Friday, October 23, 2009

Quick Comment: We Need "Good"


On the topic of how people promote hate and violence while believing themselves "good" and "moral"
(http://moiramanion.blogspot.com/2009/10/preserving-your-right-to-want-innocent.html), I wish Good was on DVD. I wish it were shown in every high school and college classroom to promote discussion. It's all very well to have films which show how people fought the Nazis after they came to power (Valkyrie, Defiance, Inglorious Bastards). More important are stories of how the Nazis came to power.

If nothing else, watch the trailer.

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Quick Comment: Catherine Lundoff Dreamhaven Reading Tonight.

With rain and fluffy snowflakes covering the bright yellow leaves and Halloween pumpkins, this is the perfect weather to be inside Dreamhaven bookstore, listening to Catherine Lundoff read from her work. Hope to see you there.

http://www.redroom.com/event/speculatiBoldons-reading-dreamhaven-books-comics-and-art

See my Dreamhaven link under Favorite Bookstores (scroll down left side column).

I just learned that poet Bryan Thao Worra will be reading at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts tomorrow, Oct. 24. For details http://thaoworra.blogspot.com/2009/10/reading-none-of-above-open-book.html.

Two great nights with two great writers!

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Preserving Your Right to Want Innocent People to Die Horribly


Don't worry your pretty heads, Conservatives and religious groups who support them. The expanded Hate Crimes Bill won't criminalize your speeches declaring that millions of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, their heterosexual allies, atheists, people with religious beliefs different from yours, and feminists aren't human beings, like you and your children.

After the Bill becomes law, you can rest assured that you may stand up in your places of worship, and proudly and loudly confirm that those who don't think like you do should be deprived of the right to walk unassaulted down a lovely lane, inhaling the lilacs and closing their eyes to better enjoy the birdsong. You may openly say that they should not expect that they won't be thrown into the brush and beaten and kicked until they die, alone, and are sent to Hell to suffer even worse for all eternity. No no, please feel free to let your toddlers hear how the people who don't think like you do are animals, vermin, who threaten your pursuit of happiness by their false and evil insistence that they're your equals. It's not as if talking about your beliefs actually causes violence against the people whom you don't pity when they are violently attacked.

You also retain the right to tell your children that they should cheer when a doctor who legally performs safe abortions has her or his head blown off, because they, your dear, sweet children, were precious to you from the moment you learned that you or your girlfriend were knocked up.

Best of all, the expanded Hate Crimes Bill will in no way prevent the teaching that your dear, sweet, beloved children, the star football player, the beautiful Prom Queen, of whom you boast and brag, are to be thrown out of the house and called "sick, disgusting filth" when they tell you they're lesbian, gay, bisexual, have become atheists or another belief that isn't yours, or feminists. Sigh with relief, because the Bill won't impede your right to preach that those former loved ones should wander the streets, without food or money or a place to stay, and should be turned away by all who believe as you do. And if they should be raped, beaten and kicked and die alone, well, God wills disgusting perverts to pay.


I hope you feel safe now.

Monday, October 19, 2009

How to Compliment a Minnesotan


I am in Minnesota, but not of Minnesota. There are many things about native Minnesotans that drive me nuts: referring to casseroles as "hot dish;" ending sentences with "with" ("So, you going with?" "'With?'" "Yah, you going with?" "With what? With you? With the cat? With God? With an AK-47?!"); their passive-aggressiveness (if you step on their feet, native Minnesotans apologize, but when you cross a street, they speed up. Not letting anyone merge, even a 40-ton semi, is a point of passive-aggressive pride to native Minnesotans); and their obsession with all things Scandinavian (mix up Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, and you are in for a lecture that you can escape only by admitting that you are Not From Around Here, and asking them how their mamas cooked Hoppin' John. Anything slightly Southern strikes confusion and fear into native Minnesotans).

That said, I have an affection for them. They really do try to be sincerely nice, and almost always have the best of intentions, even when offering lutefisk to a non-native (I once confessed that I thought lutefisk, lefse and gefilte fish were the same thing. I've never since insulted so many cultures in one sentence).

