The following piece has been making the re-posting rounds on social media, I stumbled across it on Facebook. I don't know what the original source is, but most posts link back tohere.
If you were in any way a fan of Bill Watterson's brilliant comic strip this will seriously tug at your heart strings....
In the Final Minutes of His Life, Calvin Has One Last Talk With Hobbes..
"Calvin? Calvin, sweetheart?" In the darkness Calvin heard the sound of Susie, his wife of fifty-three years. Calvin struggled to open his eyes. God, he was so tired and it took so much strength. Slowly, light replaced the darkness, and soon vision followed. At the foot of his bed stood his wife. Calvin wet his dry lips and spoke hoarsely, "Did... did you.... find him?" "Yes dear," Susie said smiling sadly, "He was in the attic." Susie reached into her big purse and brought out a soft, old, orange tiger doll. Calvin could not help but laugh. It had been so long. Too long. "I washed him for you," Susie said, her voice cracking a little as she laid the stuffed tiger next to her husband. "Thank you, Susie." Calvin said.
A few moments passed as Calvin just laid on his hospital bed, his head turned to the side, staring at the old toy with nostalgia. "Dear," Calvin said finally. "Would you mind leaving me alone with Hobbes for a while? I would like to catch up with him." "All right," Susie said. "I'll get something to eat in the cafeteria. I'll be back soon." Susie kissed her huband on the forehead and turned to leave. With sudden but gentle strength Calvin stopped her. Lovingly he pulled his wife in and gave her a passionate kiss on the lips. "I love you," he said. "And I love you," said Susie. Susie turned and left. Calvin saw tears streaming from her face as she went out the door.
Calvin then turned to face his oldest and dearest friend. "Hello Hobbes. It's been a long time hasn't it old pal?" Hobbes was no longer a stuffed doll but the big furry old tiger Calvin had always remembered. "It sure has, Calvin." said Hobbes. "You... haven't changed a bit." Calvin smiled. "You've changed a lot." Hobbes said sadly. Calvin laughed, "Really? I haven't noticed at all." There was a long pause. The sound of a clock ticking away the seconds rang throughout the sterile hospital room.
"So... you married Susie Derkins." Hobbes said, finally smiling. "I knew you always liked her." "Shut up!" Calvin said, his smile bigger than ever. "Tell me everything I missed. I'd love to hear what you've been up to!" Hobbes said, excited. And so Calvin told him everything. He told him about how he and Susie fell in love in high school and had married after graduating from college, about his three kids and four grandkids, how he turned Spaceman Spiff into one of the most popular sci-fi novels of the decade, and so on. After he told Hobbes all this there was another pregnant pause. "You know... I visited you in the attic a bunch of times." Calvin said. "I know." "But I couldn't see you. All I saw was a stuffed animal." Calvin voice was breaking and tears of regret started welling up in his eyes. "You grew up old buddy." said Hobbes.
Calvin broke down and sobbed, hugging his best friend. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry I broke my promise! I promised I wouldn't grow up and that we'd be together forever!!" Hobbes stroked Calvin's hair, or what little was left of it. "But you didn't." "What do you mean?" "We were always together... in our dreams." "We were?" "We were." "Hobbes?" "Yeah, old buddy?" "I'm so glad I got to see you like this... one last time..." "Me too, Calvin. Me too." "Sweetheart?" Susie voice came from outside the door. "Yes dear?" Calvin replied. "Can I come in?" Susie asked. "Just a minute." Calvin turned to face Hobbes one last time. "Goodbye Hobbes. Thanks... for everything..." "No, thank you Calvin." Hobbes said. Calvin turned back to the door and said, "You can come in now." Susie came in and said, "Look who's come to visit you." Calvin's children and grandchildren followed Susie into Calvin's room. The youngest grandchild ran past the rest of them and hugged Calvin in a hard, excited hug. "Grandpa!!" screamed the child in delight. "Francis!" cried Calvin's daughter, "Be gentle with your grandfather." Calvin's daughter turned to her dad. "I'm sorry, Daddy. Francis never seems to behave these days. He just runs around making a mess and coming up with strange stories." Calvin laughed and said, "Well now! That sound just like me when I was his age." Calvin and his family chatted some more until a nurse said, "Sorry, but visiting hours are almost up." Calvin's beloved family said good bye and promised to visit tommorrow. As they turned to leave Calvin said, "Francis. Come here for a second." Francis came over to his grandfather's side, "What is it Gramps?" Calvin reached over to the stuffed tiger on his bedside and and held him out shakily to his grandson, who looked exactly as he did so many years ago. "This is Hobbes. He was my best friend when I was your age. I want you to have him."
