I realize it's probably not the best time to leave Canada. Canadian summers are so short eh?
But the truth is I can't wait to leave, because politically speaking this has been the worst summer EVAH. First the Cons got a majority, and then it started to rain.
And it won't be too hard to give up blogging either, because if all the yelling and shrieking in the progressive blogosphere was light, the truth would be blinding. But all I see are people wailing in The Great Darkness. Especially if they are Liberals.
And since I love all progressives and my blogging family, that makes me sad.
I also realize that I'll be missing Pride Week, and the Gay Pride Parade. But at least I won't have to endure the debate over whether the Fordzilla is a homophobe. When that's exactly what he is.
By deciding not to attend this year’s parade, the mayor is reinforcing the stereotypical notion of Pride as nothing more than a queer fest for cruising homos. In that sense, the mayor is delegitimatizing an entire community, an influential and important one, whose members also have kids, mortgages and dreams and aspirations for their loved ones, just like the mayor.
And you can't put lipstick on that pig...
Besides, on a higher note, they say you have to leave Canada to write about it.
And I'm taking Sébastien to the place where as a small boy, while keeping an eye on the sheep, I had some of my BEST ideas...
When it was sunny.
So maybe I can figure out what flaw in our national character caused us to be known as the Ugly Canadians.
Doctors from many countries have implored Canada for years to change its ways. The Lancet, a leading medical journal, has underscored the dangers of asbestos. The World Health Organization has warned that “at least 90,000 people die each year from asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis resulting from occupational exposures.” Doctors from Canada (including Quebec) and abroad have signed petitions, sent letters, organized delegations – all to no avail.
Because that one really hurts eh?
On the other hand I'm also taking Sébastien to see the wall a Roman Emperor put up to keep out my rebel people...
So I'm hardly about to give up on the Canada I love so much. Or stop attacking Emperor Harper. Or stop trying to knock down the walls of poverty, ignorance, and bigotry.
And I know that if we unite and help each other, we CAN defeat the Cons.
So I think I'll just wrap this up with a message of hope.
And this great new song that stands for just about EVERYTHING I believe in...
Well I see the great postal filibuster has ended. The NDP has surrendered to reality. The union-bashing Cons got what they wanted. The workers were shafted.
And at least the NDP defined itself as THE opposition party, and appears to recognize the importance of symbolic protest.
In fact, symbolically, the NDP Commons filibuster over back-to-work legislation has been brilliant. It has gone on long enough to portray New Democrats as the party willing to defy Harper.
But, so far at least, it has not gone on so long that it materially harms the public and, in particular, those small business operators dependent on mail service whose votes the NDP hopes to attract.
Because now that the HarperCons have a majority, that's the only kind of protest we've got left.
Although I also note that Brigette DePape has some ideas in that regard.
"When they tell us to stay home they are trying to get us to forget that the power of the people in the streets is greater than the power of any government."
But here's the question. How far are we really prepared to go to block the Harper Agenda? And how many Canadians are prepared to stick their necks out to defend Canada? Like Tim DeChristopher is prepared to do to save the planet.
I ask that question because I recently watched a video of DeChristopher addressing the Power Shift conference in April.
And it was one of the most riveting speeches I think I've ever seen...
So how far are Canadians prepared to go?
I have no idea. I guess it depends on how far the Cons are prepared to go. And how much we love our country.
But I do know a couple of things eh?
If Tim DeChristopher ever runs for President of the World I'd vote for him.
Thanks to the NDP and Brigette DePape, the power of peaceful protest is alive and kicking in this country.
It took a long time, even in the place where the gay rights revolution was born. Every homophobic group in Amerika tried to stop it. But tonight the state of New York finally legalized gay marriage.
Here's the historic vote as covered by Rachel Maddow:
Can you believe it? Almost 42 years to the day since the Stonewall Uprising, gays and lesbians in that state have finally won the right to celebrate their love.
I dedicate this moment to Patrick, and all those who could not live to see this day. But they are with us now in Heaven, and we can know at least we - and so many straight people - did not let them down.
