It's great to be back after a few days off. I enjoyed some wonderful quality time with the family in Hawaii (Kauai). As I've said before in one of these blogs, the memories created during vacations are the best. I realized during this one that vacations allow an old dude like me a chance to really play with my sons the way I would if I was still a kid because the only worries on my mind are: How can we best have fun today? And: Where should we eat?

Speaking of (and if you're a regular viewer of the show you know it's all about the food with me)--if you ever get to Kauai--I highly recommend one lunch spot we hit. It's a place called Hamura Saimin Stand in Lihue. It's as down-home as it gets--no air conditioning, no hostess, no tables. Just some snaking lunch counters with a handful of items on the menu and chiffon pie for dessert.

The main attraction is the saimin--noodles in broth with ham, green onions, fish cake and boiled egg if you order the "special." (Mark Boster took this picture for the Los Angeles Times). It's cheap and tasty and as one of my sons declared: "An authentic experience." We also enjoyed a place in Poipu called the Beach House for a fancy (by Hawaii's casual standards) seafood meal overlooking the water and of course we had "shave ice" at Jo Jo's in Waimea. It is, by the way, "shave ice," not shaved ice and the best way to get it is with ice cream underneath that shaved and flavored ice. It puts the standard snow cone to shame!  Waimea Canyon is a few miles up the road from Jo Jo's and was dubbed the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" by Mark Twain himself. It's a stunningly beautiful thing to see.

I experienced an amazing site of another kind right before going on vacation when I had the chance to visit Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri this month. Whiteman AFB is home to the 509th Bomb Wing and the B-2 Spirit--the stealth bomber. It will fly over the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl this year and the folks at Whiteman were kind enough to allow us (Producer-Director Bryan Hileman, News Photographer Brian Choo and me) aboard the base to see that incredible aircraft up close.

Capt. Matt Miller and Lt. Rachel Davenport of the public affairs office fixed us up and actually got me into the B-2 flight simulator. If you watch our pre-parade shows on January 1st, you'll see the footage. On Wednesday's Morning News show (12/31/08), we'll show you a brief taste of our behind-the-scenes look at the B-2. If you miss that, I hope you'll watch our pre-parade show on January 1st. It's always a humbling experience to meet great Americans like the ones we met at Whiteman AFB. I hope it'll come across when you see our stories and see our "live" interview with a B-2 pilot who will do the flyover and who happens to be a graduate of a local high school. He's on our show Wednesday in the 7 A.M. hour.

If you're not around during the next few days and miss it all, we'll do our best to post the stories on the website. Happy New Year. Anyone have a good New Year's resolution to tell us about?

I watched a powerful film over the weekend--"Milk," about the late Harvey Milk, the first openly-gay man to be elected to public office in the the United States. Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by former city supervisor Dan White in 1978.

In one part of the movie, Milk urges gay people to "come out" of the closet to their friends, family and co-workers--to be proud of who they are. There was also a political motivation. The idea was when people actually know a gay person, their perceptions of gay people changes. Milk thought it would help at the polls as he fought for gay rights.

It reminded me of the first time someone "came out" to me. It happened my freshman year in college. I had no idea my friend Rick was gay. Looking back on the moment now, I wince with embarrassment at how ignorant I was and how stupid I must have sounded when Rick told me he was a homosexual. No wonder he burst into laughter when I said: "I don't really care as long as you don't make a move on me." Rick assured me I was hardly his type. When I asked him why he chose to be gay, he told me it was not a choice but simply who he was. He assured me that no one would choose to be gay given the horrible way in which gay people are sometimes treated.

Which brings me to the point of this blog. Thirty years after Harvey Milk was murdered, gay people remain the targets of hatred, of hate crime. Case in point--the murder on Sunday of Ecuadorean immigrant Jose Sucuzhanay in New York City by a gang of four men who yelled an anti-gay slur and then used an aluminum bat to beat and kick him to death. Authorities say the attackers mistakenly believed Sucuzhany was gay because he was walking arm in arm with another man after a night of drinking. Turned out the other man was his brother.