"He's just a stuffed tiger." Francis said, eyebrows raised. Calvin laughed, "Well, let me tell you a secret." Francis leaned closer to Clavin. Calvin whispered, "If you catch him in a tiger trap using a tuna sandwich as bait he will turn into a real tiger." Francis gasped in delighted awe. Calvin continued, "Not only that he will be your best friend forever." "Wow! Thanks grandpa!" Francis said, hugging his grandpa tightly again. "Francis! We need to go now!" Calvin's daughter called. "Okay!" Francis shouted back. "Take good care of him." Calvin said. "I will." Francis said before running off after the rest of the family. Calvin laid on his back and stared at the ceiling. The time to go was close. He could feel it in his soul. Calvin tried to remember a quote he read in a book once. It said something about death being the next great adventure or something like that. He eyelids grew heavy and his breathing slowed. As he went deeper into his final sleep he heard Hobbes, as if he was right next to him at his bedside. "I'll take care of him, Calvin..." Calvin took his first step toward one more adventure and breathed his last with a grin on his face.
The brilliant blog The Daily Kos, features a great op-ed piece this week, by Jesse La Greca .. The article entitled "An open letter to the people who hate Obama more than they love America", is an outstanding take on the current state of not just the Republican Party but the entire conservative movement in the United States.
It prompted me to revisit a blog entry I wrote in August of 2010 on the rise of the American "Tea Party" as a force in GOP politics. Updated here and offered as a retrospective on how the Republican Party found itself in the state it is currently in....
Fear & Fundamentalism: How the GOP & FOX Made, then Lost Control of the Tea Party.
Back in the mid 1980's there was a political cartoon that came out that depicted a map of "The World According to Ronald Reagan". I am not sure who the artist was, but it was a delightful tongue-in-cheek satire of the conservative Republican world view in the late 20th Century.
Some thirty years or so later, it all seems so sweetly naive in its simplistic humor. The over the top nature of the joke is what made it funny. Now, if you were to erase Reagan's name and substitute say.... Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz or Rand Paul, then the cartoon is not so much funny as it would be a frighteningly accurate summary of how the American conservative movement of the early 21rst Century really does see the world .
I have written about how the Republican Party has lost its way. How it has abandoned its core principles and ideals in exchange for campaign cash from religious social conservatives. The GOP platform could be summed up in three words; God, Guns and Gays.
It was strategy that served the GOP well in 1994, 2000 and 2004. Yet in 2006 and 2008 the strategy fell apart as the impact of the Republican Party's disastrous choices became clear. And in 2008 it didn't just fail but it actually backfired and drove millions of independent voters away from the McCain Palin ticket and straight to the Democrats. Creating blue states in Colorado, Nevada , Iowa, Virginia and North Carolina.. Places where once such a thing would have been unthinkable Like many people I was curious to see what the Republican Party would do in the wake of back to back electoral wipe outs.
There was a real sense that the GOP needed to retool, rethink and adapt to a new political landscape. And early on, it seemed the Republicans had figured that out too. They appointed Michael Steele their new National Chairman. There was now, an African American at the helm of the Republican Party, the Party of Lincoln, and emancipation for the first time in its history.
Regardless of your politics you had to admit that in principle at least, that was pretty amazing. Republicans talked of the need for a "big tent". and used words like "inclusion" and "diversity". For the first time since 1994, it looked like the GOP was going break out beyond it's base. But interestingly enough. something quite different happened. Instead of learning from past mistakes, the GOP doubled down. They became the rabid right wing party of "Hell No!" But what is significant is WHY that happened.
The base of the GOP, which has, for the last two decades, dutifully sent checks to the Republican Party, is not intellectually conservative. It is socially conservative. These folks are not reading the American Spectator or National Review Online. They are older, overwhelmingly white evangelicals who in every election since 1992 have met in church basements and were told they needed to help fight the "Liberal attack" on America and her families.
At first social conservatives were riled up to show their indignation at the moral and marital failings of Bill Clinton. Then in 2000 they were told told to dig deep to counter the threat posed to our system of free market capitalism by that tree-hugging hippie Al Gore. Who was said to be plotting to turn our nations very sovereignty over the United Nations. (gasp!)
And, truth be told, in 2000 it worked. but just barely. It took a helping hand from the U.S. Supreme Court to win the Presidency. But starting in 2000, that same GOP Base began asking what were they going to get in return for their time, effort and money? The holy grail to the social conservatives was and still remains, the overturn of Roe v. Wade. The GOP, knowing that this was really not "doable" at least in a first GW Bush Term, struggled in early 2001 with how to placate a now very active and riled up GOP base.
