Simple Equation, So Get With It!

I'd like to start this entry with these simple words:

I do not support gay marriage, gay rights, or really very much anything with the given prefix gay-.
I do not gay grocery shop on Saturdays, I do not gay park my car every morning, and I sure as hell don't gay ride BART.
I support rights, marriage, and of course the pursuit of happiness. The gay community isn't a whole other separate species. People = People. I don't know why this is such a complicated issue for those silly right-wing officials..

Two Dem. legislators decided to introduce a bill ensuring America's LGBT community coverage by COBRA insurance benefits company if a same-sex counterpart also get's hired.

Last week NY's State Rep, A. Weiner presented the House with the Equal Access to COBRA Act. While Weiner pursuaded the House, Senator Boxer gave a presentation to the Senate. Can you say double-team, double-whammy? Boxer announced that she believes that every family in America deserves to have equal opportunity and access to health insurance coverage.

Damn right they do. Damn right we do.  This is an issue of basic equality. Insurance availability on the basis of sexual orientation is the same as not offering tax return services for families with one car. What difference could that insignificant detail possible make? In '95 Pres. Reagan signed the original COBRA (Consolidates Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) modeling a coverage plan allowing workers to hold onto medical insurance after being out of work. The act did not say "Oh, but if you're gay we'll have to get back to you." EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW, PEOPLE.


The Equal Access to COBRA Act will secure health coverage for domestic partners and immediate family if their partner were to get laid off.



HRC's Joe Solmonese was immediately on board upon the birth of this recent legislation. Solmonese agrees that "safety-net coverage" like COBRA is definitely vital to American families in this time of economic and social struggle. LGBT people.. or I mean...Americans should all have equal opportunity and access to these fundamental plans of medical insurance benefits. Even more so for loved ones during a time the United States is so vulnerable. The new legislature will impact those who work for companies required to offer benefits.

Simple, simple services that we, as American citizens, have the right to get our hands on. I speak from every community of sexual orientation, identities, and so on. It doesn't matter what your race, or ethnicity is. In fact, it shouldn't matter whether you're in a wheelchair or a 65-year-old woman. It also shouldn't matter who you sleep next to at night. I think that if being gay is some kind of new handicap or illness, I'll just have to make a call tomorrow then..

"Hi, I can't come in today. Still gay. Whenever I get better I'll be sure to give you a call.."

May this be another step forward not just for the LGBT community. This is another step for the entire country itself. Equality is a special word: a symbolic expression of the fact that two quantities are equal; an equation. It doesn't mean that the gay community gets granted a few convenient originally straight rights. It doesn't mean that the LGBT community is finally allowed to get married "like everyone else." No, it means that we are taking steps toward making sure both sides of the equation are equal:

                         ONE PERSON = ONE PERSON

Can you tell which one is gay? It shouldn't matter. 1 = 1, always. It doesn't matter who wrote it down.

Until the next injustice..

-J

Arizona Epidemic Spreads, Movements Begin

First of all, let me ask those of you out there who know me:

Do I look like an illegal immigrant to you?

Last week Oklahoma's House passed a bill nearly identical Arizona's immigration law passed last year. This new, but all too familiar bill will give local pork (specifically the extra greasy ones having completed some federal training program) the power to inquire any given person's immigration status. Representative Faught, sitting up high on a House/Senate committee, claims the bill is part of a greater effort to put some serious "focus on public safety." Last week the same bill was introduced to Pennsylvania as well. This wave of right-wing officials working to follow in Arizona's footsteps is hitting Minnesota, Maryland, North Carolina, Nebraska, Idaho and of course, who'd of guessed: Texas.

South Carolina's rep is not far behind, of course another Republican. Sponsoring a bill  allowing his local pigs to verify any given person's legal status and the power to authorize warrantless arrests of citizens merely suspected of being illegal residents and workers.

So I'll ask you again: Do I look like an illegal immigrant to you? Does your neighbor? How about Obama for hells sake? Let me remind the world out there that this union was built upon a foundation of immigrants coming together to create a free country. The fourteenth amendment seems to have disappeared into thin air: equal protection under the law. The gaps in the levels of protection and prevention throughout various communities is quite evident.

I read through SB1070 during the climax of the whole situation. I was knocking on doors, stopping you on the street, calling you and whatever else I could do. This was just days before we would get the news that the bill beat us, but to make us feel better, some parts were not implemented. What happened in Arizona should have stayed in Arizona. Where are the progressives, or the liberals? I mean, maybe a democrat or two? We are taking racial profiling in the ass pretty hard right now. What's next? If you look like a drug dealer you can be stopped on the street and asked to empty your pockets without reasonable cause? The cops wouldn't be in white America looking for these people, I can tell you that much. Mentalities will move to two opposite sides of the extremist spectrum: right-wing extremists on one side, and the far left on the other.

We are becoming a land of less opportunity. We are closing our doors and locking our windows. Not that this was not predicted prior to these events, but in exactly what direction are we supposed to be going with this?

In my opinion, it's the extra strength and ambition it takes as a person of color in this country to make it. That extra hard work and determination results in widespread humility throughout the non-white community, and sometimes the complete opposite in the other.

