Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

There are places in this country that are still waiting on most of these points; the whole country still has a lot to answer for regarding differential poverty rates for people of color, especially children. While I'm glad to see Obama elected president for any number of reasons, I take umbrage at the media use of his inauguration to suggest that racism has been eliminated from American life. We must not swallow the pill of complacency; we must continue to call injustice when we see it, and to see it even when we prefer not to.

Am in Delaware. Had to traverse big scary bridge to get here. There's one phobia I'll be getting over in a hurry.

Can now text to lj. Sorry. May have too much fun with this.

1. Grab the nearest book. (N.B. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.)
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag 5 people.

"The blade was newly cleaned and looking through it she could see the stone, each pit in the rock magnified and distorted as though it was under water.
"'Is it made from spun sugar?' His voice was nearby and she realized how long she'd been staring at the sword."

I tag you. You know who you are. Yes, you.

I have Hugh Jackman singing showtunes. These are, in fact, a few of my favorite things.

/dork

(As I've said at my blogger blog, there's really no such thing as /dork. Dork is never ending.)

NBC has posted the brass sextet version of "O Holy Night" that was featurred in last week's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It's beautiful and uplifting and done by New Orleans musicians and you should really go check it out HERE. Enjoy!

Dude! Bill Nye the Science Guy! On Numb3rs!

Y'all. I'm glad you're up for gay rights. In as much as it's my business to say whether or not anyone deserves rights, I'm with you. But the "holding guns rather than holding hands quote" is getting old.

First off, I'm not your typical anti-gun lefty. I shoot, I go shooting with men, we shoot inanimate things. My uncle has steadied a decades-old tremor since taking up target pistols; my dad's eyesight has gotten better. I'm sidelined right now because I've destroyed my wrists with my little interwebs habit, but when I'm strong enough I imagine it'll be a great muscle-builder for my hands. There is an obverse to Ani DiFranco's quote: every weapon is a tool, if you use it right. Now, if you wanna talk about two men pointing guns at each other? That's entirely different situation, and yes, one we're a bit too comfortable with. But really, don't conflate the expectation of equality with an anti-gun agenda. Anti-gun will never equal anti-violence, and will not cause men to spontaneously hold hands. Or anyone to be comfortable with it.

Secondly, where's the love for the ladies? Yes, I know, lesbians more acceptable, blah, blah, masculinitycakes. You know which lesbians are "more acceptable"? The straight, feminine ones who look pretty on the TV. The absence of women from a meme about non-normative sexualities is extremely remiss, as women's sexuality of any stripe has been transgressive for a fuck of a lot longer than men's.

So, yes. Rights are good! Everyone shoud have them! This meme should be an absurd statement of the obvious! It should also not conflate the issue with others, or ignore women! At least I can do soemthing about two out of three, and I'm told that ain't bad.

Oh, and for the record, the quote from the original version of the meme: "Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?" - Ernest Gaines

Hope your day is fantastic! You share it with my fantastic mommy, so it should be.

This should be read widely within Fandom, and I'm not the person who gets that done, yeah? So pass it on if you're wont.

Not flocking this to fandom folk, as would defeat the point I guess, so just smile and nod if you're not a fandom friend.