Then of course, in September of 2001, everything changed. Like the Germans and Japanese in the 1940's , like the communist in the 1950's through the 1980's. Fundamentalist Islam provided a new enemy to fight, and (more importantly for the GOP), 911 gave America something to fear. In 2004, the Republican Party went into full -throttle "be afraid" mode.
In 2004 the GOP successfully waged a campaign based almost entirely on fear of the Middle East. A campaign that was able to convince a majority of Americans that a former college cheerleader who went AWOL from the Texas National Guard loved America more than a decorated war hero. But, also that they needed vote against their own economic self interest and give massive tax breaks to the top 2% of Americans, and massive deregulation to Wall Street and the Energy Sector.
And it worked, for the most part. But the Republican base, while sufficiently afraid of "Islamo-facists". Was still restless and cranky, and the economy was starting to tank. As it became clear that even a giving Bush a second term wasn't going to deliver on eliminating a woman's right to choose, GOP needed a bone to throw to this now very scared, very angry, and increasingly unemployed group of Americans it had worked so hard to rile up. The answer? Give them the Gays.
Then in 2008 the Democrats nominated Barack Hussein Obama. and the GOP base went berserk . The McCain-Palin Campaign played the fear card as hard as they could. with catch phrases like; "He Pals around with terrorists", he has "suspicious associations". "He doesn't love America!". The results were as disturbing as they were predictable.
Towards the end of the 2008 Presidential Campaign even John McCain had to step in and correct his own supporters in the GOP base. People who were now convinced. that the Democratic Nominee for President was nothing less than a Muslim Manchurian Candidate. Planted here over 40 years ago to eventually bring about the total destruction of America and our way of life.
On election night 2008 the GOP Base was pretty much all The Republicans had left. People who in the middle of Senator McCain's graceful and eloquent concession speech, couldn't hold back jeering at mention of the President Elects' name. The Republican Party entered 2009 with an angry, and impatient base, convinced they had been victims of a global conspiracy to "steal their country from them".
As a diminished opposition party the GOP could do little more than just try to obstruct the new Administration at every turn, It was just a matter of time before this group of voters went looking for something new. Something that spoke to their world view, and affirmed their fears.
This was a job for FOX News.
Like all good Media organizations. FOX News knows who their viewers are. And where political parties have a goal of getting voters to the polls every two years, a T.V. network's goal is to get people to tune in every day. Rupert Murdoch and Company saw the door and ran through it. They would "Give the people what they want." They would throw the angry GOP base a party, and not just any party...
They would throw a Tea Party.
One of the first rules in marketing is not just that endorsements create sales, but also that sales create endorsements. Soon a whole flock of "B" and "C" list Conservatives like Sarah Palin, Representatives Joe Wilson, Michelle Bachman, and Tom Tancredo. Talk show hosts like Glen Beck and Michael Reagan were all hitching their wagons to the Tea Party Express. Soon even "A" Lister's like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hanity, and Bill O'Reilly hopped on not daring to risk being left behind.
In 2010 we had a midterm election where the Republican Party was desperate to harness the anger, energy and fear of the Tea Party in hopes of turning that into numbers at the polls that November. Fox News helped to create the Tea Party out of the GOP's own scared angry social conservative base. But the Republican Party quickly discovered this monster has a mind of it's own, and could turn just as quickly on Republicans as well as Democrats. In a number of states, incumbent Republicans have found them selves the target of Tea Party primary challengers. Claiming the Republicans are not conservative enough.
The Tea Party says they "want their country back". The vision of America they hold as "their country" is one where an ultra-conservative religious based social agenda is enacted into Civil Law. Abortion, Affirmative Action, Gay and Lesbian Rights, Separation of (their) Church and State, the social safety nets of Medicare/ Social Security and Public Education are all abolished. Victory for the Tea Party means turning the United States of America into Teabagistan.
The Tea Party is the American Taliban. Granted, their methods are not same. The American Taliban does not use violence like their Afghan equivalent. (Though the family of Dr. George Tiller might disagree with me on that.) Yet the American Taliban with their "don't tread on me" and "watering the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants" rhetoric, all while brandishing side arms at rallies, certainly carries the implied threat of violence. The American and Afghan Talibans are alike in terms of their aims. Which is to take a narrow extremely conservative, even fundamentalist ideology, codify it into law and force it on everyone else.
