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Holiday Greetings:
the christmas tree adventure |
holiday gift ideas
13 dec |
Down Time | Still out with a cold. Providing me time to sleep (alot!) and
muck about the house doing little things like Christmas cards. Yup! I may
actually make it to sending them all out before the end of the calendar year.
I haven't bothered to listen to either of the sorry losers that ran for
president of the USA this evening. Sure, one "won" in this battle, but in
wars of attrition, the bystanders and the commoners are the ones to experience
be negative outcomes. My main wish and prayer is that The Shrub and his cronies
realize that the way in which he won shows, clearly, that he has no mandate. Once
that is recognized, we just take it from there.
Can't say I'm enthused about returning to work tomorrow. Too much work
to catch up on, and not enough time or adequate resources to do it properly.
Oh well, what else is new? That's the life of a public servant, eh? This is
no reflection on bosses or supervisors as much as an observation that when
the fiscal support comes from taxpayers, then what an agency or program get depends
all too much on the whims and caprices of public sentiment; something which,
working at a mental hospital, is pretty low on the social totem of priorities.
All the more reason to be skeptical about new leadership in the White House.
11 dec |
Throw out the Bums! | I'm home with a bad cold and listening to the
oral arguements before the US Supreme Court to plea whether or not ballots in
certain Florida counties ought to be counted. Obviously, this is one
election where there are no "new brooms sweeping clean" the legislatures
of the US Nation. Too Bad, I say.
For while the two primary candidates argue who one, they overlook the
very real, and very distressing fact that neither of them has a
clear mandate for leadership.
Therefore, assuming we eventually get ourselves out of this mess, (and
we most certainly shall, though I have no optimistic assessment as to how
we'll get out of it) I shall be bold to now propose that a new Constitutional
Amendment be added, which we might most simply call the "Throw the Bums Out
provision. This would be, essentially, a total no-confidence vote and the solution
of which is to stage a totally new election, the proviso being that neither
tied candidate be allowed to run in the new election. That, and adoption of the
Canadian standard which limits the length of any national campaign held prior to
a nation election to no longer than a month and a half. In the meantime,
get those little car-wash evergreen trees out to hang in the nation's halls
of law making and jursipurdence. Maybe enough of 'em will help disguise the
stench.
pink triangles | This was posted on a moderated discussion group. The subject
matter is, however, relevant beyond the subscribers to the group. I have masked any
identifying information about the group and about individual posting to the group.
I've long favored the use of the pink triangle as
a symbol of gay rights and liberation, precisely BECAUSE of the direct symbolic
(and literal) link its use has to the Nazi Holocaust era. JME's thoughtful
recognition of this and the quotes from Heinz Heger's book only further
serve to bring this point home.
The Holocaust, was not just something that Jews experienced. And, thus,
by inference, that which occurred to the Jews, is in some ways
applicable to all who were part of any group whom the Nazis persecuted.
It is also important to remain aware of the very real possibility that
such an event could occur again. With Americans about to have enthroned
a president who "would not knowingly appoint a homosexual" to
administrative positions, it should serve as a reminder that fighting
for our rights involves much more than subscribing to Showtime to watch
"Queer as Folk." Globally, it also means that we have to continue, for
example, to keep human rights groups like Amnesty International
constantly aware that people around the world continue to be imprisoned
for their sexual orientation (it wasn't all that long ago that AI
refused to acknowledge this reality). It means we should be protesting
the fact that gay teenagers still get put into psychiatric facilities
because their orientation doesn't fit nicely with the prejudices of
their parents. And it means recognizing that the the conditions under which gay
folk enjoy in more "enlightened" parts of the planet (parts of Europe,
parts of the USA) don't even come close to what other gender orientation
outlaws have to live with elsewhere. For MANY elsewhere merely asserting
one's sexual orientation is an outright invitation to being beaten, persecuted
and oppressed.
Gay liberation is much more than waving rainbow flags, shopping via
International Male, or making certain to watch the latest installment of
"Will & Grace" or "Normal Ohio" There are much more sobering issues
than that to be addressed. And asserting our rights, with a prejudiced
anti-gay leadership about to be installed in the planet's largest
geo-political empire, shall become all the more crucial in the next few
years.
As the bad-taste anti-Semitic joke/insult (and subsequent postings)
shows us, there continues to be a collective amnesia in the world
that we must learn to acknowledge and address.
This may be a tall order to some folks who think that gay liberation is
just about the freedom to engage in uninhibited sex scenes in some leather bar backroom, (and
who might not want to be bothered about the social/political
ramifications of such an action) but, really, it's an order that all of
us would do well to pay heed to.
Break out the pink triangles. Many thanks for JME for reminding us of this.
One Quaker's view on the difficulties of being gay
About Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld and the Pink Triagne Society
For examples of what happened to gay people under Nazi rule:
[Lengthy file to download]
The Persecution of Homosexuals in Nazi Germany
by Erwin Haeberle
current entries |
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18 nov |
19 nov |
23 nov |
1-2 dec |
5-6 dec |
Catch you on the rebound!
~Will Brady
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"Short Notes" was the title of a column I wrote while
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