Coming out is not just about the gender of the people you desire. It’s about being your whole self, in public. It’s about honesty. It’s about transparency. It’s about difference and togetherness. It’s about self-acceptance, not waiting for the acceptance of others. It’s about integration. It’s about the whole cookie. I wish it, in all aspects of life, for you.
Those poor American kids: What could have been safer than a one-room Amish schoolhouse? An internship with a Congressman?
As the news swirled around in my head, I noticed some leitmotifs within the world of tragedy. Have you?
If you need a hint, take your pick from our friendly cast of characters: Congressman Mark Foley, President Bush, Charles C. Young, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, Michael Douglas, House Majority Leader John Bohener, Marie Roberts, wife of Pennsylvania milk delivery man Charles, Bill O’Reilly, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor Jim McGreevey, Senator Bob Packwood.
Well, at least women from the second wave. They are our “greatest generation.”
A tip of the juice cup to Ann Richards who just died at 73. I already miss her. Katherine Mieszkowski sums it up really well.
I’m posting a piece I wrote earlier this year. For the love of Life women, let’s aim beyond chicklit and SnackWells for greatness: at least once a month.
February 12/ 2006
In just one week, the world lost three amazing women: Wendy Wasserstein, Betty Friedan and Coretta Scott King. I’m sure there were many more amazing women who died that week as well, who did not have the fame each of these three had, but their lives were probably bettered in some way by at least one of these three. It made me think about the kind of backbone the leaders of civil rights movements have had. We now live in a time in which the corruption of governments, corporations and militaries, “authority†in general seems so disconnected from the needs of people. It’s almost hard to believe that these systems depend on people—on human lives to operate.
Each of these women inspired me. They each had incredible strength of character to do things the way that seemed right to them, even when the environment they came from told them they were foolish or irrelevant. They did not write or organize for ego alone. They were willing to speak and live their truth for its own sake, which is probably what makes life meaningful.
I recently read Ghandi’s autobiography and I am reminded by this work and these women (especially Coretta Scott King), that the ability to change our world and our seemingly-deaf corporations and government is there, but that it begins first and foremost with ourselves. It is more helpful and meaningful to change our behaviours out of a commitment to our own integrity rather than hating what we wish were different outside of us. We do not have to co-operate with what causes us harm.
I am particularly saddened by Wendy Wasserstein’s premature death. First Gilda Radner, then Madeleine Kahn, now Wendy Wasserstein. I am about to make my first Off-Broadway appearance with my first play, and I am very conscious of the fact that women playwrights owe her a great debt. As involved as I was in feminist organizing in college and law school, I still often question whether or not the details of a uniquely female life will really be interesting and “important†enough to include in my work. Reading Wasserstein’s work helps remind me that a woman’s life even feminist hopes are worth writing. It is the lives we don’t often hear about, even the mocked beliefs that are the most worth sharing—if they are part of an honest life, honest truth and, for me, heartfelt humor.
“US democracy is an illusion only made possible by the luxury we live in which would not be possible in there were economic justice in the world.”
Just a throw away line in the excellent documentary about Kushner I saw last night: Wrestling With Angels. Kushner’s Angles in America is one of the reasons I remembered that I had to write plays (which I’d forgotten after my first two when I was 10). I’m still thinking about this comment.
At this point the average person feels they get more responsiveness as a consumer (from the companies that work hard to understand their buying interests and possibilities) than it does from their government.
It’s an ecology of mutual convenience. Media coverage of politics and world events? Where’s the good feeling? What can we do? It’s you or me kid. Ford Bronco or Cadillac Escalade? There’s a real choice I can feel in my hand.
The upside? My generation (X), the first to not do better than our parents this American century, and those that follow may find that with less comes more of ourselves and a chance to see what is truly needed (not wanted) for a just and fulfilling life. Tag us: DIY, ReadyMade, Burning Man, board games, knitting, barbeques, personal spirituality, roommates, blogs etc. With less money and with crisis we find that all we really have, in the end, is each other.
Yesterday afternoon I met a man named Ken Burrows at a BrainJam session. He’s no longer Mormon but quoted a Mormon prayer for me that he likes: “Lord, give me what I want and if not, give me something better.”
I converse with a shmucky American, with some entertaining results.
VP Cheney’s shampoo boy “Scooter” Libby “fingers” Bush in the CIA leak. Heather realizes what it would really take for Bush to be impeached.
