Thursday, October 14, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Welcome to Norman, Oklahoma - Gay Teens Please Kill Yourselves...
Zach Harrington was a talented musician who’d endured years of struggles due to his sexual orientation in high school in conservative Norman, Okla.
On Sept. 28, Harrington attended a three-hour public hearing on a proposal to declare October gay history month in the city. Although the council ultimately approved the proposal, Harrington’s parents described the meeting as potentially “toxic” for their son, a private person who internalized his feelings.
From the Norman Transcript - One man said he moved to Norman because he thought it was the kind of place that would never accept the GLBT community with open arms. A woman, who described herself as “bi-racial,” said she was tired of the GLBT plight being compared to Civil Rights. Some of those who opposed the proclamation claimed that members of the GLBT community would use it to infiltrate the public school system, essentially allowing the “gay lifestyle” to become a part of the curriculum.
For those in attendance, it was hard to ignore the intolerant grumblings, the exasperated sighs and cold, hard stares that followed comments from supporters of the GLBT proclamation.
Zach's family, who described him as a private young man who internalized his feelings and emotions, said it was this “toxic” environment at the Sept. 28 council meeting that may have pushed their gay son and brother over the edge. Nikki Harrington, Zach’s older sister, said her brother likely took all of the negative things said about members of the GLBT community straight to heart.
From the Norman Transcript - One man said he moved to Norman because he thought it was the kind of place that would never accept the GLBT community with open arms. A woman, who described herself as “bi-racial,” said she was tired of the GLBT plight being compared to Civil Rights. Some of those who opposed the proclamation claimed that members of the GLBT community would use it to infiltrate the public school system, essentially allowing the “gay lifestyle” to become a part of the curriculum.
For those in attendance, it was hard to ignore the intolerant grumblings, the exasperated sighs and cold, hard stares that followed comments from supporters of the GLBT proclamation.
Zach's family, who described him as a private young man who internalized his feelings and emotions, said it was this “toxic” environment at the Sept. 28 council meeting that may have pushed their gay son and brother over the edge. Nikki Harrington, Zach’s older sister, said her brother likely took all of the negative things said about members of the GLBT community straight to heart.
The message the people in that room sent to 19 year old Zach Harrington was loud and clear; You don't belong here, you are something "less than" the rest of us, God is sending you to Hell, and what's more, we know that you are really out to destroy us all, and our town.
I think the next act by the Norman City Council should be to approve sister city project with Terhan, Iran. As both cites are clearly full of fundamentalist religious extremists who are terrifed by diversity, and feel threatened by democracy.
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Monday, October 04, 2010
Brilliant Video from Maine
My unbelievably brilliant and talented friend, Khris Francis posted a link this video to his Facebook Page today.
Wow...
Wow...
A Response to an "Evangelical Conservative" who is Sorry...
-----------------------
Dear Dan,
I was listening to the radio yesterday morning and I heard your interview with Beth McDonald. I have been thinking about it a lot since then and I feel compelled to share my thoughts with you. I was saddened and frustrated with your comments regarding people of faith and their perpetuation of bulling. As someone who loves the Lord and does not support gay marriage I can honestly say I was heartbroken to hear about the young man that took his own life after being humiliated by people who should have known better. I think you need to be aware of your own prejuduces and how they might play into your thinking. At best I think your comments were hypocritical.
If your message is that we should not judge people based on their sexual preferance, how do you justify judging entire groups of people for any other reason (including their faith)? There is no part of me that took any pleasure in what happened to that young man and I know for a fact that is true of many other people who disagree with your viewpoint. Please be aware that your words are powerful and people are listening to you.
To that end, to imply that I would somehow encourage my children to mock, hurt, or intimidate another person for any reason is completely unfounded and offensive. Being a follower of Christ is, above all things, a recognition that we are imperfect, fallible and in desperate need of a savior. We cannot believe that we are better or more worthy than other people. I have never in my life know someone who loved the Lord who wished ill will on other people and certainly not death "so that [we] can perpetuate [our own] agenda."
Please consider your viewpoint and please be more careful with your words in the future.
L. R.
--------------------------------------
When I saw this letter reprinted on Savage's website, I so wanted to post my own "response" to it, but Dan Savage's response sums things up far better than I ever could...
--------------------------
I'm sorry your feelings were hurt by my comments.
No, wait. I'm not. Gay kids are dying. So let's try to keep things in perspective:fuck your feelings.
A question: do you support atheist marriage? Interfaith marriage? Divorce and remarriage? All legal, of course, and there's no Christian movement to deny marriage rights to atheists or people marrying outside their respective faiths or to people divorcing and remarrying. Why the hell not?