But there is one trait of native-born-and-raised Minnesotans that makes me barking mad. They are absolutely incapable of accepting a compliment.

Just today, two acquaintances who work at the airport --we'll call them L and B -- stopped into the shop where I work to say hello. With some arm twisting, I learned that L had bicycled from Florida to California. Eighteen miles a day. Just because he wanted to.

It's a miracle if I can sit on a bicycle without falling off. I can't even begin to imagine bicycling across the continental United States.

When I complimented L, he took on an expression of pained embarrassment and guilt. He looked as if he'd been caught farting or short-changing a clerk. My god, how awful it was that the man had accomplished something, and, worse, someone discovered it and thought it was cool. His eyes had a slight panic, as if he needed to run off and shower in boiling water to scour away my compliment.

B has the same allergy. The poor man suffers from handsomeness. As I've said in a previous post, I've known men who are literally film-star handsome, and 99.9% of them are shallow, vain jerks who never bothered to develop personalities because they breezed through life on looks alone. I confess when I first saw B, I immediately assumed he was an arrogant dunderhead. I only gave him the benefit of a doubt because he hung around with a transplanted New Yorker who's smart, savvy, and didn't appear to suffer fools. Over time, I observed that B is very intelligent, witty, wry, and quite interesting.

The one time I complimented B, I immediately regretted it. He looked as stricken as if I'd said he had a huge, festering zit on his nose and that he was as stupid as a sea cucumber. He scurried away into the dark labyrinth beneath the airport. I didn't see him for weeks.

This isn't modesty. It's shame. I've concluded that, in Minnesota, the doctor lifts the newborn as it takes its first breath, declares, "It's a fine, healthy girl/boy!" and then slaps it. When the baby takes its first step, a parent cries, "Come look at this! S/he's walking!" and wonks the kid. In kindergarten, when a native Minnesota child says the alphabet all the way through, correctly, for the first time, the teacher says, "What a clever child!" and beans the little one with a wiffle bat.

By the time they reach first grade, native Minnesota children have a Pavlovian dread of compliments. Minnesotans call this "Preparing children for real life." Life, they say, is full of sorrow, pain, loss, suffering, and disappointment. Joy and healthy pride will betray you. A compliment is only meant to soften you up so you'll lower your defenses so life can kick you in the groin.

When a native Minnesotan goes against this brainwashing, the backlash is horrifying. If a Minnesotan grows an ego, it goes berserk, a maddened Godzilla roaring and trampling in Jesse Ventura spandex and Keillor red sneakers. East Coast elites and West Coast Golden People wither in the laser of Minnesota snark, sarcasm and snideness. This is the Land of Mystery Science Theater 3000, after all. (Joel Hodgson called the robots "honey," and had a gentle, goofy grin. But you just know that off-camera he gave Trace swirlies and left Weight Watcher pamphlets for Frank, and cut off Special Education vans without signaling.)

There is no middle ground with native Minnesotans. They're either lowly worms or SUN GOD THE CREATOR KNEEL BEFORE ME. A few Minnesotans, such as a dear friend of mine who is one of the most brilliant people I've ever met, can accept a compliment with a "thank you," a smile, and only a slight twitch. But then, I think she was actually born in one of the Dakotas.

If you want to tell a native Minnesotan that you think she or he is a keen, neato-coolly-wow person, and that you admire anything about them, don't. If you want to make native Minnesotans feel good, criticise them Minnesota style. "Oh, you'd think that dress was made for a person half your age." "Y'know, it's almost something that makes a person not seem dumb as a turd." "Well ................. that's different."

This will create in the native Minnesotans a warm glow of having known all along that they're undeserving scum. It'll be just like they're back in the bosom of their family.
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Friday, October 2, 2009

Minnesotans: Call Out against Racism Tomorrow! (and update)

This was sent to me by writer Rachel Dykoski (that's her with Senator Al Franken):

This Saturday, October 3, 2009, the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM) has threatened to demonstrate against an anti-racist workshop being held at the YWCA on East Lake Street in Minneapolis. The NSM has declared the anti-racist organizers "traitors" to white supremacy.