The GOP is completely dependent upon and beholden to a bunch of lunatics, who hate the U.S.Constitution. To win the Tea Party back, the GOP has to promise things the Tea Party wants. Things like the overturning of Roe v. Wade. A constitutional Amendment banning same sex marriage. Repeal of the 14th and 17th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. That's just for starters, we haven't even scratched the surface in terms of the every man for himself- screw the poor - to pay the rich, economic ideas the Tea Party likes to toss around. Stuff like, completely deregulate Wall Street , THEN turn Social Security into Goldman-Sachs' personal stack of casino chips.
The Republicans and the Tea Party monsters they, and the Conservative media bubble, have spawned are nothing less than completely and utterly anti-American. The Tea Party likes to wave around copies of the U.S, Constitution, but aside from a few selected lines from the 2nd Amendment, they don't actually believe in it. I know President Obama, as a former professor of Constitutional Law, has actually read the rest of it.
Then in 2012 we saw something really interesting. The GOP's conservative base, along with the Tea Party wrote the narrative that Republicans chose to believe. They collectively decided to believe that facts were wrong, that facts clearly had a liberal bias. All the polling data that clearly indicated re-election for President Obama simply HAD to be wrong.
Anyone who said different was a liberal plant who was trying to make conservatives "feel bad" and consequently suppress GOP/Conservative voter turnout. The "lame stream media" was clearly in the tank for the Obama campaign and was desperately trying to spin their denial of the inevitable GOP/Romney-Ryan landslide that was most certainly coming. It made cable news on the day after the 2012 election, must- see viewing..
Now as we head in to the the 2014 midterms and the half way point in Barack Obama's second term, we see the GOP desperate to tame the monster it, along with FOX news has created. Tea Party primary challenges to well known establishment Republicans are becoming the norm, not the exception. The GOP is now faced with the reality of demographics, and the fact that gerrymandered districts, and blatently racist voting restrictions enacted in ultra-conservative states will only help so much, and won't help at all when the insurgent political threat comes from the Right, instead of the Left.
We see a Congress where Republicans will literally allow the governing of the nation to grind to halt, lest any actions they take in any way help the President to do his job, and thus enrage the Tea Party faithful to label them all "RINOS" (Republicans In Name Only). I was never a big fan of Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom", his follow up series to the brilliant "The West Wing", but in one episode he captures perfectly the cul-de-sac of hate fueled ignorance the GOP has been painted into by its own creation.
What started as a gimmick on FOX News, now may very well be the death knell of the Republican Party. Transforming the Party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan into a splintered, fragmented mob of ageing paranoids. With the only thing holding them together is the fact their hatred of other Americans, (be they Liberals or "not true" Conservatives), outweighs their love of their own country.
As the rainbow flags go up on Market Street in San Francisco , the annual debate over the merits of LGBT Pride celebrations re-surfaces like a perennial weed that just won't stay down. It's a debate that rages both inside and outside the broader LGBTQ-XYZ123-whatever-else-you-want-to-add-on... community.
Inside the community the question always gets asked ; does some of the imagery of Pride celebrations hurt the cause of equal rights? In addition, this year in the wake of significant legal victories for LGBT rights, especially around Marriage Equality; Some are asking do we even need pride celebrations anymore?
While outside, critics and opponents love to point to that same imagery as evidence of Gay folks wanting "special rights", and then pull out their favorite chestnut, of asking why are Gay Pride Celebrations acceptable but Straight Pride celebrations are not?
Sigh.... Really? It's like asking why isn't there a "White History Month". I get tired of trying to explain to people who really do know better, but get enamored of Fox News talking points, just how stupid they sound whey they try to make these types of arguments. But fine, since clearly there is some "genuine" confusion out there as to the reason for LGBT Pride celebrations , allow me to clarify.
The number of states in the USA where you can be fired for being Straight = 0
The number of states in the USA where you can be fired for being Gay = 29
Number of countries that will execute you for being Straight = 0
Number of countries that will execute you for being Gay = 10
Growing up, how many books, songs, television programs, and movies did you see that featured straight couples meeting, falling in love and living happily ever after? Pretty much all of them.
Ask someone who is Gay how many positive images in popular culture they had growing up that affirmed who they are? The answer is, none, or at best few, if any at all.
Gay characters in movies and television were either creepy villains or camp comic relief. If you doubt that, you really should check out the groundbreaking HBO documentary, "The Celluloid Closet". It shows clearly the disparity in popular culture where messages about sexual orientation were concerned.