The children of people who see gay people as sinful or damaged or disordered and unworthy of full civil equality—even if those people strive to express their bigotry in the politest possible way (at least when they happen to be addressing a gay person)—learn to see gay people as sinful, damaged, disordered, and unworthy. And while there may not be any gay adults or couples where you live, or at your church, or at your workplace, I promise you that there are gay and lesbian children in your schools. You may only attack gays and lesbians at the ballot box, nice and impersonally, but your children have the option of attacking actual real gays and lesbians, in person, in real time.
Real gay and lesbian children. Not political abstractions, not "sinners." Real gay and lesbian children.
The dehumanizing bigotries that fall from lips of "faithful Christians," and the lies that spew forth from the pulpit of the churches "faithful Christians" drag their kids to on Sundays, give your straight children a license to verbally abuse, humiliate and condemn the gay children they encounter at school. And many of your straight children—having listened to mom and dad talk about how gay marriage is a threat to the family and how gay sex makes their magic sky friend Jesus cry himself to sleep—feel justified in physically attacking the gay and lesbian children they encounter in their schools. You don't have to explicitly "encourage [your] children to mock, hurt, or intimidate" gay kids. Your encouragement—along with your hatred and fear—is implicit. It's here, it's clear, and we can see the fruits of it.
Oh, and those same dehumanizing bigotries that fill your straight children with hate? They fill your gay children with suicidal despair. And you have the nerve to ask me to be more careful with my words.
Did that hurt to hear? Good. But hearing it couldn't have hurt nearly as much as what the boys in the photo above had to listen to—day-in, day-out, for years—at schools filled with bigoted little monsters created not in the image of a loving God, but in the images of the hateful and false "followers of Christ" they call "mom and dad."
P.S.: The religious right points to the suicide rate among gay teenagers—which the religious right works so hard to drive up (see above)—as evidence that the gay lifestyle is destructive. It's like intentionally running someone down with your car and then claiming that it isn't safe to walk the streets.
Which is why I argued that every gay teen suicide is a victory for the religious right. Because, you see, your side does use those suicides to "perpetuate [your] agenda." Tony Perkins and all those other oddly effete defenders of "Chrisitian values" and "traditional marriage" will point to this recent spate of gay teen suicides to argue against gay marriage, anti-bullying programs, against allowing gay people to serve in the military—basically, they'll gleefully use these tragedies to justify what they like to call the "Christian, pro-family agenda."
But right now Tony Perkins is being strangely silent. Why is that? Could it be that even Tony Perkins has a conscience? Nah, couldn't be that. He must be away on vacation.
I wonder who's lifting his luggage.
--------------------------------------
Thanks Dan, people like Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Maggie Gallagher all have blood on their hands this week.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Maggie Gallahger Wants You to Know She Cares... Really.
Writing on her organizations hate-blog today Slaggie Gilamonster had this to say:
"The suicide of that teen was not only a tragedy it was a crime. The young people who violated laws out of mindless desire to bully or embarrass or whatever the heck kids do this stuff will be prosecuted and probably jailed, I hope. Nothing in the press accounts suggest the kids who did this were motivated by homophobia, and the cruelty of cyberbullying is causing teen suicides among those who are not gay, as well. I do not think the absence of gay marriage is the cause of these tragedies or its presence will resolve them. We can make this a symbol of all our other fights, or we can try to save all our kids, gay and straight, from this kind of ugly and mindless cruelty. My heart goes out to the family of the young man. God bless him and them."
- Maggie Gallagher, commenting on NOM's blog.
Oh look, Maggie Gallagher the woman who has made her career out of saying how evil Gay and Lesbian Americans are, feels bad that a teenager killed himself - how nice. But of course, according to Maggie, the fact that Tyler Clementi was Gay should not be the issue. Maggie feels we should make Tyler a "symbol"in the fight to protect ALL our children. Wow.
Maggie Gallahger of the National Organization for (some people's) Marriage wanting to find common ground on stopping bullying. What could possibly be wrong with that?
Plenty. Because, you see, Maggie's sudden outbreak of sensitivity has NOTHING to do with keeping kids safe.
The wing nut social conservative Right knows they need to get control of the Bullying debate and get control of it FAST.
They are desperate to take sexual orientation out of the debate. Because if you say it is wrong that a kid was bullied because he was gay, you are really saying there is nothing wrong with being Gay; and NOM can never allow that to happen.
This in spite of the clear evidence that bullying based on sexual orientation was the direct cause of a number of recent tragic suicides across the the United States. So much so that the United States Government was compelled to issue this statement:
---------------------------------
STATEMENT BY U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION ARNE DUNCAN On the Recent Deaths of Two Young Men
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today released the following statement:
"This week, we sadly lost two young men who took their own lives for one unacceptable reason: they were being bullied and harassed because they were openly gay or believed to be gay. These unnecessary tragedies come on the heels of at least three other young people taking their own lives because the trauma of being bullied and harassed for their actual or perceived sexual orientation was too much to bear.
