The Gospel According to St. Thomas Leavitt

I have a great friend by the name of Thomas Leavitt. I met Thomas when I served as the inaugural chair of the National Lavender Green Caucus of the Green Party of the United States. Thomas had already been involved with the Caucus for some time, and he served as an officer of the caucus as well. Over the years, Thomas has been a kind voice and loving supporter of my work. He is someone that I admire for his politics, his compassion, the way he moves through the world, and for the way that he cares for his family.

In my recent post Fading Hope or Reality Check?, I questioned the media spin on Obama's recent poll numbers, and, of course, spoke some damn truth about the Republican Party aka the GOP (Grand Old Party). My friend Thomas made a comment on the post that I thought was as true as gospel. I also thought it needed to be brought front and center. Thomas said:

"The Republican Party is good at just one thing: fucking things up, and they're doing their damndest to fuck up Obama's presidency. Fuck the truth: if it takes making people think Obama's an illegal alien secret Muslim communist Maoist fascist tool of the international Jewish-Communist crypto-conspiracy to lower his numbers, then that's what we'll tell him (never mind the self-contradictory nature of half the accusations). We'll put words in people's mouths that they never said."

And he ain't never told a damn lie. The GOP will spin sunshine into shit and shit into rainbows in order to reclaim power or keep justice from taking place. The Republican Party is quite literally watching their entire power structure crumble around them. For more than 20 years they watched their star ascendant, abused the power that they amassed, acted with complete license in their public and personal affairs, and when their self-serving policies, dismantling of the social safety net, and lies turned in on themselves, the party imploded (and continues to implode...see Governor Sanford, Governor Palin, and assorted philandering Senators and Congresspersons indicted on fraud and other abuse of office charges).

The GOP has not yet learned the lesson that if they ACTUALLY adhered to the basic philosophy of their party (small government, personal responsibility, low taxes, strong defense) and did not stray from those things, their message would resonate solidly with people. Please note, I think their core philosophy is soulless and lacks community responsibility, but I understand it. But, at least, if they stuck to that, it would lead to many less regressive decisions than those that they have made. And let's be clear. I don't believe that Cheney and half of those Republican Party actually are against queer marriage, hate black people, despise the poor, or are happy as a bug in a rug to send young people off to die in wars. What I do believe is that they have no problem with doing ANY of those things if the outcome is higher personal profits, greater politician gain, and more corporate earnings. It comes down to such a amoral hedonism that it makes me want to beat them with their Torahs and Bibles (cuz the Orthodox and Conservative Jews in elective office are just as regressive and heinous as the Conservative Christians). I truly believe that while Cheney was sending troops to die in Iraq he felt badly...but he wanted power and personal gain to such a point that he was willing to sit with and live with the guilt over sending folks to die in a senseless war.

The crime of ambivalence and choosing evil as an ok trade off for personal gain and privilege is more heinous to me than someone like Fred Phelps, who is a hideous excuse for a human being, but he honestly and truly believes the hate he spouts and the way of life he espouses. He isn't try to gain power, he is trying to save souls the way he believes they need to be saved. I can forgive him his idiocy while condemning him for the impact his idiocy has on the communities he targets. I can not forgive Cheney, Rove, Boehner and the rest that choose opportunism and expedience over the lives of the working class, queer folks, women, and children.

In the end, it is just as dear Thomas states, "Fuck the truth: if it takes making people think Obama's an illegal alien secret Muslim communist Maoist fascist tool of the international Jewish-Communist crypto-conspiracy to lower his numbers, then that's what we'll tell him (never mind the self-contradictory nature of half the accusations)."

I only hope that finally...FINALLY...America has grown hip to the social warfare and identity assassination politics of the GOP and the deep seated greed and megalomania that their lies are attempting to cover up.

When You "Walk Like An Egpytian" I "Can Can" See Your Camel Toe

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Bristol, Connecticut to visit David's family. The first night, we had a dilemma. David's niece, Emily, had a major dance recital. His nephew, Mitchell, had a little league game at the same time. Before leaving, I suggested that we attend whichever event the parents were unable to attend. When we arrived in Bristol we discovered that my future sister-in-law had issued an executive order, and Mitchell found himself in full on little league gear attending his sisters dance recital.

Along with every parent in the Greater New London area.

The dance recital was at a local Catholic high school. Upon entering the school, we were greeted by a crucifix with our lord and savior Jesus Christ, his arms outstretched, and a look on his face pleading passersby to let him down off that damn piece of wood already.

We entered the auditorium to find it packed with easily 500 parents, grandparents, and siblings of the dancers. Upon perusing the brochure, I found that the recital was actually split into four acts. Each act contained roughly two million performances. I tried to run for the exit, but there was a line of geriatrics waving gaudy bouqets determined to get to their seats before the Second Coming. I debated for a minute whether or not I should body check an old lady with a walker and hearings aids and make a break for it, but my Mama raised me right, plus, I wanted to make a good impression David's parents.

The recital was worse than I could have ever imagined.

Seriously, if Dick Cheney had appeared in a ball of flame smelling of Preparation H, KY, and poppers and offered to sodomize me with a pineapple dipped in sulfuric acid but get a free pass out of the recital hall or watch the show...I would have considered taking his offer.

The show began with adorable little girls in spangles and sparkles bobbing off tune to various “childrens” version of adult songs...such as a remake of Iko Iko that made me want to have my flag boy set the stage on fire.

At one point, a soloist took the stage. She was a buxom chick named Erica. When she walked on stage, half the high school aged men in the audience (and some of their fathers) popped obvious wood and started screaming her name. She had a ballet solo. I would not be overly harsh in saying that Corky from TV's Life Goes On would have been a more compelling dancer.

