loquacious

The War on LGBT People: news from the front

So, I read several blogs and subscribe to several news feeds that are about queer/LGBT issues. Although the constant news of the various affronts heaped on gay people every day inevitably depresses me, I keep doing it, as I think it keeps my energy up to keep fighting the fight against the ignorant and the just plain mean. I'm going to post some of the stories I see here once and a while, as it occurred to me that if you weren't tracking these issues very closely (and who would???), it might seem to you like everything was mostly just fine for gay people. It's not. There really is a dedicated group of people out there who have decided that to make America better, gay people must be defeated. They are waging a war, and so I will here periodically comment on their "death by a thousand pinpricks" approach to beating us down.

• MA moves same sex marriage ban forward: despite there being absolutely no negative effects associated with several years of same sex marriages there, anti-gay forces there are one step closer now to putting the rights of a minority up for a public vote
• 6 hurt in armed attack on gay party in Chicago
• Gay teens are afraid to be out to their doctors (and so of course do not get the right medical advice
  
• "Don't ask don't tell" wrong, says ex-Joint Chief: well, nice that he says it now, but a bit too late. I can't say I care one iota about being in the military, but it's rather galling that the govt so blatantly discriminates in the face of absolutely no evidence that allowing gay citizens to serve would damage the military. It's all just anti-gay hysteria.
• Another Dem (Edwards) announces presidential candidacy: so far, none favor same sex marriage. Yes, this is the Democrats, I personally think that many are fine with it, but just have no backbone.  They cynically believe that defending queers on this issue would do more to harm them than to help them, so they leave us out to dry.  Another 20 years until we can marry? No skin off their backs.

Book 23: Monster

Monster: the autobiography of an L.A. gang member
Sanyika Shakur (aka Monster Kody Scott)
1993
383 pp.
Rating: 4 of 5

Gentle reader, you probably do not know this, but very few, if any, of the books I describe here have anything to do with my work. I read enough at work to want my recreational reading to be about things that will make me grow in other ways.

Monster crosses that line a bit. At work I'm starting to learn more about the juvenile justice system, and I work with some organizations that try to reduce juvenile violence and/or keep youth from recidivating. However, very little of the professional literature talks about why kids get involved in criminal activities.  I have my guesses, but I'm always worried when people are left to their assumptions and 'common sense' (the earth is flat, etc.).

I'm not sure that Monster answers my question. However, it certainly illuminates the inner workings of gang life and membership. There is a very elaborate hierarchy, and a set of relationships between gang sub-units as well as relationships that tie gangs together in some interesting ways.   The complete and utter failure (and cynical lack of caring) in the police and justice systems were breathtaking. I don't have any reason to doubt Shakur's words here.

Shakur's story is the story of race and and the effects of centuries of oppression. Monster is the chronicle of Shakur's long process of coming to know that. It's a harrowing tale, full of 12 year olds who'll kill you for no reason; Shakur himself lost count of the number of people he killed.  He doesn't blame anyone, really, for what he did. Nor does he apologize really. It leaves the reader in an interesting place.

Right now, somewhere, a 10 or 11 year old is joining a gang. That gang is providing something that child needs, something that he isn't getting elsewhere. What does a 10 year old know? They know what they need.

Book 13: The Prize

The Prize
Daniel Yergin (1991)
788 pp.
Rating: 5 out of 5

This is a brilliant history of oil and the oil industry (and really, much more interesting than that might make it sound!). Where it leads to, of course, is globalization. Where it starts from is American capitalistic imperialism. Oil seems like it might well have been one of the first truly multi-national businesses. It’s certainly at the core of several world and regional wars, and one might justifiably place a lot of current global tensions at its doorstep.

The book is extremely thorough. Perhaps a bit too much at the beginning for my taste, but it does all build up to a centry and a half overview. It certainly starts to get good around 1910 and the build up to WWI. In fact, Yegin does an amazing job detailing how oil figured prominently in WWi, WWII, then the cold war and the geopolitical struggle, especially in the Mideast, that occured after that. I certainly have a much much clearer idea of why the US (and other countries) have gone to war, made the 'friends' they have, snuggled up to dictators, and much much else. One of the major turning points was when both the US and Brittain made the choice to convert their Navies from coal to oil, knowing full well that their domestic production of oil was insufficient to meet their military needs. This set the stage for a prolonged military, diplomatic and/or economic relationship (aka as a stranglehold) on the Middle East.

Growing up in the late 70's, i never did understand what was behind the Iranian hostage 'crisis'. Now I do. In the 90's and more recently, I never could figure out why the US had/has such a close relationship with the Saudi Arabians. Now I do. Buying gas, I never did know who was behind all those different gas stations. No I do.

I think most remarkable, and perhaps most pertinent is the work this book does uncovering US private interests (private industry) and their role in collaborating with the US government, to accomplish geopolical aims. The US government and the oil industry have been in bed together a long long time. I know realize that G.W. Bush is just the logical extension of 150 years of history.