"This is a moment where every one of us - parents, teachers, students, elected officials, and all people of conscience - needs to stand up and speak out against intolerance in all its forms. Whether it's students harassing other students because of ethnicity, disability or religion; or an adult, public official harassing the President of the University of Michigan student body because he is gay, it is time we as a country said enough. No more. This must stop."
-------------------------------------------
Maggie's dear friends and bankrollers over at "Focus on the Family" figured out the danger to them, and the threat this poses to their arguments against LGBT equality right away. So they quickly launched an all out attack on anti- bullying programs and proposed safe school legislation, because it might say things like a kid shouldn't be beaten and tormented simply for being Gay.
As I mentioned in my previous posting. Focus on the Family knows they have to change this debate so that any efforts made to protect Gay and Lesbian Teens are portrayed as part of some sinister Gay plot to indoctrinate children;
" LGBT groups use bullying prevention to promote their homosexual agenda, including the idea that homosexuality is normal. Focus on the Family education expert Candi Cushman said that the group is against bullying but that bullying prevention “is being hijacked by activists.” She claims that anti-bullying programs are gay activism in disguise and that these programs conceal their true purpose."
OF COURSE Maggie and NOM want to have a nice generic "gay free" discussion on "Cyber bullies", and not have to answer for their barnstorming around the country constantly spewing the talking point that Gays and Lesbians are inferior to Straight People, and don't merit any legal protections.
It's hardly a surprise that Maggie wants to say that this is about generic "Bullying" and NOT about homophobia.
Maggie Gallahger has spent millions of dollars saying that Gays and Lesbians are "attacking families" and are out to "destroy traditional marriage", that Gays and Lesbians have a "Radical Agenda" and are a "threat to children". So I am sure the LAST thing Maggie would want to do is have to answer for the impact that her "work" might have on people like Tyler Clementi's Roommate Dharun Ravi and Ravi's friend Molly Wei.
So from NOM"s point of view, if you take the fact that Tyler was GAY out of the discussion, (as Maggie DESPERATELY wants to do) , you can be "sympathetic" but NOT have to examine the motives behind WHY Tyler's roommate Dharun Ravi did what he did.
Talking about the death of Tyler Clementi in it's true context means you have to ask the question; why didn't Ravi and Wei feel that Tyler Clementi had the SAME rights to privacy, dignity and common courtesy they would expect and even demand be given to them without question?
To have to face the honest answer - That Ravi may have felt that Tyler Clementi was somehow "less than" because he was Gay; means you have to accept the idea that someone being discriminated against because they are Gay or Lesbian, is wrong. Maggie's whole world view could never allow for that..
Maggie Gallagher is the face and voice of an organization that has spent millions of dollars putting out the message that Gays and Lesbians do not deserve to have equal rights. To even allow the argument that homophobia is a bad thing is to risk the entire premise upon which her career and her organization's very existence is based.
NOM's "concern" over bullying has NOTHING to do with protecting kids, and EVERYTHING to do with protecting homophobia.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
"Focus on the Family" Wants Gay Kids to Die...
According to Focus on the Family, LGBT groups use bullying prevention to promote their homosexual agenda, including the idea that homosexuality is normal. Focus on the Family education expert Candi Cushman said that the group is against bullying but that bullying prevention “is being hijacked by activists.” She claims that anti-bullying programs are gay activism in disguise and that these programs conceal their true purpose.
These people are insane bigots, They are so filled with hatred for people who don't share their sad twisted anti-American, anti-Constitutional world view, they would seek to stop a law that could help save kids lives.
As this...American equivalent of the Taliban obsessed over protecting the bullying to death of Gay Kids, the news has been filled with story after story, of a Gay Teen somewhere in America who was bullied into taking his own life.
Carl JosephWalker-Hoover,11 of Springfield MA hanged himself.
Seth Walsh, 13, of Tehachapi CA, hanged himself.
Billy Lucas, 15, of Greensburg, Indiana, hanged himself.
Asher Brown, 13, of Houston, shot himself in the head.
And just this past week...
Tyler Clementi of Ridgewood, NJ, 18 years old, jumped off the George Washington Bridge.
All were victims of the type of lethal harassment that the absurdly mis-named Focus on the Family would seek to promote and protect. These people are not Christians, they are vile terrorists who rejoice at the death of American Kids.
I truly believe that when Candi Cushman, and Focus on the Family founder, James Dobson finally do come face to face with the Christ they claim so loudly to follow; He will say; "I do not know you."
Left Behind (from the Musical "Spring Awakening)
You fold his hands and smooth his tie, you gently lift his chin.
Were you really so blind, and unkind to him?
Can't help the itch to touch, to kiss, to hold him once again.
Now to close his eyes--never open them....