I'm not here to bash on the whites, I have very many in my life that are very dear to me. I also know plenty of white Americans who are able to look beyond race. But when this crap is written into law, what are we supposed to do? Sit by and allow ourselves to be subject to such an ethically fucked up system? There's going to have to be a revolt sometime soon if this ends up being the case from sea to shining sea. How long is present day America's majority expected to pretend they are still the minority? I suspect we wont be going down without a fight. These look-a-like bills are not just promoting ignorance, but reestablishing stereotypes that should have been eliminated decades ago. I love this country, but we are taking steps backwards. Big, giant steps from the looks of it.

I don't know who else out there will agree, but we aren't going to take it. Hold your shiny pens in your voting sessions, tally up your counts, and pass all the far-right, racial profiling bills you can come up with in those shiny power-hungry heads.

America's majority will take a stand when the time comes. The beginnings of a new movement are in the making. Shit will get real when the majority takes their freedoms into their own hands. Power in numbers. While you waste money to legalize chasing around America's other-than-white population demanding proof of legal immigration, we will be one step ahead of you. We have to be.

-J

What is this?

Sitting down on the top floor. I hear a small scream.
Looking out the window she almost has no reaction, but I knew something was wrong. I stand next to her and see that on the corner of Shattuck, there's a bus. A bus with legs under it.

I begin to immediately ask too many questions. Why do these things happen? What if that were me? What if that were her? What if that was just anyone else? Anger floods into my system every single time. There's never a reason. There's never an explanation. How fucked up is that, right?

The tsunami that hit Japan blew my mind away. According to my sources approximately 300 people died. That's not a lot, but everyone matters. Earthquake in Chile came around killing over 500 people. My father is convinced the world is going to end with natural disasters because the world will find ways to clean itself of what is harming it. I just think bad shit happens. Really horrible, unexplainable shit. And just to be clear: when I say unexplainable, I mean reasons, and rationalizations for why these things happen.

Onto other things..
My company's new office is getting off it's feet. Little by little. Business in America is possible to pursue, but be careful not to die of exhaustion before you finally reach that goal you essentially kill yourself to reach by the end of the week, the month, or the year.
College is the lesser evil but the wait to bring some bread home in exchange for the blood sweat and glory is longer. A degree doesn't reach your hands until you almost think it wont.

I think that I'm thankful. A bit scared, but thankful that I can wake up and be alive. Today, and hopefully tomorrow. I've learned to be thankful for plenty of things in life. Taken time to work on my humility, or entitlement. But this is way beyond me. This is what we big powerful humans don't have control over in our own worlds.

Society now seems overly complicated, along with politics, and fear. Wasted time and money on discrimination, lack of education, power hunger.. Fear of taking chances, making changes, being ourselves and following dreams... Life needs to be put into perspective for people everywhere. You will miss every chance you fear to take. I'm not going to say "life can end in a second" or "you don't know what you have till it's gone." But what I will say is that if the next fucked up natural disaster or tragedy on the news is the one that hits you, wouldn't you want to have done something? It doesn't have to be anything meaningful, or dramatic. Life is meant to be lived. Learn what you can and pass that shit on. Each time a new generation is born, the last has an obligation to allow them to evolve and advance. Go ahead and tell me I'm wrong. It doesn't matter if in the end our society doesn't mean a damn thing in the world. This is now, deal with it.

In all, the world isn't going stop to make sure we're alright. But if you're the one watching the next fucked up thing happening on the tube with your mouth wide open, turn that shit off and go outside. Get out there. Because what is this? It's big. It isn't you, or me, or whatever is in between. It's life. That's what this is.

-J

New Chapter

Ratatat plays in the background, and the day has just slipped through my fingers. Walking until the muscles in my calves are giving out, walking until the sun comes out, walking until my sweat glands run out.

But right now, I'm sitting down more calm than I would expect myself to be. Monday, being tomorrow, is haunting me. It's hanging over my head telling me that it doesn't care what I do with my time. It doesn't care where I go today. Because where it is, it's going to stay. And that's tomorrow.

Midterm the day after next. And I've studied less than I need to. The library haunts me to. Reminding me of all the books I should have read, need to read, and will read when time tells.

Sitting here in a room lit by a cloudy day and Christmas lights. I feel like the direction I'm going in is a direction I've always wanted to be in. But I'm still unsure. Like when things are too good to be true.

She's around. With a steady, constant glow around her. She's her own silhouette. I've made mistakes; horrible and ridiculous ones. But she let me back into her world, and I'm never going to let myself get back to a place of such disparity, confusion, and lack of integrity. That is a place I don't belong. Never again. With hands more gentle than the smallest child, she holds pieces of me I didn't even know existed. This time around, I don't mind.

My conclusion is this: When life feels too good to be true, embrace it. Because we only have right now once, and then it's gone forever. So why wait for God (Or whatever is out there) to pull the lever? Life, or at least MY life is going to be lived. And lived large.

To all of those people out there who feel stuck, who feel lost, and tired, I have been there. I still wake up wondering what life looks like tomorrow. But all I have is today. And so do you.

New chapter ladies and gentleman. It's a brand new chapter.

May the pages begin.

-J