On Martin

Martin Luther King Day is upon us again. It's a good time to think about what Dr. King means to us, individually and as a nation. Tonight, I'm reflecting on Dr. King's various iterations, and how they shape our view of the man.

One of my friends, Shanna Katz (a brilliant activist and champion of Justice), remarked that the MLK Day sales for businesses are "inappropriate cultural appropriation". I was shocked to hear that businesses would even dare to capitalize on the holiday. How have I not noticed this in years past? It can't be new this year. Then, I suppose, Memorial Day sales are rather insensitive. Memorialize the dead - and get 20% off your purchase! Yikes. So a national holiday is a national holiday, here in "capitalist", corporate-run America.

But what about Saint King? I see him a lot. In fact, he's actually depicted among the panoply of saints on the facade of Westminster Abbey in London. And deservedly so, right nearby Dietrich Bonhoeffer, another modern martyr. There's no question that King's life's work altered the course of our cultural growth, and provided people with a beacon of hope.

I believe that by sanctifying King as we do, we lose our sense of the hard work that Justice demands. I get a sense that people allow King to have died for our sins, that people think he sacrificed himself to do the hard work so that we wouldn't have to. And it's that complacency, that apathy, that disturbs me.

I also notice that people who aren't African-American tend to say more, chest-thump more, pontificate more on Martin Luther King Day than African-Americans do. There's a chasm of meaning in that relative silence from racial label to racial label. I count myself as one of those chest-thumpers, since, well, I'm writing this treatise, and my skin color affords me (sometimes unwelcome, but ever-present) privilege. Whose saint, whose martyr is he? Does he belong to all of us? Some of us? Do some of us need to remember, or speak of him, more than others? Why is that? I wish I understood.

At church today, the pastor read a large excerpt from one of King's speeches. It was very moving to hear those words. I'm not gonna lie, I was a wreck. He called King a "prophet", and then at the end of the service, we sang "We Shall Overcome". Whew. Okay, great. NOW WHAT? Is that it? Why bother to hear those words and sing that song, unless they become a CALL TO ACTION for all of us?

Every year in Denver, there is a "marade" honoring King. A march/parade. That is, in my opinion, one of the only memorial celebrations that really has some power behind it, because it CALLS US TO ACT.

I'm reminded of another statue of King. This one's new, it was just installed on the National Mall in Washington D.C. It was created by a Chinese citizen, and built by Chinese laborers. American artists submitted to the competition to create the memorial, but in the end, The People's Republic of China won the prize. According to news articles written at its unveiling, there was some controversy (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/26/305092/mlk-jr-memorial-statue-completed-using-unpaid-chinese-laborers/) about whether or not the Chinese laborers had been paid in a timely manner for their herculean efforts to create the memorial. Well, I suppose the Chinese laborers they shipped in to do the project weren't part of a protective labor union that would ensure fairness, respect, and human dignity. The Chinese government doesn't really support those kinds of things. Not like America does...or at least, not like America...DID.

Let me get this straight. CHINA was honored, through this artist, to pay homage to an American civil rights leader? CHINA, who has oppressed the Dalai Lama, who has oppressed and all-but-destroyed Tibet, who has oppressed and humiliated its own people...CHINA is chosen to craft what should be a symbol of Justice and freedom? I can't imagine a worse way to honor this man's work.

Not only that, but Dr. King was mis-represented on the memorial by an unfortunate paraphrasing of one of his quotes, which is now being "repaired". But isn't that just it? Don't we paraphrase, and borrow, and snatch King's words all the time? I feel like we're starting to toss around catchphrases of his like we do Bible verses...when it's convenient for us, and when, taken out of context, it supports our own views. And then, of course, there's that lovely ability that the internet has, of being able to attribute a quote to anyone. You know, like when Dr. King famously said: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Or something like that. I looked it up on Google. I'm paraphrasing. But Wikipedia had a footnote on it, so I'm sure it's accurate.