A shadow passed, a shadow passed, yearning, yearning
For the fool it called a home.
All things he never did are left behind.
All the things his mama wished he'd bear in mind,
And all his dad had hoped he'd know.
The talks you never had, the saturdays you never spent.
All the 'grown-up' places you never went.
And all of the crying you wouldn't understand.
You just let him cry, 'make a man out of him.'
A shadow passed, a shadow passed, yearning, yearning
For a fool it called a home.
All things he ever wished are left behind.
All the things his mama did to make him mind,
And how his dad had hoped he'd grow.
All things he ever lived are left behind.
All the fears that ever flickered through his mind.
All the sadness that he'd come to own.
A shadow passed, a shadow passed, yearning, yearning
For the fool it called a home.
And it whistles through the ghosts still left behind.
It whistles through the ghosts still left behind.
Whistles through the ghosts still left behind.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
San Francisco's Message to LGBT Youth - Hang in there, IT GETS BETTER
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is reporting the horrific news from two states this week.,
Seattle columnist Dan Savage has started a video project called "It Gets Better" urging Gay and Lesbian youth to stay alive. To NOT take their own lives because life does and will get better.
The message of the video project is simple. DONT GIVE UP. Middle school and high school will not last forever. You grow up you find you are part of a real community and NOT ALONE.
Here is what we had to say.
UPDATE - Wed 9/29. The San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus adds their "voice".
These hateful bigots have no problem with the death of a child. If the child happens to be Gay or Lesbian. The Truth is this - The anti- gay "social conservative" movement in the United States is now no better than the lunatic bigots in Uganda who are calling for all Gays and Lesbians to be rounded up and killed.
Seattle columnist Dan Savage has started a video project called "It Gets Better" urging Gay and Lesbian youth to stay alive. To NOT take their own lives because life does and will get better.
The message of the video project is simple. DONT GIVE UP. Middle school and high school will not last forever. You grow up you find you are part of a real community and NOT ALONE.
Life moves on, and so will you . Don't end your life, LIVE your life because - IT GETS BETTER.
Savage and his husband issued a challenge to LGBT Communities in major cities to add their voices in this fight. San Francisco filmmaker Matt Baume, heard the challenge and put the word out. This past Sunday, San Francisco answered.
Here is what we had to say.
UPDATE - Wed 9/29. The San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus adds their "voice".
Friday, September 24, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Amazing Time-Lapse Images of San Francisco
Living here it's easy to forget to stop and look around at the amazing beauty of our City by The Bay...
The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo.
The Unseen Sea from Simon Christen on Vimeo.
Everything You Need To Know...
About the GOP's "Pledge to America" summed up by our good friends over at The Daily Show.
(hat tip to waking up now.)
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Postcards From the Pledge | ||||
| ||||
(hat tip to waking up now.)
President Obama Says "Get in the Game!"
Yesterday was the last real chance Congress had this year, to repeal the U.S. Military's discriminatory and unconstitutional "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. And it completely failed. It is interesting to note that repealing DADT was one of the President Obama's key campaign promises to the LGBT Community.
Yet the President did no personal lobbying on this vote. Instead he spent the time on a call with the winning WNBA Seattle Storm basketball team.
Yet the President did no personal lobbying on this vote. Instead he spent the time on a call with the winning WNBA Seattle Storm basketball team.
While President Obama was talking jump shots with the WNBA, Republicans were able to successfully filibuster the vote on the Defense Authorization bill that would have included the provision to end the DADT policy. So just as with the issues of Marriage Equality, Employment Non-Discrimination, and LGBT Inclusive Immigration Reform. The issue of Gay and Lesbian Americans being kicked out of the military for being honest, has been set aside by this Administration and Democratic Congressional majority due to their inability to overcome GOP obstructionism.
This afternoon I happened to check my email and what did I find? Another email from "Organizing for America" the former campaign communications arm of the Obama-Biden campaign.
The email was very much like all the others OAF has sent me this past year. Asking for money and saying I needed to "get more involved" and exhorting me to work as hard for President Obama as he and the Democrats are working for me.
As I read that I suddenly found myself wondering what that would actually look like, were I work as hard for President and Obama and the Democratic Party on their keys issue, like the Midterm Elections, as they have been working on the issues that are important to me...
If I work just as hard for Barack Obama as he has worked for me...
In the weeks ahead when I encounter insane lies and distortions about the President's record, I will shrug sadly, and make vague yet eloquent statements on the need to "come together" and "effect real change".
In the days ahead, when I am told by OFA and the DNC how important it is to support them so we can keep moving forward, I will smile in a genuine and empathetic manner. Then say how I understand how they might feel my support hasn't come quickly enough or doesn't seem strong enough. But I will then mention how I have all these other things on "my plate" right now. But I'd PROMISE to get around to supporting the National Party and races sometime real soon.