You think it’s going to stop with this? You think now bigamists are going to want their rights to marry? You think somebody that wants to marry his sister is going to now say “I have a right”? I mean, it’s the same principle, isn’t it?
You know...the Empire State Building is decked out in the rainbow colours these days to mark Pride Week.
Holy Lady Gaga. Sometimes it's not easy to be gay eh? When the bigots aren't trying to kill you, the Christianist closet queens are trying to "cure" you.
In the United States their hugging fondling praying cousins at Exodus International recently had an app removed by Apple.
But in this country the eggy freaks at EGA are able to promote the same harmful nonsense, and suck up hoover up donations as a registered CHARITY !!!!!
But now finally, some are taking aim at that scam thanks to the excellent work of my awesome brother Mark at Slap Upside the Head.
So please sign his petition, because it's the best way to put those phonies out of business. And since Stephen Harper shares their views and believes that homosexuality is a choice, so can presumably be "cured," it won't be easy.
As for the "ex-gay" movement, as someone who came out at the age of thirteen and has been fighting bigots and bullies ever since. All I want to say to those self-haters is this:
Closet queens PUH......LEAZE.Get a grip on yourselves...uh...metaphorically speaking. And repeat after me:
Hooray you're gay
And gay is never going to go away.
Or better still, sing it with the Juliettes...
Yup. As I was saying. Sometimes it's not easy to be gay eh?
When I think about what Stephen Harper and his sinister thugs might have been up to in Afghanistan. And how we'll never know what really happened, because the Cons have shutdown the judge's panel.
The Conservative government decided to shut down a panel responsible for vetting documents on the handling and treatment of Afghan detainees, a newly released letter indicates.
The June 15 letter from two former Supreme Court judges on the panel says they were advised by the government after the recent election “that it is unlikely” the document review process would be renewed, even though they had examined only an “initial” cache of records.
So the great document search into torture turned out to be nothing but a FARCE.
When I think about how most Canadians probably don't give a damn because they tuned out the Afghan War a long time ago. And the how the words "Canada" and "human rights" don't go together anymore.
I say thank goodness for Amnesty International, which is celebrating its fiftieth birthday.
I've always admired the organization. I tattooed its logo on my arm when I was fifteen. I love the way it fights for the rights of political prisoners all over the world. And how it champions all kinds of other human rights causes that would otherwise receive little or no attention.
From the rights of Gypsies to be treated with respect and dignity.
To the rights of girls in Nicaragua to live free from sexual violence.
Well I see that Rob Ford has announced that he'd rather get drunk at his cottage, than march in the Pride Parade.
Rob Ford is skipping the pride parade to spend his Canada Day weekend at the cottage, ending a long tradition of participation by Toronto mayors in the popular event.
And I for one am delighted eh?
Because it is a long parade route, it can get brutally hot, and if he melted into a pool of grease, they'd have to get a sewer sucker to hoover him up.
And surely nobody is surprised by the message he is sending to the city's gay community.
Councillor Janet Davis said the mayor’s decision not to march is indicative of his feelings toward the gay community. “By not going to Pride I think he is sending a very clear message that they don’t count in Rob Ford’s city,” she said.
Gawd. What an idiot MONSTER. Why does he hate the people of Toronto soooo much? When can we remove him from office?
And why is that grotesque Fordzilla stirring up homophobia again? Because all you have to do is read the comments in the Globe article to see what I mean:
Hmmm, hang out at lake with family, have a beer, grill some steak and catch some fish.
OR
Watch half-naked, oiled up men dance around in their underpants blowing whistles.....
Pass the beer Rob. I wouldn't go either; someone might sneeze and spread AIDS
And if some gay person is beaten or murdered as a result, he'll have blood all over his trotters.
Oh well. At least the lesson couldn't be clearer eh?
Until progressives unite to defeat the common enemy, they'll get the government, the Prime Minister.
If you want to survive Canada's Summer of Anger, there are two subjects you absolutely must NOT discuss with your fellow hosers.