This provocation also has a wider goal: The NSM has been holding racist anti-immigrant rallies in southern Minnesota and now they are seeking to establish a presence inside the City of Minneapolis. For years Minneapolis has been a virtual "no-go" area for organized racist activity, due to efforts of young anti-racist organizers.

In the wake of the racist attacks in Brooklyn Park last week (http://www.startribune.com/local/61452677.html ), the nazis' threat cannot be ignored. They plan to bring their racist, homophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic message of division and hate right into the heart of the city. They must not go unopposed!

TIME: 10:00 am Saturday, October 3, 2009

PLACE: Lake Street & 22nd Ave. (outside the Midtown YWCA), Minneapolis MN


Unfortunately, I can't attend. But if you're able, show up and speak out!


UPDATE: 3 October

Only four of the "Master Race" slinked into Minneapolis, and were confronted with 200+ anti-racism supporters. The Star Tribune gave a brief report. http://www.startribune.com/local/63454237.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUjc7YUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU7DYaGEP7vDEh7P:DiUs

For photos of the event, go to "Baron Dave's" Livejournal: http://barondave.livejournal.com/248888.html

Bravo to all of you who braved the cold and wet to show our communities' solidarity and willingness to take action!

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Thursday, October 1, 2009

R.T. Rybak's Petition for a Health Care Public Option


I support Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak because, in my opinion, Mr. Rybak, unlike Governor Tim Pawlenty, doesn't see himself as above and apart from his fellow citizens. Indeed, unlike Governor Pawlenty, Mr. Rybak views all of us as his fellow citizens. I've often wanted to shake the Gov's hand and say, "You've asked for my support. Yet you pass, or attempt to pass, legislation that doesn't support my GLBT friends, and you've acted to deny honest, tax-paying low-income people like me health care and human services, as well working to eliminate the renters' rebate many of us depend upon come each August. But you're happy to take my tax dollars to support yourself and your lifestyle. Doesn't that strike you as a bit, oh, I dunno...hypocritical?"

Mayor Rybak has given me another reason to applaud him. He's created a petition for a public option to health care reform. The following is an email from Mayor Rybak, dated Thursday, October 1:

To pass health care reform, President Obama needs a little help from us. Right now.

That's why I've started a petition for the public option. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/minnesotans-need-a-public-option

Simply put, in order to pass serious health care reform, President Obama needs to know we're ready to help him. And that's where you come in.

Minnesotans agree that we need a plan with what's called a "public option," a government-run health care choice that families can join if they're dissatisfied with the options the private health insurance market provides. A public option will help keep insurance companies honest by making sure Americans have access to at least one health care plan that has health care, not profits, as its central focus.

However, the resources and energy lined up against this vital achievement have never been more energized, or more prepared to do whatever it takes to beat it.

With everyone from talk radio shock jocks to Sarah Palin spreading outright lies about reform, and with politicians like Governor Pawlenty making bizarre threats (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_09/019885.php )to withdraw from any health care plan that passes, health care reform opponents have shown they'll say anything, do anything, and make up anything to keep health care reform from happening.

With all the attacks out there against him, and against health care, President Obama needs to hear from us that we're ready to help him pass real, serious, health care reform.

I need you to sign the petition. I need you to get all your friends and neighbors to sign this petition. I need you to get all your friends' and neighbors' friends and neighbors to sign this petition. We need to be as clear as day that the time for serious health care reform is now, and that we shouldn't back down or compromise in the face of Republican attacks.

Sincerely,

R.T. Rybak

P.S. As my friend Brad Swanson of Teamsters Local 120 says, "The time to make affordable, quality health care a reality for all Americans is now. Let's just pass it." I hope you'll join the fight by signing the petition.

