Compromise Time

A very good friend of Mine, a brother really, a man I work with almost daily and have for the past several years, has twice asked Me lately to "clean up" The Jenius, to "tone it down," because he says that My work with the Youth Citizen-Journalist Network, education projects, fundraising and government-centered developments "might be affected."

But the second time he said it, he also ranted against the oligarchy currently running roughshod over Our Island and his words and tone indicated that it wasn't the fact that there was an oligarchy screwing Us like cheap back-alley strumpets, but that he was no longer part of it.

Okay.

I've been here as The Jenius for almost 5 years. From the get-go, I've been "warned" that what I say and how I say it can get Me in trouble. Close friends, relatives, people I love with all My heart, have occasionally chided Me for a turn of phrase here, a nickname there, an obscenity every now and then. I've discussed this topic before and I may have even discovered that back in December of 2006 The Jenius was visited a lot from gobierno.pr servers and a contract to write grant proposals for the local Justice Department went south.

I listen to the comments of My loved ones and keep writing as I always do. And if I lost a contract, like I said before, The Jenius serves a filter, too. I'm not doing anything heroic: I'm simply blogging what I think and feel about My Island. Or anything else that catches My fancy. 

This same friend recently received a phone call from a VERY famous TV producer--and you would know who this is in 10 words or less--who was "concerned" about The Jenius and My "status" in Puerto Rico because of a potential event in development with this man's organization. My friend fielded the matter ably, but weakly, for knowing what VERY many of Us know about this man and his work, why should he ever give a damn about a barely-read blog on a small island he's never visited? And what, pray tell, was the TV producer's concern? "He says harsh things about the local politicians."

Do tell. Seems to Me that given what's still happening to Us, I ain't been harsh enough.

But this a friend, a brother, a man I've spent days communing with in work and leisure is the one who brings up the matter and when I get his "clean up your act" warning, a mélange of "it doesn't pay to piss off the powers" and "it's time to re-evaluate how you present yourself," given what We've shared, share and will share for hopefully many years to come, then I really do have to take a step back, pause to breathe deeply and seriously come to an obvious, though painful decision:

I'll go back to blogging 5 days a week.

See, the problem is (A) The "powers" don't care about The Jenius, and (B) even if they did and reacted against it, why should I care? Good riddance to them and their idiocy is all I have to say about the matter. But to My friend, it's a case of "You will drag Me down" self-preservation, not in the personal sense, but in the sociopolitical sense, in the "I want in with the oligarchs" sense, and his warning is really "You could keep Us out of their embrace."

"Could" is not good enough: I aim for "will."

I love the poster known as Peter's Law: The Creed of the Sociopathic Obsessive Compulsive. Love it. Use it a handbook, I do. Turning to #6, We read: When forced to compromise, ask for more. Let me add a #20 to My all-time favorite poster: When told to tone your opinions down, crank them up. Way up.

Done.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

P.S.  For those of you too lazy or as in the case of a commenter to My posts on the drug-dealing, drunk-driving Education Federal Affairs lunkhead, too stupid to click on the poster link above, here are the Laws. Take a look at #15, as it makes even greater sense to Us now:

1. If anything can go wrong, Fix It! (To hell with Murphy!)

2. When given a choice-Take Both!

3. Multiple projects lead to multiple successes.

4. Start at the top then work your way up.

5. Do it by the book....but be the author!

6. When forced to compromise, ask for more.

7. If you can't beat them, join them, then beat them.

8. If it's worth doing, it's got to be done right now.

9. If you can't win, change the rules.

10. If you can't change the rules, then ignore them.

11. Perfection is not optional.

12. When faced without a challenge, make one.

13. "No" simply means begin again at one level higher.

14. Don't walk when you can run.

15. Bureaucracy is a challenge to be conquered with a righteous attitude, a tolerance for stupidity, and a bulldozer when necessary.

16. When in doubt: THINK!

17. Patience is a virtue, but persistence to the point of success is a blessing.

18. The squeaky wheel gets replaced.

19. The faster you move, the slower time passes, the longer you live.