Dancing with Myself

Virginia Apologizes for Slavery

One hundred and forty-four years after the Emancipation Proclamation, three hundred and eighty-eight years after the first Africans were traded by English privateers for water and supplies to the colony at Jamestown, one hundred and seventy-six years after Nat Turner's ill-fated rebellion, Virginia apologizes for slavery.

It also apologized for its 400 year history of exploitation of its native-Americans.  For two hundred and fifty years, it has been the policy of Virginia to re-classify all of its native American people as Colored.  For three hundred and sixty-five years, Virginia refused to allow those same Coloreds to vote.  By magically changing all native Americans to Colored not only deprived those same people of basic rights of citizenship, it denied them the right to a heritage.  They were not welcome as Whites and they were denied their Indianess.  I have no doubt that if the South had not lost the Civil War, Virginia would have attempted to enslave all its Colored population.  So steeped is Virginia's history in ugly racism, that it was a mere 83 years ago that Virginia passed its Racial Integrity Law which required all citizens not pure White to register within the county of their residence and provided penalties for anyone attempting to pass themselves off as White.  In the person of Walter A. Plecker, Virginia's Registrar of the Bureau of Vital Statistics, Virginia had a fierce protector of the White race.  Plecker was zealous in his efforts to make sure Virginia's Indians and tri-racials, such as Melungeons, were properly listed as Colored.

It was a mere 345 years ago that Virginia passed a law overturning hundreds of years of English common law and declared that henceforth a child's status derives from its mother and not its father, or  born slave, die slave.  Six years later, Virginia passed a law taxing free Black women, and just so there wouldn't be any doubt, the law "said that 'negro women, though permitted to enjoy their freedome' could not have the rights of 'the English.'"

Three hundred and sixteen years ago Virginia forbade the marriage of non-Whites to Whites.  It's my understanding they used the exact same law to attack same-sex marriages three hundred, thirteen years later in 2004.  Okay, I'm joking.  They paraphrased.

Virginia has a lot of be sorry for.  It's just my luck to be at the receiving end of Virginia's bigotry twice in 400 years.  The first time was when my tri-racial ancestors were forced to migrate from Virginia in the early to middle 1700s.  At least two of my family lines originated in Virginia, the Bunch and Chavers families.  The second time has been these past ten years as Virginia has taken the lead in passing nastive, punitive laws against Gays and Lesbians. 

Virginia, mother of bigots and presidents, still has a hateful streak.  The new Coloreds in Virginia these days are Gays.  Virginia has led the nation in punitive laws aimed at homosexuals.  Consenting adults are now prohibited by Virginia law from making legally-binding contracts that might tend to suggest that they are somehow a couple.  Virginia courts routinely savage the rights of same-sex parents in ways that are as arbitrary as were their laws regarding racial purity.

Actually, Virginia has a thing about homosexuals.  This from EqualityVirginia:

• In 2006 Virginia voters ratified an amendment to the Virginia Constitution banning marriage equality for gay and lesbian Virginians, and denying legal relationship recognition for all unmarried couples.
• Earlier, in 2004, the Virginia General Assembly passed the "Affirmation of Marriage Act" (HB 751) banning civil unions and other contract rights for same-sex couples in the state.
• In Virginia, it is permissible to discriminate against someone in employment, housing, banking or public accommodations based on sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.
• Virginia does not allow second-parent adoptions for unmarried couples, leaving these families and children without critical protections.
• Sexual orientation and gender identity and expression are not included in the state's hate crimes law.
• Although it is inconsistent with the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Virginia still has not repealed the so-called "crimes against nature" law making sodomy a Class 6 felony.

All in the name of Jesus, amen.  The Bible thumpers condemning Gays are the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the Bible thumpers who said a mere 350 years ago that slavery was the proper condition of non-White people. 

Oh Virginia.  You've been wrong as many times as Bush and Cheney.  I'd like to think this apology will sensitize you to the evil you do in the name of your god, but I seriously doubt it.  Your apology means little without contrition and your treatment of Gays and Lesbians shows the ugliness of your heart.  You don't stop being a whore because you grow too old and can't get tricks.  You're still a whore, you're just out of work. 

Of Course No Officers Were Involved

An aide to Republican Congressman Mike Rogers, U.S. Army Reserve Capt. Christopher R. Brinson, has denied any culpability in the Abu Ghraib Prison torture scandal.  Taking the usual Republican line of no-responsibility, Brinson blames others for the problems at the prison. 

For the record, the enlisted guys are going to prison for the Abu Ghraib abuses.  The officers involved so far have received reprimands for letting their enlisted people get out of control--not for the criminal wrong doing that shocked the world.