One...who is to blame for the Vancouver riot? Because chances are you'll have to listen to some deranged rant about how young people are inherently dumb and dangerous. How they HUMILIATED Canada. And how they should be shamed, jailed, whipped, and their lives ruined FOREVER.
Because then you might have to listen to a lengthy and foamy diatribe about how those unionized workers are lazy, greedy, PARASITES, who are giving themselves juicy pensions with OUR tax dollars. And how DARE they have a pension when I don't ???!!!
When in fact:
(1) The postal service workers make millions and millions of dollars in PROFIT for the government. They don't depend on the largesse of taxpayers, and the only people that do are the ones with the best performing pensions in the country.
(2) The attempt to create two kinds of workers at Canada Post is part of a larger campaign to do away with pensions altogether, and an all out assault on the rights of young Canadians.
The CEOs have decided. The value of young people is lower than the value of people from my generation. You don’t deserve the same salary, even if you are better educated. You don’t deserve the same vacation time or health benefits. And you certainly don’t deserve to have the same kind of secure retirement. It’s just not in the business plan.
(3) Stephen Harper and his Cons are out to destroy public pensions, and what's left of the union movement in Canada. Because for them and the big business porkers, pensions are SOCIALISM. And unions are The Enemy.
And they know that if young Canadians are barely able to support themselves, they'll be less likely to join a union, and less able or willing to support the elderly.
So we'll ALL suffer, the race to the bottom will continue, and people will end up gnawing on each other in the darkness of a capitalist jungle. While the fat cats look down on us from their fortresses or their executive jets, rattle their jewels, swill their champagne, and laugh their porky asses off.
Which is when I start thinking of what happened in Vancouver. And wonder what might happen when young Canadians realize that their future has been stolen, their planet has been torched. And find a REAL reason to riot...
But for Godzilla's sake, whatever you do, don't mention that to anyone you don't know really well eh? Or you might be attacked or publicly SHAMED.
Even though that won't change the truth: Or there will be justice, or there will be trouble.
And this too is true:
If you are under the age of 35, pay close attention. Your standard of living, and that of your children, is being decided right now in the boardroom, the workplace and even on the picket line. Sooner rather than later, you will need to pick a side.
We are heading for an ideological and generational struggle the likes of which most Canadians can't even IMAGINE.
The Cons and their corporate masters are preparing to wage war on young and old Canadians.
I am always moved when I see the special bond between a homeless person and his or her dog.
How they share what little they have with their pets. And how their dogs are oblivious to their miserable surroundings, and are just glad to be with the ones who love them.
Because I share a special bond with the homeless. Their condition makes me sad, and ashamed. And the cruel way they are often treated makes me wild with anger.
And of course, as you know, I love dogs eh?
So I found this story both sad and beautiful..
I'm glad that poor man was treated kindly before he died.
Because that's the way all human beings, whether they have a home or not, should be treated all the time.
And I'm happy his last wish came true. Because homeless people have dreams too.
As for the dog, I wonder as she sleeps in her fancy new home, whether she dreams of waking up in that car next to her friend.
Well I must admit I was shocked to find myself watching the NDP Convention on Sun TV. All because Sébastien taped Fox News North instead of CPAC. Claiming he didn't understand my instructions because they were written in what I thought was good French.
Gawd...I mean CRISSE !#!&!! Only in Canada eh?
But despite the sinking feeling that I had boosted Sun TV's ratings by at least forty percent, and had joined the very small group of Canadians who have ever watched any of their programs for more than an hour, I still liked what I saw.
Oh sure, I wish they could have put the democratic socialism/social democratic debate behind them. Because although you're judged by what you do, not by what you call yourself.
Socialist parties in Europe have often achieved more that their sisters and brothers in Canada---in some cases including free university tuition, strong job protection and termination benefits, higher minimum wages, better pensions, pharmacare, free full day early childhood education, state funded family vacations, worker participation in the management of industry, generous parental leave, a shorter work week, rent subsidies, and in a few odd cases, free firewood, and free access to municipally owned ski lifts and ski runs.
And although I'm proud to call myself a democratic SOCIALIST.