On Election Day, When I am urged to get out and vote and to pick up the phone and urge my friends and family to get out and vote for the Democratic congressional candidates, I would instead, spend that time talking to friends about their basketball game.
And over the next Two Years, as the Republican Majority in both houses of Congress turns the Obama Administration into a lame duck, and OFA and the DNC complain to me about it, I would smile sympathetically and say they need to understand the "current reality", and remind them of all the support I have given them in the past, and how that should be enough for them right now.
I would add to that of course, about how I was on their side, and they certainly could still count on my full support for them, and their key issues.... At some undetermined point in the future.
That is what it would look like if I give President Obama and Democratic Party the same unwavering support and commitment that they have given LGBT Americans.
Looking at the past two years it's really not hard to see why progressive voters are having a hard time getting "fired up" about the 2010 Midterms. "Vote for us! We're not the Republicans" isn't enough when you campaigned on hope and change, but governed with timidity and political cowardice.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
My 2010 Mid Terms "Enthusiasm Gap"
As some of you have remarked in emails and text messages, it has been about two weeks since I have posted anything new on here and yeah.. I really don't have a good excuse. Or maybe I do... Lately it has been hard to write about the current state of politics and culture in the United States without wanting to scream obscenities and throw things at the television.
There is a wonderful Ivor Novello song from the soundtrack to the movie "Gosford Park". The title is "The Land of Might Have Been..." As we approach the 2010 mid-term elections I find that title resonates all too well with how I feel.
The common consensus among the political punditry says the Republicans and the corporate created and funded Tea Bagger monstrosity it has spawned, will at the very least gain control of House or Representatives if not also the Senate. Though, most projections have the Democratic Party holding on to the Senate by a narrow margin.
The fact is, in 2010, the face, voice and mind of the Republican Party is made up of people who are racist, xenophobic anti-constitutional nut jobs. Reality and fact play no role whatsoever in their world view. When pressed to explain why they "feel" the way they feel. Or when asked to explain their fox generated talking points in greater detail, you get this...
It has been popular to make comparisons to the "Republican Revolution" of 1994, when Newt Gingrich lead the GOP to a midterm trouncing of Bill Clinton and the Democrats with their "Contract With America". ( It is interesting to note that none of the items in that 1994 "contract" were ever actually enacted by that GOP controlled Congress.) Still it is worth examining what the GOP is promising that they will do THIS time if they win back control of congress.
The very idea that there is a role for Government in the welfare of the American People is what the Republican Party is running AGAINST. The idea that insurance companies can deny you health insurance for a pre-existing condition, regardless of what that condition might be, is what the Republican party is running FOR. The idea that if you lose your job and are unemployed it is your fault, is what the Republican Party is running FOR.
The idea that oil companies are the real VICTIMS if they are made to pay for the damages their own negligence has caused , this is what the GOP in 2010 stands for.
Then on top of all of that we have Barack Obama and the Democrats. Citizens of the Land of Might Have Been.
We might have had real health care reform and a Public Option for Health Insurance. But instead we got mild tinkering with insurance coverage that while a good first step, will benefit insurance companies more than it will help the broader problems with Health Care in America.
Now we have a GOP that is seriously running ON the premise, that for a insurance company to NOT be able to deny you coverage or just drop you for a pre-existing condition, THAT is the real crisis that has to be fixed.
We might have had real financial reform in the wake of the abuses and excesses of Wall Street. But instead we got mild tinkering with with Credit Card rules and the same players who took our financial sector the brink of collapse have been allowed to stay right were they are doing the same things.
We might have had real advancement of civil rights for all our citizens , including LGBT Americans. With an inclusive Employment Non Discrimination Act, repeal of The Defense of Marriage Act and the ending of the military's ridiculous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of forcing patriotic and skilled American Service Personnel out of the military simply because they are Gay or Lesbian. But instead we got speeches, nice inspirational speeches that were meant to provide cover for political cowardice.
So after spending two years trying desperately to woo non-existent Republican support for an agenda that an overwhelming majority of Americans elected him and his party to enact. President Obama seems to finally be grasping the political reality he and the Democrats are now facing. If the Republican Party gains control of Congress, President Obama and the Democrats will spend the next two years trying to defend the meager accomplishments of the last two years from repeal, and doing little else. In a recent speech in Ohio, the President finally seemed willing to take the GOP on.
So I can't help feeling like the last two years have been such a wasted opportunity. Barack Obama ran with such passion, energy and vision but has governed with such timidity, as to make me wonder if Candidate Obama and President Obama are even the same man.
I understand the argument that if the Democratic base doesn't get over our "enthusiasm gap" all of these dire predictions of the damage a GOP controlled Congress would do, will come true. And I also understand , and have even made the argument, that cowardly Democrats are still better than any of the current crop of Republicans.
