We Do This. We Do That.

The White House at Christmas somehow makes me feel both like a...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:49:00 -0500

The White House at Christmas somehow makes me feel both like a little girl and like an old lady, all at once.

smalltowngayblog: thepoliticalpartygirl: Ave Maria (Franz...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:46:11 -0500

thepoliticalpartygirl:

Ave Maria (Franz Schubert) - Jessye Norman

“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.” - Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name

smalltowngayblog: apsies: RNPS IMAGES OF THE YEAR 2009 - A...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:45:16 -0500

smalltowngayblog:

apsies:

RNPS IMAGES OF THE YEAR 2009 - A young girl jumps rope on the sidewalk next to her family’s belongings after she, her parents, and her four brothers and sisters, received a court order of eviction that was carried out by McLennan County Deputy Constables in Waco, Texas, December 31, 2008. (via)

The incredible resilience of children at work…

“In an otherwise dry opinion, Justice Sotomayor did introduce one new and politically charged...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:15:00 -0500

“In an otherwise dry opinion, Justice Sotomayor did introduce one new and politically charged term into the Supreme Court lexicon.

Justice Sotomayor’s opinion in the case, Mohawk Industries v. Carpenter, No. 08-678, marked the first use of the term “undocumented immigrant,” according to a legal database. The term “illegal immigrant” has appeared in a dozen decisions.”

BOOMYA

Love Sneaks Up On You

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:53:00 -0500

You know how, at crucial moments in life, you’re going along and doing things, and interacting with another person in some way of maybe potential, and then at some point there’s a moment and you look and them and/or think to yourself: “Damn, I’m in love with this person!” - ?

Well, regarding Gail Collins, I have to say that my love for her has been slowly sneaking up on me over the last few weeks/months. I mean, all this attention always given to the inanity that can be MoDo, and all along, Gail has been an actual embodiment of all that folks always want to believe MoDo to be, but with the actual brains, wit, depth, humor and policy smarts MoDo often leaves so lacking, while talking about “all cage, no bird,” or, whatever.

The other day, I read this, and stated to realize that maybe Gail had fully won me over.

Gail: When the bubble burst last year, I didn’t see it as the end to our economic power. But I did wonder if it was the end of the American Dream, or at least the version we’ve come to regard as practically a national birthright. What do you think? If you have an encouraging response, I am prepared to embrace it wholeheartedly

Ha, yes!

But then, today, my Google Reader presents me with her latest piece, and, yes, it is official. Gail Collins, where have you been all of my life?!

“Blessed are the bothersome, for they shall have health...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:03:25 -0500

“Blessed are the bothersome, for they shall have health care.”

Video from a DC vigil for health care reform.

Sade’s new single: Solider of Love. This made my night...

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:43:45 -0500

Sade’s new single: Solider of Love.

This made my night after a looooooong day today. Welcome back woman!

(via minou)

In the midst of everything else, have you caught what is...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:40:00 -0500

In the midst of everything else, have you caught what is happening in the Senate race to fill Kennedy’s seat in MA?

Well, the primary election is next Tuesday, and the Democrat who wins is basically ensured to become the next Senator from MA.

In a crowded race of Democratic politicians, a non-politician named Alan Khazei jumped into the race. Alan is most known for having created City Year in 1988, which became the prototype for AmeriCorps. He’s run a campaign based upon the idea of redefining who has political power (and votes) and progressive policy ideas.

Maybe you have never heard of Khazei. In a poll released in Sept, he only was at 4%. A few weeks ago, he was at 6%. But then, a few days ago, he hit 14%, placing him in third. That’s huge momentum, and 22% of the voters say they still need more information about him to decide how they will vote.

This is one of those races where no one really thought the good guy would win. But then…Newsweek came out and called Khazei “Kennedy’s Rightful Heir,” and the Boston Globe then endorsed him, as did Wes Clark. It turns out starting expectations in elections aren’t always right.

I spend a lot of my time wishing we have more brave progressive leaders in Congress, who were unafraid to tackle the big issues with smart progressive responses. We all do better having Khazei take Kennedy’s seat in the US Senate.