But really, I don't think Dr. King would want a giant, oppressive Chinese statue. Or a spot in the cornices of Westminster Abbey. I don't think he would want us to revere him as some kind of saint, or biblical prophet. I don't think it does Dr. King any good for us to read out his speeches with tear-filled eyes, or sing his favorite songs. Because without ACTION, these homages mean nothing. If we do not extend ourselves to our neighbors and work for the greater good, if we do not become champions of Justice and demand--as unpopular as it might be--that people stop making a mockery of others and filling the air with hateful words; if we do not shine the harsh light of shame on ignorance and fear, and call one another to a higher purpose, then these statues, these songs and speeches and "reverent" words, they are bitterly cold and empty.

My parents lived through the 1960s, they EXPERIENCED King working for Justice. They were part of those days of tumult and change, and progress. But I see Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. swiftly slipping away from the imperfect activist he was, into the shadow of some mythical figure borne upon the foggy, glistening clouds of history. Dr. King wasn't a saint. He was a womanizer, he had a temper, he did some stupid things. HE WAS A HUMAN BEING. My parents, and their generation, remember that part of him too. The human part. I know about it, intellectually, but I didn't experience it, except through the lens of the generation who did. And when that generation, and mine, is gone, my fear is that King's ascent--or descent--into the misty (or murky?) "heavens" of legend will be complete. And we as a country will forget his CALL TO ACTION, go through the honorific motions, sing "Precious Lord" and "Lift Every Voice and Sing", and the meaning won't matter. It won't matter that his speeches were very dangerous, brave things to say. It won't matter that those hymns were all that kept some of King's supporters going, during frightening KKK-filled nights and oppressive days. I'm afraid that those tokens will be...just...things...that we do on MLK Day, like presents at Christmas. (Who knows why the traditions are there? Oh well, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that we do them, and make money on it. Buy your new Kenmore refrigerator at the MLK Day Doorbuster Sale! Sit-ins for justice get the Groupon price! Wait...)

I don't want us to forget. Even though I can see that we already have. It's not enough to sing "We Shall Overcome", unless it compels you to speak out when someone calls someone else a "retard". It's not enough to quote "I Have A Dream", unless you are willing, as Dr. King was, to go to jail because you refuse to stop peacefully protesting corporate greed. It's not enough unless you have a dream too. It's not enough unless you work for Justice and Equality. It's not enough unless you swear that you will never let another person in your presence hate Mormonism, hate homosexuality, hate fat people, HATE...again. Only then will we memorialize Martin Luther King, with our commitment to each other, with our commitment to Peace, Justice, and ACTION. Only then will we overcome.


"How long? Not long, because the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward Justice..."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAYITODNvlM

Angry voters? I've got one for you...

People keep talking about how the mid-term elections went Republican (and Tea-Party) because the voters are angry about the loss of jobs, the economy, and the wars.

Yeah? Well, I'm angry too.

I'm angry because people think it's a good statement to draw a Hitler mustache on a picture of the President of the United States. I'm angry because Americans think it's patriotic to vandalize their President.

I'm angry because people point the finger at Barack Obama, and blame him for the economy, blame him for the war, blame him for our troubles. But you know what? GEORGE W. BUSH tanked the economy. BUSH signed us up for these wars. BUSH started the economic stimulus and left Obama with a pile of bailouts. BUSH kept everyone in the dark and crippled us with fear. And now that the light has shined on BUSH'S catastrophe, we blame it on the man who WE elected to fix it.

I'm angry because people seem to think that eight years of destruction can be eliminated with two years of reconstruction.

I'm angry because it's okay to toss civility in political debate out the window now.

I'm angry because the Tea Party exists: a group of people who named their agenda after the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Tea Party was a protest against the unjust taxes that England had imposed on the colonies. It was a protest of people against their unjust government.

And I'm angry because somehow Americans have forgotten that WE THE PEOPLE are the government. So if we hate the government, we're hating ourselves.

I'm angry because if Barack Obama were white, the voters would see him differently and treat him differently, and nobody's willing to admit that people are reacting negatively to his race, but that race is a factor in how people approve of his work overall.

I'm angry that the politicians that make up the Tea Party have created a sensationalist campaign using language like "killing jobs" and "big government takeover" to perpetuate the fear of the uneducated masses. Using this fearmongering, they further their own privatization agendas, and ensure that their stakeholders and investors will continue to have economic success. This leads to the destabilization and destruction of the country's infrastructure. And the voters lap it up like kittens and vote for the demise of the very services they use.