So many Canadians were raised during the Cold War, and confuse socialism and communism. Duh. So social democratic is probably better.
Because for me the ONLY thing that counts is defeating the Harper Cons, and in that regard the most significant thing that happened this weekend was this:
In earlier voting Sunday, party delegates also rejected a resolution calling on the party to reject all future mergers with the Liberals — which leaves the door open to potential future talks between the two opposition parties.
Talk about the Great Leap Forward eh?
Yes comrades... I know that right now the Liberals don't support a merger. But if the NDP can look like a government-in-waiting and still keep their options open, so can the Liberals.
And after they've healed themselves, and accepted reality, and seen what the Harper Cons have done to this country, I'm sure they will.
In fact, on this strange day when I was forced to watch the NDP on Sun TV, I think it's only fitting that I should ask a famous Liberal to sum up my view of this weekend's democratic socialist/social democratic convention.
Because he was once a socialist.
The universe Pierre Trudeau said, is unfolding as it should.
Or as I say these days, if you can't call it Ipanema eh?
Lardy. Bean me with a bacon bit...or a Vienna sausage. They don't call them Con hogs for nothing eh? But who knew they were such party animals?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's own department has repeatedly broken the government's tough rules for hospitality spending.
An internal report on how the Privy Council Office spent $340,000 on hospitality found widespread flouting of a basic rule — that is, public servants must get prior approval from a supervisor before spending the cash.
Oinky Boinky. I know having a majority means never having to say sorry. But is Stephen Harper running a government, or the prom he never had?
The Canadian Press later reported Harper had personally approved a $47,000 event for 600 employees in Privy Council Office.
And who does he think he is wasting the taxpayer's money so casually? Tony Clement ? You know...the Minister of Pork responsible for slashing government spending.
But of course, for sheer debauchery nothing could beat this Con party...
At the recent Tory convention, party members voted to support any religious organization’s right to refuse to perform same-sex marriages. Meanwhile, a group of gay Conservatives at the convention, held at the Ottawa Westin, hosted “The Fabulous Blue Tent,” a hospitality suite open to all.
The party went on until 3 a.m. Ministers in attendance included Kenney and John Baird. Among the Conservative MPs were Patrick Brown, Rick Dykstra and newly elected Toronto Tory Ted Opitz (who beat Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj by 26 votes in a recount). One Tory attendee quipped: “The Conservatives have made progress clearly by upgrading from a closet to a ‘fabulous blue tent.’ And if you keep throwing fabulous parties they have got to love you.”
Because having a party after voting to strip gays and lesbians of their right to marry, is about as hoggy as it gets.
And inviting the porker homophobe Jason Kenney, is the opposite of FABULOUS.
Unless of course, La Kenney came in drag...
But sadly I can't confirm that, because my only other source is Dr Roy.
And he's a friend of Dorothy too, and a huge monarchist, so he's not telling.
I visited a postal worker's picket line yesterday morning. And in the evening Sébastien dropped by and took this great picture after the Cons announced they intend to force them back to work.
The Conservative government is vowing to legislate an end to the Canada Post lockout even if it means extending the Parliamentary session and overriding the strong objections from labour and the opposition.
NDP Leader Jack Layton and interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae both accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of ignoring the larger issue behind the disputes – the trend of employers moving away from defined benefit – or guaranteed – pension plans for new hires.
We both had the same message for the workers, the nicest bunch of people you can imagine. We are against this war on pensions, this assault on young and old Canadians, and we support their union one-hundred percent.
We felt we had to say that eh? After hearing so many people muttering that they don't have a pension so why should the postal workers? As if a race to the bottom is what this country needs. Instead of a decent pension system for everyone, so old people can live out their lives in dignity instead of misery.
And the young aren't treated like slave labour. And condemned to a future of low wages and exploitation.
But of course that's exactly where Stephen Harper and his Con ideologues would take us, to please their masters in Big Business...
Today on the CBC the despicable capitalist shark Kevin O'Leary said, if he was Prime Minister, he'd declare unions illegal. So you know what those porkers are thinking eh?
