Senate hearings are underway for the confirmation of Elena Kagan as our next Supreme Court Justice. We knew, of course, that conservative Republican senators would cry foul, accusing President Obama of nominating yet another "activist judge." But to trash the late, great Justice Thurgood Marshall is stepping WAY over the line. (Kagan clerked for him - what an honor that must has been.)
If you missed it, here's a mashup of yesterday's trash talking, Senate style:
Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice and simply one of the greatest Supreme Court Justices of all time, is one of my personal heroes. But as mad as this makes me, and maybe you too, let's just grit our teeth and get through this necessary yet painful nomination process. Kagan will become our next Supreme Court Justice and Marshall will be smiling from above.
Living in the north country is a mixed blessing with our long dark winters. But then comes summer. And it's a brief big wet sloppy kiss of a summer, radiating heat, humidity, sun and long hours of daylight that extend well into the evening. I come alive in the summer in a way that simply would not happen if I lived in warmer climes. Most of us who live here are like that. It's a fleeting, catch-it-while-it's-here kind of party.
Today is the summer solstice. The longest day of the year. I will not think about the fact that this means the days are now going to start getting shorter, that the long slide into cold-dark-nights-that-begin-in-the -afternoon has begun. I will not mention that. Rather, here's some music to honor the heat, the sun, the light:
Two amazing (and completely different) covers of Summertime:
Summertime -- Jill Scott and George Benson
Summertime -- Janis Joplin live in Stockholm, 1969
Summertime -- DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (not the same song - an easy, breezy hip-hop tune)
And two more classics from back in the day:
Dancing in the Streets -- Martha and the Vandellas
Hot Fun in the Summertime -- Sly and the Family Stone
And if you want to see Sly and the fam live, here's the song as part of a great medley of their hits:
By Christy NaMee Eriksen, a simply amazing poet from Juneau, Alaska. Check out her blog TSUNAMEE. The name says it all.
My guess is that this poem is especially hilarious for Asian (specifically Korean) women, but it's pretty darn universal. Made this queer-white-grandma-who-doesn't-even-get-hit-on-by-those-drunk-white-boys-anymore laugh til I cried.
Which I think is the point of the poem (laughing til you cry).
Read it here (she tells you more about it on her blog) and here:
DRUNK WHITE BOY I HEART YOU
Drunk white boy,
I heart you.
Let me count the ways!
Kick start jump and you’re up
hand standing on a grey keg with
beer foaming at your mouth,
you tiger you
you wild thing you.
Marley shirt fallen at your neck,
your balsa wood chest flashing flabby,
just the kind of man I look for
these long, lonesome nights.
So you wanna take
long walks on the sidewalk,
kiss my ground with your leinenkugel,
drape an easy arm over my shoulder
like a hit single.
And baby I’m amazed by you.
Do that hop onto every parked car thing again.
Keep drinkin, I’m swimmin, and you’re so deep.
Maybe General Vang Pao did invent sriracha sauce.
Yah I get it, I got the fever.
You loved Korea because you slept with so many Korean girls?
I love Korea too!
We have so much in common.
YES, I text back.
Let’s definitely get married.
Oh, drunk white boy,
where you been all my life?
No one can say hello to me in 3 Asian languages like you can.
No one calls me Ming like you can.
No one tells the boy I came with about the baseball bats in the trunk like you do.
Your penis is so much bigger. I know it.
Across your dank and dirty basement,
I only have folded eyes
for you.
Can you say "how annoying" in hundreds of different languages? As the 2010 FIFA World Cup is being beamed into homes, pubs, bars, and public watching spots across the globe so is the bee-swarming sound of the vuvuzela, a plastic horn that South African fans and others love to blow during soccer matches. The idea is like the homer hanky but with sound. The vuvuzela has been part of South African soccer for a couple of years, but the horn is front and center to the soccer world this year since the World Cup is being held in South Africa.