Above is his latest ad, and if you would like to learn more or donate, go here. Last year we all saw what happens when everyday people give small amounts and rally to support an underdog. We win. This race is incredibly close to making history, and what we do over the next few days decides what will happen. So, think about it, read more, reblog this post, and/or talk to the people you know in MA. If the health care reform debate in the Senate this week is teaching us anything, it’s that we need more Senators who believe in the well-being and power of everyday people, and who are not afraid to fight for those beliefs.

A good idea

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:07:43 -0500

Given HIN1 and, well, just everything else that goes around, can the folks in the public health departments in various cities potentially put hand sanitizer dispensers at the exits of their underground public transit systems? I’m thinking there’s some big cost saving potentials there for increased work productivity and decreased illness. Just sayin! Now can someone go along and pass this on to the folks who can Make It Happen?! Thanks.

The Golden Girls on gay marriage

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:05:32 -0500

The Golden Girls on gay marriage

Jersey, pls show the Empire State up tomorrow.

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:28:01 -0500

Jersey, pls show the Empire State up tomorrow.

Today is a bit crazy, so I have found watching this video...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:21:42 -0500

Today is a bit crazy, so I have found watching this video helpful.

(As a continuation to the prior note on black rock, my fav musician friend recently posted the question of how one defines rock n roll verses disco, particularly when there are feathers involved. In response, I sent this video.)

Enjoy!

On distraction, and ideas

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:03:40 -0500

Today I had a great idea for a story. But no paper on which to write it. I head to the bookshelf to pull one of those journals people always give me, not knowing I generally only write in Moleskins, or just a legal pad. I pull what I think is an Italian leather journal from the shelf, brought back as a gift from some European adventure, and open it excitedly. A hundred dollar bill falls out. I pause to consider this. Why would I have had such a large bill around the time of this journal? Was it a part of the gift? I contemplate, while looking further at the book in my hand. (During all of this plays Gillian Welch tunes, if such things influence your interperation or appreciation of events.) It is not an unused journal. It is a fancy hardback calendar, created by South Africa’s Commission on Gender Equality in 2005. I, apparently, used it to keep my schedule, years ago. I do not so well remember this fact. I can’t recall the last time I looked at this thing. I cannot, still, place why there would be a hundred dollar bill folded behind the front cover of the book. I think about all the times between now and 2005 when $100 would have made A Lot of difference to my life. I think about how, now, I respond thinking: “That’s nice.” But, you know, the gravity of what it could have meant, had I opened the book at some other time, is not present. (Let me be clear, however, I still appreciate it! I’m far from well off enough to laugh at $100, and Lordisa pray I never become such a person!) The idea of my story-writing is momentarily paused, as I write this, as I flip through that journal and look at all the interesting things I did in 2005, while living in South Africa. Folded into the back of the calendar is an agenda for a Meeting of the Board of Trustees of the FW de Klerk Foundation. “AGENDA: Item #1: Welcome. Item #2: Apologies. Item #3: Review of Previous Minutes. Item #4: Activities. Item #5: Projects.” Regularly scheduled “Apologies” !?! Oh, yes, South Africa. I, eventually, go back to the shelf and continue looking for fresh paper.

Looking Into The Past That Looked Into The Future That Looks A Lot Like Now

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:50:00 -0500

The other day I found an old journal of mine from seven years ago. It was only a quarter full, and then ended abruptly. A year later I picked it up to only write one more entry. The journal starts with first observations of delicate and strong hands, that I still love to examine, and the new learnings of a now pertinently familiar voice. The same smile stretched when comment was made about my scent is now also a recent vision to a recent comment. I wear a different perfume now, but it doesn’t seem to change the response that woman has to whatever it is I smell like. The experience of leaning into a 1.5 inches shorter frame is still something I write about today. Of course, when I first wrote all of those appreciations, all of those years ago, I don’t think I had any idea that they would still be in my life and still causing me joy all these years later. I write about bringing that woman, cross country, the bagels she loved, and leaving them in her office while she was out for a meeting. When I bring her bagels now, they include the note: “per your request, from 2002.”

I then jump off to describe various trips to the three various cities I have since then lived in. I wrote about walking their streets, and what it felt like, with no idea I would in a few years time call them all home at some point or another. I document my work in Boston in the summer of 2003 on gay marriage, before any state allowed for gay marriage. I document the Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which opened so many of those doors for marriage equality.