Then there is the area of religion. The number of straight kids who have been told they are going to hell simply for being heterosexual = 0. The number of LGBT kids who have been told that they are going hell simply for being homosexual = too many to even try to count.
To my Straight friends, I have to ask, how many times have "respected" public figures, politicians, pundits and clergy gone on national television demanding that everyone be given the chance to VOTE on your civil rights? How often has someone told you that not being able to discriminate against you was somehow an attack on them? When was the last time you heard a member of the Supreme Court saying that simply by being allowed to exist, you were "an attack" on the moral fiber of America?
Anyone?? Yeah...I didn't think so... I have a flash of the obvious for you, every month is "Straight Pride Month." There is a word for someone who truly feels that equal rights for people they don't like is somehow an attack on them. That word is "Bigot".
Saying LGBT people are human too, isn't an attack on straight people. Those people who really think it is, I want to ask them if they are really that stupid, or just that bigoted? People who say LGBT Pride celebrations need to be stopped, are in fact, the exact reason they all started in the first place.
Are pride celebrations good or bad for the cause of equality? The answer is both. With visibility comes closer examination. Anti-gay bigots love to show images of drag queens, leather daddies and nearly naked porn stars dancing on parade floats, and scream "See! it's not about equal rights! They just want to recruit your kids into THIS!!"
They never show the families, advocacy groups, welcoming and inclusive religious denominations, and workplace affinity groups who participate in Pride parades. After all, that wouldn't fit their desired narrative.
Media outlets are complicit in this, by the way. CNN loves to show the drag queens and naked boys in their coverage, but when straight allies like the CEO of the largest health care company in the United States rides in the San Francisco Pride parade every year, along with his LGBT employees, you'd think the guy was invisible.
Likewise, critics of the concept of LGBT Pride , never talk about the rates of divorce, unplanned pregnancy, child abuse and neglect and domestic violence in Straight relationships. You never see folks like Tony Perkins, head of the certified Hate-Group, the "Family Research Council" on Fox News talking about Mardi Gras, or "Girls Gone Wild" on Spring Break.
That would be admitting something of an inconvenient truth. It's much easier to just point at a group of shirtless men on a flatbed truck or women on motorcycles and say that they are the real threat to families.
I have always said that Pride celebrations are not really for the people who attend them. Instead they are for the people who cannot attend them. Growing up as a Gay kid in a small town in South Central Wisconsin, there were times when I was convinced I was the only gay person on Earth. The constant message from popular culture, religion, family and peer groups was "boy meets girl, they fall in love, get married (or not) and have kids and live happily ever after". There was no happily ever after for someone who felt what I was feeling.
Then, for one weekend in June, I would turn on the TV News and see thousands of people just like me, in places like New York, San Francisco and Chicago saying "No, that's not true, you are not alone, and there is a big wide world out here beyond Sun Prairie Wisconsin. So hang in there .... we're here and we're waiting for you!" Pride Celebrations are the original "It Gets Better Project".
Now nearly 30 years later, I watch coverage like this and it seems so endearingly cheesy. Yet at the time, it was a lifeline to people like me, living with the fear and isolation of being "in the closet".
My straight friends never needed to be told that being straight was okay, and that they were okay because nobody ever told them they weren't. Pride isn't about celebrating being Gay, it's about publicly showing that being LGBT is just as much a part of the the human experience as being straight is. I for one would love to see the day when Pride is obsolete. When that scared closeted gay kid, in some small town doesn't need to be told that he or she is fine just the way they are.
But until that day comes, I will be adding my voice that joyous mob in places like Market Street in San Francisco, Oxford Street here in London, Halsted Street in Chicago and Fifth Avenue in New York City. If for no other reason to let that kid know, it really does get better. There is a world where "boy meets boy" and "girl meets girl", where they fall in love and (f they want to) get married, and yes, even live happily ever after...
I grew up in the American Midwest State of Wisconsin. Yet I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the Western U.S. State of Idaho. It is a beautiful place. Wikipedia says ..
Idaho is in the northwestern region of the United States. The 14th largest, and the 7th least densely populated of the 50 United States. The largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state.
Idaho is a mountainous state with an area larger than that of all of New England. Idaho's nickname is the "Gem State", because nearly every known type of gemstone has been found there.In addition, Idaho is one of only two places in the world where star garnets can be found in any significant quantities, the other being India. Idaho is sometimes called the "Potato State" owing to its popular and widely distributed crop. The state motto is Esto Perpetua (Latin for "Let it be forever").
