This just bears repeating, bears spreading across the Internet and the world entire.

Tags: equality
Current Mood: Pleased
Soundscape: "Elephant Love Medley," Ewan McGregor & Nicole Kidman

En[sc|once]ed  (Another poetic ramble)

  V[is]ible, trans|miss|i[b]le
  Es[cap]e in|e|vita|[b]l|e

Divisions and connections appear
unbidden, each a story demanding
exploration of telling.

  Desire for beauty ends--
    bloodied, dismembered.

  Beauty of tatters
    all that remains.

Tags: poem

On Intellectual Ideology (or: The Academy)
(Unedited poetic experiment/rambling.)

I.

Wine.

  --Burgundy-rich with a
    complex bouquet--

  Flows from the lips
    of the ivory multitude.

  Drink of courser color
    pools unquaffed under-toe;

  Dusty bottles on shelf, rack
    are reckoned sweetest;

  Masses swill only vinegar,
    their lips too numbed to speak.

Whence?

  --Burning page of bygone age,
    The breadcrumb trail is eaten
    To sate the pale urge
        of ideological imperialists.

"We know better."

            "Your fancies are
                meaningless."

II.

"Professor, instruct thyself," the guttering flame wept into the wind and rain.  "I go into my cave not for the shadows on walls.  I go to see in darkness what cannot exist in light.  I go to touch silence and hear symphony.  I go to evolve, to become.  I cannot help the hue of my light; were I only as the innocent moon whose light is never his own.  Then perhaps I would be innocent enough to advocate my own darkness."

III.

Purity--
    Virtue--
        Whiteness--
            Privilege--

Othering as smothering,
    ludicrous sound sung by
  chorus of mouths.

The bleach-hot sunrise casts glow
  over purest snow, driven to
  paler pallor, never empty enough.

Even images, photographic words, become too
  colorful.  The sun's golds, reds, purples
  unbearably vivid.

        The glare is blinding?

Tags: poem

For the first time in at least a year, my website is up to date. I've also given it a nice little facelift, graphically. I may continue to work on that, as I like the more fresh, vibrant feel.

Flawed, but True

Another word from the HRC mailing list.

Hi,

Did you know that in 31 states, it's perfectly legal to fire someone for being gay? Or that in 39 states it's legal to fire someone for being transgender?

I found it pretty hard to believe. Here we are in the 21st century, in a country that prides itself on equal opportunity, and millions of Americans can be denied a job or fired - not for poor performance, but for simply being themselves.

http://www.passENDAnow.org

I just took action with the Human Rights Campaign to end this appalling injustice. I hope you'll join me today, by sending a message to your lawmakers in Congress urging them to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which will make this kind of discrimination illegal once and for all.

It's easy. To take action, go to:
http://www.passENDAnow.org

******************

Tags: equality
Current Mood: Raaar.
Soundscape: Faith and the Muse, "Chorus of the Furies"

A little something from the HRC mailing list.

Hi,

You've got to watch this video. It was produced for Cyndi
Lauper's True Colors tour this summer, and it's a pretty amazing
testament to one of most heartbreaking problems in our country
today.

http://www.hrc.org/FightHate

Thousands of people are attacked every year because of their
sexual orientation, and there's still no federal hate crimes law
to protect them.

It would mean a lot to me if you could take a minute to watch
the video and write your Senators, and then pass this along to
five friends. Just go to:

http://www.hrc.org/FightHate

Tags: equality
Current Mood: Not pleased.

Today I woke up, showered, and then dressed. I had to take my belt in another notch, which was nice. I had breakfast, I scanned the news. There's no denying what day it is, though what that really means is a more complicated matter. Five years ago today I had been up far, far too late. Around dawn I got a phone call and was told that the twin towers had been "bombed." I was at the literal point of physical exhaustion, though, and I didn't quite understand what a serious matter it really was. So I went to bed. A few hours later I dragged myself out of bed, logged onto the internet -- via AOL of all things -- and read the news. It was profound, it was frightening... I'm sure we all remember what that was like.

I remember feeling proud of George W. Bush for the strength he showed in the wake of 9/11. I remember feeling a swell of pride when patriotic songs would come on the radio, seeing all those flags flying outside of houses. I delivered pizza at the time, so I heard a lot of radio and saw a lot of houses... and most of them were flying the flag. It wasn't until the sense of solidarity was overshadowed by the war in Afghanistan that I started to really think about how this sense of national security might be a bad thing. Oh, I was against the Patriot Act from the start -- it still disturbs me greatly -- but the rest had seemed quite positive. I could support the war in Afghanistan because, at the time at least, it seemed reasonable.