That’s all about 30 pages, and then I stop. A year later, in the summer of 2004, I picked back up the journal for one night only. The night Barack Obama gave his speech at the DNC. I had been accepted to Harvard and was furiously trying to raise money to get there, and getting scared that I wouldn’t be able to. I think I started crying at the point Obama declared, “there is a girl on the South Side of Chicago who has the grades, who has the drive, but doesn’t have the money to go to college.” I wrote about how he would become President someday. I had no idea yet about future times in Iowa for the Caucus, or all across the country for the campaign. I had no idea I would one day tell Michelle Obama that story about watching that speech.

And then the journal ends.

It was a trip rereading it. As if my 21 year old self was just writing out the future, but with no clear idea I was doing so. There are no pages about observations that haven’t in some form manifested and rooted themselves in a meaningful way in my life. There is no space wasted on that which since has passed away. It’s a bit strange. From my thoughts on Obama, to my thoughts on the cities I would later call home, to my thoughts about first visiting Harvard, long before being accepted, to my thoughts on the legal future around LGBT equality, to my thoughts on how good it felt to be in the presence and arms of a particular woman, all of those 30 pages laid out a blueprint for the following seven years. It was almost eerie to reread it all. Perhaps it speaks to where I was then, and what I wanted, and what I wanted was a bit of what was in front of me, but I mostly wanted More and to enter into and create that good and better More.

I think my 21-year-old self would be quite happy with how things turned out. It also makes me a bit sad I took down the archives to this blog, and only saved them in word form, as I’m sure my older self might have some thoughts upon rereading this jumble so many years later. Despite causing me to be particularly acutely aware of the things I write down, the rereading of the journal mostly just made me feel good. It highlighted the potential of change and opportunity, alongside the appreciation and maintaining of what is good. It gave a highlight to the possibility of narrative and action. And maybe it is all just coincidence, but I also like to think it, a bit, highlights the power of being clear around intention. This is good. This is what needs to happen. This is what I appreciate. And now that all is what is. Words become flesh. It is good to be reminded of that.

apsies: suicideblonde: “To have survived, she would have had...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:18:06 -0500

apsies:

suicideblonde:

“To have survived, she would have had to be either more cynical or even further from reality than she was. Instead, she was a poet on a street corner trying to recite to a crowd pulling at her clothes.”

- Arthur Miller

I think this is the ultimate quote I’ve ever heard about MM. LOVE it.

On Rock and Roll, Resistance and Policy

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:45:00 -0500

Lately I’ve had numerous causes to try to explain to people how I view social justice and the interlinking nature of progressive politics. (These conversations have happened in early early morning meetings in government buildings, where we are brainstorming strategies around an ideal upcoming jobs bill, or working on health care reform, but one of these conversations also took place back stage at a rock show, where I was asked to explain to musicians how caucuses work on the Hill. So, you know, it’s been on my mind!)

When explaining my thinking, I often talk about the wildly diverse types of folks who raised me (black, gay, latino, native american, api, a little bit jewish, a little bit muslim, a little bit christian, a little bit hindu, mostly working class, all rather passionate as, once more, the commonality between them was their taking a white orphan dyke into their families), and how necessary I believe the belief is that any who are being marginalized or discriminated against must also be viewed as an attack on any other. Today in my email inbox was this great quote from my favorite late poet, June Jordan. And, yes, as always, she puts it very well. This bit was written in response to a spree of hate crimes in LA in the late 90s, but is applicable to so much always:

And maybe the unity of resistance to hatred that will stop that hatred seems improbable. Maybe an orthodox Jewish congregation will never stand in protective vigil outside a gay and lesbian community center, or the clinic of a an abortion provider. Maybe a Black student organization will never rally for Asian American rights. And maybe gay and lesbian activists will not bodily interpose themselves between a synagogue and a “Phineas Priest.”

Maybe none of us will ever recognize that all of us are wrongfully, equally, condemned.

Maybe. But meanwhile, I am moving on an irrepressible wish that all of us will: All of us will build that circle of our common safety that all of us deserve.

I’m saying “Are you hunting for Jews? You’re looking for me!”

