When reading about the recent, town-wide conspiracy against Constance McMillen, the gay high school senior who only wanted to take her girlfriend to prom, I couldn’t stop hearing Phil Ochs in my head. Phil Ochs was a folk singer in the 1960s and it frightens me how often his lyrics are still relevant.

“Here’s to the State of Mississippi” is about the unpunished murder of a black man and how such things were pretty much par for the course back then. Well, apparently nothing has changed. I really couldn’t say it any better than Mr. Ochs did:

Here’s to the schools of Mississippi
Where they’re teaching all the children that they don’t have to care
All of rudiments of hatred are present everywhere
And every single classroom is a factory of despair
There’s nobody learning such a foreign word as fair
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of

April 7, 2010
Categories: Poly-tics . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

Recently, in an article entitled “My Kinky Relationship with Barack”, David Schmader beautifully summed up his feelings about President Obama’s failure to take some very simple steps toward finally making the gay community an equal part of American society. I still think he was the best available candidate for the job of cleaning of the mess left by the Bush administration. But I no longer think he was just downplaying his support of gay rights. It’s really seems like he doesn’t see it as the civil rights issue that it clearly is.

Schmader writes:

Of course, putting your trust in anyone involves banking on his or her motives, and with Obama, I’d consistently taken him at his word and filled in the blanks with stupid romantic hope.

I was slapped back to my senses this month, when the DOMA brief came out—the second punch to the face. The first had been easy to explain away. But with that brief, Obama was officially becoming the Chris Brown to my Rihanna. I tried to understand, but there’s only so much explaining away and narrative spinning you can do before you start looking like a deluded lovelorn masochist.

And yet, what am I supposed to do? He knows I’m not going anywhere. It’s not like I’m going to become a Republican or something. Like any abused boyfriend, I find myself equivocating. He’s not all bad. He’s doing nice things for the environment, the economy, abortion rights, and “America’s image in the world,” right? And really, he only shoves me when he needs to.

I’m starting to understand why my friend who is a lesbian, and also one of the “lucky” couples who’s marriage is still legal in spite of prop 8, wrote in a vote for Ralph Nader in 2008. I know he’s busy fixing the economy but how hard is it to pick up a pen and sign a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”? How hard is it to just stop letting bigots tell people who they can and cannot love? And what the hell was up with that support of DOMA? I didn’t expect gay marriage to become legal on November 4th. But I did expect Barack Obama to prioritize. And as far as I’m concerned, getting people to stop smoking cloves is not nearly as fucking important as giving a large portion of your voters equal rights. Smoking, unlike homosexuality, is a choice. And being gay is only dangerous because political leaders support bullshit like DOMA, thus giving credence to hate.

June 27, 2009
Categories: Poly-tics . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

Congrats to all the same-sex couples in California who are able to get married today! Here’s hoping this “family protection” madness will soon be behind us…

June 16, 2008
Categories: Poly-tics . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

I guess the anti-“drug” campaign realized that people aren’t going to believe them when they tell you that smoking marijuana will make you violent or ruin your life, so they decided to try a different tactic. WITH HILARIOUS RESULTS! An old woman is sitting at a table in her kitchen. Before her is a dinner spread. Next to her is an empty place setting. She stares forlornly off into the distance for an uncomfortably long time, before glancing at the empty place setting and futzing with the silverware. There is no music, only the sound of children playing and birds singing outside. Finally, we hear a voiceover:

“Try telling your Grandmother that you skipped dinner with her because you were stoned.”

Grandma sighs. AWWW!!!

Lesson: If you smoke marijuana, you make Grandma sad!

Let’s ignore the fact that the ONE obligation a hardcore stoner would probably remember is a big home-cooked meal.

September 16, 2005
Categories: Poly-tics . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment