact it was taboo to. There was this one Puerto Rican guy that shared at a meeting one day. He was crying and yelling and telling everyone that they were living in denial because as addicts many of us were infected but still undiagnosed, and that eventually many in the rooms of NA were going to start dropping like fly’s. One week later he was dead. He had been drug free for a little under ten years. Most of his clean time he acquired in AA because back then there were no NA meeting with any substantial time. Anyway, that guys sharing made Manny decide to get tested and he was positive. He shared with me and no one else knew that he was positive. As I stated, it was not talked about even in the rooms of recovering drug addicts. The AIDS epidemic was at its full trottle.

Mass hysteria in the population. The religious right and Ronald Reagan blamed Haitian immigrants for bringing in this disease to America. When it started affecting gay men, it became known as the gay man’s disease. After it was found to be a cluster of illnesses that were killing off those infected with it, because of a compromised immune system, it became known as AIDS, Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome.

Just like that Puerto Rican guy in that meeting predicted, recovering addicts in the “rooms” started dying. Soon, Manny started to share in meeting that he was positive to.

Manny went for help and services to the “Hispanic Aids Forum” and they did not provide services. It was one of those of agencies, you know the type, those that spring forth at a time of crises to get government funding. The Executive Director at the time was a woman named Miguelina Maldonado.
Many tried talking to her but she was never available. One of the employees there, I forget his full name but his first name was Joe, he was a gay man and saw how this agency was just a farce, a scam. He was also a member of ACTUP, I forget what the acronym stands for its something like the Aids Commission To Unleash Power. Basically it was an activist group founded on the principals of Saul Alinsky. Well Manny joined this group, he was one of the first straight men to do so and actually organize what they called an “action.” But I’m getting a head of myself. Manny joined ACTUP and asked me to support him, so I joined as well. Within ACTUP someone had formed a committee to deal with Latino issues, and within this committee Manny and Joe formed a sub-committee to deal with substance abuse. That is the sub-committee I joined. We made a presentation before the full membership of ACTUP for support and funding for Manny’s program Musica Against Drugs. We were the first straight group to get funding from ACTUP and to do an action against a “minority” agency.

Manny was a wonderful, fun loving awesome Salsero and because of this he was very charismatic. Manny used to credit me for his learning how to organize and work the local elected officials to get what he needed for his organization. The truth be known, I am clean and sober because of Manny. Manny was my sponsor, my best friend and my brother. I loved him- he saved my life.

It was through Manny’s sheer determination and perseverance, that he was able to get people together to form Musica. An art exhibit here, a fund raiser there and before long Musica Aganist Drugs became a premier social service agency helping people with HIV/AIDS and substance abuse problems. Manny asked me to serve as the Executive Director of Musica but I declined, instead I served on his Board of Directors as Secretary along with some really good people. People like Joe Turner a Lawyer that I met in the 1980’s and some of Manny’s close friends. When the funding came down, we hired Belen, Manny’s Wife as the Executive Director. By this time it was almost ten years that Manny was clean and sober. That means that he was infected for at least that long. Manny held hope that a cure would be found before he got ill but he was a realist. He was very aware that back then the average lifespan for someone diagnosed with HIV was ten years. By this time Manny was very ill. He had been in and out of the hospital two or three times and he was frail and weak. I spent Christmas with him and Belen along with a few of their close friends. Manny held onto his good sense of humor and excellent taste for good Latin music. The last time he was in the hospital, I asked him if I could take pictures and of course he allowed me to. He made Alfredo, a good friend of ours and the Chairman of the Board, pose with one hand on his hip and the other flicking back his imaginary long hair, a “Marilyn Monroe pose” is what Manny called it. We have a great laugh but we knew that these were Manny’s last days.

When Manny died many of us took it very hard. It seemed as if all of Brooklyn was at his wake in the Ortiz Funeral Parlor in Williamsburg Brooklyn. There were politicians, like Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez, and others. Priest, nuns, teachers, sanitation workers, recovering addicts and some not recovering. There were so many people it was almost as if it had been the President in the casket and not a poor Puerto Rican boy, a recovering from Brooklyn.

As I write this I am crying like a baby at the memories of my good friend. I am one of the lucky one’s because I was not infected by HIV. But, that does not mean that I don’t have any battle scars because I do. But that is for another time. This post is in honor of the memory of my friend, my sponsor Manny “Suavecito” Maldonado. May he rest in peace.