Yet the truth is, I am having a hard time getting energized about a choice between apathy and evil.
If the Democrats lose control of Congress Barack Obama will spend the next two years with even less to show for it than his first two. Not much of a record to run for re-election with.
Nobody expects the President to win every battle. I just wish it didn't seem like Barack Obama was so afraid of fighting the battle. I guess what I really would like is for life to occasionally imitate art...
There is a wonderful Ivor Novello song from the soundtrack to the movie "Gosford Park". The title is "The Land of Might Have Been..." As we approach the 2010 mid-term elections I find that title resonates all too well with how I feel.
The common consensus among the political punditry says the Republicans and the corporate created and funded Tea Bagger monstrosity it has spawned, will at the very least gain control of House or Representatives if not also the Senate. Though, most projections have the Democratic Party holding on to the Senate by a narrow margin.
The fact is, in 2010, the face, voice and mind of the Republican Party is made up of people who are racist, xenophobic anti-constitutional nut jobs. Reality and fact play no role whatsoever in their world view. When pressed to explain why they "feel" the way they feel. Or when asked to explain their fox generated talking points in greater detail, you get this...
It has been popular to make comparisons to the "Republican Revolution" of 1994, when Newt Gingrich lead the GOP to a midterm trouncing of Bill Clinton and the Democrats with their "Contract With America". ( It is interesting to note that none of the items in that 1994 "contract" were ever actually enacted by that GOP controlled Congress.) Still it is worth examining what the GOP is promising that they will do THIS time if they win back control of congress.
The very idea that there is a role for Government in the welfare of the American People is what the Republican Party is running AGAINST. The idea that insurance companies can deny you health insurance for a pre-existing condition, regardless of what that condition might be, is what the Republican party is running FOR. The idea that if you lose your job and are unemployed it is your fault, is what the Republican Party is running FOR.
The idea that oil companies are the real VICTIMS if they are made to pay for the damages their own negligence has caused , this is what the GOP in 2010 stands for.
Then on top of all of that we have Barack Obama and the Democrats. Citizens of the Land of Might Have Been.
We might have had real health care reform and a Public Option for Health Insurance. But instead we got mild tinkering with insurance coverage that while a good first step, will benefit insurance companies more than it will help the broader problems with Health Care in America.
Now we have a GOP that is seriously running ON the premise, that for a insurance company to NOT be able to deny you coverage or just drop you for a pre-existing condition, THAT is the real crisis that has to be fixed.
We might have had real financial reform in the wake of the abuses and excesses of Wall Street. But instead we got mild tinkering with with Credit Card rules and the same players who took our financial sector the brink of collapse have been allowed to stay right were they are doing the same things.
We might have had real advancement of civil rights for all our citizens , including LGBT Americans. With an inclusive Employment Non Discrimination Act, repeal of The Defense of Marriage Act and the ending of the military's ridiculous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of forcing patriotic and skilled American Service Personnel out of the military simply because they are Gay or Lesbian. But instead we got speeches, nice inspirational speeches that were meant to provide cover for political cowardice.
So after spending two years trying desperately to woo non-existent Republican support for an agenda that an overwhelming majority of Americans elected him and his party to enact. President Obama seems to finally be grasping the political reality he and the Democrats are now facing. If the Republican Party gains control of Congress, President Obama and the Democrats will spend the next two years trying to defend the meager accomplishments of the last two years from repeal, and doing little else. In a recent speech in Ohio, the President finally seemed willing to take the GOP on.
So I can't help feeling like the last two years have been such a wasted opportunity. Barack Obama ran with such passion, energy and vision but has governed with such timidity, as to make me wonder if Candidate Obama and President Obama are even the same man.
I understand the argument that if the Democratic base doesn't get over our "enthusiasm gap" all of these dire predictions of the damage a GOP controlled Congress would do, will come true. And I also understand , and have even made the argument, that cowardly Democrats are still better than any of the current crop of Republicans.
Yet the truth is, I am having a hard time getting energized about a choice between apathy and evil.
If the Democrats lose control of Congress Barack Obama will spend the next two years with even less to show for it than his first two. Not much of a record to run for re-election with.
Nobody expects the President to win every battle. I just wish it didn't seem like Barack Obama was so afraid of fighting the battle. I guess what I really would like is for life to occasionally imitate art...
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
The Bad News from Lake Wobegon...
It's hard to know exactly how to begin talking about this...
I am a big fan of writer, essayist and radio host Garrison Keillor. His radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" Was something of a tradition for my family when I as growing up. We always listened on Saturday afternoons on Wisconsin Public Radio. Our family even attended the show in person on more that one occasion.
