Author Topic: Early Morning Optimism  (Read 2487 times)

TheStudDuck

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Early Morning Optimism
« on: April 09, 2006, 08:23:48 am »
Was just thinking about some stuff as I was in the bathroom doing my morning business... you know, you know?  Had some really nice comforting thoughts easing my mind about contemporary issues facing our troubled nation and I thought that I'd share them with all of you.

I'm one of the younger people here, so I'm pretty sure I speak for most everyone when I say that my parents were alive and growing up in the 60s, when Brokeback Mountain takes place.  In fact, I'm sure there is a nice number of people here at Chez Tremblay that were alive during this period of time.  So... essentially... in the course of one lifetime, we have moved something from being a social stigma that one is beaten with a tire iron for all the way to being something that is accepted by 49% of our society.

Forty-nine percent, people.  That is this close ---> || <--- from a majority vote!

And with the way things look right now... within my lifetime, things will be entirely different and all of this will have just been one bad dream.  We're just about to take back the Congress... and if we all just sit back and let the Republicans try to maintain the control they've been trying to maintain... it'll be but a mere two and a half years before the White House is ours again, too.  (Ahh, I look forward to saying "President Clinton" again.)

We've pushed it to the point where we have a majority.  All the neo-cons that you see on their little cable television programs with their talkings points sent to them via memo... it's all an elaborate show.  An act of desperation on their part.  They know their losing and the only way they can win is to let us think that they are winning -- it's sort of how Crash won Best Picture.  It only won because they told everyone enough times that it could actually win.

Just remember this, folks.  49% of our country did not vote for George W. Bush.  That's a fact.  Listen to this... Truman beat Dewey by more votes than George W. Bush beat Al Gore (and John Kerry, too, I think).  -- If you are unaware of the joke, pardon me while I explain because it is actually very funny.  Back in the 50s, the newspaper headlines in Chicago (I believe that was the city) read "DEWEY WINS!" -- which was false... so the joke is that George W. Bush won by less votes than it took to mistake the winner of that election between Truman and Dewey.

Bush's approval ratings hit another all-time low this week.  In case you haven't heard.  Everyone is already regretting where we are at... and it's only a matter of time before we have the ability to completely change things up with the government and get some people in there that actually understand what is going on in the world today.

Within my lifetime, folks.  Within my lifetime.  Gay marriage will not only be legal, but it will be looked at like:  "how come this hasn't always been legal?" -- And that, my friends, I can guarantee you.

Keep your chins up.  ;D
We have a lot to be proud of.

David

Offline Flashframe777

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Re: Early Morning Optimism
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2006, 09:29:03 am »
nice post David.
"yet he is suffused with a sense of pleasure because Jack Twist was in his dream"


Offline ednbarby

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Re: Early Morning Optimism
« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2006, 09:32:36 am »
Lovely post, David.  You know, I proudly re-affixed my "Don't Blame Me - I Voted for Kerry" bumper sticker on my car yesterday.  I didn't take it off a while ago because I cared about what the Bushies thought of it, but because it seemed like I was having sour grapes and defeating my purpose by having it there.  But now, more than ever, I want the people who matter to know that I did not vote for that incompetent, lying, cheating sack of shit.  (Bitter much?)  What inspired me to do that is seeing the same group of ballsy folks flanking the busiest intersection in town with signs reading "Honk if you want Bush impeached" and "No More War!" and "Bring Our Troops Home NOW!"  I laid on that sucker, and they all pumped their fists and gave me the thumbs up.  What inspired me the most was that I wasn't the only one honking in very rich, very conservative Boca Raton.

In keeping with David's positive tone, Something happened very recently that gave me a lot of hope, too.  My company, which I've always considered to be generally very gay-friendly, just announced that they will be extending health benefits to employees' "domestic partners" as well as to spouses and children this year.  One of my co-workers who's been partnered for years' face lit up in a way I'd never seen before when we all heard that announcement.  He just very quietly said, "Finally" and bowed his head with a little smile not unlike Jack's right before he says, "Friend, that's the most words you've spoke in the last two weeks."  He and his partner both have good jobs and get benefits from their respective employers, but just the fact that they have made this policy shift made his year.

I've also seen people who hadn't even seen the movie yet be outraged by its not winning the Best Picture Academy Award because even sight unseen they realized that it lost for the same reason that Bush won Ohio in 2004.  Even my homophobic, staunch Republican (but Bush-hating) brother said, "You know I have no intention of ever seeing that movie.  But come on - how the hell does something win every other award going and then not that one?"  I was more than happy to tell him how, and was pleasantly surprised when he agreed that that was mighty underhanded of the Governor of Ohio to do.  And he lives there.  Even he says, "I don't understand the whole gay thing.  But if two guys want to live together, who am I or anyone else to tell them they can't?"

In the last 3 months, I've not only come to find all of you extraordinarily beautiful people I wouldn't otherwise know if not for this movie, but I've come to realize that I am surrounded by extraordinarily beautiful people in my every day life - and they far outnumber the dumbass mules.