I'm angry because the Tea Party and the Republicans seem hell-bent on destroying essential public services.

I'm angry because if they win, it means the end of Social Security, Medicare, library systems, mass transit, road maintenance, law enforcement, public education, and emergency responders. BECAUSE ALL OF THOSE THINGS ARE PAID FOR WITH--wait for it--TAXES.

I'm angry because people don't think for themselves, they think what they're told to think, and the prettier the package, the shinier and more dazzling the concept, the more likely it is people will jump on board.

I'm angry because it's okay for the Palins to call people faggots, and it's somehow also okay to be an unwed teenage mother and still promote heartland home-grown Focus-on-the-Family values.

I'm angry because people in this country still don't have equal civil rights and somehow that's not a problem for the majority of voters.

I'm angry that people can't marry each other if they're two consenting adults in love.

I'm angry that people don't have universal access to the health care they need.

I'm angry that American Indian tribes still live in third-world squalor on reservations, have rocketing cases of diabetes, suicide, depression, and alcoholism; they're disgustingly under-served as a group and that doesn't seem to be a problem for voters either.

I'm angry that our jobs are all exported overseas by greedy corporations who don't care about their communities, their CEOs just want to be in the top 5% of the earning bracket.

I'm angry that our Constitution is unrecognizable, that it looks like someone took an Xacto knife to it.

I'm angry that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (ah yes, remember? When BUSH II was king-I-mean President?) destroyed Habeas Corpus and now, we Americans no longer have a fair right to trial if one of us is suddenly declared an "enemy combatant".

I'm angry that because of the conservative Supreme Court Justices and the cowardly liberal Justices, corporations like McDonald's and Chase Bank now have the same "constitutional" rights as an individual American.

I'm angry because corporations are allowed to perpetuate their abusive money-making practices with no checks or balances, with no regulation, they can run wild and screw around with people's human rights, and no one will stop them, because they're perfectly within their legal "rights" to do it. (Ahem - Target? Wal-Mart? Need I go on?)

I'm angry because our food system (which is lorded over by corporations) is corrupt and unsafe and there is NO WAY out of it. There is NO WAY to acquire affordable, healthy food anymore without it being processed, engineered and genetically altered to hell. Here comes the mutant e-coli shitstorm, everyone, gird your loins.

I'm angry because our corrupt food system could be held responsible for the macabre state of an American's health. Diabetes, heart disease, cancer...why does America have such higher rates of these diseases than other countries? Because our food is shit. Literally.

I'm angry because it's okay to "raise" chickens in tiny shit cages and alter their genes so they're too fat to walk, so they lie in excrement for their entire lives without ever seeing the sun, and then - most of the time - we painlessly slice off their heads and soak their corpses in chemicals. And then we unabashedly feed them to the public. And "big government" is so crippled with its own lost-cause debates, nothing can possibly get done to change this picture.

I'm angry because the oil and coal companies have a chokehold on our land and they can rape the national forests and national parks all they want, and they can kill all the electric cars they want, and they can stymie environmental progress, because they are allowed to monopolize our energy, BECAUSE THERE ARE NO CHECKS OR BALANCES. No regulation = abuse.

I'm angry because our prison system is being privatized, which again means no regulation, which again means wanton abuse. Then these prisoners get out and are allowed to roam our communities. And do we offer them mental health care, to reform them and possibly ensure that they won't repeat an offense? NO, because we don't want to pay taxes, we don't want to offer people health care, we couldn't give a rat's ass about people's physical and mental health, we just want a tax refund so we can go buy a flat-screen TV.



As you can see, I'm angry about a lot of things (I've got more, but I'm running out of steam). And I don't sit around and do nothing about it. I write. I speak out. I vote. I give my money and my time. I try to make the world better, one person at a time. And I pray. I pray for the enlightenment of my fellow human beings. I pray for tolerance, love and peace. And I try to be the change. Oh yeah, and I avoid eating chickens.

Illegal Immigration

My friend posted this comment on Facebook: "I'd like to remind everyone that unless your heritage is Native American, you too are an illegal immigrant to a country."