What a weekend so far. I went to see Indiana Jones and it was awesome. Also saw The Chronicles of Narania great as well. I Heart Movies!!!

Attention: Free web sites, free hosting. Your own self hosted wordpress blog, just go to http://host4free.biz do it now.

How do the supporters of Georgie W. keep finding ways to defend his antics? Better yet, how do they do so with a straight face? Never in the history of the United States, and of the U.S. Presidency, has a sitting President stooped so low as to politicalize a campaign beyond the boarders of the United States. While he did not mention Senator Obama by name, everyone knows that it is he who Georgie was referring to. I guess “don’t air you dirty laundry in public” has no meaning to Georgie Bush. How do you defend that if you are a Bush supporter? It’s outrageous, hey but so was his election.

Everyone knows that the 2000 election was stolen from Al Gore. So, here we are almost at the end of his long, long rein in the White House, and what does Georgie have to show for his Presidency? Well lets see, when he came into office he inherited the biggest surplus in US history. Today we are trillions in debt. When he came into office we were basking in the sun of peace time. Today we are in our seventh year of a war that he declared over and won by us 90 days after he had begun it. One year after he was in office, the United States experienced the worst invasion in our history. Topping even the invasion of Pearl Harbor. Then when he had the guy that orchestrated that attack trapped in the mountains of Tora Bora, he gives the command for them to abandon that mission and instead go seek out Saddam Hussein. Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 but he did embarrass Georgie’s father when he was President. Nice to know that our President has his priorities correctly in place.

So, Senator McCain - you “Good Ole Boy” from the “Good Ole Party”, (GOP) in your next campaign speech let us hear you ask that one famous question that Georgie’s father asked when he was running for President, “Are we better off today than we were eight years ago”.

Ronald Reagan must be turning over in his grave; what a blunder you republicans have made of his (President Ronald Reagan’s) legacy. What with a bumbling fool that always manages to put his foot in his mouth for President! Not only did Reagan not like George H. Bush, now he has to R.I.P. knowing that Georgie Jr. is in the oval office. All I can say Ronnie, is that you left us in the nick of time.

God save us all, God Bless America.

From a strictly practical point of view, I think that Marriage Licenses Should be Renewable. Think about it. Every four years you have to renew your drivers license, if you don’t it gets revoked. Have a dog? Every year you have to renew your dogs license. If you don’t, you get a summons. Even the batteries in your smoke detectors get renewed, so why shouldn’t marriage licenses?

It’s not fair. People get married because they are young and in love. But, to quote Tina Turner, “What’s love got to do with it?” After four years of marriage, you’ve had enough. The sex is not regular, you don’t care how you look, she doesn’t care how she looks. You both walk around in PJ’s and slippers. She with her hair in rollers, you with five o’clock shadow and a cigarette hanging from your lower lip. And, right around this mark, the four year mark, you start finding fault in each other, and you seek excuses to stay at the job late, “working” overtime.

Wouldn’t life be simpler if at after four years you could renew your marriage license? Or better yet, opt out of renewing it. She’d have to pack her bags, jump in a cab and that’s it. The marriage license becomes null and void. Then you could go get a new model. The second time around you’d be prepared. We fellas go into a relationship all macho, but after a year or two of nagging, and seeing her walk around in rollers, lack of sex and no more hanging around with your buddies - you’ve had enough, you surrender. We go shopping with our wives and we’re in a daze. Our job is just to push the shopping cart, unload heavy items and mow the lawn.

But if we could renew our marriage license after four or five years, things would be different. You’d each know that in order to stay together past the four year mark, you each have to be on your best behavior. You wife would look as lovely as she did when you first met her. You would shower more and actually wear cologne. At night you’d be playful and frisky, and sex would come more often. But, since marriage is forever, there is no motivation to be playful at night, to look one’s best and be caring. Ever notice, that after the four year mark all married people start acting like brother and sister. They no longer act like lovers. Yeah man, they say marriage is an institution. I say so is a mental hospital.

Another part of marriage that should be optional is keeping the offspring. I mean how cruel can it be? You kill yourself doing everything for your children. Rush to the hospital on cold winter nights because the baby has a cold or slight fever. You put up with them slobbering all over you clothing, breaking everything and pooping all the time. You go crazy when they start dating, get their drivers license and go off to college. And how do they pay you back? They move out. But if keeping them after their fourth birthday were optional, everyone would be happy. The children would have to learn to become self reliant very early in life. They’d have no choice. If they want to eat they would have to learn to survive. We could opt in to keep them or to get some new children when we renewed our marriage license.