Abu Ghraib remains a blotch on our national character.  If we had an honorable officer corps, which we don't, the commanding general of the Army in Iraq would have resigned after apologizing to the President and to the American people because it happened on his watch.  Nowadays, no one in the armed services takes responsibility for anything. 

This shame is going to be on us for a long time to come.  The only way for us to get rid of our shame is to get rid of the Republicans in Congress and impeach Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld and charge them with high crimes and misdemeanors.  A fish rots from the head.

Bashing Republicans, or Holding Evil Accountable?

I started to leave this comment over on Linda's blog at Auterrific.  I felt like I might be getting into the middle of an argument between others, so I brought it here instead.

If we seem to unfairly pick on Republicans, it's only because they have turned everything, and I mean every-fucking-thing, into something to do with 9/11 and the war on terror.  Say aloud, "Arctic" "National" "Wildlife" "Refuge."  (And I have another 100 examples.)

One fact about the domestic spying that disturbed me much:  the special court set up to monitor the international wiretaps have never, that reads NEVER, has failed to grant the government any request made of  it made for a wiretap.  So why was it so egregious an imposition to ask the government to stay on record about its needs to wiretap domestically?

Yes, I will beat up on Republicans and Bush at each and every opportunity I get.  They're all a bunch of evil crooks.  Are they all?  I don't know.  Did all Nazis hate Jews, or did the more virulent ones gain control?  I'm not going to wait until 1939/2006 to find out.  My opposition to evil begins now.

And as a sentient being, I must bear witness and remember those  who did and did not say something when evil raised it's ugly head.

Why Does Time Magazine Hate America?

Let's play a new game.  It's called "Fuck a PUC." 

Y'know, I used to be proud to be an American.  Nowadays all I feel is dirty.

Shame on President Bush

Shame, Shame, Shame.

Cindy Sheehan sits outside his royal perimeter in Crawford, Texas in the heat, wanting to address the clown who took us into a military misadventure that has cost over 100,000 lives, including Mrs. Sheehan's son, Casey. She wants Bush to stop mouthing platitudes and explain to her why it was necessary for her son and the other 100,000 people to die. 

Go home, Cindy Sheehan.  He's not man enough to talk to you.  He's a shameful excuse for humanity.  He pretended to be a warrior in his youth, just as he pretends to be a leader now.  He's no leader.  He's a hack.  A hack without personal fortitude.  A hack without any depth of personal humanity, incapable of empathy.

Tomorrow morning America is going to wake up, smelling of puke and sour sex from our binge with this punk with a small mind and even smaller dick who nonetheless managed to fuck us over so righteously.  Instead of the promised romance he took us back to his frat house and let his buddies fuck us.  There won't be enough hot water to wash off the shame of this episode. 

Setting the Record Straight

Senfronia Thompson, a representative to the Texas House of Representatives rose to the floor of the Texas House, and lectured her fellow members.  Her speech is quoted in full by Molly Ivins, and with a thank you to Molly for bringing it to our attention, I also follow Molly's example and reprint it here in its entirety.

I have been a member of this august body for three decades, and today is one of the all-time low points. We are going in the wrong direction, in the direction of hate and fear and discrimination. Members, we all know what this is about, this is the politics of divisiveness at its worst, a wedge issue that is meant to divide.

Members, this issue is a distraction from the real things we need to be working on. At the end of this session, this Legislature, this Leadership will not be able to deliver the people of Texas, fundamental and fair answers to the pressing issues of our day.

Let's look at what this amendment does not do: It does not give one Texas citizen meaningful tax relief. It does not reform or fully fund our education system. It does not restore one child to CHIP, who was cut from health insurance last session. It does not put one dime into raising Texas' Third World access to health care. It does not do one thing to care for or protect one elderly person or one child in this state. In fact, it does not even do anything to protect one marriage.

Members, this bill is about hate and fear and discrimination. I know something about hate and fear and discrimination. When I was a small girl, white folks used to talk about "protecting the institution of marriage" as well. What they meant was if people of my color tried to marry people of Mr. Chisum's color, you'd often find the people of my color hanging from a tree. That's what the white folks did back then to "protect marriage." Fifty years ago, white folks thought inter-racial marriages were a "threat to the institution of marriage."

Members, I'm a Christian and a proud Christian. I read the good book, and do my best to live by it. I have never read the verse where it says, "gay people can't marry." I have never read the verse where it says, "though shalt discriminate against those not like me." I have never read the verse where it says, "let's base our public policy on hate and fear and discrimination." Christianity to me is love and hope and faith and forgiveness -- not hate and discrimination.

I have served in this body a lot of years -- and I have seen a lot of promises broken. I should be up here demanding my 40 acres and a mule because that's another promise you broke. You used a wealthy white minister cloaked in the cloth to ease the stench of that form of discrimination.

