I was born in 1961, basically right in the middle of the era of civil rights protest marches. As such a young child in a smaller almost all white town, with conservative white parents I was blissfully ignorant of the turmoil that was happening in the larger society all around me. I learned of it later in school, like the world wars, as history. And that is what I thought it was, history, in the past. Something that was done and settled, and troubling as it was, we were better as a society for having gone through it. We had become more mature, decent, and civil. Or so I thought. For decades I never thought that I would ever feel the need to participate in something like a protest march. No we weren't perfect as a society, but I thought rights were largely being protected, I thought we were more civil, I thought our environment was being cared for more, etc. But the last few years have been a wake up call that the problems of racism, bigotry, hatred are not gone, or even or perhaps especially the issues of protecting the environment are not solved, far from it, and the election of Donald Trump to be President of the United States of America have caused these issues and many more to raise their ugly heads in ways I have never personally witnessed before. To the point that I know I can no longer just sit on the sidelines as an observer. To say or do nothing is to be complicit. So today I did something I never thought I would do. I went to a protest march, and it was one of the proudest days of my life. To be fair, I had been to one protest before and with the same sign actually, it was at a rally Trump had here at the fairgrounds during the Primary. I thought about dismantling the sign many times, but with the way I saw the election going I thought I might need it again. Sadly I was right. Today for me was far different, it wasn't about trying to stop this man from winning, it's sadly now about stopping him, after he won, and saving our society from the wreckage he has already caused in just one month! When I went I didn't even actually think it was a march, I thought it was just a rally at Five Points park in downtown Sarasota. But then the crowd started moving and the march was on! I do not know how many were there, but I would guess at least a thousand (If it had been a pro Trump march, I'm sure he'd say it was at least ten thousand!) We went down Main Street which was expected, it's a street with car traffic but also a lot of shops and foot traffic it get's closed for events a lot, then we turned on Lemon Ave which was already shut down with the farmers market, so no surprise with that. But next rather than going by city hall or back to the park, we kept on and turned on Fruitville shutting down one of Sarasota's main traffic arteries! This surprised me and it was there that I bumped into my landlord who was also in the march, that was really cool! And everything was remaining very peaceful which was great. But I was close enough to the front that I had a feeling that the police officers were trying to direct us off this street back onto less heavily traveled street. But the lead marchers and thus everyone else persisted, right onto Sarasota's main traffic thoroughfare Tamiami Trail shutting it down! At this point there was definitely some confusion at the front, but the march persisted on, as did the Sarasota Police in keeping the peace. We continued on the Trail from Fruitville back to Main about half a mile! I have no idea if this was planned or approved of or not, what I do know and am thankful for is that it was peaceful. I did not see any violence on the part of protesters or police. I am thankful and commend the Sarasota Police Department for allowing this assembly to proceed peacefully. I am sure there were many who were not thrilled with the situation. Back at the park there were a few more speakers that were hard to hear over mega phones, but one point made that I want to pass on is to get out of Wall Street Banks. This is something I did years ago during the great recession. I will only bank with a small local bank or credit union. Money moves our society and the more it is in the hands of a few corporations, the more a few move and control the many. The more we can move money from centralized to distributed, be it banking, investing, shopping local, energy (going Solar) and more, the better society we can create for more people. So what is the big deal about marching? It is taking a stand and being visible. Visible to politicians, certainly, but also visible to other Americans, fellow citizens of this country who still support Trump and the GOP. We need to be visible and say this destruction of social progress (ethnic, sexual, and gender!) is not acceptable. The destruction of health care is not acceptable. A ban on people due to their religion is not acceptable. Continually expanding inequality is not acceptable. The destruction of our educational system is not acceptable. The destruction of environmental protection is not acceptable. Denial of the facts about climate change is not acceptable. Shutting down scientific communication and advancement within our government is not acceptable. Defunding arts programs is not acceptable. The attempt to repeat lies so often that people accept them as truth and oh so many other things is NOT acceptable. We will not be the nice polite Germans who did not want to cause any trouble, and thus allowed Hitler and the Nazi party to destroy Germany. If needed we will cause trouble, we will persist, and we will resist! We are the people!
