While the head of the American Family Association claims that less “gay teens” would mean less teen suicides, that’s really the most simplistic, idiotic answer to a complex issue. Tonight we’ll talk about how things do get better. We’re keeping in touch with our roots and the theme is empowerment and hope that springs from knowing “it DOES get better!”

Jen Foster performing at the Writer's Block in Knoxville, TN, in 2009.

Enter Jen Foster a Houston, TX native who is fulfilling her dreams as singer, song writer and artist in Nashville. Tonight we’ll talk about Jen’s journey of self discovery and what facilitated her to write her new song, “This Is Me” which was made available to the public earlier this week on National Coming Out Day. We’ll discuss how she became involved with the web soap series “Venice” and we’ll get Jen’s take on music and entertainment today.

There’s an amazing lesson to be learned from Jen’s saga as she performs in coffee houses, auditoriums and concert halls across America. If you’ve been a fan of Jen Foster, tonight is your chance to get your question in and chat with us. If you haven’t, visit her website at http://jenfoster.com to learn more. If you’ve listened to any of our shows, you know we ask the questions that matter – no fluff or hero worship – just straight talk.

Tonight’s show promises to be emotional, honest and empowering! Hear Jen’s story, experience her artistry and leave knowing that one person can make a difference.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/silas-kain/2010/10/15/delibernation-season-2-premiere-with-jen-foster

Silas Kain

Silas Kain:
Silas Kain can be heard on his Internet Radio Show every Thursday night a 8:00 p.m. PST on BlogTalkRadio. He is a writer, blogger, marketing guru and general all around bon vivant. We treasure his columns.

Every month, on the third Thursday of the month, Silas and Abbotsford Today’s Mike Archer talk about American and Canadian issues. How we see each other and what we can learn from one another.

ARCHIVED 14/10/10

We’ve covered a lot of topics this season and hope you take the opportunity to download any of the podcasts available here atBlogTalkRadio.

Silas Kain

Silas Kain:
Silas Kain can be heard on his Internet Radio Show every Thursday night a 8:00 p.m. PST on BlogTalkRadio. He is a writer, blogger, marketing guru and general all around bon vivant. We treasure his columns.

Dubbed The World’s Greatest Treasure Hunt the campaign involves 12 14-lb solid silver eagle statues and a gold eagle statue, which are currently stored in an undisclosed bank vault.

Participants in the treasure hunt will be searching for certificates of ownership in various locations around the world. Shore says he has hidden nine certificates in the U.S., two in the United Kingdom and one in Canada. The certificate for the golden eagle, Shore said, could be in any country in the world.

According to the Sun story, “To find the certificates, treasure seekers have to crack the codes and clues in the book Shore produced, The World’s Greatest Treasure Hunt: Quest for the Golden Eagle. It sells for $39.95 in hard cover and $29.95 in soft cover. There is an accompanying help book, Cracking The Code, at $17.95. The books are available at Amazon. com and at some local Chapters outlets.”

On the The World’s Greatest Treasure Hunt website the campaign is described as ‘An old world treasure for a new world cause’. The ultimate vision of the project is to raise $100 Million to fund research for a cure for Breast Cancer.

Shore told the Sun, “Twenty per cent of the proceeds from the book sales are going to breast cancer research. Shore hopes to raise $3 million to $5 million through sales, and another $5 million in donations from those buying the book, an option given at the point of purchase.”

The project came from a great deal of recent personal loss for Shore who says he has lost as many as 17 close family and friends to cancer over a four-year period. He has financed the project with about $800,000 of his own funds, he told the Sun, and hopes that with greater exposure. The website has received hundreds of submissions but, so far, according to Shore, none have been correct.

When Abbotsford Today contacted friend and BlogTalkRadio host Silas Kain he was instantly taken by the story and immediately contacted Shore to arrange for an interview.

The two hit it off, the interview was setup and the show will air Thursday July 15 at 8:00 p.m. PST.

Don’t Miss Ron On BlogTalkRadio
When:Thursday, July 15
What Time: 8:00 p.m., PST.
Link To The Show: BlogTalkRadio

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Here’s what BlogTalkRadio has to say about Abbotsford’s Ron Shore and The World’s Greatest Treasure Hunt:

By Silas Kain. Ron Shore is an adventurer, innovator and treasure hunt expert, currently focusing his lifelong experience and passion into his latest initiative, The World’s Greatest Treasure Huntâ„¢: Quest for the Golden Eagle to fund breast cancer research. In a four year period, fifteen of Ron’s family members and close personal friends died, including his mother, brother and sister-in-law.