Could the murderers have been so filled with hate if a trusted friend was gay? If a loved one or family member was gay?

I know my perceptions of gay people changed after getting to know Rick. He was a deeply religious, fairly Republican, grilled cheese eating, average-looking guy who wore collared shirts and pleated slacks. He was hardly the flamboyant stereotype portrayed in movies and on TV. 

Before Rick, I was a small town kid from a military community who didn't know a single gay person, or so I thought. Given what researchers say about the percentages of gay people in the population, I obviously knew gay people, I just didn't know it because they were living in the closet. I was living in a place and to a certain extent a time in which being openly gay was the exception rather than the rule.  

But Milk was right. Having a friend "come out" to me changed my view of gay people. It also resulted in one of the longest and closest friendships in my life. He was like a brother. Rick would eventually be the best man at my wedding. 

I hope he thought I was there for him, too. I say hope because my friend Rick died this year. The last thing I did for him was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life--deliver his eulogy. It was painful, but I was proud to do it. I'm glad Rick came out to me. I'm glad we were friends.

When I was a boy, Pearl Harbor Day was a day that made me uncomfortable. While everyone was learning the importance of that day in history (December 7, 1941), I was often squirming in my chair. As many of you know by now, I'm an American whose mother is Japanese. My mom was just a child when Pearl Harbor was bombed and of course had nothing to do with it. But as a boy I wondered: Do people think my mom is a horrible person because she's Japanese? Do they think I'm a horrible person because I'm half-Japanese?

Got a viewer mail today at KTLA.COM from Colleen in Lomita who wrote: "Why is Frank Buckley not wearing a red ribbon? I think this sends a very bad signal to the public." If Colleen feels that way, I suppose others do, too, so I thought I'd respond publicly.

First, do I think we should do what we can to raise awareness about AIDS? Of course, and we did in our reporting today from Gayle Anderson. Secondly, I absolutely respect the rest of the gang for their decisions to wear red ribbons today. We just have different views on whether we should wear them on the air. 

Here's my view on it...

As most of you know by now, I'm pretty old-fashioned when it comes to the news. I think this is just one of those "Old Man Buckley" things for me. I'm not a big fan of news anchors telling you what to think or how they feel about news stories and I think some might perceive the wearing of a ribbon as taking a side. Look--it's no doubt a good side to be on--raising awareness about the effort to stop AIDS. But like most issues involving funding or research, there are other aspects to the story. For example, some have asked if AIDS research is getting its share of government dollars at the expense of research into other diseases. If I wear a red ribbon, am I saying I've weighed in on the side of AIDS research over some other equally worthy research? If I wear a red ribbon for World AIDS Day but then don't wear a pink one for breast cancer awareness or a green ribbon to call attention to leukemia, what am I saying? That I don't support their research as much as I support AIDS research?

 At CNN (my previous employer), we were particularly sensitive about being neutral in all things. I've noticed that none of my former colleagues is wearing a red ribbon today because it just isn't done. It may have been a bit over the top at CNN, but we were discouraged from wearing any clothing that had a logo on it. Our bosses went so far as to say we would be fired for saying "foreign" in a story (we would say "international) because CNN wanted to be seen as being neutral wherever we were in the world.

Bottom line--I wasn't trying to make a statement about World AIDS Day by not wearing a red ribbon--quite the opposite. I want to raise awareness, to report the stories, to make all of us think and consider and talk about the important issues of the day (including AIDS) without literally wearing them on my sleeve. Maybe I'm over-thinking this one and if I am, it won't be the first time in my life that someone tells me to lighten up about the news. Still, I thought you should know why I didn't wear the ribbon today.

As always, I welcome your emails and posts, even when they're critical. If you have a thought you'd like to share on this World AIDS Day, feel free to do it here.