But it will never happen. Marriage will continue to condemn us until death do us part.

[poll id="1"]

Are you using Google Adsense to monetize your website pages? If you are, how effective is it?

The reason I am asking is because lately I’ve been hearing a lot about “Ad Blindness”. What is ad blindness you ask? Ad blindness occurs when the same person, or same people visit your website, blog, or forum over and over again and because it becomes so common to them, they no longer even notice your banner ads. And, it is not limited to just Google Adsense, it happens with all types of print advertising. It has to do with the minds ability to filter unnecessary minutia from information it deems worthy.

How awful is that? You work so hard on getting your website to look a certain way. You even spend extra time picking out the right products to promote and the right banners to use in those promotions only to discover that the click through rate is diminishing instead of increasing.

Now you could do what all the guru’s are advising, which is to try different size banners and color schemes. In fact how many times have you heard that putting your add in a place above the fold increases your click through rate significantly. Listen, that advice may or may not work, I dont know, but one thing I do know and that’s audio ads make the point.

Publish NetAudioAds Adlets

The prevailing wisdom is that audio adlets just do not work, that people will be turned off by audio ads, and that audio adlets will drive traffic away for your site rather than to it. The truth of the matter is that audio ads convert just as good, or in some instances better, than the traditional play per click.

The science of it all is very interesting. But in layman’s terms because I am no scientist, this is how it works. As humans we have five senses (some people may have less due to illness or birth defects, etc. and some may have that elusive 6th sense, ie, ESP - extra sensory perception). The five senses are the ability to see, smell, taste, touch, and/or hear. Because we live in high tech times, and everyone is always on the go, our senses, especially the ability to see and hear, have learned to filter out information that is redundant or deemed not needed, that is why some teenagers are able to do homework while the music is blaring.

And Television?
There are many reasons why television advertising is said to be diminishing, but one reason is because people have learned to filter them out. For example they use those three minutes to go to the bathroom or grab a snack. On the Internet, people have be come so accustomed to seeing banner ad images so frequently that they to have actually become less effective than they once were: “Ad Blindness”.

Now we all know the phenomenon that Youtube came to be, but why do you think this is so? It is because Youtube is using more than just the sense of seeing. Video is a great tool because it incorporates moving images with sound. When combined or mixed right, they evoke emotions that make us laugh, cry, feel happy, feel sad, feel hungry, etc. As an advertising medium on the Internet video is not cost effective. First it reminds us of television commercials and we already discussed why that medium seems to be failing, and second because people searching for things on the Internet usually want their information instantly. While video works great on sites like youtube, it doesn’t do as well for advertising en mass.

The format that is the most effective has only recently been introduced to the internet. That format is the audio ad. After many hours of testing and retesting, it has been determined that five to eight second audio ads are the most effective form for disseminating information. After countless dollars have been invested, the right vehicle has finally been developed, it’s called Net Audio Ads.

If you are one that listens to the guru’s, know that they did have some of the advertising concepts right. Namely, that one must grab hold of peoples attention, play with there feelings/emotions and direct them to take action.

The audio advertising that is about to saturate the Internet will change commerce as we know it. Even the nay sayers will have no choice but to participate because it will become the norm. Very basically, it will work similar to the way Google’s Adsense now works. A network of publishers will add some code to their website and the audio ads will begin to play. That is where the similarity ends. Audio Ads will be targeted in many different ways. Geography, time zone, type of service and others. For example, a surfer comes online searching for information about electronic dog fences. The surfer uses his/her favorite search engine and gets a list of sites with information on electronic dog fences. The first site he/she clicks open has a banner ad on top and several along the sides. The person reads the information on the site and decides that it is incomplete. He/she clicks on a site that has audio ads on it. First, as soon as the web page opens an audio ad plays. “Looking for Electronic Dog Fences, Pete’s Petshop is the ideal place to look. Click the number 1 on your keyword for more information”. Which ad would you say is more effective? If you said the audio ad you would be right. You would be right for several reasons. The surfer was not interrupted from what he or she was searching for “electronic dog fences”, in fact, the surfer’s job was made easier because he/she was told exactly where to go for more information. Isn’t that amazing? That feature of instructing your surfer to click on the number one for more information is what is called key to play.

