Today’s my birthday. I’m getting gray and old. That’s a scary thought, especially when I consider where I thought I’d be at this point in my life.
There are paths I chose in my life that, in retrospect, I wish I had not. But I’d like to revisit a post from two years ago to talk about life regrets.
When I was in High School, I thought I’d be a famous songwriter in a band when I was older. Or a politician. Or an actor. I had so many things I wanted to do. I was sure that by the time I was this age, I’d be rich and famous … but then, a lot of kids think that, don’t they?
So let’s start with this: Try not to have big regrets.
Act on your dreams. No one was ever on their death bed saying, “I’m so glad I never tried to accomplish that dream of mine!”
I’ve done a lot of different things in my life. I’ve been successful at some, and not so much at others. (You’ll forgive me if I reminisce a bit here on the anniversary of my trip around the sun.)
When I was a kid, I decided I wanted to be an actor. So my mom took me to community theater, and I passed auditions and was in a number of plays. (I continued on through High School.)
Then I wanted to be a cartoonist. I ended up drawing comics for my school newspapers through law school.
I thought it would be great to be in a band, so I taught myself guitar, bass and piano. I played in many bands and still do from time to time.
In High School, I decided to start an “underground” newspaper. It became quite popular, although it was more like Mad Magazine than a real newspaper. (I continued to write for the college and law school papers and later did a column for the Allston-Brighton Item, a real newspaper.)
Then I said, “I should write a musical comedy.” I did, and the High School drama coach liked it. The school put it on. It was held over an extra week and got good reviews from the local paper.
In college, I decided to run for the student government and received the highest number of votes of any candidate, and was later awarded the college’s Student Service Award in my senior year.
Then I decided to go to law school, mostly because I was interested in politics. I became involved with the Massachusetts chapter of Americans for Democratic Action and ended up as their President for a year. I also worked as a lobbyist, and was campaign manager for a state representative for a summer.
After law school, I said, “There should be a magazine for animated films,” and started Animato!, which later grew into a real magazine carried in book stores everywhere.
Then I joined up with some friends and began one of the first live-action fantasy medieval role-playing games in America. I later broke away and started the Alliance LARP, which now has been running for more than 20 years. I have chapters all over the United States and Canada, and the Discovery channel recently did a documentary about us. (Yes, you watch it on Netfix and yes, that’s me and Heidi being interviewed.)
About ten years ago, I decided I wanted to write fiction, and I have published three novels and a bunch of short stories (no, they’re not self-published) as well as edited four anthologies, the most recent featuring three New York Times Bestselling Authors (coming out in early 2017). I even have an agent now.
Now, were all of these things successful? Absolutely not. I tried to make a living at the LARP but instead ended up living in poverty for a few years. My books are not best-sellers. My bands may have played all the big clubs but we never got a record deal. I gave up on the cartooning and never pursued the acting.
I’ve had regrets about life, just like everyone. But they are rarely of the “I wish I had tried that” variety.
And that’s today’s lesson: Take control and make things happen in your life. There is no “Life Fairy” who will come along, point a magic wand, and make all your dreams come true. Sitting around and watching TV won’t get you anywhere. Get off your butt and do something. Make something of your life.
Make sure that when you’re on your death bed, you have no big regrets.
Apparently, a group of Bernie supporters were denied entry to the convention last night. (Supporters, not delegates. The delegates remained.) These supporters are quite upset about it.
But let’s step back a bit and think about it.
The way to win elections is to have four nights of a convention with no protests — with unity. Free advertising on TV for four nights! Democrats needed to put on our best image.
Some Bernie supporters are complaining that the whole primary system was unfair because the DNC leadership had already chosen a candidate years ago. But that’s what always happens. There’s always an insider. Eight years ago, it was also Hillary Clinton. That time, she lost. Obama got more votes. And then Hillary’s supporters showed up at the convention, didn’t protest, and cheered on the nominee because they were Democrats who knew what was best for the party and the country.
On Monday, a bunch of Bernie supporters (upset with the fact that he had lost) disrupted speeches, argued with other attendees, and showed the party to be at war with itself. Or was it with itself?
Let’s face it, Bernie was not a Democrat. He became one, ran, lost, conceded, and then announced that he had resigned as a Democrat and is now once again an Independent. He bolted from the party even before the convention was over.
He is no longer a Democrat. He is no longer in consideration for the nomination.
So now a bunch of people dedicated to someone who isn’t even a Democrat and is not in consideration for the nomination want admission to the Democratic convention? For what purpose?
The Democratic convention is not a place for non-Democrats. And after the way the Bernie supporters disrupted Monday’s convention, you can see why they weren’t exactly welcome.
The key is this: If you really care about the Democratic party and what it stands for, and especially if you realize how important this election is, then you look after what is best for the party (and America).
You don’t get to crash and disrupt my party and then get mad when I ask you to leave.
I am constantly astounded by Bernie people who say they are now going to vote for Gary Johnson, the ex-Republican and now Libertarian candidate for President.
(Sorry I can’t credit the artist here; don’t know who it is)
Libertarians are good on certain social issues. They don’t think the government should be deciding things concerning abortion or gay marriage or whether you should be able to smoke marijuana. They don’t want Big Brother government watching us. They’re against using torture against our enemies. You can see why many Bernie supporters would like that.