I've had the pleasure of meeting Mayor Rybak on two occasions, once during the May Day parade last spring, and again during Senator-elect Al Franken's victory rally in St.Paul. ( http://moiramanion.blogspot.com/2009/07/senator-al-franken.html ) Mayor Rybak was enthusiastic and, to use a good, old-fashioned word, affable, with the mixed and varied crowd (though he, like Franni Franken, needs to ratchet back the pressure of his handshakes). Those of you who may take umbrage with my accusation of hypocrisy in Tim Pawlenty might say that Mr. Rybak would be as hypocritical towards those who don't share his personal and political views (i.e. Republicans). But, as I've also said about Al Franken, I don't believe for a second that R.T. Rybak would pass legislation against a group of people simply for his own political advantage or "moral" compunctions (redundant). I can't say the same for the Governor.

I also briefly met and spoke with members of Teamsters Local 120 at President Obama's health care rally in Minneapolis on Sept. 12, one of whom -- I believe may have been Brad Swanson--- kindly answered my questions concerning the Employee Free Choice Act, and offered me a doughnut. (The doughnut was glazed and delicious.)

Now, if I were you, I'd sign that petition, no matter where you live. In case you missed it the first time: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/minnesotans-need-a-public-option
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Saturday, September 26, 2009

Al Franken, Norm Coleman, LBJ & the Doctor, on My Birthday

A personal blog is, by definition, personal, and therefore self-indulgent. So here's some self-indulgence.

On September 23, poet/editor Rebecca Marjesdatter and I visited Stillwater, MN, for an early celebration of my 49th birthday (which was Thursday, but I had to work that day). 49 is a somewhat frustrating birthday, because it's not half a century, which one can really celebrate ("Wow, I can't believe I made it this far!"), and it isn't the wake-up call that 45 is ("Holy f*ck, I'm almost a half century old."). But both Ms. Marjesdatter and I had the day off, it was lovely last-of-summer-fall-in-the-offing weather, so we drove down for a walk-about in Michele Bachmann country.

Granted, Stillwater is only one small part of Michele Bachmann's 6th district, and I don't know how heavily the town votes for her. But there is a Bachmannesque quality to the lanes of candy, craft, and antique shoppes. It's all very quaint and cheery and dear, clean and neat and well-run. And eerily devoid of people of color. Stillwater has the atmosphere of a Twilight Zone episode: "Hey, this is a neat little town, isn't it? Uh, except...ya notice everyone looks the same?"*

I feel it is my duty to walk about Stillwater and give the young people hope that there is something Other Out There, to remember for when they near graduation and are gathering the courage to escape.

I wasn't looking for a birthday present. A political friend in D.C. had given me two DVDs of the second Doctor Who (partly because my friend bears a startling resemblance to the late, great British actor Patrick Troughton, and likes to remind me of it), so I was happily satisfied for presents.

Ms. Marjesdatter and I were exploring an antiques shop, whose depth and layers were positively TARDIS-like, when I discovered on a dusty shelf, behind a scarred HAMMs Beer bear, a small, plastic LBJ. He wore a black hat and black suit, and was dated 1964. And he was affordable.*

I immediately snatched him up for my political collection. I think the poor dear thing gave a sigh of relief that he was no longer trapped among naked GI Joes and Smuf glasses.

In another antiques "mall," Rebecca and I squeezed our way through Victorian kitsch and examined tall, locked glass cases. At one, I literally gasped. Behind sports bobbleheads was a red, white and blue box that read "Recount Bobblehead." I squeed like a fangirl and startled Rebecca.

The price was rather high (working poor definition: 2 weeks worth of groceries & cat litter), but, considering I thought I'd never, ever get my hands on an Al Franken/Norm Coleman Recount Bobblehead, it was a price I was happy to pay.

So now I can proudly display on my bookshelf an Obama Action Figure, an Obama bobblehead, a John Kerry squeak toy, a George Washington bobblehead, a little LBJ figure, and, my most prized possession, a Franken/Coleman Recount bobblehead. I'm a pathetic geek, but a happy one.



........ now all I need is a Patrick Troughton Doctor Who action figure ...........

*~~*~~*

* It must be noted that, not long ago, there was a shop in Stillwater run by people from Tibet, part of whose proceeds went to funding to free Tibet. So there were a few people of color around. The shop has since closed. I don't know where the Tibetans went.

*I was broke that day, so Rebecca Marjesdatter fronted me the money until my payday, Friday. She also bought me lunch. Thank you, Rebecca!