Audio ads do not occupy any screen space, meaning that the surfer or viewer, or as we call them listener’s, entire computer monitor is still free for whatever information the site is displaying. With audio ads, the listener never has to leave your site. With the key to page options (there are several features available) a separate window opens to display the information when the window is closed he/she is still on your site. And if the listener is on your site for three minutes or more, another ad is played.

So using the old pay per click advertising methods may soon go the way of the dinosaur- extinct. In the mean time, why not use both methods, Google’s Adsense and Audio Ads?

For more information on the audio ad affiliate program click here, by the way the affiliate program is multi tiered so that you can make money from the people you refer both as affiliates or as advertisers.

If you ask me, this is really a no brainer. Audio Ads are here and will become a powerful marketing tool… that is until someone invents something much more effective. But hey, that may take another hundred years.

Publish NetAudioAds Adlets

Every May 5th Americans have another excuse for getting drunk. Walk down any main street USA and you will see signs proclaiming “Happy Cinco de Mayo”. All the chain restuarants have festive signs up inviting you in for some good “original” authentic Mexican “Chimichanga’s” and the bars have signs welcoming you to the Cinco de Mayo happy hour.
[ad#demo-advert]
The people just love it. Just for a day, everyone is Mexican, just as in March everyone is Irish for Saint Patricks Day. Now ask anyone to explain the significance of El Cinco de Mayo and not one soul will be able to. Fact of the matter is there really in nothing to celebrate. Oh sure there was a minor victory in one of the Mexican war’s. Some small Mexican town was able to fight and defeat one of the larger foes. Who knows, I don’t, if it was during the French or if it was against the Americans. The point is there is nothing really to celebrate.

Cinco de Mayo is another American made thing to extract money from the masses. Think about how ironic it really is. Many of the folks out celebrating today are the same ones that want to get rid of all the “illegal” immigrants. Yeah, happy May 5th to you to.

It’s like that famous word used to describe us, you know which word I’m talking about. I’m talking about the word Hispanic. There is no such a race or ethnicity known as Hispanic. When I was a young boy growing up in Spanish Harlem, New York, the only options on government forms regarding race were white, black, other. Then is became, white, black, Puerto Rican, other. At least on the East Coast, I’m pretty sure that on the West Coast it was white, black, Mexican, other. During the later part of the 1970’s they concocted the term Hispanic in an effort to quantify the many peoples entering the USA that were primarily Spanish speaking. Lets see, we have Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, Colombian, Panamanian, Costa Rican, Salvadorian, Chilean, Peruvian, and so many others that I just can’t remember them all. The point I’m trying to make is that we Americans, and I include myself because Puerto Rican’s ARE Americans, we have been since 1917 when legislation granted us citizenship- it was called the Jone’s Act, are hypocritical we don’t want the immigrants but this nation was founded by immigrants and is composed of nothing but immigrants. The only true, native Americans are well, the Native Americans. The one’s that were practically annihilated and forced to live on “reservations.” Everyone else is an immigrant or a descendant of an immigrant.
[ad#demo-advert]
My favorite TV station is the History Channel. On it I saw a look back to the 1940’s in California and the American-Mexican border towns. When the term zoot suit was introduced in the American culture. It was as a result of the Mexican American youth trying to retain some form of cultural identity as well as a mark of rebelliousness against a Government that systematically discriminated against them. The flashy clothing, big hats with feathers on the side, and cool swagger as they walked, marked the beginning of the Chicano wars.

Because the Mexican males living here in the USA were not citizens they were not compelled to go off to fight in the war (World War II). The Mexican American youth with their flashy clothing would go to parties for fun and since most of the White male youth were in the military fighting the war, it became inevitable that White women would start going out with brown boys. There was big animosity between the White soldiers home on leave and the brown Mexican American boys. The soldiers, so the documentary states, felt that it was unfair the the Mexican boys did not have to go off to war, but it was worst when the soldiers came home to find all the woman “taken” by the Mexican boys. The tension was very thick. Then an event occurred that would change the climate for the worst. One day a white woman was found beaten and raped. When news about this spread, the drunken soldiers began beating up on all the Mexican Males they’d come across. The young, American born Mexicans would fight back. But then it was taken up a notch. One day a Mexican Man was out with his family enjoying the crisp night air as they strolled home. A group of drunk and angry white soldiers (when I use the term soldiers throughout this post, I mean all military personnel. For in fact most involved in the melee were from the Navy) grabbed the man and in front of his wife and children beat him to death. What ensued after that incident was forty bloody and riotous nights. Of course only the Mexicans were arrested and sent to jail.

