I'm sitting here at the bar and decided I would take a few minutes to list a few of the things I'm thankful for.

First of all, I'm thankful for an amazing husband.  For the past 3 years and 10 months, I've had the ultimate pleasure of calling Derek my partner.  For years before that we were very good friends that met online and talked practically every day.  He told me for years that the Bham boys better enjoy me while they could, because one day he'd be taking me from them -- January 14, 2005 he did just that.  Since then we've had lots of ups and downs, but the love NEVER diminished.  He's my ROCK, my FORTRESS, and my cheerleader.  I love you Derek and am thankful every day for you.

Secondly, I'm thankful for an amazing group of friends and family.  During some VERY rough times,  I adopted a Birmingham family to lean on and love.  These people have been with me through all the turmoils I've experienced with my own family through the coming out process.  Some of those ties have become strained over the years, but the love remains the same.  I appreciate you all more than you'll ever know.  I won't DARE try to name names, I'll leave someone out as it's 8am after an 11 hour shift.

To my *blood family* -- we've been through some amazingly hard times over the past few years.  From loss of relatives, to other relatives having legal issues, to my own coming out:  you have been (for the most part) supportive.  Over the past year or so, I've rekindled the relationship with my immediate family that I needed to have, but my extended family has always been supportive of me.  To my Aunt Deb and my cousins Casey, Meredith, MacKenzie, Heather, Cara, Danielle and Dianna -- I say Thank You.  You're the best.

To my Quest family.....  For the past 6 years I've had the pleasure of working with some amazing people.  Some come and go, we fight like cats and dogs sometimes (often), but the respect remains and the love never diminishes.  I'm thankful for you, may we all continue to work together to make things the way we all know they can be.

To my customers -- although I may act like a total ass, please know that I'm thankful for you.  I've tried over the past few months to become the *kindler, gentler Mark590*..... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  The one thing you'll always know is that  I'm consistent and ALL about business... Thank you.

To everyone else that reads this -- I'm thankful for you as well... even if you're just a myspace friend.

May God bless us all during this holiday season.

All my love.....

590 OUT

Although I didn't personally know anyone that was murdered by terrorists on September 11, 2008, I was personally impacted on so many different levels by this wicked act and I remember this day in memory of those that were lost.

I remember waking up to my roommate Terry walking into my bedroom and waking me (which he NEVER did) by turning on my TV and telling me I needed to wake up because something very bad was happening.  We sat on my bed for an hour or so and watched in horror as the first act of terrorism on American soil was reported.  Afterwards, we went into the living room and setup 3 televisions so that we wouldn't miss anything by watching the 3 major networks.  

I had heard my parents speak of how they remember where they were, what they were doing, etc when they heard of the assassination of JFK.  I never fathomed there would be a situation where I would remember every moment of an event that didn't directly influence me.  

I remember sitting for hours on end watching news reports and how EVERY network suspended regular programming to report news.  I don't know that our nation will ever see in my lifetiime a time where ESPN would pipe in a news network, QVC would suspend broadcasts, etc.

That's my personal 9/11 experience.... I remember today the thousands of lives that were lost and the tragic loss to our country.

RIP all of you and RIP in peace Terry.

So it's been an interesting few days for us in the Birmingham gay community and for me being on the Board of Directors for Central Alabama Pride, Inc.

Let me start off with this:  The opinions posted in MY blog are those of Mark (590) Cummings and not of any business or organization I am affiliated with.  That being said... here we go.

I remember back in October of 2007 posting a blog about the Mayoral election in Birmingham and how, even though I wasn't a resident of the City at that time, it would affect me.  Man oh man, was I EVER right.  Larry Langford can certainly not be accused of being complacent in his office.  And as Forrest would say... that's all I have to say about THAT (right now).


On Wednesday, May 21 The Pride Board received an email stating that Mayor Langford had denied our request for a Mayoral Proclamation and hanging of Pride flags this year. 

Now a little history lesson.:  On May 5th, I contacted the Mayor's Office of Public Information to request the Proclamation.  Just as in year's past, this office simply took the Proclamation from the previous year, updated the dates and the current Mayor has signed it.  I talked with this office several times over the course of the next 2 weeks, always being assured it was being handled.  Then comes the bombshell on May 21.

The Board of Directors decided at a special meeting Wednesday that we wouldn't make an official statement about this denial until we had our parade permit IN HAND. (just in case)  The Board went through the appropriate channels to attain our permit, just like in year's past.  The Traffic and Engineering Departments were those we were dealing with.  Our Board did not contact the Mayor's office for the parade permit.

