David Bruce Collins, Sr., departed from this earthly plane yesterday at the age of 73. Had he made it to 9 November, he would have been 74, the same age at which his father died. But 73 is an appropriate age for an amateur radio operator to go: In ham-speak, "73" means "best regards," the way hams say farewell.

Dad was born in Manhattan, 9 November 1941, and grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey. He graduated in from Tenafly High School in 1959, then went on to Oklahoma State University, one of the few schools offering a major in computer science at that time. He married my mother Susan Hendricks in early 1962, and I came along that November. He never did finish his degree, but he did eventually find employment in computers way before anybody knew what "information technology" was.

I don't feel any great sadness at his passing. Instead, there is profound relief that his long suffering has ended.

Just before his 70th birthday, Dad had a massive stroke, combined with a heart attack and a case of pneumonia. His sister Sheila Collins Bard found him unconscious, but miraculously alive, in the Cape Cod house they shared on 4.5 acres in Lyme, Connecticut. He was stabilized at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London, the same hospital where my son Paxton was born in 1991. L&M then recommended placing him at Bride Brook Health and Rehabilitation Center in the nearby village of Niantic, East Lyme, Connecticut, where he lived for almost four years. Bride Brook gets a five-star rating from just about everybody. I don't have enough stars to bestow on the staff there, working with infirm seniors with every form of dementia imaginable, making Dad's last years bearable.

Of course, I have to work The Earthworm into this post. On my last visit to Bride Brook this summer, I read the first few chapters of my freshly published novel aloud for Dad, and I had to stop because he was laughing so hard that he was in pain. (Your mileage may vary, as they say.) I left an autographed copy in the library there.

I urge all my Houston-based friends—especially my Bernie Sanders–loving friends—to take an opportunity this weekend to meet Dr. Jill Stein. She's arriving in Houston tonight, and will be making the rounds tomorrow:

• Morning: LULAC's monthly chorizo & menudo breakfast
• Afternoon: East End Street Fest on Navigation Boulevard, 1 to 4 pm.
• Evening: open mic slam/jam meet & greet at the home of HCGP stalwarts Deb Shafto and George Reiter, PhD

Why this appeal to the Sanders crowd? It may seem arrogant even to suggest it, but come November 2016, the name "Bernie Sanders" will not be on your ballot. In most states, including Texas, the Green Party nominee will be a choice, and 2012 nominee Jill Stein is by far the front-runner for the 2016 Green nomination.

Many recovering Progressive Democrats like me can safely infer from long experience that the Democratic Party will not allow Sen. Sanders to be nominated. Democratic conventions are where progressive ideas go to die, and where progressive candidates go to make concession speeches. Why? Because too much progressive talk runs the risk of alienating the corporate contributors. Also, too many of the Democratic super-delegates, most of whom are Party establishment types, are likely in Hillary Clinton's camp.

Ted Kennedy. Jesse Jackson. Jerry Brown. Dennis Kucinich. Even Howard Dean. All were given their time in the sun, then dissed and dismissed. The Democratic National Committee's biggest fear is nominating another George McGovern, the anti–Vietnam War senator from South Dakota who won only Massachusetts and DC in the 1972 general election. Richard Nixon, not exactly the guy most voters wanted to have a beer with, won by a popular and electoral landslide.

A young friend of mine, who just a month ago was a fervent Sanders supporter, got a huge buzz from catching his recent appearance at the University of Houston. This friend is also the child of Syrian immigrants and a fierce advocate for peace and self-determination in the Middle East, including the Arab population of Israel-Palestine. When she read that Sanders had actually voted for resolutions supporting Israel's attacks on Gaza, that he can always be counted on to cast votes in Israel's favor, and that he seldom speaks out against Israeli military actions, her support wavered. She may still vote for Sanders in the Democratic Primary, but is looking into voting Green in November.

Jill Stein's slogan is People, Planet, and Peace before Profit. Bernie Sanders, for all his talk, is not so strong on the Peace part.