While the World Cup brings the planet together like no other sporting event, the vuvuzela is creating its own global buzz for better and sadly, for worse. It's a global trending topic on Twitter. Check out these screen grabs (taken at different times) to see for yourself:
The venerable New York Times even has a story today about the controversy created by the noise. According to the story, World Cup organizers are debating what to do about it, but have decided the horns stay for now, and "Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, has supported the trumpets, saying Europeans must adjust to African traditions."
Here is what a stadium full of vuvuzela noise sounds like:
But alas, the vuvuzela controversy has taken an ugly turn. Fans annoyed by the constant buzzing noise (which drowns out all the normal crowd sounds) have gone beyond complaining. It goes like this: Vuvuzela = I don't like that sound = the sound is the ruining the World Cup = here is how soccer matches sound everywhere else = here is how soccer matches should sound = what is wrong with those South Africans = [a whole bunch of racist comments and You Tube videos].
Sigh.
You can dislike the sound (I do), or even hate it, but why you gotta go there, people?
The biggest environmental disaster in our nation's history continues, and I take responsibility (thanks for the lead, President Obama) because it's my fault, too. Blame BP all you want, but we who are addicted to oil -- for our cars, for our way of life -- caused this. BP wouldn't be drilling if we weren't a nation(s) of addicts needing our oil fix.
So look hard at this mess we have collectively created and the collective power we have to do something about it.
Riding my bike to work, recycling, turning off the lights, turning the thermostat down, and buying locally grown food is not enough to/does not fix this problem or appease my guilt at the images of oil coated wildlife.
But those things, multiplied by millions of people doing the same and more, do make real change. We have to start somewhere.
We need to be educated. Crude oil is used to produce everything from plastics to paint to detergent to make-up and candles. We use it all the time. But their are alternatives - know what they are and support their use.
We must reduce consumption. This map (source: Wikipedia) shows global energy consumption levels per capita (darker colors represent more consumption):
Join me in this: Make a list of the things you do to reduce your energy consumption and personal carbon footprint. Double it. Then make a list of ways you can lend yourself to organizations and coalitions working for large scale change. Sign up. Send your money.
About half the world is furious at what is happening in the Gulf. Furious at BP. Furious someone can't figure out how to stop this catastrophe. (My dad used to say, "If we can land a man on the moon, how come we can't [fill in blank for problem that needs solving].")
It helps me that Barack Obama is our president during this crisis. Unlike George W. Bush, who seemed to think it was okay to leave thousands of hungry, thirsty, poor (mostly Black) people stranded in the Superdome during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Obama is a moral, principled man. That would not, could not have happened on his watch.
So I have faith, but my patience is running thin.
I am ready for him to kick some major ass.
I doubt - as brilliant as he is - that he personally knows how to stop the oil gushing into the Gulf. But he does have the power to make the people who do know what to do fix the damn leak and then be accountable to clean up the mess and address the environmental fallout over the long term.
"And will Obama's use of the word "ass" appease Bill Maher and Spike Lee and the rest of America clamoring for "the angry Obama"? I still say people want to see him in chest-high waders scooping oil from the Gulf of Mexico with his hands."
Check out the rest of her post, including a promo clip for the Obama interview, as well as some spot-on related posts here.
(I agree with her about Obama in waders personally scooping oil, BTW, while simultaneously kicking some major ass.)
One of the most amazing places for spoken word/performance art by and for people of color (but welcome to all) in the Twin Cities is Equilibrium, Spoken Word at the Loft, (EQ) curated by Bao Phi. Check out this poem, so relevant to right now.
"Under the Table": A poem for Latina/o and Asian American immigrant and refugee rights
In this creative collaboration, poets Tatiana Ormaza and Juliana Hu Pegues express a shared struggle between Latina/o and Asian American immigrants and refugees. In the current political climate of Arizona's SB 1070 and similar immigrant bashing, "Under the Table" calls for unapologetic and celebratory cross-racial coalition building.
