kitten-kitten is sick. he has an upper-respiratory infection, which means he’s been sneezing, and had runny eyes and a runny nose for a few days now. he has meds, and an immune booster, but it’s still very sad. just look at the little tear running down his precious cheek.
he really is pretty tragic looking in person. he woke me up to snuggle this morning, but he couldn’t stop sneezing and finally gave up and went back to the floor. 
i watched “Bobby” last night. if you haven’t seen it, it’s really very powerful. robert kennedy plays a small physical role in the film, only showing up in the last 10-15 minutes, but his presence is so palpable. it penetrates every word and action of all the people we meet in it. it really made me understand how devastating his assassination was to so many who had put so much hope into him. people keep comparing barack obama to JFK, but i think, when you dig deeper, RFK is a better parallel. and, in that sense, i found myself crying, and praying/begging to whomever would listen, for his protection. i want our country back, and i don’t want to see the same devastation and brokeness on the face of those boys in chicago as was on the face of the young, black campaign worker in the film last night.
this speech played over the last several minutes of the film. it’s powerful, and frightening, to realize how similar these times are to those that seem so far behind us.
City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio
April 5, 1968
This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity, my only event of today, to speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.
It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one – no matter where he lives or what he does – can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.
Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr’s cause has ever been stilled by an assassin’s bullet.
No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.
Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American unnecessarily – whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence – whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.
“Among free men,” said Abraham Lincoln, “there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs.”
Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.
Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.
Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.
For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.
This is the breaking of a man’s spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.
I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.
We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.
Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.
We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children’s future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.
Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.
But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.
Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.
omg. i fucking LOVE sugar on survivor gabon! i knew she was the smartest person on the show from the start and yet, somehow, everyone on the damn show still thinks she’s a “dumb blonde”! ha! watch her as she kicks some mighty survivor ass!
i should find out this week if our team is staying or not. we’ve already heard from 5 people in NY who are leaving. they’re not directly in our team, but we worked with them a lot, so it’s a little nerve-wracking. please send out good vibes. we need them!
on last night’s question of the day, someone mentioned “Not Always Right“, a brilliant blog with conversations between customers and service industry workers.
in light of the current Prop 8 issues, i thought this was particularly brilliant.
Me: “Thank you for calling the Benefits Center, how may I assist you today?”
Customer: “Hi. I am trying to enroll in my benefits for next year.”
Me: “Okay, how may I assist you?”
Customer: “I just got engaged and I want to add my fiance to my insurance.”
Me: “I’m sorry, but you won’t be able to add your fiance to your coverage until you get married.”
Customer: “… So, those f***ing f***ots can get benefits, but I can’t?”
Me: “Yes, sir, but you have the option to get married, they don’t.”
Customer: “Those f***ing f***ots, f***ing us over anyway they can!”
Me: “I’m sorry sir, but you have the option to get married, they do not. That is the only reason we offer health benefits to same-sex domestic partners.”
Customer: “What if I can’t get married? What are you going to do about that?”
Me: “Why can’t you get married?”
Customer: “Well, a**hole if you must ask… it’s because I am already married.”
Me: “Sir, I can assure you we don’t pay for infidelity.”
deanna, janie & i went to the prop 8 protest at dallas city hall today. it was really, truly, an amazing experience. my only complaint was the sound system, which kept cutting out. we were right up at the stage, so we could hear just fine, but the folks in the back really had trouble. other than that, it was great. i think the pictures are the only way to describe it.
they began by calling up the gay veterans and having us all say the pledge of allegiance. i haven’t felt emotion like that, in this act, since 9/11.
deanna, janie, and me. my girlfriend and best friend are amazing.
of course, there were lots of great signs
we got there about 10 minutes early, and there were about 300 people there. wfaa says it got up to about 1200. way to go GST!*
chastity kirven, a local activist, was awesome. she had such power and resonance.
i didn’t get this man’s name, but he was great, too. i feel sorry that so many people probably couldn’t hear him because of the sound system problems.
this man gave us our war-cry: marginalize, personalize, mobilize
more signs
i really liked this sign. it was just funny. 
don’t drink the h8terade!
two of the organizers: Michael Robinson is the man who tried to stop the beating of Jimmy Dean on Throckmorton a few months ago. Etta Zamboni was at the First Baptist protest last week and worked to organize this event.
we said the pledge again toward the end, when some counter protesters started shouting across the street.
i wish i could write more, but i’m very tired and still processing. we need to keep fighting, and we will. but it’s still so early, and somewhat daunting. i hope the momentum i felt today can continue.
*gay standard time
update: here are some pics of us from around the net.
janie, looking very proud and determined
ugh. in the last week, my face has turned into a minefield. i’m one of those lucky people for whom growing up and being on birth control have combined to give me much clearer skin that i had as a teenager/young-adult. but i’ve got the remnants of about 4 zits on my chin/jaw, 2 on my cheeks, a fresh one on my chin, and 2 cold sores. wtf, skin-fairies?! i know, i know. first world problems. but still, it sucks.
anyone got $590K so we can buy the house of our dreams? it’s been empty for about a year now, and it’s owned by an LLC, so we think they’re working on the interior, because you can tell it’s not abandoned, but no one’s living there. it’s in the middle of our favorite neighborhood, and sits on this huge plot of land. you can’t see it, but there’s a detached garage with an apt above it in the back. the trees are ancient, and it’s just wonderful. unfortunately, there’s no way in HELL we could buy it, now or probably ever. but i can dream right? if 100,000 people could give me $5.90 each, we could do it!
2808 Maple Springs
but prop 8 is passing. how can we have a historically high voter turnout – more democrats than have been seen since LBJ, and still pass this bullshit? how?