So, now that blacks and women can vote, and now that blacks and women have equal rights -- you turn your hatred to homosexuals -- and you still use your misguided reading of the Bible to justify your hatred. You want to pass this ridiculous amendment so you can go home and brag. . . brag about what? Declare that you saved the people of Texas from what? Persons of the same sex cannot get married in this State now. Texas does not now recognize same-sex marriages, civil unions, religious unions, domestic partnerships, contractual arrangements or Christian blessings entered into in this State -- or anywhere else on this planet Earth.

If you want to make your hateful political statements then that is one thing -- the Chisum amendment does real harm. It repeals the contracts that many single people have paid thousands of dollars to purchase to obtain medical powers of attorney, powers of attorney, hospital visitation, joint ownership and support agreements. You have lost your way -- this is obscene.

Today, you are playing to the lowest common denominator -- you are putting aside the real issues of substance that we need to address so that you can instead play on the public's fears and prejudices to deceive and manipulate voters into thinking that we have done something important.

I realize that gay rights are not the same as civil rights -- but I can guarantee you we are going in the wrong direction. I can not hide my skin color. In fact, in most of the South, people as pink as Rep. Wayne Smith were still Black by law if they had a great grandparent who was African. I was unable to attend an integrated and equally funded school until I got my Master of Laws degree. There were separate and unequal facilities for nearly everything.

I got second-hand textbooks even worse than the kind you're trying to pass off on every public school student next year. I had to ride to school on the back of the bus. I had to quench my thirst from filthy coloreds-only drinking fountains. I had to enter restaurants from the kitchen door. I was banned from entering most public accommodations, even from serving on a jury.

I had to live with the fear that getting too uppity could get you killed --- or worse. I know what third-class citizenship feels like. In my first term, one of my colleagues walked up and down this aisle muttering about how Nigras should be back in the field picking cotton instead of picking out committees.

So, I have to wonder about Rep. Chisum's 3/5 of a person amendment. Some of you folks hid behind your Bible then, too, to justify your cultural prejudices, your denial of liberty, and your gunpoint robbery of human dignity.

We have worked hard at putting our prejudices against homosexuals in law. We have denied them basic job protections. We have denied them and their children freedom from bullying and harassment at school. We have tried to criminalize their very existence.

But, we have also absolved them of all family duties and responsibilities: to care for and support their spouses and children, to count their family's assets in determining public assistance, to obtain health insurance for dependents, to make end-of-life or necessary medical decisions for their life partners --- sometimes even to visit in the hospital, even to defend our own country. And then, we can stand on our two hind legs and proclaim, "See, I told you homosexual families are unstable." And nearly every one of you on this Floor has a homosexual in their extended families.

Some of you have shunned and isolated these family members. Some of you, even some of the joint coauthors, have embraced them within your own family for the essence of Christianity is love. Yet, you are now poised to constitutionalize discrimination against a particular class of people.

I thought we would be debating real issues: education, health care for kids, teacher's health insurance, health care for the elderly, protecting survivors of sexual assault, protecting the pensions of seniors in nursing homes. I thought we would be debating economic development, property tax relief, protecting seniors pensions and stem cell research, to save lives of Texans who are waiting for a more abundant life. Instead we are wasting this body's time with this political stunt that is nothing more than constitutionalizing discrimination. The prejudices exhibited by members of this body disgust me.

Last week, Republicans used a political wedge issue to pull kids --sweet little vulnerable kids -- out of the homes of loving parents and put them back in a state orphanage just because those parents are gay. That's disgusting. Today, we are telling homosexuals that just like people of my ilk, when I was a small child, they too are second class citizens. I have listened to all the arguments. I have listened to all of the crap.

Mr. Chisum, is a person who I consider my good friend and revere. But, I want you to know that this amendment [is] blowing smoke to fuel the hell-fire flames of bigotry. You are trying to protect your constituents from danger. This amendment is a CYB [cover your behind] amendment for you to go home and talk about.

Amen to that.  The last time Texas went after something with this much passion, it was free people of color in the late 1830s.  They passed a law saying that all Free Persons of Color had two years to leave Texas or risk being sold into slavery.  You got to give those Texans credit:  when they hate, they go all the way.   I nominate for the new Texas motto:  Texas, the Hateful State.

A Dog's Life

Have you ever witnessed cruelty and felt challenged to confront it or at least attempt to rescue the animal or human being mistreated? Mark over at Auterrific, a dog-friendly blog if ever there was one, points to this story in Slate about an underground railroad which rescues dogs from abusive or neglectful situations and helps them find homes. Sometimes you just have to do what's right despite the fact that it might be dangerous and/or illegal. Shabat shalom, Mark.

Remembering the Holocaust

Today we remember the liberation of Auschwitz, or Oswiecim in the Polish.   Lo lishkoah.  Lo lishkoah.