your silence will not protect you
I recently started dividing my time between my company's two different offices, and at the Wednesday office, there is a "free stuff" table in the lunch room. Last week one of the campaigners had dropped off a lot of buttons he'd collected over the years, most featuring chickens and bloody meat. But one of these buttons, the button I took with me, contained the following: Your silence will not protect you. -- Audre Lorde
This is an unusual post for me to make on my LJ. I like to keep things light and breezy. Or talk about food. But today, I would like to talk about Things. When I was younger (and by that, I mean the college years), I could get quite fired up about Things. Even before that, really -- I was the geek in the Hillary Rodham Clinton buttons during my middle school's mock election, after all. Over time, though, it seems I've grown quieter and quieter. I've stopped articulating when things disturb me. I've stopped thinking I could really have an impact.
I think of the song "Go" by the Indigo Girls -- through the dust bowl, through the debt, grandma was a suffragette, blacklisted for her publication, blacklisted for my generation, go, go, go... did they tell you you would come undone, if you tried to touch the sun, use your years to psych you out, you're too old to care, too young to count... It didn't work on me when I was too young. The ubiquitous "they" couldn't psych me out. But over time, I've forgotten this song. don't take a seat, don't stand aside...
I'm tired of muffling myself. I just started reading "The Help" and got to the part where Skeeter gets advice on how to be a writer: write about what makes you mad. In essence, put your passion to paper. So, here are some things that make me mad:
that there even has to be a fight for gay marriage, that it's not just something that already exists and is a matter of course; that strangers feel they can pass judgement on who you love; that gay families can be denied adoptions using state funds based on the "moral" policies of private adoption agencies; that individual states can and do restrict women's access to safe and affordable health care; that a bill like Virginia's Personhood Act saw the light of day; that religous persecution is alive and well; that my religion is used as the reasoning behind evil acts which I feel are in direct contradiction of everything we should stand for.
Some days I get so mad I cry, other days I get so mad I have trouble breathing. And other days all that righteous anger gets channeled into being pissed at the asswipe who cut me off in traffic. That's pointless. I want to do something about the problems that bother me the most. I want to be fired up again. And the thing is, I need to make that change in me. I can't wait for someone else to say, "Here. Have a purpose. Be useful." And really, do I want someone else to decide that for me? No. We're all in this together, we'll find like-minded individuals, but the only person who's going to get my ass out of this chair is myself. So I best be doing that.
Not to say that we all couldn't use a little motivation. My buddy amand_r got her rear in gear last week and wrote a story in response to the Personhood Act. Check it out here (ILU-486). I sometimes think it's easier to process events and see their implications through fiction. This is a chilling tale, as it should be. I've been complacent for too long about things I do not agree with. And I'm tired of it.
This feeling has been growing ever since my trip to the state Capitol building in Richmond, Virginia, for a hearing on something completely unrelated to the subject of this post. While we were waiting for the hearing to start, we were ushered into a side room with CCTV of the legislative session going on before the committee hearing. And I got to see democracy in action. I wanted to throw up. Their Speaker would rattle off the number of the bill they were considering and yell for "ay"s and "nay"s without much of a pause, unless it was a bill that needed debate. One such bill was the aforementioned adoption bill from my list of things that made me mad. The representative who sponsored it stood up and said that, pursuant to earlier debates, they'd modified the bill and he was asking for a vote. Then four or five other representatives stood up to say why they were opposed. Here is the purpose of the bill: Virginia wants to contract out foster and adoption duties to private adoption agencies to lessen the strain on the state's agency for family services. This bill stated that one of these private agencies could reject a prospective family based on the agency's moral/religious policy. In effect, the private agency would be paid taxpayer dollars and given legal permission to discriminate against a family based on their own agenda. One representative stood up and said it was a clear violation of church and state. One representative said it prevented adoptions by single people and that was stupid (much more eloquently). One basically asked, "Won't someone think of the children?!" One was very concerned that a child who did not have the same background or did not fit the agency's moral guideline could then be placed into a family that persecuted him/her (like if a gay fourteen year-old boy was placed with a mother and father who thought homosexuality was a sin -- what would that then do to the child?). And one, the openly gay representative, spoke of it being used to deny same-sex couples from adopting. And all of these things are being paid for with the tax dollars of Virginians. Every single Virginian I know personally would not agree with this bill in the slightest. And it made me furious, because it passed. It wasn't even that close. And my heart ached -- not to say that this bill is now going to be used for evil. It might not. These may be unfounded fears. Maybe the adoption agencies of Virginia are 100% focused on doing what is best for each child and putting them into the best home for them. Even if all of that is true, this bill keeps the door wide open for other legal forms of persecution. And I cannot imagine what the one openly gay representative goes through by going to work every day and being unable to stop this shit, and the necessity of spending his days with people who cannot respect him. Because if you ask me, that is at the root of any persecution -- respect. And it churns my gut.
No wake up call would be complete without links for more information. Here's a few:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/ (Planned Parenthood)
http://www.hrc.org (Human Rights Campaign)
http://freedomtomarry.org (Freedom to Marry)
And on a lighter note, because I do have one, I told mander her story was inspiring a flavor of cupcake. Once you read it, let me know what you think. I was contemplating a vanilla cupcake with a red dye swirl, little pink heart sprinkles stirred into the batter, and a lemon custard-y filling. Not sure about the frosting.