The problem is that libertarians not only believe that government should be out of our social lives, they believe the government should be out of just about everything.
Bernie railed against income equality, Wall Street, and greed. He talked about how the little guy in America couldn’t get a fair share with corporations paying no taxes and fighting minimum wage. He railed against Citizen’s United and the deregulation of banks that caused the housing crisis and the economic recession.
And what kinds of policies caused these problems?
Libertarian policies.
Here are the things Gary Johnson wants:
Come on, the man carries around Ayn Rand books and gives them out, saying that is the kind of government he wants.
Now, of course, some people think all this is a good idea — that if only government got out of the way, no powerful person would ever take advantage of anyone ever again and we’ll all live in peace and harmony happily ever after, even though that has never been the case in the entire history of humanity.
But Bernie supporters? Really? If this is what you truly believe, then what the heck were you doing supporting Bernie, who has spent his entire career fighting people like Gary Johnson?
(Primary source: http://www.ontheissues.org/Gary_Johnson.htm)
Emails have leaked showing that the inner circle of Democrats in charge of the party were supporting Hillary, and some had discussed how to stop Bernie from getting the nomination. 
It’s true that Hillary spent years cultivating support among Democrats (which is what you’re supposed to do if you’re running for President). All the leaders of the party were in favor of her.
Bernie comes along and decides to run and changes into a Democrat from an independent. The insiders are kind of upset about that (as probably any group would be if someone who was never a member suddenly joined and announced that he wanted to take the group over).
They talked bad about him in private emails and otherwise discussed campaign strategy, because they were worried that if he got the nomination, they would lose in November. (I disagree with their analysis, but you can understand why they think that way.) One staffer even discussed attacking him for being an atheist.
Now, I’ve talked bad about people in private emails, too. Everyone does. Glad no one sees them. Nothing illegal about that.
However, I have seen nothing to say that they “fixed” the primaries as some of the Bernie people are saying. Were they pro-Hillary? Of course. Did they do political stuff to try to get the nomination for her? Yes, this is politics. Politics happens in politics.
Having the people in power support someone you disagree with does not make an election “fixed.”
Further, it doesn’t look like anyone did anything other than talk. There was no attack on Bernie about religion, for instance.
Part of the problem comes from people who don’t really understand politics. I’ve railed against Bernie supporters who don’t know the voting laws (but think they do), who don’t realize that Superdelegates aren’t “illegal”, who don’t comprehend that the way a party chooses its candidate does not have to be open to the public.
Wasserman-Schulz should still resign over this (EDIT: And she did, a few hours after I posted this. I am mighty!) This is not the image the Democrats want. The party leadership should be neutral during primaries. But it’s not illegal. (I’ll bet the RNC emails are even worse, as they really didn’t want Trump to get the nomination.)
I’m willing to look at any evidence that says that something illegal occurred. Haven’t seen it yet.
by Guest Blogger Andrea Phillips
So here’s the thing: I support Hillary. I support her, I am all-in, I fucking love her and I love that she was my Senator and I love about 90% of the policies she plans to put into place. She is for raising minimum wages. She is for background checks for guns. She is for LGBTQ equality. She is for abortion rights. 
She is for campaign finance reform. She is for paid family leave. She is for universal health care. She is for clean energy and disability benefits and a better, more compassionate world.
She is a woman who has literally made it her life’s work to improve the lives of women. She has evolved and grown to care about issues around sexuality and people of color, and from where I sit, changing your mind when you get new information is a strength, not a weakness.
Most of all, I love her because she knows how to compromise. This is the thing about a better world: you can’t will it into place single-handedly. You can’t drag the half our nation that are Republicans kicking and screaming into a socialist paradise. It’s exactly as unfair to them as creating a Christian theocracy would be to us. Compromise. That means sometimes you won’t get your progressive way, yes. But I’ll take incremental change over trench warfare while the world burns any day of the week.
I don’t think she’s a saint nor is she some progressive avatar here to lead us to a utopia. She is a human being making human choices in a problematic environment. But I hate that I even have to say that. And I hate that I can’t even say how much I fucking love her as a candidate because of the abuse I’m expecting to get over it, not even from trolls out for lulz, but from my own family. I feel like I don’t even get to have an opinion in public. This is the climate Bernie made.
Folks, “I’m voting for Jill Stein because the other candidate isn’t progressive enough” is exactly the kind of thinking that got Canada almost a decade of Harper. Go on, ask them how that went.
I’ll be waiting here.
Andrea Phillips is an award-winning transmedia writer, game designer and author. She has worked on projects such as iOS fitness games Zombies, Run! and The Walk, The Maester’s Path for HBO’s Game of Thrones, human rights game America 2049, and the independent commercial ARG Perplex City. Her projects have variously won the Prix Jeunesse Interactivity Prize, a Broadband Digital award, a Canadian Screen Award, a BIMA, the Origins Vanguard Innovation Award, and others. Her book A Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling is used to teach digital storytelling at universities around the world.
You can find Andrea on Twitter at @andrhia. I mean, if you like that sort of thing.
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