Johnathan Quinn, President of Central Alabama Pride, Inc was contacted at 7pm on Friday night by a reporter from the Birmingham News with the facts from his article that was published the next morning.  We tried contacting the Mayor's Office, but noone was available to give us official information on the situation.  The newspaper article ran on Saturday morning and a statement was posted on Pride's myspace and website from the Board of Directors.

Johnathan Quinn was interviewed by all four of the local news stations on Saturday evening for comment on this situation as was Mayor Langford.  Mayor Langford said this was just a *publicity stunt* by our organization to get publicity for our event. 

Mayor Langford, we do not NEED your publicity for our event.  We simply wanted you  to proclaim a week of celebration for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities of Birmingham just like your predecesors have done.  Your comments in the press that "city government isn't in the business of condoning personal lifestyle CHOICES of it's citizens" is an absolute slap in the face to me personally:  a law abiding, tax paying, hard working, home owning VOTER in the City of Birmingham.  Me being gay is not a choice.  It's who I am and for 10 days of the year, the Central Alabama GLBT community comes together for a celebration of who we ARE, not who we CHOOSE to be.  We celebrate diversity and accomplishments of not only our current community, but those who have worked for year's for Equal (not special) rights under the law.  Your refusal does only ONE thing to our community, it brings us together in ways you've never fathomed.  Our community is stronger for this.  We've seen over the past 5 days support come out of the woodwork for our celebration and this year, our 30th anniversary, will have the largest number of participants and attendees we've ever seen in our history.

Central Alabama GLBT community, if there's EVER been a time for you to show your Pride, this is the time.  The 20th Pride Parade will be held on June 7th, beginning at 8:30pm through 5 points South.  I personally would like to see all of our community, as well as those who support our community, participating in the parade.  The time to stand by and watch is past.  It's time to participate and be a part of what I believe will go down as a historical parade for us.  I don't want this to be a riot or a march -- this isn't about HIM --- it's about US.  We will peacefully parade down 20th street and show Birmingham that we're not afraid of who we are.

I think it VERY ironic and appropriate that all this happened this year with our 2008 theme is "Pride 365: Building a Stronger Community" and  our headliner is Pepper Mashay.  One of her songs is "I've got My Pride" (and noone's gonna take it away).  Pepper is a HUGE supporter of our community and we will show her a great welcome to Birmingham!!


PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE....

Check out the Pride myspace and website www.centralalabamapride.org for all the events coming over the next 2 weeks.  It's going to be a GREAT time for our community and you don't want to miss any part of it.

Thanks for all each of you have done in the past and here's to a FANTASTIC and HISTORIC Pride!

As some of you know, I've always been a HUGE fan of politics and political shows, like The West Wing.  This is a scene from the 2nd season which shows Martin Sheen (The President) having a *discussion* with a character called Dr. Jenna Jacobs.  Dr. Jacobs is actually a parody of the *famed* (used lightly) Dr. Laura. 




I just can't get enough of this clip, especially coming from my religious background.   Although the language used (most of it came from an open letter to Dr. Laura several years ago) isn't groundbreaking, it was definitely eye opening for me.

For the record:
I am a Christian.  I accepted Christ as my Saviour when I was 8 years old.  I believe God made me in His own image and that He made me the way I am.  I've always known I was gay, even though I tried to hide it because of fear of persecution from friends and family.  Only in the past 10 years since coming out have I actually felt I was *free*. 

I get so fed up with the religious right telling everyone what freaks we are and when showing homosexuals, they show only those that choose to be extreme.  While I could care less what they show, I wish they would show the mainstream gays instead. We are your mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunt, uncles, ministers, lawyers, doctors, politicians, actors, singers, etc.  We are just like YOU and deserved to be treated just like YOU.  I would love one day to stand in front of Pat Robertson (Jerry Falwell before he died) and tell him what a fool I think he  is.  The Christ I believe in taught love, forgiveness and tolerance.

Anyway -- I love this clip and I hope you learn something from it just like I did.


PS.... A very dear friend of mine (who was also a HUGE West Wing fan) passed away last Wednesday.  Terry, you are loved and missed already.  Even in the few years we knew each other, you made an impact on my life and I'll never forget you.  Rest in Peace my friend.

Mark

**Note, the following blog is not for ALL Bama fans.  I have some VERY good friends that are Bama fans and we get along just fine.  However, a few bad apples have pissed me the f**k off, so I posted this**

Its funny how these Bamers can get on here and talk shit all year long about how *Saban is our haven*  *Bama is back*, etc.  And then when Auburn fans celebrate their Iron Bowl victory, they get trashed for it.