I have not been engaging in online debates or disputes with my friends who support Sanders. That's counter-productive, because nobody likes a troll. Instead, I have been gently reminding them that, just in case there's no Bernie to vote for in November, they should consider voting for Jill rather than holding their noses and voting for Hillary (or not voting for President at all).

Last selling point: Do you plan to vote for Sanders because of his history as a Democratic Socialist who actually gets elected to high office? You should know that Jill Stein's Power to the People Plan is far closer to European-style socialism.

Dear Walrus:

Despite all the horrific news reports, the people who keep track of such things say there's actually less armed conflict going on now than during your lifetime. The number of civil and international conflicts, and the yearly body counts, like you, are "trending." They are trending downward. There are also fewer authoritarian and totalitarian states than there were in most of the 20th century.

John, I "Imagine" we can take this as good news. It could be better. If the human race can get its collective shit together, it will get better.

We both know that even the absence of armed conflict is not the same as peace. We know what the prophets of old, and of our times, have said about peace. I'd like to observe your birthday, at least one of these years before I die, in a peaceful world.

With the portents of global climate change, with a population zooming toward 8 billion, and with giant extractivist corporations aiming to maximize shareholder value as maximally as they can before the whole planet suffocates, the odds against the trend continuing toward world peace are pretty tall.

You know that cliché about crisis and opportunity? As Naomi Klein​ points out, there has never been a bigger opportunity in the history of our species. That doesn't imply any guarantee that humanity will take this opportunity to "Come Together" and save itself from itself.

You always placed great faith in young people. The Baby Boomers, the Prophet generation who were teens and young adults in 1970, have mostly bought into the System. They have brought some of those revolutionary values into the System, but the System still does what it does, and what it does best is kill. The Millennials, today's youth, are supposed to emerge as a Hero generation. Many of them have taken the music, art, and hard-won wisdom of previous generations to heart. If they can focus their energies on the crises of our time, they may just implement the necessary solutions.

If.

A world made new, and all her people one,
With Peace, Love, Justice, and Respect for All,
dbc

Yes, Dr. Jill Stein is getting out of New England at peak foliage time to spend a week with her Texas peeps. The itinerary is not finalized yet, but arrangements are afoot for the Green presidential candidate to swing through Texas 13-20 October. Houston will host her for the weekend of 17-18 October, which will include brunch with Latino community leaders and a booth at the East End Street Fest that Saturday morning.

Jill will also visit DFW, the Rio Grande Valley, and San Antonio. We tried to pack in El Paso and a side-trip to New Mexico, but it just didn't work out with the time available.

This is exciting news, folks. My admiration for Jill borders on adoration. Her grasp of issues important to progressives is comprehensive, and she articulates her positions well whether speaking or writing. This is not to say I find her completely above criticism, but she is getting better at the one aspect of campaigning where I find her weak: media. This recent appearance on Tavis Smiley's PBS program shows Jill at nearly her best. She keeps her responses concise and to the point. In this remote interview with Jesse Ventura, also of recent vintage, she is not exactly smooth, but she gets her points across well.

In interview settings, Jill often delivers answers that are longer than the questioner might like, longer than a TV segment can accommodate. For that I place the blame on the fact that the issues are too complex and intertwined to be reduced to sound bytes, a fact which she understands intuitively. Even non-commercial TV like Democracy Now! doesn't have sufficient time or space for complexity or nuance. Also, she tends to repeat herself and rely on crutch phrases: In one ten-minute video segment, if I remember correctly, she introduced her concluding sentences with "at the end of the day" four separate times.

Jill has also posted some lengthy solo videos online that consist of just her speaking into the camera, without much attention given to lighting, sound quality, or illustrative graphics. A media-savvy adviser would tell the candidate that this is an easy way to lose viewers. Even her avid supporters would have to really want to watch the whole thing to get through it.

So what is her strongest point as a candidate? Connecting with people face to face. If you get to meet her in person, you will know quickly that she sees you as a person with intrinsic value, not just a potential vote. She can listen to your concerns and connect all those abstract political issues with your real life.