The poem is on the CD ¿Nation of Immigrants?, EQ's first CD showcasing Minnesota poets, spoken word artists, and artists of color/indigenous artists
Four years ago today my handsome wuzband and I got legally married in Massachusetts. We have the marriage license framed and hung on the wall, along with some photos, and the broom we jumped over.
To mark this day, I am posting a paper my (now) 24-year-old daughter wrote when she in high school (around 2003). The assignment was to write a position paper, and much to my surprise, she wrote about and took a position in favor of gay marriage. (Note: My spouse was not yet in our lives.)
At that time in her life she was somewhat embarrassed of her queer mom and was not fully "out" to her friends (I came out and left her dad when she was eight). Yet she wrote this. If a kid gets it, well what else is there to say?
Gay Marriage Position Paper
Right now in the United States there is a law called the Defense of Marriage Act. The law says that it is illegal for gay and lesbian people to get married. It also says that each state can decide if it will accept or not accept any gay or lesbian marriage that takes place in a state or country where gay marriage is legal. My position in this paper is that law should be changed so that gay and lesbian people can choose to get legally married.
There is going to be a big fight about that law. Recently, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that civil marriage was open to anyone, including gays and lesbians. That is a big step forward for gays and lesbians toward getting their rights. But there are a lot of people who think this is wrong and don’t agree with it. They think marriage should only be between a man and a woman. So this is going to be a big political issue as gay and lesbian people fight for their rights and other people try to stop them. It could even affect the presidential race – it’s that big.
Since this country began, different groups of people have been fighting for their rights, and slowly things have changed. At first only white men could vote. Then women fought for the right to vote and won. Then African American people fought for the right to vote and won. Just 30-40 years ago in some states people of different races couldn’t marry and African Americans had no civil rights. Now that’s changed. There is a pattern of more and more people fighting for what they believe in and winning. Now gay and lesbian people are taking up that fight.
I support this fight because I think two people who love each other should be able to choose to get married. It shouldn’t matter if they are two men or two women or of different races. People should get to marry who they love.
There shouldn’t be laws that govern private things like love. Our country should support love. Some of the same people who think that people shouldn’t live together before marriage are also against gay and lesbian people getting married. Now how ridiculous is that! That means that if two men or two women are committed to each other and want to share their lives together, they have to live together and not be married. Gay and lesbian people are fighting to get to live their lives how they want to and not be frowned upon.
In our society some people also think gays and lesbians shouldn’t have children. They think that being gay or lesbian is perverted and will rub off on the kids. This is not true. Gay and lesbian parents are no different than straight parents. Kids who have gay and lesbian parents see all of the easy and hard things that go with trying to make a marriage and family work. And gay and lesbian people are going to have kids no matter what. So we should support them and let them get married.
Besides, if they get married, they are the ones who have to live with each other. So it should be up to them. It’s hard to keep a marriage and family together, and even harder if society isn’t supporting you.
Personally, I don’t think it’s anyone’s business who someone chooses to love. I would be mad if there was a law saying I couldn’t marry someone I loved and wanted to marry.
In conclusion, everyone who is straight and supports the rights of gay and lesbian people should speak up and help make change. If you are against it, just mind your own business. It’s not your place to make other people unhappy just because you don’t believe in it. Just give people room to be themselves and live their lives. I hope the law changes because the more people who have their rights, the better this country will be. ~~~ Anniversary - Tony Toni Tone (How could I NOT post this!)
I just changed the name of my blog from Embrace Your Age! You're Living! to Upside My Head (Pay Attention Now)
Why, you may wonder, why?
When I started this blog in late 2008, I had no plan. I just sat at my computer one day, great music rolling through my headphones, and made this blog. I was not really sure what I wanted to write about, but knew I had a few things to say. My inaugural post sums it up, and my anniversary blog says a bit about what I've learned so far.
I called my blog Embrace Your Age! You're Living! thinking it would mostly be about aging and about being fully alive. I was wrong. It is about all that and more. Much more. In fact, the best title for the blog is probably All Over the Place. Not so great for building a following, but it works for me.