Idaho is also where my Mother was born and grew up. Where both my parents went to University and where to this day, I have a large number of relatives. It is also where, as a young child my family would often go for Summer Vacation, to visit my Grandmother, my Aunt and assorted cousins. The three day car trip was always exciting for me, travelling along interstate highway I-80, across the center of the United States, over the Continental Divide and into the Rocky Mountains.
A highlight was always visiting the area of Southern Idaho where my Mom spent most of her Childhood. A beautiful area long the Snake River known as "Thousand Springs"
I have wonderful memories of my childhood visits to Idaho, when my Grandmother later moved to Wisconsin a few years later, I was thrilled to have her closer, but part of me missed those trips out West to visit her. Yet as I got older I became aware of the social and political climate in Idaho and found my sense of nostalgia, and desire to go back and visit seriously diminished. Idaho like many parts of the Western and Southern United States is culturally very conservative.
Anti-LGBT sentiment, white supremacist groups and ultra conservative "militia movements" had found measures of support in the cultural landscape of the Gem State. Attempts to legislate bigotry into law have been as recent as February of this year. The Young Turks have the disturbing details...
So I had pretty much given up on the idea of ever visiting Idaho again. Certainly the idea of going there with my Husband was hard to envision. I had less concerns visiting Malaysia, a Muslim country that I have been to three times, and will be going to again in two weeks, than I did about going back to Idaho. Then, yesterday this happened.
Wait.. Gay Marriage is now legal in Idaho!!?? , but NOT in my home state of Wisconsin, So just to be clear, Idaho is now more progressive and has greater civil equality for its citizens than Wisconsin does. If Eric and I move back to the United States we would have more civil rights living in Idaho than in Wisconsin.
Wow...
Not only Idaho, but as I highlighted in my previous post, the ultra conservative Southern State of Arkansas now has greater civil equality for its citizens than Wisconsin does.
The marriage equality map of the United States now looks like this... Green means gay marriage is allowed. Red means it isn't. Yellow means that a same-sex marriage prohibition in the state has been overturned but put on hold pending appeal..
One wonders what the great Progressive voice Robert "Fighting Bob" LaFollette would think of his home state now. The State with the motto "Forward" is now numbered among the most backward states in America.
Meanwhile in 2014 Wisconsin's Republican Governor, Scott Walker believes that enshrining discrimination into the State's constitution is part of a "healthy balance" on civil rights for Wisconsin's citizens
Wisconsin is truly on track to become "The Mississippi of the North".
'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.' - Martin Luther King, Jr.
The past twenty four hours have been quite remarkable. First of all, we have the National Football League in the United States drafting a very talented college player from Missouri named Michael Sam.
Sam had a very successful college football career. As a senior in 2013, Sam recorded 11.5 quarterback sacks and 19 tackles for a loss. He led his college athletic conference, the SEC, in both categories, and tied Missouri's single-season record for sacks. After the season, Sam was named the South Eastern Conference's Co-Defensive Player of the Year.
Michael Sam was recently drafted to play for the NFL's St Louis Rams, not a big surprise right? So what is so remarkable about it? Well I'll let the video of the moment speak for itself. The NFL was seen as a fortress of homophobia where being Gay was the ultimate barrier to playing at the professional level, that NFL just drafted its first openly Gay player.
I think the front page of the Huffington Post says it all..
Yet the arc of the moral universe wasn't quite finished bending this week. Down in the heart of the American "Bible Belt", more specifically, in the State of Arkansas.
The "bible belt" is an informal term for a region in the south-eastern and south-central United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a significant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's average.
The Bible Belt consists of much of the Southern United States. It is personified by the social climate in states like Texas, Mississippi and Arkansas. In the Bible Belt, it's common to see bumper stickers that claim One Man + One Woman = Marriage, church billboards that command one to "Get right with Jesus," letters to the editor comparing gay marriage to marrying one's dog, and nightly news about homophobic attacks from "Pro Family" groups.
Yet this past week, the State of Arkansas joined the list of American states that have marriage equality for their LGBT citizens.
And last but not least, we have that bastion of camp and pop-music cheese that is the Eurovision Song Contest. The finals for this year, held last night in Copenhagen, Denmark, took place in the shadow of a growing divide between Western and Eastern Europe over the issue of LGBT Rights.
A poll conducted by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) found majorities in several Western European countries in favor of marriage and adoption rights for same-sex couples, with those in the Netherlands (85%), Germany (74%), Belgium and Spain (71% each) expressing the most support. In Scotland, the percentage of people who favor same-sex marriage has increased from 41% in 2002 t0 61% in 2010,
While in Eastern Europe we have seen the opposite trend. With Croatia and most notably, Russia, passing sweeping laws targeting Gays and Lesbians for discrimination.