The good news? If they try to turn this country into a jungle they'll have a hell of a fight on their hands. I was delighted to see how many ordinary Canadians honked their car horns in support as they drove by the CUPW picket line.
They know, as Seb and I know, that unions are some of the greatest defenders of our precious Canadian values, champions of human rights, that without them we would ALL be slaves.
And of course that, see you in the streets brothers and sisters. Say it again Billy.
Yes, of course they're Canuck fans. Anyone who works for a living knows what replica jerseys cost in the real world....A great many people in the crowd throwing bottles, smashing windows and grinning happily for the cameras were happily showing off their Canucks jerseys.
"This isn't the Vancouver I know; we're better than this, I thought we had grown up in the past 17 years," was another. This could only be said by someone who keeps his eyes closed when he wanders outside: Vancouver not only has a seedy underbelly; it is right there for anyone willing to see it.
Could it happen in any other Canadian city? Yes it could. So what we really need to ask ourselves is why have we allowed our national sport to become such an ugly game. And such an unhealthy obsession.
This is the dark side of our national obsession with the game of hockey. It is our greatest source of collective pride when we win. And when we don’t, it looses our collective rage at … what, exactly?
Rather than a post-mortem on what went wrong on Wednesday — we already know that — it would be more helpful to take stock of why so many of us are so goddamned angry.
Because this was the dirtiest Stanley Cup final I have ever watched, after one of the dirtiest seasons ever. A season of cheap shots and concussions, that saw good players like Sidney Crosby mowed down by goons, while the NHL did practically nothing to stop it. Because violence SELLS.
We also really need to ask ourselves why we have allowed Con clowns like Don Cherry and Stephen Harper to weave that thuggish version of our sport into our national fabric, pump it up with cheap jingoism, conflate it with a ridiculous sense of destiny, poison it with a winner take all mentality.
We also need to ask why the media whipped the Stanley Cup final into such a big Canada Vs The World contest, when it was just a contest between two cities. Why they made such a big deal about it. Why even the CBC News led its newscasts with hockey nonsense when hundreds were being massacred in Syria. And farmers in Western Canada were drowning.
Because it's cheap, it's absurd, it makes us look like pathetic losers with an inferiority complex the size of a house. Or like a mob when we're disappointed.
And Canada is much much more than just hockey.
But then that's our beautiful country eh? There are some truths we would rather not face. We'd rather not ask why a Stephen Harper ad looks like a hockey/beer commercial.
What it says about what we are becoming, and where it is leading us...
Because hockey is Canada !!!!!!!!! And we're number ONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh well. Until the NHL cleans up its act, until so many in this country regain their sanity, hockey will only mean one thing to me.
The great Canadian game, that we play with our friends.
Oh.My.Godzilla. Where's Barney when we need him? It seems the right-wingers in this country can't stop lumbering after Brigette DePape.
When they're not bellowing "Canada is not EGYPT !!!!!!" they're calling her a political extremist.
DePape repeatedly talked about stopping, what she termed, the "Harper Agenda." She called for Canadians to engage in civil disobedience, going so far as to claim Canada needs an "Arab Spring" and comparing the situation to the Civil Rights Movement.
Regardless of where one stands on the policies of the Conservative government, it is clear that this sort of talk is at best hyperbolic and at worst offensive. The way the protesters spoke, it's almost as if the Harper government is planning to shred the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Yet there are people, mostly young Canadians, who agree with these sentiments.
Or just young and dumb.
As if there wasn't a Harper Agenda, as if his regime hadn't already begun shredding the Charter of Rights, as if he hadn't acted like a dictator by treating Parliament with contempt.
As if she ever said Canada was Egypt:
This country needs a Canadian version of an Arab Spring, a flowering of popular movements that demonstrate that real power to change things lies not with Harper, but in the hands of the people, when we act together in our streets, neighbourhoods, and workplaces.
Instead of just calling on progressives to organize, restrain Harper from dismantling our country with just 39 percent support, and unite to eventually defeat him.