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A little over a week ago I publicly came out as asexual on this blog and on Facebook with a post titled Coming Out From the Edge of the Bell Curve. I really didn't have to do that, it's a way that I am different that is actually pretty easy to hide. I am 54, single, white, male, never married, and while that does get an occasional surprised response I have never faced any real hatred or bigotry because of it. I fit in pretty well, so why come out? Part of it was for myself, even though I have had low sexual attraction my whole life I had never encountered others that I KNEW where like me, I never could name it, or have a label for it until I ran across an article about Demi-sexuality (only being sexually attracted to people that you have a strong emotional bond with) and that led to AVEN (or the Asexual Visibility and Education Network) and other resources. This was tremendous for me, it let me know that I am far from alone, that I am not broken or damaged, I may not be in the "normal" range of what most people are on the sexuality bell curve, but I am still on it, I have not fallen off! It has also given me resources and information to move forward with my life with better understanding and more knowledge of who or what I am. That is wonderful. But even more important to me as I wrote a few days ago in Why Should You Care? "I feel that the more people come out in dimensions of their lives where they do not fall into the "normal" range of a bell curve, the more that frees others to come out as well. Not just in that dimension, but in many dimensions. " Simply said; life is not simple or binary, it is complex and diverse, and that is beautiful, it should be celebrated. I saw again today a video I wanted to share that really drives that home. It is called Something Beautiful. The voice and words are those of Nathan Phelps. Nathan is a son of Fred Phelps the founder of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, a group known best for picketing events such as funerals with signs such as "God Hates Fags". Nathan escaped that and has become an advocate for love, justice, and acceptance. An advocate for celebrating the diversity of life. It is Something Beautiful to watch... This video is a poignant and powerful reminder that we can do so much better than we often do. That rather than seeing hate and fear in our differences, we can see something beautiful, and that would make life so much better.
Much Gratitude to Nathan Phelps and Seth Andrews for making this powerful video. The original is here on YouTube if you want to share it directly with others from there. It is on Seth Andrews The Thinking Atheist Channel which is full of many other great video's and podcasts. Including two podcasts with Nathan Phelps #155 The Death of My Father and #67 Escaping Westboro Baptist Church, both very powerful and moving. Nate's website is here at NatePhelps.com. He is a powerful Ally for all of us. A few days ago I came out in a post titled Coming Out From the Edge of the Bell Curve as asexual. Today I want to share an meme that does a really good job of asexuality education in few words, and below that, I will expand on the last point, it's about why you should care. Because it is one I feel a bit differently about than is expressed in the meme, for me it isn't just about me or asexuality, and everyone should care. For me, why people should care is that life is not binary, it is diverse, we are also not one dimensional beings, we are each multi-dimensional, and that is what makes life so wonderful. I spoke of bell curves in my last post, on most of the bell curves in which the dimensions of my life could be viewed I would likely fall well within the normal range. There are some that I don't.
I think most people are like that, I think most of of have dimensions or aspects to our lives (large and small) where we know that we are not "normal" and to not risk rejection we hide those dimensions, so that we can be seen as normal. This is in my opinion a great loss, for everyone. As long as we don't have dimensions that are harmful or abusive, everyone should be able to be accepted for who and what they are, and thus contribute more fully to the great diversity of life. We should all be free to be you and me. I feel that the more people come out in dimensions of their lives where they do not fall into the "normal" range of a bell curve, the more that frees others to come out as well. Not just in that dimension, but in many dimensions. It helps us all to be free, to be accepted, to be celebrated as we are in all our dimensions contributing to the great diversity that makes life so interesting. So yes, while coming out as asexual does raise awareness for the asexual community, being able to do that was made easier by others who came out before in other dimensions, such as gay, atheist, transgender, etc. And it it turn makes it easier for others to come out and be who they are in all these and many other dimensions of life where people may not fit into the "normal" bell curve. Coming out in any dimension makes it easier for people in every dimension to be more comfortable with themselves, to be more open about themselves, to be free to be who they are without fear of alienation or rejection. And in some dimensions of life that could very well include you, and/or close friends and family members, and that is a good reason that you should care! Further, people who look physically to be within the accepted norm, in my case white male, coming out as different, I believe can also help people who look physically different, be it ethnic or some other physical difference, to be accepted more as well. I believe that it simply helps us to accept more diversity and that is a very good reason to care. |
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