So that's what I have to say. Feel free to respond in kind in the comments, send links, go check out mander's story, don't take a seat, don't stand aside.
This is an unusual post for me to make on my LJ. I like to keep things light and breezy. Or talk about food. But today, I would like to talk about Things. When I was younger (and by that, I mean the college years), I could get quite fired up about Things. Even before that, really -- I was the geek in the Hillary Rodham Clinton buttons during my middle school's mock election, after all. Over time, though, it seems I've grown quieter and quieter. I've stopped articulating when things disturb me. I've stopped thinking I could really have an impact.
I think of the song "Go" by the Indigo Girls -- through the dust bowl, through the debt, grandma was a suffragette, blacklisted for her publication, blacklisted for my generation, go, go, go... did they tell you you would come undone, if you tried to touch the sun, use your years to psych you out, you're too old to care, too young to count... It didn't work on me when I was too young. The ubiquitous "they" couldn't psych me out. But over time, I've forgotten this song. don't take a seat, don't stand aside...
I'm tired of muffling myself. I just started reading "The Help" and got to the part where Skeeter gets advice on how to be a writer: write about what makes you mad. In essence, put your passion to paper. So, here are some things that make me mad:
that there even has to be a fight for gay marriage, that it's not just something that already exists and is a matter of course; that strangers feel they can pass judgement on who you love; that gay families can be denied adoptions using state funds based on the "moral" policies of private adoption agencies; that individual states can and do restrict women's access to safe and affordable health care; that a bill like Virginia's Personhood Act saw the light of day; that religous persecution is alive and well; that my religion is used as the reasoning behind evil acts which I feel are in direct contradiction of everything we should stand for.
Some days I get so mad I cry, other days I get so mad I have trouble breathing. And other days all that righteous anger gets channeled into being pissed at the asswipe who cut me off in traffic. That's pointless. I want to do something about the problems that bother me the most. I want to be fired up again. And the thing is, I need to make that change in me. I can't wait for someone else to say, "Here. Have a purpose. Be useful." And really, do I want someone else to decide that for me? No. We're all in this together, we'll find like-minded individuals, but the only person who's going to get my ass out of this chair is myself. So I best be doing that.
Not to say that we all couldn't use a little motivation. My buddy amand_r got her rear in gear last week and wrote a story in response to the Personhood Act. Check it out here (ILU-486). I sometimes think it's easier to process events and see their implications through fiction. This is a chilling tale, as it should be. I've been complacent for too long about things I do not agree with. And I'm tired of it.
This feeling has been growing ever since my trip to the state Capitol building in Richmond, Virginia, for a hearing on something completely unrelated to the subject of this post. While we were waiting for the hearing to start, we were ushered into a side room with CCTV of the legislative session going on before the committee hearing. And I got to see democracy in action. I wanted to throw up. Their Speaker would rattle off the number of the bill they were considering and yell for "ay"s and "nay"s without much of a pause, unless it was a bill that needed debate. One such bill was the aforementioned adoption bill from my list of things that made me mad. The representative who sponsored it stood up and said that, pursuant to earlier debates, they'd modified the bill and he was asking for a vote. Then four or five other representatives stood up to say why they were opposed. Here is the purpose of the bill: Virginia wants to contract out foster and adoption duties to private adoption agencies to lessen the strain on the state's agency for family services. This bill stated that one of these private agencies could reject a prospective family based on the agency's moral/religious policy. In effect, the private agency would be paid taxpayer dollars and given legal permission to discriminate against a family based on their own agenda. One representative stood up and said it was a clear violation of church and state. One representative said it prevented adoptions by single people and that was stupid (much more eloquently). One basically asked, "Won't someone think of the children?!" One was very concerned that a child who did not have the same background or did not fit the agency's moral guideline could then be placed into a family that persecuted him/her (like if a gay fourteen year-old boy was placed with a mother and father who thought homosexuality was a sin -- what would that then do to the child?). And one, the openly gay representative, spoke of it being used to deny same-sex couples from adopting. And all of these things are being paid for with the tax dollars of Virginians. Every single Virginian I know personally would not agree with this bill in the slightest. And it made me furious, because it passed. It wasn't even that close. And my heart ached -- not to say that this bill is now going to be used for evil. It might not. These may be unfounded fears. Maybe the adoption agencies of Virginia are 100% focused on doing what is best for each child and putting them into the best home for them. Even if all of that is true, this bill keeps the door wide open for other legal forms of persecution. And I cannot imagine what the one openly gay representative goes through by going to work every day and being unable to stop this shit, and the necessity of spending his days with people who cannot respect him. Because if you ask me, that is at the root of any persecution -- respect. And it churns my gut.
No wake up call would be complete without links for more information. Here's a few:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/ (Planned Parenthood)
http://www.hrc.org (Human Rights Campaign)
http://freedomtomarry.org (Freedom to Marry)
And on a lighter note, because I do have one, I told mander her story was inspiring a flavor of cupcake. Once you read it, let me know what you think. I was contemplating a vanilla cupcake with a red dye swirl, little pink heart sprinkles stirred into the batter, and a lemon custard-y filling. Not sure about the frosting.
So that's what I have to say. Feel free to respond in kind in the comments, send links, go check out mander's story, don't take a seat, don't stand aside.