There was a moment of levity when a troupe of middle school girls took the stage. David's sister-in-law's sister leaned over and told us that one of the young things on stage was Mitchell's ex-girlfriend. They had dated for a week. She broke Mitchell's heart. At the end of her performance, Mitchell gave her a standing ovation. Straight men. Who can understand 'em?

Of course, it was suburban Connecticut, so there had to be some cultural appropriation. It took the form of a dozen adorable girls in mini-skirt kimonos doing a fan dance. My great-aunt was a real live geisha...I was offended on her behalf. But..the girls were cute and the dance was one of the best. But it was wrong and they should be ashamed.

The most hilarious, and the most ridiculous, moment of the evening came when a group of high school dancers, including Erica of Corky fame, took the stage and did the can can. I have never seen that much camel toe proudly displayed in my entire life. I mean, it looked like a herd of tourists on a ride through the Sahara desert up there. I swear I saw one of the girls' vagina grow a hump and spit.

In the end, the best performance was by Emily and her middle school gal pals. They were dressed as a bunch of escapees from I Dream Of Jeannie....and did a dance performance to “Walk Like An Egpytian.” I love the Bangles, and I used to watch the video of that song as a young lad simply for the moment when the shirtless football player walked like an Egyptian across the screen and into my pants.

After Emily's first performance (she was scheduled for two), we grabbed David's parents and beat a hasty retreat before the cackles from our row incited a riot from the parents that saw future Dancing with the Stars contestants on stage.

The minute I got into open space, safe from the bedazzled parents and their children in bedazzled spandex, I laughed so hard that my mangina spit.

Bristol, CT is WAY cooler than Bristol Palin.

P.S. There was one boy performer amongst the women folk...he was obviously a baby homo.

Breaking News: PTSD Tragedy in Iraq

I have written in the past about my personal struggles with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I never fought in a war, lived in a town that was being shelled by Israel, or sat in a cafe when a suicide bomber blew out the front door. I grew up from a very young age (roughly 3 or 4) until age 13 with a very verbally and mentally abusive home environment. Though the circumstances that created the mental illness in me called PTSD are wildly different than the causes of PTSD in refugees and soldiers returning from war...the result is much the same: anxiety, depression, programmed reactions, hyperactive fight or flight instincts, and a host of secondary mental illness (that can include addiction and any number of other mental health coping mechanisms). .

Like many people who suffer from PTSD, I was initially misdiagnosed, put on the wrong pills, and continued suffering from, what was then, an undiagnosed affliction. Thankfully, five years ago, I was diagnosed correctly, given the right medicine (don't be surprised when one of my kids has the middle name Zoloft), and found a life where PTSD plays a very very very minor roll.

I wish the same could be said for the poor, tragic man that opened fire in a Camp Liberty stress clinic today and killed five of his comrades in arms.

While at the gym today, I was watching CNN, and I heard the breaking news that a solider had killed five and wounded several others. The soldier was most likely seeking help from the stress clinic. Unfortunately, help did not arrive in time. These are the stories of war that we hear too little about...the impact on the soldiers...the way that the hearts and minds of thousands and thousands are ripped apart by what they are forced to see, feel, and do.

Tomorrow, there will be people who are calling for this soldier's head. There will be some few that will advocate that he receive help. Others will simply boil it down to him pulling a trigger and the rest is filler.

I have a sister I love with all my heart and a brother who makes me so very proud.
This sister has served three tours of duty in Iraq, and this brother has served a tour of duty in Afghanistan. My little brother, who is just 21 years old, has seen and done things in this life that I can not imagine. For a time, every blog entry on his Myspace page was dedicated to a friend that had been killed in the war. My sister, who enlisted before the war started in order to pay for college, is a brilliant and beautiful woman who once wrote to me telling me about a bomb exploding near where she was sleeping. She was, at the time, also about 21.

When the story broke on CNN today, I didn't see a nameless/faceless soldier. I saw Shannon. I saw Julius. I saw my cousin Vincent. I saw my ex-boyfriend and friend Rada. I saw people that I know and love and who, except for by the grace of God, were not the solider that opened fire today. But they could have been. How easily they could have been.

Right now, I am torn between tears and ridiculous anger. George Bush and Dick Cheney are war criminals. They fabricated a cause for war and have sent hundreds of thousands into battle. They have the blood of tens of thousands on their hands. They have the weight of hundreds of thousands of wounded and damaged bodies and souls and minds on their hands. And though the justice of the land seems to be unable to reach either of them, the justice of God is waiting, and I can only pray that he shows them some of the mercy that they refused to show the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and the young men and women that they sent face their deaths, fears, and nightmares.

It is Bush's fault that this young man walked into a clinic today and pulled the trigger. The solider who opened fire should be taken into care not custody. He should be give the time, space, and quiet to heal and to face the crushing guilt that will come down on him when the full realization of what he has done hits him. He has created a jail cell around his heart and mind as a way to survive what he has already survived. He does not deserve a jail cell around his body.

It should be Dick Cheney and George W. Bush that face courts martial, and George W. Bush, the man who surpervised the most executions of any governor in modern history (and perhaps in the history of the United States) should reap what he has sown. God can be merciful, today, I can not.

My heart and sympathy goes out to the families of those slain today. The blood of your children was shed today, and it never needed to happen. It is time that this nation wake up and understand that mental illness is REAL; it is as real as a broken arm or cancer or any other physical ailment. It is time that we pass health care reform that forces parity between mental illness and phyiscal illness. It is time that we END THIS SENSELESS war. How many more soliders, civilians, militants, HUMAN BEINGS have to die before it ends? How much blood must the beast have before it is sated? How much blood has to be spilled before we, the people of the United States, demand an end. The blood is on our hands as well, and it will take a generation to wash it away.

(Here is a link to an article posted on yahoo regarding today's events in Baghdad)