For those unfamiliar with the Eurovision Song Contest all you need to know is , the only thing Gayer than Eurovision is... okay, I really can't think of anything that is gayer than Eurovision. Maybe the Tony Awards, but only if Neil Patrick Harris is hosting. Anyway, you get the picture.
So while the contest is wildly popular in Eastern Europe, its inherent tolerance of Gays is not. So much so, that protesters in Armenia and Belarus created petitions asking their national broadcasters to edit a gay contestant from Austria, out of the live broadcast, though the European Broadcasting Union wouldn't allow that.
The contestant in question, is an Austrian Drag Queen named Conchita Wurst. So in what is being seen as a collective European rebuke to Russia and its rabidly homophobic "macho man" President, Vladimir Putin, guess who won Eurovision 2014?
All in all, this past week was not a good one for homophobia. The arc of the moral universe just got a whole lot closer to justice. As much as I have enjoyed these news stories, it did make think of those people I know for whom the past week was seen as bad news rather than good.
There are friends you lose when decide to live outside the prison of the "the closet". It is regrettable, but it happens. I found myself thinking of one of those "lost friends" this past week. Someone who after our being friends for a quarter of a century, upon finding out the love of my life was a guy named Eric, abruptly ended that friendship without a word.
So in light of this past week I wonder what my old friend thinks of the NFL drafting Michael Sam. Knowing for the past few months that Sam was a Gay man, did he root for or against his Alma Mater's football team, at the University of Missouri? Will he root for or against the St. Louis Rams?
Does the courage of his anti-gay convictions extend to all aspects of his life, including football, or just to me? The likelihood is that I will never find out. Yet part of me hopes this past week has given him, and others who have the same fears and misconceptions he holds, something to think about. Seattle based writer and activist Dan Savage sums up the contradiction many people with anti-gay fears and phobias are perhaps struggling with after this week....
Congratulations Michael and Conchtia. You are helping that Arc of the Moral Universe to continue to bend towards justice. With your help, it is my hope that eventually everyone, lost friends included, will come long for the celebration.
When the Boy Scouts of America madeits first small step into the 21rst Century with changes to membership policies regarding Gay Youth in the program, many people (myself included) applauded the change. Yet people familiar with the structure of Scouting immediately saw a problem. How Scouting defines who is a "youth member" of the program.
The issue is that various parts of the Scouting program define "youth" and "adult" differently. In Boy Scouting, you are a youth member until you turn 18. Yet the Exploring and Venture Scout programs define a youth member as under the age of 21.
Also the Boy Scout's Honor Society, the Order of the Arrow also defines youth members to be under the age of 21. This clearly becomes an issue when one part of the BSA considers you to be a youth, while another says you are an adult. So it was just a matter of time until this contradiction would surface in the area of Summer Camp Staffing.
The majority of Boy Scout camp staff are in High School and College, and under the age of 21. Yet if you are Gay, and over the age of 18, you are not not eligible to be in Boy Scouting. BUT, if you are still under 21, you are still "legal" to be a involved in other parts of the Scouting program, like Exploring, and Venture Scouts. This contradiction becomes a big issue when you want to work on a BSA Summer camp staff. MSNBC picks up the story..
Scout Camp Staff - 1991
I worked on Boy Scout Camp Staff pretty much every Summer from age 16 until after I graduated from University. On all the staffs I worked on, there were people who talked about their wives and girlfriends pretty much constantly. There were staff members who worked at camp with their wives and girlfriends. I have friends who met their future wives and husbands while working at Scout Camp. There were more than a few staffers who even who dated girls from the local community.
All of that is a non-issue for the BSA. Yet this kid mentioning on Facebook that he was dating someone, and then someone else asking "what's his name?", that according to the BSA, is somehow bringing homosexuality into Scouting. Really?
The problem with taking half-steps forward, is they invariably cause you to stumble. By trying to change, yet not change, their problematic membership policies, the BSA has created a whole set of new problems for itself. When the current policy change went into effect, I remember a conversation with a friend of mine, where I mentioned the risk that this half-measure might create a "witch hunt" mentality among people uncomfortable with change. Resulting in instances where people specifically target youth who fall into this odd age loophole.