Also during the 1940’s, but in New York City this time, there occurred a mass Migration of Puerto Ricans. In the history books this period is most often referred to as the Great Puerto Rican Migration. Prior to this migration of the 1904’s, Puerto Ricans were shipped to this Country as cheap farm labor. Pretty much the same way Mexicans were. Puerto Ricans picked and loaded potatoes for slave wages and never earned enough to get out of this predicament. The money they earned never lasted the entire month. Soon the foremen in this farming communities began lending money to the workers to “tie them over” until the next pay period. However, when the pay period arrived the workers were flat broke again because of the exorbitant interest attached to these “loans.”

After this mass migration the cheap farming labor jobs all but vanished. In there stead came the factories. During the war factory jobs were plentiful. Soon the factory owners realized that they could hire the Puerto Rican (mostly woman) for a fraction of what they were paying the white factory workers. Needless to say, this caused a tremendous riff between the white workers (mostly Italian, but there were other’s as well) and the Puerto Rican. It is almost as if the entire American system by it’s very design exploits people of color. By the 1950’s there was already a large segment within the Puerto Rican community that were born here as opposed to the Island. These American born and raised Puerto Rican’s were very different than there parents. These would fight back. When the white boys formed gangs to control their turf, the Puerto Ricans formed gangs to. In fact, it was because of what was happening in New York City between the white and Puerto Rican youth that the musical “Westside Story” was written.

Things did not come to a head until the 1970’s. It took an entire decade for the protest mentality that had swept the nation by the white anti war hippies to reach the ghettos. Suddenly all the crime in New York City was attributed to Puerto Rican’s. Puerto Rican youth were hauled off to jail in record numbers. But the worst part was the fact that many of these Puerto Rican males were being found dead, hung in their jail cells. The community was outraged, especially one group of Puerto Rican college students that organized and formed a political party known as the Young Lords Party. Of course the media made the “Lords” out to be nothing more than a gang, and the public, or the white public, believed them.

Tension was high throughout the Puerto Rican community on many front, poor sanitation, absent landlords, lack of heat and hot water, rodent infestation, a deplorable education system, and the organized murder of Puerto Rican males- in jail, while still presumed innocent.

The incident that sparked the riots was very similar to the incident that sparked the Mexican riots. Julio Roldan was a community organizer for the lords. One of the techniques used when doing community organizing is to be were the people are. This cold winter day in Spanish Harlem, Julio was warming his hands over an open flame that a group of homeless men had started to keep warm. (back then the derogatory term used was “bum”, homeless had not yet entered into the American language). A policeman came by and began to harass the men. Julio being more educated tried to explain the situation to the officer. An argument ensued and Julio was rushed off to jail. The next day he was found hanging in his jail cell. This prompted the Young Lords to demand action. Of course, the NYPD did nothing about it. The Lords got the elected officials involved and together demanded an investigation. Eventually an “investigation” took place– it was ruled that Julio Roldan had in fact committed suicide. The community erupted. At the prompting of the Young Lords a massive protest march took place up Third Avenue, one of the main throughfares in Spanish Harlem. With a mock casket carried over there heads the Lords began to march. With every step they took more and more of the community joined in. Mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, little boys and little girls, black, white and Puerto Rican. What could have been a peaceful protest turned ugly. The police wanting to show muscle did not budge. It was only a few year before that Malcolm X had organized a similar protest march and demonstrated his muscle before the NYPD. One could assume that the NYPD did not want to seem weak, and out of control in the other side of Harlem, East Harlem or Spanish Harlem. Nevertheless, the police acted with force and the community retaliated with force. I can’t recall exactly how long the melee lasted — Spanish Harlem was all but destroyed.

After this more landlords became absent, until eventually they just walked away from their properties, abandoning them and their tenants. East Harlem and the South Bronx became havens for crime, drugs, and all sorts of vice. It would take decades for both of these communities, East Harlem and the South Bronx to rejuvenate, revitalize and thrive again.

So, these are the things that I think about every year as the nation prepares to celebrate El Cinco de Mayo. Oh, I’m sorry but I have to go now - my wife, daughters and I are going to enjoy some of the May 5th festivities. While I don’t drink alcohol, my wife does and hey, May 5th is as good a day as any to be with the one’s you love celebrating life. God Bless America.