My initial reaction to this was, wait a minute, I'm not illegal, I was born here, and my family went through Ellis Island, filled out their paperwork, they're totally leg--

Wait another minute. She's right.

Here was my response: "The treaties that were signed by members of the United States Army and leaders of American Indian nations were reneged, The United States did not honor their legally binding contracts and therefore, all land upon which people migrated that was relinquished as a result of these treaties is illegally acquired land. It was stolen. Period. Therefore, immigrants who live on stolen land are living on that land in direct opposition to the terms of the treaties. They are illegal immigrants, just not in modern terms. (I am an illegal immigrant as well, and I have not forgotten.)"

This led me to wonder if we as "Americans" shouldn't have a more humble view of our immigration laws. I mean, if you think about it, this new horde of "American" marauders comes in, kills off all the indigenous people, rapes the land, and then has the audacity to chastise people for coming in and using its resources and living in its cities?

Not to get Christian here, but the Gospel of Matthew has something to say about this, the thing about the waiting to tell your brother about the speck in his eye until you've figured out how to dislodge the splintery log that's in your own.

Hey America, you want Immigration Reform? How about let's start by reforming our policies (or the lack thereof) towards indigenous people, how about let's go back and try to fix the deplorable way we've handled every Indian treaty we ever signed?

Before we continue expounding on the ways we need to "deal" with our immigration "problem," let's, for the first time, REALLY deal with our "Indian Problem," once and for all. Let's do a real bit of penance here. Let's cordon off Devil's Tower and the Black Hills and all the other sacred sites and stop drilling in them and climbing on them and otherwise defacing holy ground. Let's pour some government money into restoring Indian territory and ensuring that people who live on reservations have access to the best resources, the best health care, the best psychiatric care, the best education. Let's preserve Native languages and give the bodies of the dead that are languishing in natural history museums back to the descendants and give those peoples' deaths some dignity.

Let's make sure that indigenous people aren't forced to live in third world squalor on Pine Ridge while we look the other way. Let's help these people fund their nations on some other source of income than casinos. Let's promise to put to death our stereotypes, let's bury those despicable sports mascots like the Redskins and the Braves, let's find a way to eliminate the plagues of alcoholism, drug abuse, and diabetes.

I don't think any of us illegal immigrants (squatters on foreign land) have a word to say about people of other nations crossing our borders and using our resources, because you know what? They aren't really ours and they never were. I think we have over two hundred years of illegal activity on our own behalf to resolve before we can start examining the speck in the other's eye, the Mexican border.

Ring Around the Rosie: Ashes

There is something so pagan about Ash Wednesday. You let another person smear dirt all over your face (well, in my case, my nose was looking pretty smudgy by the end of it). I'm always mystified by Catholic behavior but as I walked back to my pew and looked at my fellow parishioners staring straight ahead with big fat smudges on their foreheads I wondered what could be going on in their heads.

I think I know what we're supposed to think. We're supposed to be penitent, to feel badly about all the bad things we've done and to be very, very sorry. Guilt, forgiveness. And maybe there's some sadness and regret thrown in there too. Father told us to rend our hearts and cast off the things in our lives that separate us from God. Like TV or video games. Yes, and we should probably give up lusting after people, alcohol consumption, and cussing like sailors. Because those things separate us from God.

So that's easy, right? Feel sorry for yourself (Heaven knows I'm exceptionally skilled at that practice), worry about how you've committed all these sins, and doubt that you'll ever be forgiven for being such a wretched human being. And then you're done. Of course you should try to do better, but who has time for that? I'm so busy feeling bad, I can't waste my time concentrating on doing better, because I know I can't possibly live up to what's expected of me.

At this point my knees kind of hurt from the kneeler thingie on the pew so I lean back and chill a little bit. I used to be really good at this feeling sorry thing. Well, better than I am. I used to fixate and obsess over things I'd said and done, and man it's lucky nobody gave me a leather strap, 'cause I'd make such a fantastic flagellant.

But I can't do it anymore. I lose steam nowadays, I don't get very far in my wallowing. It's all Eckhart Tolle's fault, too.

