In the current climate of our country, I hate looking at the calendar and seeing September 11 being marked as "Patriot Day". It makes my stomach churn when I think of the connotation of that phrase in this day and age, and how much it runs counter to the ideals of so many people who proudly called themselves patriots in past times.
These days, too many people assert that being truly patriotic means to not question and not criticize what our leaders do, and most frighteningly, not restrict what they can do in the name of protecting and advancing our supposed interests. In order to be patriotic today, you must view our country and our leaders as infallible. You must blindly accept that because some 230 years ago we fought a war for our own freedom, every war that we fight today has that same virtuous cause.
I happen to love this country a lot. It will surprise a lot of people, but for many years I wrestled with the question of whether to join the military; I felt a very strong call to do so. I don't like a lot of the things our country does or the things that a lot of people in it say and do, but I also see much good here that I love. It is my home, and to me it is worth fighting to change the things I don't like to make it a better place.
I consider myself to be very patriotic, and I bristle at accusations that because I do question, I do criticize, and I don't blindly trust, that I am less of an American or an enemy of our country.
I saw an article in the Post Gazette today about teaching children who were very young six years ago about the context and meaning behind the 9/11 attacks. I read it with great interest, but was disappointed that it did not actually address what schools or teachers planned to discuss with students. So what will we teach our children? Will we talk with them about how our actions in other parts of the world are causing friction and increasing instability? Will we explain how our refusal to understand other groups' cultures and belief systems, and work within those contexts, was tantamount to playing a dangerous game of chicken that we lost on that ugly day? Will they get an inkling that the almost unrestricted detainment of "enemy combatants" with little or no rights are the same tactics employed by governments that Americans shed blood to overcome?
Sadly, I doubt it. Somehow I think it gets boiled down to, "Bad guys killed 2,000 innocent people."
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Saturday, September 1, 2007
My Delinquency
(Editor's Note: I spent this evening watching gay flicks, complete with sex scenes and breasts, completely out in the open on Flagstaff Hill. It was an awesome experience and I was happy to have been there to help. That's what I meant to post about tonight, but when I logged in and saw how long it had been, this came out instead. My apologies to Monica, Jessie and Sena for not giving them their full due. Pink Party, you guys rock.)
A rare more personal post for this blog...holy hell it's been something like half a month since I posted. A lot of it is that I have been busy, but to be honest, I've fallen into a little rut on here, disheartened a bit by the apathy of folks I see around me.
There is so much energy and talent in the gay community; we are so passionate about the things we love, we can organize crazy and amazing things out of nothing. In order to be ourselves we all have already had to give some part of the world some measure of "fuck you," so through that shared experience we have a strength that allows us to overcome any obstacle we put our minds to.
But what makes me sad is seeing the things that for the most part we don't put our minds to. For example, I was hard pressed to meet any family who watched the HRC candidate debate on Logo. I know more people who didn't vote in the last presidential election than who did. I doubt many of my friends could tell me who Joe Salmonese is, or what ENDA is, or who any of their local, state or federal government representatives are.
I don't consider myself to be a huge political buff, but this stuff is important! Not just from the point of view of the GLBTQ community, but society in general. Our state legislature voted themselves a 16% pay raise in the middle of the night, yet they can't get their act together enough to avoid laying off 22,000 state employees because of budget disagreements. Our president is guilty of demanding some of the most disastrous groupthink in the history of our country. People in the rest of society can barely afford to ignore these things; when you add on the additional struggles and concerns that our community has, ignoring these things amounts to social and legal suicide.
It drives me crazy when people rail against the US, the government, and "the system," yet remain willfully ignorant of what is going on. The beauty of a democratic country is that if you don't like something you can work to change it. Not liking the way the system works is a piss poor reason to refuse to try to help fix it. I'm not telling people to stage a military coup, but come on...at least pull a lever to vote for someone who isn't a pay-grabbing, dissent-silencing, intolerant bigot.
I don't know. Maybe my perception of our community's involvement in these things is skewed by the people I happen to come into contact with on a day-to-day basis. Or maybe not.
A rare more personal post for this blog...holy hell it's been something like half a month since I posted. A lot of it is that I have been busy, but to be honest, I've fallen into a little rut on here, disheartened a bit by the apathy of folks I see around me.
There is so much energy and talent in the gay community; we are so passionate about the things we love, we can organize crazy and amazing things out of nothing. In order to be ourselves we all have already had to give some part of the world some measure of "fuck you," so through that shared experience we have a strength that allows us to overcome any obstacle we put our minds to.
But what makes me sad is seeing the things that for the most part we don't put our minds to. For example, I was hard pressed to meet any family who watched the HRC candidate debate on Logo. I know more people who didn't vote in the last presidential election than who did. I doubt many of my friends could tell me who Joe Salmonese is, or what ENDA is, or who any of their local, state or federal government representatives are.
I don't consider myself to be a huge political buff, but this stuff is important! Not just from the point of view of the GLBTQ community, but society in general. Our state legislature voted themselves a 16% pay raise in the middle of the night, yet they can't get their act together enough to avoid laying off 22,000 state employees because of budget disagreements. Our president is guilty of demanding some of the most disastrous groupthink in the history of our country. People in the rest of society can barely afford to ignore these things; when you add on the additional struggles and concerns that our community has, ignoring these things amounts to social and legal suicide.
It drives me crazy when people rail against the US, the government, and "the system," yet remain willfully ignorant of what is going on. The beauty of a democratic country is that if you don't like something you can work to change it. Not liking the way the system works is a piss poor reason to refuse to try to help fix it. I'm not telling people to stage a military coup, but come on...at least pull a lever to vote for someone who isn't a pay-grabbing, dissent-silencing, intolerant bigot.
I don't know. Maybe my perception of our community's involvement in these things is skewed by the people I happen to come into contact with on a day-to-day basis. Or maybe not.
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