As if her only real crime, apart from shocking those Con porkers in the Senate, wasn't daring to speak truth to power in a country where too many Canadians don't want to hear it.
By my observations, most Canadians are afraid to speak up, and many find the very act of speaking up distasteful. A common sentiment is that public protesters are objects of ridicule and disgust, and that they need to be controlled. Order is valued above all, at almost any cost.
In that context, DePape's actions were heroic. In a society where people are even afraid to ask their employer for a raise, DePape stood up – alone – and spoke truth to power. She knew her protest would have grave consequences, but she did it anyway, and in an elegant and peaceful way.
A country where those who attack her are the real threat to democracy:
Calling a country a democracy does not make it so. In a healthy democracy, great masses of votes are not wiped out when voters happen to be the minority voice in their geographic location. In a healthy democracy, people are not afraid to protest. In a healthy democracy, people do not express horror and anguish at the sight of a young woman holding a sign.
Because when Jason Kenney calls you a kook you know you are doing the right thing eh?
And because NOTHING could be dumber than thinking that a man who walks like a dictator, and quacks like a dictator, couldn't act even more like a dictator now that he has a majority.
Yup. Those right wingers can bellow like dinosaurs, but in a country where complacency is eroding our democracy, Brigette DePape is an excellent example for young AND old progressives.
It was a grey and rainy Monday, so imagine how great it was to stumble home from work, and see this beautiful rainbow streaming down on my island.
Especially since I know that a sight like that must drive these rainbow chasers CRAZY.
A Canadian Catholic school has banned pupils from using rainbows, the symbol of the gay pride movement.
However, clever pupils led by 16-year-old Leanne Iskander found a novel way to get their message across – by using food dyes to make cupcakes with a secret rainbow centre.
But the way I see it eh? If those nasty bigots don't like that rainbow.
Can you believe those Reform homophobes? Voting unanimously to take away the rights of gay people, while calling themselves mainstream, and Canada's party. Gimme a break.
Oh sure. I know that a lot of people think they won't ban gay marriage or severely restrict access to abortion. But I don't believe that for a moment.
As I'm always pointing out, by cutting party subsidies the Cons will make themselves even more dependent on donations from their rabid religious base. And those crazed fanatics WILL demand their pound of bloody flesh. The writing is on the wall. And those who can't see it are either suckers or collaborators.
Oh well. What can we do ? Except help our LGBT kids any way we can.
And if the bigots don't like our freedom rainbow. And they won't choke on those cupcakes.
We'll just have to take to the streets.
And wave this one in their faces...
Because I couldn't be more ready eh?
The Gay Brigade will join forces with the Brigette Brigade.
It was a compelling story. A young Syrian-American lesbian blogging about life and love in the darkness of a police state, only to be kidnapped.
Arraf wrote a blog called "A Gay Girl in Damascus," a mixture of erotic prose and updates about Syria's violent uprising, including her participation in anti-regime protests. She was detained after weeks on the run in the Syrian capital, family members said Tuesday.
Except that Amina wasn't wasn't Amina. She wasn't kidnapped. And the Gay Girl in Damascus was written by a guy.
The Gay Straight Girl Guy in Damascus Scotland claims his motives were noble.
I never expected this level of attention. While the narrative voıce may have been fictional, the facts on thıs blog are true and not mısleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone -- I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about.
Because of you, Mr. MacMaster, a lot of the real activists in the LGBT community became under the spotlight of the authorities in Syria. These activists, among them myself, had to change so much in their attitude and their lives to protect themselves from the positional harm your little stunt created. You have, sir, put a lot of lives, mine and some friends included, in harm's way so you can play your little game of fictional writing.
As for me I don't know what to think. The fact is that blog focused a lot of international attention on the fascist Syrian regime, and the oppression of LGBT people. Which is great eh? Unless you live there, and the international community won't do anything to save you.
And then there's this:
But at least these things are true.
All kind of people are being oppressed and murdered in Syria, including a lot of real gay girls in Damascus. While the world looks on helplessly.
The truth may or may not be stranger than fiction. But only it will set us free.