Keillor's stories of his fictional "hometown" of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota tend to resonate with those of us who grew up in small towns in the Midwest. Often his monologues about; "The News From Lake Wobegon" felt like they could easily have been taken from the streets of my own hometown of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.
I think what always resonated for me, wasn't just the Norman-Rockwell-esque imagery, or the jokes about growing up Lutheran. Rather for me, it was Keillor's stories of how growing up, he felt like an oddball, in his little town.
Like Keillor, I was an awkward, uncoordinated kid who preferred books to baseball gloves, and never really felt like I "fit in". Like Keillor, my daydreams were often of the day I would "see my town in the rear view mirror", as I left to begin my "real life". Also like Keillor, I tend to think more fondly of my small town years later as an "exile" , than I did as someone who had to live there.
Keillor always ends his stories with the tagline; "That's the news from Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. Where all the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."
Yet the truth is, I am not sure I will be able to listen to the News from Lake Wobegon anymore. It was one year ago, I posted a blog entry on a news story out of Anoka, MN entitled; "The News from the Real Lake Wobegon". I wrote about how the The Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota, had agreed to pay a $25,000 settlement to the family of a high school junior after two teachers harassed the boy and subjected him to classroom jokes, comments and innuendos concerning his perceived sexual orientation.
The student, who was not gay had gone to school officials numerous times complaining about the harassment but was ignored. Now a year later we find out what else has been going on in Anoka, MN. Students have been dying.
Anoka, MN, is the real life inspiration for Garrison Keillor's fictional hamlet of Lake Wobegon. The High School has had three teenagers commit suicide in the past year. All three students have something in common besides being students in the same school district. All three teens were relentlessly bullied for being Gay.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Growing up Gay in a small town is quite simply an exercise in terror. On some level every day had some undercurrent of fear of your "secret" being discovered. The ultimate put-down was to say something was "gay" or to be called a "fag". You see the kids who were even slightly effeminate or "different" getting tormented on a daily basis.
The Trevor Project, in conjunction with National Suicide Prevention Week launched a powerful new ad campaign "I'm Glad I Failed."
The ad campaign is aimed at LGBTQ youth who contemplate suicide as a result of homophobia. The ads feature young people with stories of how intolerance and harassment led them to attempt suicide, and how they are glad those attempts failed because their lives have changed for the better.
This Saturday will be the first in a long time where I won't be tuning in to listen to the "News from Lake Wobegon" . Because I know what the news is. If you are a Gay or Lesbian youth in Anoka, MN, your life isn't valued.
You live in a community that is quite happy to just stand idly by while you are bullied to death, to the point of even starting a petition drive to PREVENT anything from being done about it.
I want Garrison Keillor to talk about this. I want him to tell the people of his hometown to stop killing their kids. I want him to tell his audience that the real news from Lake Wobegon Minnesota is that the women may be strong, and the men may be good looking, but the children are expected to kill themselves if they are Gay.
And that has to stop.
Keillor's stories of his fictional "hometown" of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota tend to resonate with those of us who grew up in small towns in the Midwest. Often his monologues about; "The News From Lake Wobegon" felt like they could easily have been taken from the streets of my own hometown of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.
I think what always resonated for me, wasn't just the Norman-Rockwell-esque imagery, or the jokes about growing up Lutheran. Rather for me, it was Keillor's stories of how growing up, he felt like an oddball, in his little town.
Like Keillor, I was an awkward, uncoordinated kid who preferred books to baseball gloves, and never really felt like I "fit in". Like Keillor, my daydreams were often of the day I would "see my town in the rear view mirror", as I left to begin my "real life". Also like Keillor, I tend to think more fondly of my small town years later as an "exile" , than I did as someone who had to live there.
Keillor always ends his stories with the tagline; "That's the news from Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. Where all the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."
Yet the truth is, I am not sure I will be able to listen to the News from Lake Wobegon anymore. It was one year ago, I posted a blog entry on a news story out of Anoka, MN entitled; "The News from the Real Lake Wobegon". I wrote about how the The Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota, had agreed to pay a $25,000 settlement to the family of a high school junior after two teachers harassed the boy and subjected him to classroom jokes, comments and innuendos concerning his perceived sexual orientation.
The student, who was not gay had gone to school officials numerous times complaining about the harassment but was ignored. Now a year later we find out what else has been going on in Anoka, MN. Students have been dying.
Anoka, MN, is the real life inspiration for Garrison Keillor's fictional hamlet of Lake Wobegon. The High School has had three teenagers commit suicide in the past year. All three students have something in common besides being students in the same school district. All three teens were relentlessly bullied for being Gay.
From The Minnesota Independent.:
-------------------------------------
The woman sobbed as she told her son’s story to the Anoka-Hennepin School Board on Monday. “Hi, I’m Tammy Aaberg, the mother of Justin Aaberg, who was a gay student at Anoka High School who committed suicide July 9th of this year.” The school district has become ground zero in the battle between those who want safe spaces for LGBT students and those who want any mention of homosexuality banned from high school campuses.