So I've been thinking about changing the name to better reflect the array of subjects I meander through. Lacking inspiration, I asked my good friend, the brilliant and sly George Quotidian Hoagland, for some help on a new name.
George Quotidian Hoagland
Being the brainiac she is she broke it down for me. Below is her (slightly edited) response:
"I was just talking yesterday with my new 'teach me everything you know' friend about how the world does not need another scholar of race or gender or sexuality as representation (like tropes of black femininity in Toni Morrison's work, for example, or queer identities in Lady Gaga, or whatever), but what it/we do need are explorations of how we work to make and read race, age, class, gender in ways that may or may not map directly onto our bodies.
On the one hand, this idea makes people who think that white people will exploit any non-white experience really scared (unnecessarily so, I think). But the difference between saying you (or anyone) has a black experience in white skin and saying that you work to read the world in a way that explains the contingent experience of seeing and being in ways that accurately represent your complicated human circumstances is enormous and important.
Personally, I think that my saying that I am black, or queer, or poor (even though those labels are all sometimes really pertinent), negates my actual lived experience of benefiting from white privilege (in some sometimes insidious ways), of having some very traditional and awesome heteronormative romances, and having the luxury of buying whatever I need whenever I need it, even though that usually means I have to save up money or use credit in order to get it.
So, and this message is probably way deeper than you intended, but this is what happens when you ask somebody like me a question we take seriously, my ideas for a new name, in accordance with the above, are as follows:
1. Nothing is black and white
2. Homo-normal (although I bet this one is already taken)
3. Don't assume the position (my old blog, now defunct, was 'assume the position')
4. Trending towards awesome
5. Sharpie and Razor (this one comes from goz)
6. Complicated and Fabulous
7. Negrolicious! (Negro is my new favorite word)
8. Upside the head
9. Where's my drink?
10. Everyday ethics/ethnics
I could think of more but I'm starving and need food."
See. She is way way smarter than me. So many good ideas to ponder. "Upside the head" kept sticking, but it wasn't quite right. Then, with a burst of light (of the disco ball variety), a file drawer inside my aging brain flew open and out popped the Gap Band! Specifically the 1979 hit, Oops Upside Your Head. It was all downhill from there.
The lyrics are awesomely bland, but the song is just a great dance groove! The missing link! (I call myself Dancing Diva, after all.)
So there you go! A brilliant analysis (by George) combined with pure digression (by me) and a funk classic = new name! So edgy. So quotidian. So all over the place. So me!
Do you know that The Dream Act is about children? Versions of the Deam Act have been introduced in Congress since 2001. It is simply about educational opportunity for "undocumented" children who came to the U.S. as children, who graduated from high school here, and want to go to college.
Unfortunately, because of their status as "undocumented aliens" college is but a dream for most. The Dream Act, if passed, would change all that, opening the doors of higher education to countless deserving young people, who are part of the fabric of our nation.
A no-brainer, right? Yet passage of the act fails, and fails. And fails. The current version of The Dream Act is now in Congress. Get active for the sake of our young people, and for our collective future.
Why is this so difficult to pass? Once again I shake my head at "we the people." Maybe America, or the America I believe in, is just a myth. Why would we turn our backs on young people who want to better themselves and contribute?
A poem, from the lens of such a young person, Sylvia Rodriguez (who by the way is Harvard-bound), is posted on Dream Activist. Read it. An excerpt is below:
Decriminalize
Stop ignoring me. I know that you do it so easily
But please try to see me.
I’m the problem you try to hide.
I’m the child left behind.
I’m the anger in this state
I’m the hope that is ingrained.
I’m the angry youth, which is your future.
Whose hopes and dreams you try to butcher.
I, brought by desperate mother and alcoholic father.
Born in the so-called “wrong side.”
Why do you hate me and call me illegal?
Why? Do you feel scared?
I think you do.
Scared of me of my color or my people?
Or of my potential?
I don’t think you’ve realized
That even if you don’t sympathize,
I will not agonize,
And there is no need to debate,
Because my dreams are much larger than your hate...
