FAMILY MATTERS?

I, like so many others have come to the realization that "family" now means the poeple
that treat you better than those related to you by blood. It is difficult for me to pin point
when this phenomena began. For me after a series of family tragedies; I suddenly
realized that my blood relatives in total hate each other. Understand this realization
came in the midst of family tragedies. Arguably, a time when family comes together
for mutual support and compassion.

Born the youngest of 5 children in Atlanta GA, life was a dream.
We had many of the same ups and downs as any other family.
The only way in which we differed from others in our community is
we (I) was raised in a 2 parent home. My parents stayed married until they
both passed away in 1998. In retrospect; the dysfunction that that began years
before could be seen as an omen.

One of my brothers (2nd oldest) began drinking around the age of 16. By the time he was
18 he was hooked on crack. I don't need to detail the residual attrocities that came from him.
soon after; I discovered that several of my first cousins were addicts as well. By 1986, I
could only stand the company of persons not related to me by blood accept of course my
Mom  and Dad. I think back on that time and try to consider what I could have done
different. I draw a blank because I was close to perfect as a child. I gave my parents very
little grief. In fact I did not visit very much grief on any of my family members.

You may wonder why in 2014 I'm still stressing over Family Matters. The simple answer is
I WANT to have a congenial relationship with my family but I can't do it by myself.
Though too many of my cousins are addicts;  the one's who aren't have
carved out a nice life for themselves. There is where the disconnect is really visible.
If you are without substantial resources or do not posses a high earning potential; you
are not invited to holiday functions, weddings, birthdays etc. But you will be provided with
the details of the event after the fact. To the point; you are great with my family if you
have a lot of money but treated like a leper if you don't.

Today, my best friend is like a "real" brother to me and he, like my real brother is a recovering
addict. You can understand why I'm still in therapy. Maybe you've heard the phrase
"analysis paralysis". It means I'm not doing anything because there is too much going on
in my family and in this country for me to effectively execute a plan of action. Perhaps you
could join me @BoHennessy on twitter and maybe a beneficial dicussion will begin

RETURN OF THE BLOG: AN OPEN LETTER OF WHAT TICKS ME OFF

First and fore most isis is a bunch of female monkeys. What

else would you call group of idiots maximizing on the strife

of unsuspecting Middle_Eastern citizens? I have had it up to here

with all this terrorism bullshit. It is not difficult to see that

that terrorism in it's entirety does nothing but destroy life,

homes and families. I challenge each and every member of isis and

all other terrorist groups (you know who you are) to take inventory. That means take a moment and think about what you are doing. Are more people dying for no reason at all except they are of a different religion. Exactly what have you gained from you sinister

efforts? Nothing at all because every year like clock work you have "Arab Spring" But now you do have target on your back and America is

gunning for you. Bad luck in all your endeavors.

This one will make enemies for me; but corporal punishment is sometimes necessary.

Of course if you have a troubled child the scientific approach is step one. Once the

child is determined to be free of mental or neurological affliction; a time out is not

going to work. As a child my dear father spanked each and every one of his (5) kids

when we committed a major screw-up. He used a black leather belt. In my senior year

of high school, I took a new Buick Electra for a test drive and in the process caused

damaged to one of the rear wheels. I was 17 and was spanked with that leather belt.

I would never dane to tell a parent how to raise their child. However, as a former

teacher I saw first hand what the lack of discipline can do to a classroom.

We all know teacher's are not paid enough to educate your children and be correctional officers. Some kind of happy medium must be met.

Microsoft is becoming my #1 mortal enemy. Every time I upgrade my operating system,

I find that I either purchase another upgrade or spend too much money installing

components that were for some reason removed. For example; support for windows xp

was discontinued so I decided to upgrade to windows vista. I have (5) web cams (2 of them new) and none of them work on windows vista because the video capture feature in vista

was disabled. No person on this earth will ever be able to explain to me why I can't record

web cam video on my computer after paying $70 for windows vista.

Google chrome is a fucking joke. Do you remember Internet Explorer? You could block pop-ups easily and they would not cause a problem. The geniuses at Google forced us to use chrome because now Internet Explorer simply does not work and pop-ups are destroying my computer and my online experience even though pop-up blocker is activated.

Last but not least, spousal abuse, the NFL and Rihanna is becoming an unnecessary distraction for a nation in turmoil. We have entire families going to bed hungry every night.

We have parents locking their babies in stiflingly hot cars and we as a nation are being stalked by terrorists; but we are expected to care that Rihanna's song is not featured at a football game? I must be crazy because I still love this country, but we need to fix this.