Jill Stein is not even the presumptive Green nominee yet. A lot can happen between now and next August, when the Green Presidential Nominating Convention comes to Houston. The Green Party may nominate somebody else for president, or decide not to nominate anyone, depending on circumstances. (At the 2004 convention in Milwaukee, David Cobb narrowly defeated None of the Above.) As of now, Jill is the only announced Green candidate who is taking all the steps toward a serious campaign, including obtaining federal matching funds. She is also party to a lawsuit against the Commission on Presidential Debates to allow the Green and Libertarian nominees to participate, assuming that they are on the ballot for a majority of voters.

To all my friends who are supporting Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic Primary race: If Senator Sanders does not win the nomination, I hope that you will consider the Green Party's nominee as your Plan B.

• Rep. Sylvester Turner for Mayor of Houston
• Doug Peterson for Houston City Council At Large, Position 3
• Amanda Edwards, JD, for Houston City Council At Large, Position 4
• Ann McCoy, PhD, for Houston ISD Board of Trustees, District IV
• A Yes vote on Proposition 1 to restore the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO)

PDiddie at Brains and Eggs posted the entire press release and added some commentary. As county co-chair, I need to limit my own commentary on the endorsements, the process, and PD's interpretation thereof. I can certainly understand choosing Chris Bell over Sylvester Turner when it comes to progressive credentials, as well as former Council member Jolanda Jones for HISD Board. The simple explanation here is that Turner and McCoy sought HCGP's endorsement, and we found them both worthy; the others did not ask for it.

I learned the hard way about asking for endorsements. Not every advocacy organization endorses candidates without their requesting it. It saves everyone the embarrassment that occurs when somebody gets an unwanted endorsement. When I ran in 2012 and 2014, I did not seek any endorsements, even from organizations that might have given me theirs (e.g., the Houston GLBT Political Caucus). I blame that on working full-time and not having a campaign staff to advise me and send the appropriate email.

It's municipal election high-season here in Houston. Early voting begins in 17 days. About 15% of us will actually vote, because too many Houstonians assume that all those campaign signs are just leftovers from 2014. Those of us who do vote and are actually paying attention have been comparing candidates and discussing our positions on the usual Issues That Matter to Houstonians: crime, potholes, traffic, and weather.

We've at least made peace with the fact that city government can't really do anything about the weather. It does have the power to mitigate the effects of the weather: plant more trees, install more awnings, enclose the entire city in an enormous air-conditioned dome, etc.

The City and our Metropolitan Transit Authority have made great strides recently toward making it easier to get around without a personally owned motor vehicle. The amount of MetroRail track has tripled; the bus system makes more sense; there are more and better bicycle lanes and hike-n-bike trails (and they're working on getting more of those trails connected into a proper network).

Unfortunately, the trend toward more housing and jobs inside Loop 610 is making more of us kvetch about the Big Issue of traffic. The Inner Loop may be 1/16th as population-dense as Manhattan, but it still gets Manhattan-style gridlock in its four business districts: Downtown, Uptown, Greenway Plaza, and the Texas Medical Center. Even Midtown, Montrose, and the Museum District are not immune.

Here's my latest kvetch, adapted from a Facebook post:
​

Today is the First of Breastober. This month brings a relentless storm of pink ribbons, with all that the pink ribbon entails.

This entry actually has nothing to do with the They Might Be Giants songlet "Stormy Pinkness." I just like the title.

I've never been fond of wearing pink. It's really not in my color palette. It's not a "feminine colors" issue either: I have always loved purple, and I have a lavender shirt and tie that I wear with pride. If you know me, you know that I gravitate toward "winter" colors, the colors that unfortunately make me harder to see when I'm cycling at night.

Today I am wearing a pink necktie to work—solid pink, not bedecked with little pink ribbon logos. I am wearing this cravat not because I support the mighty Breast Cancer Awareness Industry, but because my ladyfriend Kayleen gave it to me to wear. 

Kayleen and I are both very aware of breast cancer and its impact on women and families, and we don't need any Susan Komen types to remind us. We have both had women in our families diagnosed with breast cancer. Kayleen's mother just died from it this year. My own mother's stage one breast cancer was diagnosed and treated several years ago; she has been cancer-free for more than five years now.