So slap my ass and call my animal an elephant.  Come November, we're taking back Congress.  And come 2008, we're taking back the White House.  And there will be much rejoicing.
No more beans!

Offline Sheyne

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Re: Early Morning Optimism
« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2006, 10:31:49 am »

Hey guys,

Look, I'm not American so I can't really contribute an educated opinion - although we're not totally in the dark over here. We know George W Bush is a complete dickhead (sorry for the language, but I'm sure you'll forgive me).

Rather I wanted to touch on something both David and Barb said about Brokeback's loss at the Oscars.  You know? Since it happened... and I mean from the very darned second I hit "refresh" on my browser on Oscars.com on that fateful Monday (we're 15hrs ahead of you guys) and it brought up "Crash" as Best Picture, I sat there numb. Completely disbelieving and the very first thing that came to my mind after the numbness passed was "Tom Robinson".  As in, the Tom Robinson verdict from the rape trial in "To Kill A Mockingbird".  Where the wrong verdict was handed down because something in that society, in those times, SOMETHING made it inevitable that the wrong verdict would be handed down. And everybody knew it. They knew it was wrong. All evidence pointed to it being wrong. I just didn't think it would happen to Brokeback.  As David said, we've come a long way, so to find out that in some people's minds, its still not ok to be gay came as a harsh shock to me.  But we'll get them in the end.  We'll get em good.

Just to bookend this post with Dubya.. we in Oz aren't completely ignorant of this bumbling fool's exploits.  I have, in my file of "favourite photos" a page from a newspaper - a photograph of the American president - the leader of the free world, the most powerful man in the world, standing, flanked by two Army generals and peering intently through a set of binoculars at a demilitarised zone in North Korea.  Directly beneath this photograph is an almost identical photo. The only difference is that, in the bottom photo, both lens caps are now OFF the binoculars, enabling him to actually see through them. Caption reads: "None So Blind.... The American President, ladies and gentlemen"..  :-X 

 ;D
Chut up!

Offline delalluvia

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Re: Early Morning Optimism
« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2006, 01:07:57 pm »
I know you are right, studs.

But not to rain on your parade or anything, but being a woman and a person of color besides, the laws can change, but the attitude takes a lot longer to stamp out.  The 19th amendment was passed in 1920 giving women the right to vote, but attitudes towards women in the public sphere have taken much much longer to change.

In the last years of the 20th century, Hillary Rodham was biting her tongue and assuring the media that despite graduating at the top of her class in law school and being the primary money maker in the family, what she REALLY liked was to take her husband's name and bake cookies.  ::)

The population in the U.S. is close to 300 million people (including children). 
In the 2004 election 122 million people voted.  48.3% voted against Dubya/for Kerry.  However, an additional 78 MILLION people who were eligible to vote, did not.

What is their opinion?  What of all the people - young men and women - ineligible to vote simply because they're 17 years old - think?  There's no way to know.

That is an enormous number of people left out of the voting numbers of which we don't have a clear cut idea on what they think.

I pray mightily that the laws will change and soon, but I fear that attitudes are a long time in changing.  Sometimes, entire generations have to die off before they will.  Even the ancient Greeks and Romans who are famous for their same sex-relationships -  had their issues with it.

I think the idea behind what is 'manhood' has to change before the attiudes toward gay relationships will.

Sorry if I'm a downer, but I don't like to be too optimistic.

I've been a feminist, a strong supporter of political secularism and environmentally conscious for years and have seen great strides made set back by the turn of a presidency.

The key word is vigilance.

Offline starboardlight

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Re: Early Morning Optimism
« Reply #5 on: April 09, 2006, 01:52:22 pm »
things are changing and the changes come much faster than in previous generations. blame/credit the media age, or the information age, but information can change perception. the easier it is for people to get it, the faster change can happen. Like del, I get very pessimistic sometimes, but thinking back, things have changed significantly (though not enough yet). Looking at my experience in high school, it's the same story as those of generations before me. Compare that with those of gay teens today, and you see how much has changed in the last decade. When I was in high school  and college, I never thought that the possibility of marrying was even possible in my life time. Just coming out and finding someone we could love would have been as far as any of us could hope for. To actually confront the idea of marriage?! Domestic partners benefits! Creating families! Do I dare actually hope for those things before I die? Not ten years ago.

Del is right, attitude is independent of the laws. But for me, attitude have already started to change. We have corporations actually ahead of laws. Most large companies are recognizing gay partners in the companies and have made policies to offer medical benefits. To think that the most conservative of institutions are ahead of the curve on this! This is rather surprising, since they've always been just behind the church as far as embracing changes. This at least is giving me hope that attitude is changing. There will be those who resist, and we simply wait for them to die off. There are still people today that still think desegregation was a bad idea. There will still be people who are against gay marriage, 50 years from now. But those people don't matter, if the law makes it legal.
"To do is to be." Socrates. - "To be is to do." Plato. - "Do be do be do" Sinatra.