Here is what I am "giving up" for Lent. I am giving up drama. I am giving up my ego. And you won't find me flogging through the daffodils because all that sorrow, all that repentance is a really great way for me to feed my ego and play out my melodrama (meanwhile, God's wondering when I'll get over myself).

The ashes remind me to not take anything too seriously, because none of it is really important. Feeling bad and fasting and giving up chocolate is oh so dramatic, and way too serious for me. I think it kind of begs the question. You want to fast? Try letting go of your inhibitions, try not taking things personally, try rendering those things which you hold most dear (your work, your self-image) irrelevant. Now there's a fast.

I think that's what Jesus wanted out of the idea that you should pray in secret. He wanted us to discipline our minds and separate from the ego, from the drama.

Can Art Survive Technology? Or, I Miss Seeing Your Face

Like many artists, I would like to understand why John Q. Public isn't interested in, say, purchasing a painting of mine for $800, even if it's for a good cause. I would like to understand why people think I shouldn't have to be paid for singing. I would like to understand why people don't read books anymore, why books and literature aren't appealing.

Why buy a painting when you can rip it off the internet for free, and look at it any time you want? If you have good enough technology, you could just print out the painting at home and hang it on your wall, who cares if the actual paint isn't visible? Who even uses real paint for art these days? Isn't Photoshop enough?

Everything is so easily accessible: music, film, theatre, writing...all of the institutes that supported communities of artists are dying: museums, galleries, newspapers and real-life publishing, concert halls and opera houses, movie theaters and playhouses...so how can an artist make a profit off of their art, when there is no audience, no group of people willing to pay money for it?

Maybe I'll find an answer to this question, but I don't see one right now. People have to make a conscious decision to support the arts, people have to abandon their laziness and make the extra effort to leave the privacy of their homes to see that movie, or hear that performance. It seems that is a lot to ask of the generation wearing iPhone-shaped blinders, who cannot experience anything if it doesn't manifest as a digital image at their fingertips.

Yes, I can admit to using youtube and google to look at art, to watch a movie clip or read a poem. But I am left feeling empty, as if I had no real connection to the art, and it stirs a desire for further interaction. If I see a painting by Frida Kahlo online, I resolve to someday see that painting in real life, to cough up the dinero to squint at the brushstrokes and experience something that I will remember for a long time. I can tell, though, that a lot of people out there are satisfied by simply googling whatever art they fancy and shooting a quick glance at it while their feature film downloads.

To say nothing of the profound expense of human interaction. How are we to relate to one another, to empathise and have compassion, when there is no need for the human touch, the face-to-face experience? How can we call ourselves a community when we rarely commune, when we are content to pile into our giant destructive SUVs and spend our days zooming from cozy garage to cozy garage, plying the children into gaping silent apathy as they stare at the DVD players in the backseat? How are we to enjoy good conversations when every restaurant's wall is covered in television screens (St. Clare, pray for us) and we have every opportunity to abandon our loved ones for the siren song of constant image stimulation? To me, technology is like caffeine or cigarettes, a common drug that keeps us feeling calm and satiated, lest we forget the impending emphysema, heart attack, or lung cancer that looms with each little sin committed. So we indulge in the instant gratification that our internet can provide, again and again, for free, and we take it and all the work that is poured into it daily for granted.

A society loses its identity without arts and culture. And likewise, an economy suffers when the institutions of arts and culture aren't supported by active, engaged, thinking individuals. Can you imagine visiting New York without seeing a Broadway show? Or driving through a Hollywood with no movie stars, with no acting talent to admire? Yet that is what we sacrifice, every time we download a movie for free, or youtube a scene from Wicked. And while Broadway and Hollywood may be safe due to their size, age, and enduring appeal, Denver's arts district may not be so lucky.

Are we going to take ownership of our humanity, our communities, our fellow human beings, or are we going to stay behind the screen, for convenience's sake? I can tell you that it's not very convenient for me to spend months creating art only for it to receive a passing glance, and not a cent for my efforts. When I create art I do it to enrich my community, but I cannot do that without economic support. None of us can. We have to eat, and live, and food, unfortunately, is not something that we can download for free...yet.

Election 2008 Part I

It has taken me some time this year to observe the progress of the presidential election with care and consideration.