Give Bama a couple of wins the first of the year and WOW, they are back.... then along came Florida State, LSU, Miss State, Georgia and ummm *cough cough* La-Monroe and then of course tonight's Iron Bowl -- BAM on the offensive, lashing out about how the Iron Bowl doesn't matter.

Of course the Iron Bowl matters, wouldn't it have mattered if YOUR team won?  It's the ONLY game that counts today in this state.

I don't trash talk like some people -- I wear MY colors all year long, I'm NOT a fair-weather fan.  I'm there through the ups (read Florida) and the downs (read Miss State, UCF, LSU and GA).

Remember, this IS just a game, but don't take a victory (6 in a row) away from MY team because YOUR TEAM wasted 4 million bucks this year.

Bitter people make me ANGRY....  War eagle anyway.

So Birmingham's new mayor is proposing a sales tax increase for the city of Birmingham without even finishing his first WEEK as mayor.  Its dejavu all over again huh?  Amazing how on October 8th, just before the election, I posted the following in my blog....

"Yeah, the schools got some money courtesy of Langford's 1 cent sales tax a few years ago, but for the most part, the status quo is reigning.  Remember that sales tax was pushed on us without a vote... could that happen in the City of Birmingham as well?? Who knows?"

Hmmmm, very very interesting!  Tax and spend, Larry!

Oh yeah -- Birmingham made a top 10 list!  Bham is ranked the 6th dangerous city in the US to live -- gotta love THAT!

590 OUT

Although I'm not a resident of the City of Birmingham,  I did want to share MY PERSONAL opinion on the Mayoral race that's on the ballot for tomorrow.  I work in the City and there are issues that definitely affect me on a daily basis.

Let me again say, this is Mark Cummings' personal opinion.  Its not the opinion of any business and/or organization that I'm involved with.

First of all, I attended the Mayoral Meet and Greet last week at the Yacht Club.  All the candidates were invited, only 4 said they would come.  Abbott, Cooper, and Dr. Kincaid actually showed (Smitherman was a noshow).  Kudos to thse 3 for showing up and letting the gay community ask them some up front questions about their stance on issues that affect us.

I even asked Dr. Kincaid (the current mayor) why he hadn't show up at our Pride celebration to read his own Mayoral Proclamations.  He told me that his schedule was already full when contacted and apologized for the past 3 years.  Kincaid not only *couldn't come* (read wouldn't come), but his office wouldn't send any of his assistants.  Luckily, Valerie Abbott came each of those years to read this proclamation.  Thank you, Miss Abbott for caring about us.

I saw a poll last week where Langford was leading the race, with Cooper in 2nd and Kincaid a distant 3rd.  I honestly don't know if Birmingham voters have not lived in this city/county for a long time, or if they are just crazy enough to let the same old *good ole boy network* run this area once again.

Langford is a Jefferson County Commissioner and has been for the past 5 years.  Is Jefferson County in good shape right now?? No, not really.  Yeah, the schools got some money courtesy of Langford's 1 cent sales tax a few years ago, but for the most part, the status quo is reigning.  Remember that sales tax was pushed on us without a vote... could that happen in the City of Birmingham as well?? Who knows?

Also, remember Visionland?  Yeah, that was Langford's baby.  When he was mayor of Fairfield, this amusement park was his idea and he got 11 cities, including Birmingham and the Jefferson County Commission to back his plan.  In 2002, Visionland filed bankruptcy under Langford's watch and was bought by another group of investors.  The name was changed and people with good business sense were put into place.  Since then, Alabama Adventure has had record numbers of visitors and seems to be doing well.

My question is this -- Do Birmingham voters want more of what they've become accustomed to over the past few years?   In 2006, Birmingham was ranked the 6th most dangerous city in the US.  We actually had more murders per capita than New York City.   The current mayor says he's tried to reduce crime and has tried to get more pay for police and fire officials.  But what has he actually DONE to help out this problem?

Birmingham voters -- If you REALLY want a change in your city, your schools and in your businesses, I would hope you would vote for someone who isn't in the good ole boy network and who would really work to better this city.  I'm not endorsing any one candidate, that's not what my intention is.  But there are a couple of candidates on the ballot (Abbott and Cooper) that I would have to REALLY think about when I went to the polls.

Think wisely before you hit the voting precincts.  

Also, my friend Howard Bayless is running for School Board for Jefferson County -- so vote for Howard!

That's all for now, sorry this is so long, but as some of you know, I love me some politics and wanted to share MY opinions.

Love to all,
Mark

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