I just read some comments on a NYT piece about Steve Jobs’ taxes. One of the reader commented, as many people like to, that taxes are bad because governments are simply inefficient and run by fools.
To me this implies the assumption that the government is run by “them” some other species of inefficient fools, while business and corporations are run by “us,” an different and efficient species. Anyone who has spent time in a corporation can tell you from personal experience that there is nothing necessarily efficient about them. How many pointless reports have you had to file? How much time have you spent “managing up,” soothing your bosses’ fears and insecurities, trying to read her mind to figure out what she wants?
Business thrives sustainably when it is meeing real human needs and when the human beings who make up the business recognize that business exists to serve human needs, not the other way round.
It is comfortable American “conventional wisdom” that governments are run by fools. For the past 20 years, Americans have been continually electing American governments who promise to do nothing but cut taxes/goverment (not necessarily the same thing as Bush fils has shown). Perhaps this conventional wisdom is widely accepted because the people of America no longer feel that the government represents them (not that it ever has really done a bang-up job of representing all Americans, to say nothing of the people who lived here before it was called America). Perhaps Americans have felt this way for so long that they have simply decided that government is for “fools” because it is too painful to accept what has happened.
Americans seem to feel like people from Jupiter landed here and elected their government while they were busy watching football. But Americans have elected and accepted this government. Government, like business, is nothing more than people and both institutions need our continued co-operation and consent to run and that is is up to people to change them. And this is absolutely possible.
In just one week, the world lost three amazing women: Wendy Wasserstein, Betty Friedan and Coretta Scott King. I’m sure there were many more amazing women who died that week as well, who did not have the fame each of these three had, but their lives were probably bettered in some way by at least one of these three. It made me think about the kind of backbone the leaders of civil rights movements have had. We now live in a time in which the corruption of governments, corporations and militaries, ‘authority’ in general seems so disconnected from the needs of people. It’s almost hard to believe that these systems depend on people’on human lives to operate.
Each of these women inspired me. They each had incredible strength of character to do things the way that seemed right to them, even when the environment they came from told them they were foolish or irrelevant. They did not write or organize for ego alone. They were willing to speak and live their truth for its own sake, which is probably what makes life meaningful.
I recently read Ghandi’s autobiography and I am reminded by this work and these women (especially Coretta Scott King), that the ability to change our world and our seemingly-deaf corporations and government is there, but that it begins first and foremost with ourselves. It is more helpful and meaningful to change our behaviours out of a commitment to our own integrity rather than hating what we wish were different outside of us. We do not have to co-operate with what causes us harm.
I am particularly saddened by Wendy Wasserstein’s premature death. First Gilda Radner, then Madeleine Kahn, now Wendy Wasserstein. I am about to make my first Off-Broadway appearance with my first play, and I am very conscious of the fact that women playwrights owe her a great debt. As involved as I was in feminist organizing in college and law school, I still often question whether or not the details of a uniquely female life will really be interesting and ‘important’ enough to include in my work. Reading Wasserstein’s work helps remind me that a woman’s life even feminist hopes are worth writing. It is the lives we don’t often hear about, even the mocked beliefs that are the most worth sharing’if they are part of an honest life, honest truth and, for me, heartfelt humor.
First there was class then race, then gender, then sexual orientation, then disability, then gender identity…you know the list. Identity politics gave us a structure for (post)modern progressive movement. It also gave us pithy politically-conscious conversation like ‘Speaking as a differently-abled, working-class, lesbian Latina sous chef, I would like to note that paprika is relegated to a mere garnish by the colonialist, imperial Europeans represented by the hard-boiled egg.’
Then in mocking response came Rush Limbaugh and the ‘Contract With America’ and a neo-conservative American political movement that took control of the US Congress and White House. The Left has been wringing its hands in despair ever since.
Does this simple 10 point process for creating a social/political identity sound familiar? The Left is more influential than it thinks.
We’re the majority, yet we can’t profess our beliefs in public at any school. Can’t even put the Ten Commandments up on the wall at a Courthouse. Can’t preach the Gospel at our government jobs. A fearful society wants us to live dishonest lives hiding in the closet.
We need to raise consciousness and show people the nature of their oppression. Even if we have to go door to door to do it.
I’ve got a hammer and you look like a nail.
I just don’t feel safe and welcome to be a Christian just anywhere yet. I need to live amongst those who identify as I do. We need to create our own tables at university and separate communities that support our politics. It’s a Christian thing, you wouldn’t understand.