Then we went to Iraq. That never made any sense to me. I do not now and I did not then approve of going to Iraq... and it was no comfort at all when I found out that an old friend of mine, Ramsay, was being deployed there. He was in the Marines at the time, and he saw action there. What really galled me then (as it does now) is that I saw no sane reason to be in Iraq. It's seemed, as ever, all about greed. That saddens me. Somehow we went from togetherness, from "United We Stand" to bullying everyone all over the place. What took me by surprise, as I looked back at the history of the last few decades, is that this wasn't a change at all.

We've been bullying the rest of the world for a long time now... and it's our own meddling that made some people decide they need to destroy us -- no, I don't excuse them. They're lunatics, hate-mongers, and many of them little better than animals. The question we must ask is... are we any better? A Human is a Human, no matter whose colors he wears, where he was born, or what his accent sounds like. An American Beast is no different than a Terrorist Beast, except we operate with a different kind of power. That's the choice I see before us. Will we be the Beast, or will we be the Human? We have the power and capacity to do so much good... but will we? I continue to hope that we'll choose to. I continue to fear that we won't.

I love America. I've always loved this country, the land and the people. We have our drawbacks, our very serious flaws. So do I, personally. So do you. Still, I believe in the American ideal. I believe in that dream that supersedes all the bloodshed it was built upon, all the wrongs that have been done in its name. That's why it's an ideal; it's higher and better than those who conceived it. There is truth to the American ideal that no single American has ever embodied, nor can embody. The American ideal can only be achieved by taking the best we all have to offer and weaving it into a single tapestry. There can be no snipping or burning of threads that don't seem to quite fit in; that's the beauty of this ideal, is that it's meant for everyone.

It shouldn't end with America, either. This ideal is one that should be open and offered to all the world... and that's the lofty goal we should be aiming for. We are, at this time, stewards of our world. One day we will be gone, America as we know it will pass on. Other powers will rise up and take our place. All the material wealth we have, all the power of force and arms we may hold... they will mean nothing. What may remain, if we allow it, is the dream -- the ideal. The ideal can live beyond us, if we keep it and the world it must live in whole. The flag itself can become tattered and soiled if we drag it in the mud, and so we hold it high and take great care with it. So must it be with our ideal. Raise it above the selfish, petty, and avaricious... let it fly.

That, I think, is the lesson we can take from what happened five years ago. We can either be destroyed by what happened, or we can be better for it. Let's opt for the latter, shall we?

Tags: memory
Current Mood: Contemplative
Soundscape: The Dubliners, "Four Green Fields"

Don't forget what your senators and representatives are trying to do. Don't forget that they want to turn gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Americans into second-class citizens. The video below rather speaks for itself, I think.

Don't support hate. Disagree.

http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/ct/t1zq89K13RWK/

Tags: equality
Current Mood: Determined
Soundscape: Maire Brennan, "Don't Give Up"

What a film. This is one of those rare few that I saw, and I was really affected. It struck deep... but I don't know if I'll ever watch it again. It was just so much movie. Very well done, though. They managed to make a fairly believable gay relationship in which neither man acted like a stereotype, whether "flaming" or just effeminate. They were both men, and manly men at that. (And they were HOT! Ahem.) I don't normally go in for the cowboy thing, but... mrowr!

Minor spoiler: There is no happy ending. (It's a realistic film about two gay cowboys in the 1960's. If you're really surprised, go watch Titanic... I hear the boat sinks! Capice?) Anyway. I've seldom cried this much during a movie. Maybe Big Fish did it to me, but it's hard to say. It was a beautiful film with so few Hollywood contrivances and conventions that it was like a gust of fresh air... Fresh, ice-cold air.

The visuals are beautiful (both the stars and nature, too), and the acting is superb. I was totally sold on the entire production, even though I couldn't make it through the credits. I was a bit of a mess, I'm afraid. Heath Ledger was particularly impressive, as he was able to make me completely forget who he was. All I saw was the character. Anne Hathaway turned in a surprise performance (for me, at least), and definitely rose above her Princess Diaries roots.

Damn good movie. Not a happy movie, but a damn fine film.

Current Mood: Contemplative
Soundscape: "No One Mourns the Wicked," Wicked OCR

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated."

--John Donne

From "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions" (1623), XVII:
Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris - "Now, this bell tolling softly for another, says to me: Thou must die."


Edit: I had someone ask if I was depressed, noting that this is a somewhat morbid quote... Oddly, I really don't think of it that way. I guess it is from a somwhat darker-seeming writing, but I think the sentiment is really quite uplifting.

Current Mood: Calm
Soundscape: Steeleye Span, "The Elf Knight"