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Indigenous Peoples Day
Seattle, where I have lived for thirty years, is one of many cities in the U.S. that have declared October 12 Indigenous Peoples Day. In Seattle the ordinance declaring the new name for the holiday was...
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The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month…
From the President Obama’s official proclamation for Veteran’s Day 2015: The United States military is the strongest, most capable fighting force the world has ever known. The brave men and women of...
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The official name of the holiday is Washington’s Birthday Observance
“When a person did his best, do not scold him for his failure” —George WashingtonI know I start to sound like Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory when I say this sort of thing, but the holiday we’re...
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Blood stains on their hands
Silence = Death became a rallying cry that led to the formation of ACT-UP as the queer community declared, ‘silence about the oppression and annihilation of gay people must be broken as a matter of our...
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Sausage making: my history with presidential nominees
Presidential campaigns in the U.S. are weird. Okay, let’s be honest, politics everywhere is weird, but the way Americans choose candidates has a particularly amazing number of eccentricities. We choose...
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Wishing on 9/13…
Cover of the Sept 25, 2001 edition of the Village Voice. (click to embiggen)Jim Wright, an author who is also a navy veteran, posted some comments about the 15th anniversary of 9/11 on Facebook on...
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Facing an existential threat yet again…
On one level I understand why during many election years so many Americans talk rather blithely of it being simply a choice of the lesser of two evils. Earlier this year Stephen Colbert and John...
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The first openly queer person to run for U.S. public office and win was not...
“This is the first time in the history of the United States that someone has run openly as a gay person and been elected to public office.” – Kathy Kozachenko, Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 2, 1974On...
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Seriously, it’s all Greek — more adventures in dictionaries
“…involving, related to, or characterized by a sexual propensity for one’s own sex; of or involving sexual activity with a member of one’s own sex, or between individuals of the same sex.” (Click to...
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Gay it forward
Source: thedesmondproject.com/Homelessness-Info.html (Click to embiggen)The Department of Justice estimates that about 1.7 million teen-agers are homeless in America at any time. Of those, about 40%...
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Gay It Forward, part 2
“You only gave us rights because we gave you riots. Queer Power” (Click to embiggen)The original Stonewall protest was a riot. Some people want us to forget that. They want us to be polite, not to make...
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That statue doesn’t mean what you think it means—bless your heart
The official declaration of the State of Mississippi when they seceded from the Union at the beginning of the Civil War: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the...
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Normal is overrated — more adventures in dictionaries
“I’ve done a lot of things over the years, but acting normal isn’t one of them.”The first time I experienced mental health therapy was in middle school, after I was injured by a bully severely enough...
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Celebrate Indeginenous Peoples Day
Indigenous Peoples Day “Today we celebrate the people who first called this land home. We remember the struggles and tragedies they endured. We honor their place in and contributions to the shared...
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Day of Mourning
“Since 1970, Native Americans and our supporters have gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not...
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That doesn’t mean what it used to — more adventures in dictionaries
Using my self-lighting magnifier with my latest dictionary acquisition, (Click to embiggen)If you’ve ever known a collector of anything one thing you learn is the collector seldom has a concept of the...
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No, today’s official holiday name isn’t what you think
Several years ago my employer did a weird re-arrangement of the holiday calendar that results in the office being closed for almost a full week at Christmas, but we no longer observer MLK, Jr Day,...
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Millions of Voices Cried Out in Terror — or, That’s Not the Force You’re...
(click to embiggen)I’ve started this blog post many times, but I either find myself wanting to pull my hair out at the mental gymnastics the haters (who claim to be TrueFans) keep putting themselves...
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Malice or ignorance — more reflections of exclusion at sf/f conventions
I need to do a bit of a follow up to my previous post about the issues at Worldcon. I didn’t touch on everything that happened, and since the issue blew up, Mary Robinette Kowal, whose tweet from years...
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Of the dead, speak nothing but truth… or, I refuse to whitewash this sepulcher
This was a John McCain campaign ad, approved by him, run by his campaign. Many times. “Leading the fight to stop Obamacare.” Do not call him the savior of the Affordable Care Act. Lots of people repeat...
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