We have to re-read history and create new forms of scholarship. Let’s re-interpret our texts to find the hidden ‘x’s. We can uncover the parts of our identity that have been lost by an oppressive society. Abraham Lincoln was a Christian! We can co-opt their signifiers! Glossy Bibles! Derrida for Christ!
Your personal life is up for discussion because it is political. This isn’t just a private matter anymore. You must ‘ID’ in public as Christian. You need to own your point of view in public so that people give proper credit to where it’s coming from. Whether you’re teaching school or running a government commission or chatting at the water cooler, you need to represent. It’s not enough to just live a Christian life Harriet Miers, we need you to make it political and shout it from the soapbox.
Who you’re sleeping with is our business. Now that the personal is political, your life is up for our evaluation. We will have to work to tell the difference between the folks who just hang out for the comfy community and belonging and those who are true Christians. We have to hold each other accountable for every detail in our personal lives. Unless it gives the other side ammunition. Did we mention that the political is personal too?
To accomplish our political goals we have make inclusive, uplifting coalitions, reaching out to Evangelicals, Catholics and Mormon churches, all 1,200 Protestant denominations and many others. Yes, we didn’t always get along. But now that we’re oppressed and politics are so much more important, things have changed! It’s so much more cohesive to focus on what we have in common: Jesus and homosexuals.
It’s important for young Christians to have role models in public. We will agitate and pray for representation in government and reach out through culture. We will create our own film festivals. We will take pride in Lee Ann Womack and Mel Gibson and all of our famous preachers and politicians.
We will fight against tokenism. We don’t want to just have a symbolic Christian. We will work to make sure we get one who will shout their true identity and identity politics from the rooftops. The personal is political, remember? Harriet Miers understands that now.
We can spread our ideas through cool tee shirts and slogans. This kind of stuff really lets people know we mean business and helps them find other Christians like them. A bracelet, button or even bumper sticker or a painted plate hanging in a wall bracket can help you feel less alone in the world and make political change.
Of course there are sometimes people who just like to hang out for the cool music and fashion. But that’s a risk we have to take to be true to our identity.
At the end of the identity politics arc: The political is good when it helps me personally.
| Communes | Megachurches |
| Leg Hair | Close shave |
| Take Back the Night button | WWJD bracelet |
| Lilith Fair | Promise Keeper meetings |
| coming out | coming out |
| A simple rational idea that better the world | A simple faith that can better the world |
| Live/work lofts | Exurbs |
| Co-ops | Self-enclosed community |
| Berkeley | Colorado Springs |
Is it really that surprising that Arnold won the California recall election?
It’s just the lastest stage in an ongoing trend. It started with Reagan and then the Bushes and now Arnold. Each Republican figurehead seems to only need to be able to speak fewer and fewer words as they go along. This one can only say three words in a row. Truth is, Arnold doesn’t have to say much. It’s all about his image.
The recall election has proven that clear policy positions and debates and full sentences aren’t really necessary to hold a leadership position. We’ve already given up on people following through. Better to say less and mean it, than talk, talk, talk or whine, whine, whine.
Arnold means: ‘I am big, masculine, tough, self-made immigrant. Uh.’
He’s butch in a way people are nostalgic for. That’s the secret of Republican success. We want an authority figure who’s gonna get things done, kick ass, take no prisoners. Something that happens with hard, forceful consonants, or in three syllables.
People are longing for a time when one person’s toughness can just make it all go away.
‘I vill be daddy of California. I vill be tough and make the bad people and your budget nightmare go avay.’
That’s all he has to say. Sexual harassment? Isn’t that part of any A list action movie star’s compensation package? Sexual appetite only adds to daddy cred. Nazi father? It only makes him tougher.
But here’s the catch. We have to reap what we sew. And if we think that the new lowest common denomoinator in politics is Arnold Schwarzenneger, we are sadly mistaken.
It’s going to get much much lower.
A monster truck will be the next governer of California.
Who needs a person? They’ll just disappoint us. They’ll get corrupt, they’ll have affairs, they’ll lose their hair and muscle tone.
Arianna tried to paint Arnold’s Hummer as a giant liability. She couldn’t have been more wrong.
A car named for a blow job? Arnold should watch out. I’d say that’s California’s governer in 2006.
‘ heather gold, Oct. 2003 www.subvert.com
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