June was a black queer pro-Palestinian woman, but the Jewish community being attacked was also her battle. Nothing for her was separate. “Are you hunting for the poor? You’re looking for me! Are you hunting for immigrants? You’re looking for me!” Etc.

I think the world today is much more like June’s vision, such as she imagined and hoped. Biker vets organizing a ride to protest the anti-lgbt Fred Phelps as they aimmed to disrupt a funeral with their chants of “God hates fags.” Women’s rights and LGBT and immigrant rights and civil rights groups all working together in strategy around passing a progressive health care reform bill, working alongside many many others in the same battle. Straight allies worked hard in Maine to try to save us from another Prop 8, and shared in our grief and resistance when that attempt failed. But there is still much more to be done to build a common circle, fighting for all of our safety.

My favorite musician and I have been in a two week dialogue about the history of rock and roll in its relationship to race. Rock and roll was started by the African-American community, that much is clear. But how has it played out and where is it now? The focus of our exchange ended up being much upon the concept of creative response to oppression and challenge, which started as a black thing (as many things in that creative resistance category has), and now is spread beyond it as a larger resistance as well. (I’m not presupposing all to agree with the theory that it isn’t rock if it isn’t about power and beauty and claiming space where none was previously had, or the other conclusion we made that it also isn’t rock if it doesn’t make you want to have sex - but, alas, that is what the musician and I ended up with! So roll with that for the purposes of this convo.)

All of these things comes back to what situations return you to the ultimate form of authentic realization and humanity. Strife, when handled in fierce manner, does this. And when you get to that place of authentic realization, the inherent swirling of how the earth works means that you must then extend that humanness beyond your own condition, to those others who also are being discriminated against. At least these are the things I am thinking a lot about these days. Meanwhile, ” I am moving on an irrepressible wish that all of us will: All of us will build that circle of our common safety that all of us deserve.” I am trying; I am.

“My life seems to be an increasing revelation of the intimate face of universal struggle. You begin with your family and the kids on the block, and next you open your eyes to what you call your people, and that leads you into land reform into Black English into Angola leads you back to your own bed where you lie by yourself, wondering if you deserve to be peaceful, or trusted or desired or left to the freedom of your own unfaltering heart. And the scale shrinks to the size of a skull: your own interior cage.

And then if you’re lucky, and I have been lucky, everything comes back to you. And then you know why one of the freedom fighters in the sixties, a young Black woman interviewed shortly after she was beaten up for riding near the front of the interstate bus––you know why she said, ‘We are all so very happy’? It’s because it’s on. All of us and me by myself: we’re on.” - June Jordan

By the way, this amazing thing happened this morning! AHIP is...

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:55:14 -0400

By the way, this amazing thing happened this morning!

AHIP is the powerful insurance lobby that spends 5 million dollars a week trying to kill health care reform. Billionaires for Wealthcare is a grassroots network looking to stop them - with song.

Hey All! I am momentarily coming out of my blogging hiatus to...

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:26:00 -0400

Hey All! I am momentarily coming out of my blogging hiatus to post this video and to ask: when was the last time you thought about what women do when they live in a developing nation and they get their periods but don’t have access to sanitary pads? No really, when was the last time you thought about it? Well. Watch the short video above and then maybe think about it some more, and check out SHE, a fab new venture aiming to do something on the issue. (And rather brilliantly, at that, if I do say so!)

Brief Blogging Hiatus

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:47:50 -0400

Hello Dear Readers -

I am going offline for a short bit and will be on a temporary blogging hiatus.

Since starting this blog in January 2008, I have consistently been shocked by how much I’ve enjoyed writing it, and the good ideas, good people and community it has connected me with.

I will, most likely, resume blogging in this space in a not too distant time. If you follow me on Tumblr or on RSS, you shouldn’t have to put in too much effort to know when this happens. If you check this blog occasionally, and would like me to send you a line to let you know when I resume writing, either here or at another location, please do let me know, and I will keep a list to email when I reemerge. (I might also send out a notice if I blog at HuffPo or another location, before picking this blog back up.)

You can reach me at: butnotmine(@)gmail(dot)com

Thank you all for a great ride, and I hope to be in touch soon.

With great respect and appreciation.