According to LGBT advocates, Justin’s death is one of three suicides by gay students in the last year, and while the district says it takes bullying seriously and has beefed up discipline against harassment, it has spurned invitations by LGBT groups to do anti-bullying education. To make matters more complicated, a group of parents opposed to homosexuality has formed to put pressure on the board not to bow to LGBT interests.
The district — the state’s largest, with around 40,000 students — made headlines last year when the Minnesota Department of Human Rights alleged that two teachers conspired to harass a student, Alex Merritt, who they thought was gay. The news led to protests at school board meetings urging the district to adopt stronger anti-bullying policies and offers by LGBT groups to provide education. The school board rebuffed those efforts.
Now, with news of three suicides by LGBT students within a year, family and friends who have lost loved ones are demanding the district make changes.
“For those of you who have never had a gay child, you need to know it is one of the scariest things to learn because you know that they will need to deal with a lot of criticism and harassment in their lives, and it makes me worry,” Aaberg said. Justin’s family and friends told the board that he had been bullied at Anoka High School before he took his own life. “Do you think my son Justin deserved to die because there are other kids who feel superior by picking on him and no staff member will stop them?” she asked the board.
Two LGBT students also used the public comment portion of Monday’s meeting to describe their feelings of isolation at school. Christina, who graduated from Anoka High School and who was friends with Justin, said, “When experiencing these problems, you can’t go to your parents, where you face rejection from those you love the most.” She continued, “You can’t go to your church if you are in condemnation from a religion you’ve always embraced.”
Megan, another 2010 graduate, took issue with the school’s policies. “It says that it is better for students to go to their home or their community or their church. I can’t go to any of those. I go home and my parents tell me I am cursed. I go to my church and I am rejected and condemned. I go to my community? What community do I have to go to?” Megan was referring to a 2009 school board policy that says sexual orientation is not to be taught in the district.
Teaching about sexual orientation is not a part of the District adopted curriculum; rather, such matters are best addressed within individual family homes, churches, or community organizations. Anoka-Hennepin staff, in the course of their professional duties, shall remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation including but not limited to student led discussions.
That policy, the AH District 11 Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy, has become the battleground for LGBT advocates and members of the religious right. Last July, a shadow group of parents formed in the district with the intention on staving off any advances for LGBT students. The Parents Action League launched its website in June along with a petition that reads;
“Whereas homosexual behavior exposes participants to many life-threatening health risks; and whereas the classroom environment needs to be solely focused on academics; Therefore, we the undersigned citizens of Anoka-Hennepin School District No. 11 do whole heartedly support and desire that the School Board adhere to … the AH District 11 Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy.”
When the Minnesota Independent asked who founded the group and if it had any connections to other “pro-family” groups in the state, an unsigned email came back: “We think our website explains very well what we’re about and who founded it – citizens in the Anoka Hennepin School District.” “Whereas homosexual behavior exposes participants to many life-threatening health risks; and whereas the classroom environment needs to be solely focused on academics; Therefore, we the undersigned citizens of Anoka-Hennepin School District No. 11 do whole heartedly support and desire that the School Board adhere to … the AH District 11 Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Growing up Gay in a small town is quite simply an exercise in terror. On some level every day had some undercurrent of fear of your "secret" being discovered. The ultimate put-down was to say something was "gay" or to be called a "fag". You see the kids who were even slightly effeminate or "different" getting tormented on a daily basis.
For so many LGBT youth, High School is not, the "best years of your life", it is frankly something to be survived and put behind you as quickly as possible. And here we see the "good people" of Anoka, after having had three of their own teenagers bullied to death, are apparently trying to get people to sign petitions to dish out even more hate against their own kids.
Suicide is the leading cause of death for LGBT Youth. Organizations like The Trevor Project have been working to help communities address the problems and provide education, resources and support. The ad campaign is aimed at LGBTQ youth who contemplate suicide as a result of homophobia. The ads feature young people with stories of how intolerance and harassment led them to attempt suicide, and how they are glad those attempts failed because their lives have changed for the better.
This Saturday will be the first in a long time where I won't be tuning in to listen to the "News from Lake Wobegon" . Because I know what the news is. If you are a Gay or Lesbian youth in Anoka, MN, your life isn't valued.
You live in a community that is quite happy to just stand idly by while you are bullied to death, to the point of even starting a petition drive to PREVENT anything from being done about it.
I want Garrison Keillor to talk about this. I want him to tell the people of his hometown to stop killing their kids. I want him to tell his audience that the real news from Lake Wobegon Minnesota is that the women may be strong, and the men may be good looking, but the children are expected to kill themselves if they are Gay.
And that has to stop.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)