*CRAIG* Cynthia McKinney Green Revolution!

Grew up in New Orleans, and from age 5, 15 miles from the French Quarter on a farm bounded by the Mississippi River, a marvelous swamp, the grandest blackberry field I've yet to behold, and an enchanting woods who generously shared her secrets. Spent my youth exploring, reading, listening to music, and imagining, always & forever imagining.The outside world and the dinner table was consumed with the civil rights revolution.At the beginning of 1971, at age 14, i experienced my parent's tumultuous divorce subsequent to their tumultuous marriage, & joined the first New Orleans wave of counterculture, marijuana, & psychedelia.Fell madly in love with literature in my junior year, and been so ever since, in spite of long estrangements.Mostly exchanged those vices for the debauched lifestyle of a New Orleans bartender and Nightcub manager. Every night an occassion for sin. Delicious.Interest in "deep politics" incited through years of contacts allegedly of that suberranean world while running those bars in the New Orleans night.Left for southern california to stay with the Nicaraugan family of the fellow who had taught me to tend bar at the Marriott in 1976. Lived in South Central, then the barrios of Anaheim for 13 years. Became a community activist, later active in peace, social justice, Green Party movements. Moved to Anaheim Hills in 2000. Ran for Anaheim City Council in 2004.Have learned what I needed from politics, and am focused on creativity and the arts for good. Have raised 12 children under my roof, which accounts for most of my time over the last decades.That darling dozen includes 3 who share my DNA, 4 so-called "steps", 3 nieces who lived with us for 6 months recently, 2 grandchildren I'm far too young & handsome to have.The first child I raised was Robert, Brazilian born son of my ex-wife, Maria. Robert pulled a number of bodies from the water during and after Katrina. He he was never quite the same after that, took to drugs and drink and depression, ending up driving at over 100 mph & clearing the guard rail of an overpass, plunging to his appointment with relief and release, yet another belated victim of Katrina.One of the points on my 5 pointed Star of Happiness is "Spirituality", but I have as much use for religion as i do for sodomy (that is, for me personally, if you dig it, great!), and enthusiastically encourage Christians to fearlessly investigate the origins of their faith.I do believe we create our own reality, in part with that 90% of the brain we rarely or never use, with our choices & decisions, beliefs & attitudes, thoughts & feelings. In this way, the way we look at things creates the very things we look at, as is being promulgated by the frontiers of Quantum Physics. Awesome responsibility, awesome possibilities for freedom.It is my conviction that we're down here on the dark earth to love & be loved, all else is window dressing to that mandate. I maintain that you learn a helluva lot more through Joy & Laughter than you do through suffering, struggling, and sacrifice.So as Jack Kerouac said in one of his rare better moments, "just stretch that skull cover & smile!"Up to now, my whole adult life has been largely determined by who got pregnant & when. The resulting offspring taught me a love never before known, and the absurdity of self-absorption, dwelling on pain, and not letting the love flow into your life.And now, old hungers and thirsts stir within me, alive still since my youth, arising and seeking sustenance. I do believe I'll commence my walk toward those scents pulling me like a willing abductee in a tractor beam.