I see that after having been buried by an avalanche of criticism, Tracy Morgan has apologized for his hideous homophobic rant.
"I'm not a hateful person and don’t condone any kind of violence against others. While I am an equal opportunity jokester, and my friends know what is in my heart, even in a comedy club this clearly went too far and was not funny in any context,"
"Stand-up comics may have the right to 'work out' their material in its ugliest and rawest form in front of an audience,' said Fey in a statement, "but the violent imagery of Tracy's rant was disturbing to me ... "
"I hope for his sake that Tracy's apology will be accepted as sincere by his gay and lesbian coworkers at 30 Rock, without whom Tracy would not have lines to say, clothes to wear, sets to stand on, scene partners to act with, or a printed-out paycheck from accounting to put in his pocket."
Now I like Tina a lot. But when I first read her statement I wasn't sure I could be that generous to a second-rate rate comedian who would think it funny to say such hateful things.
Not when so many gay kids are bullied to death. Or beaten and thrown out of their homes by their parents.
Or forced to live alone among many...
But then I read this from the gay producer and screenwriter Ron Nyswana
Yesterday, on the set of our movie, I sat in a minivan with Tracy Morgan, who wept as he told me about his violent childhood. I cannot understand the brutality of dire poverty or the soul-killing experience of growing up black in racist America. And Tracy cannot understand the pain of a gay child raised in homophobic America, under the constant barrage of taunts, threats of violence, and the ever-present fear of being exposed and rejected.
His pain is not mine and mine is not his. Neither of us reached adulthood unscathed by the shared prejudices of our culture. We've arrived at manhood slightly distorted, wounded and limited by our battles. We have been hurt. We make mistakes. But our mistakes are made in a cultural context.
Yesterday, while the world Tweeted away, issuing accusations and condemnations, a black, straight comic and a white, gay writer sat in a minivan, crying and trying to understand.
And then I had to admit that I do believe in the power of redemption. Because without it this world would be unlivable. I hate racism just as much as I hate homophobia. And the important thing is that the message has gone out again: bullying is bad, and bigotry is EVIL.
So what more could I want eh?
And besides there's a BONUS.
This tweet from Ana Matronic of the Scissor sisters...
Which not only makes me smile.
But also, since it's Saturday night...
I believe gives me a VERY good excuse to play one of my favourite music videos...
Yup. I admit it. I do believe in the power of redemption. Damn.
And I'd give ANYTHING to dance around with those feathers stuck to my tail.
Well it wasn't Nuremberg. It was Ottawa. But the message from Great Deranged Leader to his adoring followers was the same. Now that we have conquered Germany Canada, we must conquer the WORLD !!!!!!
Harper painted a dark picture of the world around Canada near the end of his mostly upbeat speech, and said there are forces rising that Canada must resist.
Canada's purpose "is no longer to please every dictator with a vote at the United Nations," Harper said, adding he never understood why others felt that was in Canada's national interest.
"Our party’s great purpose is nothing less than to prepare our nation to shoulder a bigger load, in a world that will require it of us," he said.
Great eh? Canada Uber Alles. From pariah nation to rogue nation. We're still spending billions in Afghanistan. The bill for the war in over Libya is clicking like a taxi meter.
And now he's planning to spend billions projecting our military power all over the globe?
Oh. Mein. Gott. Of all Harper's multiple personalities, I knew the one where he thinks he is a great military leader would be the end of us. Or the end of the medicare system when the Con war machine bankrupts the country. Which of course is his secret plan.
And which dictator will he attack next I wonder? The one in Iran, who by threatening Israel is threatening the return of the Christian Messiah?
And then launch an all-out assault on North Korea...or Haiti....or Hong Kong.
Oh wait. Too late.
There he goes now...
You know that little charred ball is probably what the planet will look like after Great Maniac Leader is finished with it. Because if he can hasten The Rapture you KNOW he will.
Yikes. Thank goodness for Brigette and the real majority.
"It's people coming together to say that we're going to resist the Harper agenda, to make sure that the Conservatives know that we won't back down..."
