I’ll catch some crap for reposting this but I tend to agree with this idea so I’m putting it up. It’s like Bill Hicks (one of the only deaths I see as actually tragic) said:
“I’ll show you politics in America. Here it is, right here. ‘I think the puppet on the right shares my beliefs.’ ‘I think the puppet on the left is more to my liking.’ ‘Hey, wait a minute, there’s one guy holding out both puppets!’”
The drunken ramblings post was submitted by my friend Charles, don’t want to be taking credit things that aren’t mine. Submit stuff to me, I like having more than one voice on here.
So I finally found a theme that lets people submit and shows who I am following at the same time. I wish the themes had more consistency on here. Anyway, go check out my friends blogs, there’s alot of good stuff there.
i can’t figure out if it makes sense; it kinda floats between sounding epiphanal and just being a series of ‘sound bites’ that aren’t too articulately related (relation is relative to a scotch-soaked state of mind!):
“In context of the history of society, there is a constant cycle of change, a continual shift in power that ultimately boils down to the swing of a pendulum….those with power on one side, and those without on the other. It moves back and forth over time in a way that we see as an unrelated progression of linear events, moving in one direction, in one dimension—and with every creation of new power we fail to simply see it as the same transfer of power that has been passed back and forth through all generations of mankind. The context of ‘power’ can translate into many things, all interchangeable…but all ultimately result in one immutable fact: the control of resources facilitates and dictates the quality of a human life and existence, and we are all hardwired by nature to pursue those resources, to give our lives meaning and purpose. In this context, We actually NEED the suffering and the lack of others to provide us with appreciation and understanding of our own existence. When I ponder this, I think of my own heritage, as an American, and how we ‘fought’ our way to independence from the oppressive Church of England for the sake of ‘Protestant Christianity’, only to deny the tenets of Protestant Christianity in oppressing the culture and religion of countless Native Americans before us. I suddenly remember that throughout the course of History, the oppressed always becomes the oppressor, regardless of political ideology. I think of the words of Howard Zinn, ‘if one person kills another person, that IS murder. If a government kills 100,000 people, that is patriotism.” Think of the countless ‘revolutions’ in world history, and how their leaders fight to return power ‘back to the people’ only to bestow that power onto themselves. I think about this history of human existence, and approach patriotism with cautious skepticism. I wonder where the current revolution lies, beneath the veil of society, fighting the good fight to swing the pendulum back the other direction, fulfilling human history’s greater purpose beyond our own short existence and beyond the pursuit of our own fat happy comfort...”
Maybe I just watched The Matrix too many times. And maybe Freedom of Thought might end up being the only Freedom left to us all, so fire away…
because these kids have names and they have stories. they’re real people with families and hopes and dreams that were stamped out by hate. may the reason for the color not be forgotten.
Tyler Clementi
He was a 19 year old student at Rutgers University.
After his college roommate tweeted “roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into Molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.”, he lived-streamed Tyler having sexual relations with his boyfriend.
Tyler threw himself off a bridge after finding out.
Raymond Chase
He was a 19 year old student at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island.
He hung himself in his dorm room.
“Raymond Chase was a person who liked Harry Potter and Rugrats and was a member of the popular facebook group “I cant spell “bananas” without singing hollaback girl.” (source)
Seth Walsh
Seth Walsh was a thirteen year old middle school student.
He was bullied to the point that he could not bear to live.“He spent a lot of his life frightened.” It was in person, through the internet, through phonecalls. His peers were relentless. He was perpetually picked on for his mannerisms and his style of dressing, even before he came out as gay.
His mother found him hanging from a tree in their backyard. He spent over a week lingering on life support before he died.
Asher Brown
He was a 13-year-old eighth grader at Hamilton Middle School outside Houston His family says that he was “bullied to death”.
”Asher was tormented for being small. For his religious beliefs. For the way he dressed. And for being gay. His bullies acted out mock gay sex acts in phys ed class.”His parents repeatedly contacted school officials on his bullying. Nothing was ever done.
He shot himself in the head.
Billy Lucas
He was a 15-year-old freshman at Greensburg High School in Indiana.
“Everyone made fun of him.” Like Asher, his school administration knew but did nothing.
A friend says the bullies would call Billy “gay and tell him to go kill himself.” Homophobic hate messages have been left on his facebook memorial page.
and there are moreThe death toll for this school year is already at 7.
Seven kids who have lost their lives because of hateful peers.
It’s horrible that it’s taken tragedies like this to finally wake this nation up.
This is my escape book, the story I turn to when I feel choked out by living straight all the time. Among the most well-written things I have ever read (and I read a good bit) and probably my favorite “voice” of any writer, ever. Check it out if you ever have even the slightest desire – send me your address and I’ll even mail you a copy…
One of my favorite sites.
I keep hearing about how our country’s ideological reins are in the fierce grip of extremists on both sides of the (illusory) left/right divide. Ignoring the false dichotomy of left and right and using these terms for the sake of convenience I have to ask: where is this extremist left?
In my mind, things like the desire for the government to be run based on Old Testament biblical principles, being against abortion in all cases, advocating separation of the races, refusing to even allow for the protection of homosexual people, a firm belief in American exceptionalism (backed up and spread by American firepower) and the dissolution of most of the government apparatus in our country, among many other potential stances on issues, qualifies a person as having far-right or extremist right tendencies.
My question here is to ask what qualifies a person as far left or extremist left and where are these people in our government? Does advocating the removal of religious motivations from our laws make a person far left? Is it a matter of being pro-choice? What about people who support hate crime legislation applying to gay people? Does one acknowledging that other countries may have a few good ideas or not being in agreement with the use of military firepower to export American (business) culture to the rest of the world qualify as extremist left?
It may be because of where I’m standing, but none of these things seem extreme to me. However, even if they are crazy left-wing beliefs, who in our government really advocates for things like this or associated issues? From what I can tell, there aren’t that many (though there are some) elected officials who are openly or staunchly pro-gay marriage or stout defenders of abortion-on-demand. Our supposed left wing president just took great pains to delineate his religious stance, which involved a declaration about Jesus dying for our sins and God’s grace allowing us to be forgiven. Not exactly an atheistic or humanistic worldview.
Beyond this, am I really supposed to believe that Obama’s supposed “covert plan to Islamicize America” is a left wing strategy? The militant Muslims are the only people on the planet right now who are more insistent on maintaining a structured ignorance and more determined to oppress women and homosexuals than the fundamentalist Christians. Both groups are the bottom of the barrel of human civilization and share very, very similar beliefs – how am I supposed to believe that a small group of supposed immoral, leftwing hedonists are intent on bringing in a society governed by a law that would stone them to death for many of their daily activities?
I’m being honest when I say I do not know where this supposed radical left is this to be found in our government. I do not understand what Obama is doing that is so far-left. Is it his health care proposal that will funnel billions of dollars into the private insurance sector? Is it his continuation of the war in Afghanistan and increasing presence in Pakistan? His reauthorization of the Patriot Act?
Just a matter of curiosity, I’m well aware that there may be something I’m missing. In a completely non-sarcastic, non-baiting way I am asking those of you who know more about politics than me to tell me what I am missing here. I’d also be curious to hear what your government would look like if you had free reign. Once again, not baiting or trying to be a smartass, honestly curious what things look like if you ran the show.
I saw this posted by mfnjp.tumblr.com and looked up the entire letter.
One of my favorite things ever.