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During the same period of time, Ron himself suffered a broken neck and severe concussion in a car accident involving a drunk driver. All of these events have strengthened his resolve to make a significant impact on the world and the people around him.

Abbotsford businessman Ron Shore in a recent appearence on JoyTV

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He could choose to do nothing and try to live a very happy and contented life for himself. Or he could choose to make his life, and everything he does, count for something greater.

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He realized if someone had taken the steps years ago to fund cancer research in the same way he is proposing to do now, his sister-in-law may still be alive.

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He hopes that what is achieved through The World’s Greatest Treasure Hunt™, will result in a cure and prevent other families from going through the devastating effect of losing a loved one far too soon.

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Ron Shore is no stranger to taking chances or achieving dreams. He’s
climbed Mount Kilimanjaro; received an MBA from UBC – emphasis in
marketing and a master’s thesis on treasure hunting; cycled across
Canada and even received NASCAR training in Las Vegas.

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His endeavors have not gone unnoticed – in 2002 Ron received Her
Majesty the Queen’s Jubilee medal for outstanding service to the nation.

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A former Navy Officer and now prominent businessman and entrepreneur,
Ron is currently the president of a telecommunications company in Abbotsford.

Silas Kain

Silas Kain:
Silas Kain can be heard on his Internet Radio Show every Thursday night a 8:00 p.m. PST on BlogTalkRadio. He is a writer, blogger, marketing guru and general all around bon vivant. We treasure his columns.

Don’t Miss Ron On BlogTalkRadio
When:Thursday, July 15
What Time: 8:00 p.m., PST.
Link To The Show: BlogTalkRadio

Frances Reid

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It’s spring, 1968. America is in political turmoil. Back then there were actually housewives still keeping house. I know it’s an archaic concept; nevertheless there actually were women who remained at home raising their families. I digress. Back to my point and home. Mom loved the NBC Daytime lineup. In the mornings she’d clean house, catch up on laundry, make initial preparations for supper. At Noon, she’d make a little lunch, watch the local news, go out and take the laundry down from the clothesline. At 1PM, Mom would grab her drink and head for the living room and begin her daily two hour ritual – DOOL and AW. Only in 1968, it was different. She wanted to know more. You see, Mom is deaf. And in 1968, there wasn’t closed captioning for the hearing impaired. Children of deaf adults (CODAs for short) were the conduit between the hearing impaired and the hearing world.

Dangerous Times

These were dangerous times. The Cuban Missile Crisis. A President assassinated. A Civil Rights Leader cut down in the prime of life. And Bobby. RFK. Those poor children. Poor, pregnant Ethel. If you were an adult at that time in our history, you can recall the fear and uncertainty. Imagine being a 12 year old boy immersed in the news explaining all of that to his deaf parents. Those two hours every afternoon became our escape from the harsh realities of the world.

From November 1963 until that point, I was usually the one transforming the spoken words of the newscaster into sign language for my parents. Huntley and Brinkley. Cronkite. Frank McGee. And, yes, a young Peter Jennings. A lot of people don’t realize that Peter Jennings was an anchor for ABC News back in those days. And when he left ABC to become a foreign correspondent a 12 year old boy in New England was devastated. Back to 1968. I was walking in the door from school. Mom was watching AW. She was frustrated. Something big was going on in Bay City and Mom couldn’t lip read the dialog.

Audra Lindley

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That summer began the transition. I didn’t have the conventional family and as CODAs know, adulthood came all too fast in those days. Soon, it became a similar ritual for me. The stories woven in the AW tapestry were compelling, capturing the imagination. Over the years Mom would open her eyes to the realities of the ‘hearing world’ while her son learned about life in a most unconventional way. Over the years I would go on keeping Mom up to date with her ‘stories’. She picked up another along the way – Search for Tomorrow (SFT).

Mom loved AW, especially when Victoria Wyndham and Charles Keating were on screen. They enunciated their words. Lip reading was easy when they were on camera. When AW went off air on June 25, 1999 it was a sad day for Mom. It wasn’t about the end of a Daytime staple as much as it was about the end of something familiar. You see, what I forgot to tell you is that over the years after 1968, Mom shared her soaps enthusiasm with her own Mother and two of her aunts. Communication was always difficult between them. It was a different era then. But the ‘stories’ were their common bond and unleashed a flood of memories.