Yesterday Governor Sarah Palin was nominated as Vice President of the United States. Together with Senator John McCain, she promotes a potential presidency that will refuse GLBT individuals basic civil and human rights, refuse women the right to choose, and refuse all of us our Constitutional rights, just as we have been refused all these things for the past eight years.

If McCain becomes president, I won't be able to legally marry the love of my life, nor will I be able to visit her in the hospital as a family member. I won't be able to choose whether or not to have children if I become pregnant (even if I am raped), and I won't be able to adopt a child borne of my partner. If for whatever reason I am able to have children, my children will have the choice to be taught what to think in a parochial or charter school or to be products of a bankrupt, corrupt public education system run on a corrupt business model. My children will grow up in a country with one national religion, without freedom to choose their beliefs and practice them without contempt or persecution. My children will be denied scientific exploration and knowledge of facts and theories because their science classes will be censored and used as platforms to enforce evangelical Christian politics.

In this McCain-run United States, the infrastructure of the country will continue to deteriorate, because John McCain will cut the taxes we need to fund our government entities. Without tax increases, states won't have the funds they need to build and repair highways and bridges, to maintain law enforcement and emergency response entities, to maintain school districts, and other public services. John McCain's tax cuts will mean the most to the wealthy, people with large investments in corporations and in the oil industry.

John McCain supports oil companies and offshore drilling as a means of "energy independence." He ignores the facts that Al Gore has shown us in his seminars and films, which are supported by the majority of scientists in the world: that oil production and consumption, as well as coal production and consumption, is largely responsible for global warming and that our global climate is and will continue to be in jeopardy unless we drastically change our energy strategy. Our world is at stake and John McCain stands with the wealthy, and with people who are in denial about the state of our world.

John McCain supports Bush's foreign policy. In his acceptance speech for the candidacy, he said that he would stop friendly relations and financial aid to countries who "don't like us very much" and of course, he wants to continue the war in Iraq because he thinks we're winning. He doesn't support diplomacy with the nations that threaten to develop nuclear weapons, though I will give him credit for saying, at least, that he wants to engage in new diplomacy with Russia after their explosive recent war.

However, McCain doesn't seem to be very interested in restoring our relationship with our allies in Europe and Asia. Unlike Barack Obama, he hasn't said much of anything about how we can redeem ourselves before Europe and the rest of the world. He doesn't seem to see how humiliating it is to engage with the world while we wage a war upon a decimated country and rattle our many sabers.

Barack Hussein Obama

Well, here it is, everyone: I support Barack Obama, even though Hillary is the darling now (God knows why). And I guess people have been trying to defeat Obama by bringing up the fact that he has Muslim heritage, and his middle name is Hussein. I have several problems with this. First of all, anyone who isn't a dumb American with no education would know that Hussein is a very common name in Muslim countries, it's like Hernandez in Spanish-speaking countries. So just because Obama's middle name is Hussein, it doesn't mean he's related to a dictator family, and it doesn't mean he is going to declare jihad on us (oh, and in case we forgot, Osama bin Laden of AFGHANISTAN and Al Qaida declared jihad on us, NOT Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Saddam was perfectly nice and quiet, just minding his own normal business of torturing his citizens, but he wasn't trying to blow up our skyscrapers. OSAMA was. In Afghanistan. Where he is, still alive, and still plotting against us. Hmmmm....we haven't really accomplished anything for our own safety, have we? DUH.)

Second of all, I would feel very safe having Obama fly around the world representing the United States as its president. If you think Bush is buddy-buddy with the oil-mongers in Saudi Arabia, think of what Obama could do in terms of relating to Muslim people. Muslims are going to be more likely to listen to an American who has a name similar to theirs and who vaguely resembles someone from their country than they will listen to Bushy-wushy with his darling curly hair and his Texan cowboy demeanor. Hey, maybe if we had a president who wasn't so antagonistic towards Muslims, the Muslim extremists wouldn't hate and want to blow us up so much! Do we really think Hillary is going to do a better job relating to Muslim countries than Barack Obama would? What experience does she have, except the same thing all the other presidents have had, the experience of a privileged white American?

I'm on Obama's side. Jihad, how ridiculous. If Bush's "war on terror" isn't jihad, I don't know what is.