So the fact that the local Scouting organization, (or someone connected with it) , where Garrett Bryant lives was digging through this young man's Facebook profile is pathetic, disturbing and sadly not surprising. By leaving bigotry half-in place the BSA has sent a message that it is still acceptable to discriminate against people, as long as they are over the age of 18. I fear the situation that Garrett Bryant finds himself in will happen to more and more young men in Scouting as they turn 18 but are still able to be active "youth" members in various parts of the Scouting Program.
As long as the BSA keeps taking only half-steps towards dealing with discrimination, Scouting as whole will continue to stumble.
The Triduum most often refers to the Paschal Triduum (also known as the Holy Triduum or Easter Triduum), the final three days of Lent and Holy Week and thus the last three days before Easter Sunday.
The Paschal Triduum begins with the Mass of the Lord's Supper on the evening of Holy Thursday and continues until the start of the Easter Vigil on the evening of Holy Saturday.
(From the Book jacket...) He never thought he'd become one of the agoraphobic sludges of New York City – trapped with one view of a courtyard and head full of wrenching memories.
Dumped, disconnected, and depressed, spying on the neighbors has become his only entertainment. Then, without warning, lascivious and suspicious behavior by the closeted lawyer in the huge apartment across the courtyard leads him to a spine-tingling conclusion…his neighbor is a murderer.
Perhaps collaborating with Detective Marzoli to catch the killer is the key to surviving a past and present that are literally strangling him to death? Perhaps this beautiful, fierce detective can bring life back to his life?
In recent years there has been something of a renaissance in LGBT fiction. A natural progression in many ways. Gay characters have been cleverly part of the written word for centuries. Yet when turning books into movies Hollywood famously "de-gayed" many of these stories to make it past the censors. Stories like Spartacus, From Here to Eternity and yes, even Harry Potter all had gay characters that never made the leap from page to screen.
Yet it was on the written page that many young Gays and Lesbians first got a tantalizing glimpse of a world, outside the fear and dread of being in the closet.
I remember as a scared closeted college freshman, "casually" browsing at my university library, in the "special collections" section. There I found a dust-covered copy of Gordon Merrick's gay romance novel "The Lord Won't Mind". Now, years later that particular book seems endearingly tawdry, like one of those schlocky romance novels with Fabio modeling on the cover.
Yet at the time, just finding a story where "Boy Meets Boy", was something of a revelation. Reading it felt incredibly risky, subversive even. But more than that, it showed a world where Gay people existed, and in spite of the risks, and dangers of living authentically, there was such a thing as a "happily ever after", for people like me.
Now years later, the social progress we have seen over the past decade, has prompted a new generation of writers to take a look at life, and fiction from a Gay-inclusive perspective. A lot of recent works have frankly been hit and miss. Yet in giving the premise of Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" an updated treatment, New York authorRafe Haze, hits the mark.
I will be honest and admit I get bored with most Murder novels. Usually the hero is unbelievable, and the murderer so transparent, that I just want to turn to the last page and say arrest him or shoot him already! With "The Next",Haze has crafted a intricate patchwork of very believable characters. Giving us a front row seat, as the protagonist watches the lives of his neighbors through the windows across the courtyard from his apartment.
Haze wisely avoids getting bogged down in too much detail here. Giving us just enough of a glimpse of each neighbor, to set the scene. So when the murder does come, it is unexpected, and consequently far more interesting. The story moves effortlessly back and forth from rural childhood flashbacks, to modern day Manhattan. What I really enjoyed was how the book doesn't go in for "gotcha" moments. Rather, the tension builds like a kettle on ever increasing heat. Leading up to confrontations that literally had me on the edge of my seat.
I love Hitchcock's rear window, whenever I am in New York walking on the street I often look up at the windows of apartment buildings and think that each lighted square is a story, and wonder what that story might be.
"The Next" takes us on that journey, but lets us imagine it without the cliche'd Hollywood romance. The love story here isn't shoehorned into the plot, it develops quite naturally, unexpectedly even. The sexuality of the main character is never waved like rainbow flag in the reader's face, but rather is treated as a development, instead of an event.
To call "The Next" a 'gay version of Rear Window', while not an inaccurate description, I feel does the book a disservice. It isn't a story that asks "what if Jimmy Stewart's character was Gay?" and then goes from there. Rather it it takes many of the elements of Rear Window, and allows us to experience them from a new perspective, that in this case, just happens to be in a world that includes Gay people.
Sounds like art imitating life if you ask me. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and was surprised to learn it is Rafe Haze's first published novel. I look forward to see what he will write ... next.
"The Next", by Rafe Haze is available April 23rd, for download, from Wilde City Press.