Reality Programming Has Taken Over

Today Mom is 82 and still watches DOOL and she’s sad because this week she’ll be saying her final goodbye to Alice Horton and, in some small way, to a time in her life when things were simpler.

The reality is that reality programming has taken over. Back in 1999, hundreds of AW fans tried to get their story to be picked up by another network. The efforts failed. After all, television programming is supposed to be about business. The networks blamed the trial of OJ Simpson. They said that Americans were focused on “real” events, not drama. And out of that infamous car chase on a California freeway some numbers crunching hack in a back office of a corporation realized the future of television. The Grim Reaper arrived to Daytime.

Victoria Wyndham

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Since my introduction long ago, I learned a lot along the way. I learned about the tribulations of soldiers returning home from Viet Nam thanks to Tara and Phil on All My Children (AMC). I came to understand my great grandmother’s stoic Irish Catholic view on life thanks to Maeve and Johnny Ryan on Ryan’s Hope (RH). I came to appreciate art because Victoria Wyndham was afforded the opportunity to expose her art on Another World through her alter ego, Rachel Cory. I came to understand the dynamics of inter-racial relationships because of the courageous writers of One Life to Live (OLTL). I learned how important nurses’ roles are in health care thanks to Carolee Simpson Aldrich on The Doctors.

To Life! And thank you, from a most humble fan.

And then there are the ‘stars’ I got to see perform along the way. Christopher Reeve on Love of Life (LoL); Morgan Freeman and RueMcClanahan on AW; Richard Hatch (of Battlestar Galactica fame) and Carol Burnett on AMC. There are hundreds of other actors who are ‘successful’ today who got their start in Daytime and the experience they gained followed them throughout their careers. Unbeknownst to Irna Phillips and Agnes Nixon, their visions of Erica Kane, Rachel Cory, Felicia Gallant (played by the great Linda Dano) and Vanessa Dale Sterling actually served to educate women about the world in which they lived. In some strange way, the diversity of stories exposed to me taught me a lot about art, politics, business and life. It’s no substitute for hearing parents – but I wouldn’t change a thing.

A Tearful Goodbye To Mrs. Horton

So this week DOOL fans say a tearful goodbye to Mrs. Horton. The ATWT studios will go dark as the cast tapes its final scenes to be aired in September. The future of Daytime seems bleak. And what’s most tragic about Daytime’s demise is that the entertainment industry is losing a great training ground for actors, set designers, writers and every crew member associated. Prime time actors get it. They love working with a soap veteran. Most movie stars get it. They recognize that soap actors are the exception to the rule in the acting world. They have steady work – five days a week, 52 weeks a year. That’s an unusual phenomenon in this profession. As each soap is canceled, another group of people are left bewildered and unemployed. And with only one Daytime drama remaining in New York City, Broadway has lost an incredible pool of actors who have the professionalism and grit to go onstage for eight performances a week. Soap actors have the stamina. Soap actors are the ones who keep the spirit of the greats alive. And we, the humble audience, are left the ultimate losers. But, it’s all business these days – somehow we’ve forgotten the art of it all.

Charles Keating

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Soap opera in its own way influenced the thinking of millions of fans. And, as any AW fan can attest, there were those particular serials which had the most sophisticated of audiences. The truth is a typical soap fan isn’t some fat, bon-bon eating ner do well sitting in front of the television day in and day out. They’re a bright, evolved group of people who ‘get it’. It isn’t always about the quick gratification of reality TV. Sometimes it is about the evolution of characters and writing and yes, even set design and costuming. The soap audience understands all of it – every component that goes in to making a production. And a soap fan actually appreciates the work of everyone involved.

So, as this week progresses, think about buying stock in Kleenex. Millions will be tuned in to say their goodbyes to Frances Reid. And millions will be reminiscing about those days back in the 60s and 70s when watching soaps – even on Thanksgiving Day wasn’t a thing to be ashamed of. And, if you catch my drift, you’ll get my close. Mac Cory. The family table. At the holidays. “To Life” he bellows as he raises his glass to the camera. Indeed, to Connie Ford, Doug Watson and all the greats – To Life! And thank you, from a most humble fan.

Post script: Charles Keating joins me Thursday, June 24 at 11 PM EDT on my show at BlogTalkRadio. Please stop by.

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Silas Kain

Silas Kain:
Silas Kain can be heard on his Internet Radio Show every Thursday night a 8:00 p.m. PST on BlogTalkRadio. He is a writer, blogger, marketing guru and general all around bon vivant. We treasure his columns.