So I have to rant and pose some questions now about the current state of GLBT civil rights advocacy groups. Is it me, or does it seem that, the more money organizations such as the HRC et al make, the more ineffectual and farcical they become? Case in point, last presidential election, the HRC spent quite a lot of money during the republican national convention in New York City to buy a bunch of moving vans, plaster big billboards on the sides of them that read, "Mr. Bush, you're fired!", and drive them around the city on the days of the convention. Now, I'm no political analyst, I didn't receive a degree in political science or marketing--I have a BA in English and edit large print reproductions of books for a living. Yet, even I could see this was a marketing campaign that was ridiculous to the extreme, borderlining on making the HRC seem more like a bad facsimile of SNL or MadTV than a legitimate civil rights lobbying agency, and ultimately doomed to failure. The whole idea came across to me as more a self-effacing publicity stunt than it did an effective public persuasion tactic. Oooooo . . . be scared of them big mean fags with money, Preznit Shrub, they gots themselves signs on trucks telling you yer fard.
And it's not just GLBT groups that have gotten rich and lazy when it comes to political activism. The Democratic National Comittee has completely lost it's spine and fortitude. Somebody went and cut their collective nuts off, and now they can't even hurt their opponets even when political WMD's are handed to them on a silver platter in the form of a male hooker in the press room, perjury in making a case for invading a sovereign nation against the wishes of the international community, massive corruption, blatant hypocrisy, and attempts to change the rules in the middle of the game. No. Instead, their idea of fighting back is a cartoon character named Phil A. Buster.
Where have all the activists gone? I'm talking about the creative, attention-getting activists with hard-hitting creative slogans such as "Silence = Death", not ripoff taglines from trendy, easily forgotten reality television shows. Because you know what? "Silence = Death" is as true today as it was 20 years ago, only in a more insidious way. The signs are are all there, painted on the walls of our legislative houses in the blood of our brothers and sisters. All you have to do is look, open your eyes and really look. It starts with stripping us of our basic rights and freedoms, while justifying the vilification of us as abominations by "deeply held religious beliefs" and ends with a Final Solution. Abominable acts committed in the name of a god who doesn't care.
Do you know what else was justified by "deeply held religious beliefs"? The massacre of millions of non-Christians during the great and holy Crusades. Persecution of women in the form of witch-hunts, anti-suffrage, mysogyny, and oppression. Slavery and racism. The torture and execution of millions of so-called "undesirables". Jihads against innocent civillians just flying across the states for business or leisure, or just going to work in 110-story office buildings on a Tuesday morning.
These are frightening times and the times that will define us by our actions in the face of oppression. Wake up America. Complacancy will only get you a fascist state in which no one is safe.
And it's not just GLBT groups that have gotten rich and lazy when it comes to political activism. The Democratic National Comittee has completely lost it's spine and fortitude. Somebody went and cut their collective nuts off, and now they can't even hurt their opponets even when political WMD's are handed to them on a silver platter in the form of a male hooker in the press room, perjury in making a case for invading a sovereign nation against the wishes of the international community, massive corruption, blatant hypocrisy, and attempts to change the rules in the middle of the game. No. Instead, their idea of fighting back is a cartoon character named Phil A. Buster.
Where have all the activists gone? I'm talking about the creative, attention-getting activists with hard-hitting creative slogans such as "Silence = Death", not ripoff taglines from trendy, easily forgotten reality television shows. Because you know what? "Silence = Death" is as true today as it was 20 years ago, only in a more insidious way. The signs are are all there, painted on the walls of our legislative houses in the blood of our brothers and sisters. All you have to do is look, open your eyes and really look. It starts with stripping us of our basic rights and freedoms, while justifying the vilification of us as abominations by "deeply held religious beliefs" and ends with a Final Solution. Abominable acts committed in the name of a god who doesn't care.
Do you know what else was justified by "deeply held religious beliefs"? The massacre of millions of non-Christians during the great and holy Crusades. Persecution of women in the form of witch-hunts, anti-suffrage, mysogyny, and oppression. Slavery and racism. The torture and execution of millions of so-called "undesirables". Jihads against innocent civillians just flying across the states for business or leisure, or just going to work in 110-story office buildings on a Tuesday morning.
These are frightening times and the times that will define us by our actions in the face of oppression. Wake up America. Complacancy will only get you a fascist state in which no one is safe.
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