David France: How to Survive a Plague (Part II)

David France's How to Survive a Plague, in addition to being an excellent documentary, reminds me of my 1991 temp job at AIDSTECH in the Research Triangle and my first year as a graduate student in Philadelphia in 1992. More on the temp job at some point. For now, Philadelphia in the year of the 1992 election.

I was lucky enough to be present at some of the ACT UP actions. All sorts of protests were going on in Philadelphia, and most of them included an anti-Bush (George Herbert Walker) component. There were regular anti-Planned Parenthood rallies, countered by Pro-Choice rallies. Living right in Center City made it easy to witness and to participate in street action. 

In Philadelphia, ACT UP was the most impressive protest group of all. One of their compound attitudes was, as stated openly, "We shall overcome -- by any means necessary."

And:
"Act Up!
Fight back!
Fight AIDS!"

To me, the excitement and urgency were palpable. All was interwovern into the 1992 US presidential election, and heavily Democratic Philadelphia was a focal point for all sorts of action. Some days in Center City featured what looked like set piece Napoleonic battles, blocks of various groups arrayed as if for close order combat. There were construction workers in hard hats, ACT UP phlanxes, city police on horseback, motorcades for campaigning politicians, groups facing off over Planned Parenthood, visitations by Lynn Yeakel (running for Senate), Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Pat Buchanan. All of it. How to Survive a Plague brings it back to mind in a thrilling way.

Today's Rune: Signals.

David France: How to Survive a Plague (Part I)

If, as Frederick Douglass put it in 1857, "power concedes nothing without a demand," David France's How to Survive a Plague (2012) shows an immediate demand -- faster, more effective response to the AIDS crisis, more resources for effective treatment --  via well-organized groups ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and its 1991 spinoff TAG (Treatment Action Group). Much of this compelling documentary covers the late 1980s and first half of the 1990s. In it, one will see not only the rank and file of ACT UP and TAG and their allies, but also buffoonish conservative enemies like North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, and let's not forget the mixed response of Pat Buchanan on Firing Line. Also: see George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Charlie Rose, among many others, drawn into the maelstrom. 

How to Survive a Plague is moving, fast-paced and exhilarating all at once. Fantastic!

Today's Rune: Signals.     

Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall

President Barack Obama, at his inauguration ceremony today, invoked the progress that's been made in the United States of America since its founding. He specifically traced social progress inspired by "Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall." This is not the first time he's done this, but today it was expressed to a much larger global audience. He had earlier noted at Barnard College on May 14, 2012: "That's how we achieved women's rights, that's how we achieved voting rights, that's how we achieved workers' rights, that's how we achieved gay rights, that's how we've made this union more perfect."*

Today, the President also said:

That is our generation’s task -- to make these words, these rights, these values -- of Life, and Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -- real for every American. Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life; it does not mean we will all define liberty in exactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to happiness. Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time -- but it does require us to act in our time. 

Wonderful. I loved this and all the speeches, and seeing the people, and the ceremonies, and the singing, and the parades -- all great. And man, it sure beats a lot of brutal alternatives.  

*Source: Chris Geidner, http://www.metroweekly.com/poliglot/2012/05/obama-at-barnard-speaks-of-activism-from-seneca-fa.html 

Under Title VII of the Civil Right Act of 1964, the federal government made it illegal throughout the USA for empoyers to descriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. This has been expanded, some by federal law and some by various state laws, so there are now additional protected realities like gender/sexual orientation, pregnancy age, disability, weight, height and others that can't be used as the basis for discrimination. "Don't ask, don't tell" discrimination was ended in the US military by the Obama Administration in 2011.

    

















On July 16, 1998, at the 150th anniversary celebration of the visonary Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, I heard Hillary Rodham Clinton speak these words in person: "We are, as one can see looking around this great crowd, men and women, old and young, different races, different backgrounds. We come to honor the past and imagine the future." Hillary was at today's inauguration, too -- in the capacity of Secretary of State.

From the 1848 Declaration: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal . . ." 

And: "we insist that [women] have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States." This was, of course, considered wildly radical at the time.      

Today's Rune: Fertility.

Nixonland & Beck's Americanaland

Finished Rick Perlstein's Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (2008), as epic and wild a tale as J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and James Clavell's Shōgun. The main difference is that the events in Nixonland really happened, and I personally remember some of them being revealed in the news at the time.

To anyone who thinks Nixonian smear tactics were an anomaly, of no import now: wrong!

Earlier today, I tuned into a bit of Glenn Beck, and there it was in all its glory --Nixonian creepiness and crassness, distortions and dirty tricks.

At break time -- this is completely true -- G. Gordon Liddy, Nixon's psychopathic Watergate henchman, creator of GEMSTONE (a real life Keystone Cops version of Ian Fleming's Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion aka SPECTRE), on Fox TV, selling GOLD. I kid you not: GOLD. In the ad, he crumples up a US greenback and tosses it away with contempt.

I saw this ad personally; after that, Beck ran a bizarre montage of "American patriotism," jumping from the Founding Fathers to D-Day to Apollo 11 to September 11 to Iraq, played out with an overpowering but cheesy soundtrack and something about how "They underestimated us" -- George III, Hitler, Terrorists. In the images, probably 98% of the people are white men; there are also two women -- one (a poster of) Rosy the Riveter, the other an actual white woman in uniform in Iraq. There are no blacks, no Asians, no Latinos. (Admittedly, I'd have to see it again to double-check). This is apparently Beck's ideal America: Nixonland.

Today's Rune: Signals.

Stonewall Plus Forty

Fortieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Previous posts on the topic:

http://eriklerouge.blogspot.com/2008/11/marriage-sentence.html

http://eriklerouge.blogspot.com/2007/02/stonewall-three-america.html

And here, from President Obama:

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans. . .

Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before. I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration. These individuals embody the best qualities we seek in public servants, and across my Administration -- in both the White House and the Federal agencies -- openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism.

The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect.

The entire memo can be found here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-LGBT-Pride-Month/

Marriage: A Sentence

The issue of marriage is -- to me personally -- a yawner either way. I'm neither pro- nor anti-, having been married and in no rush to repeat the process. For me, it's a luxury. But not so for all adults, at least not everywhere. Looking up Soledad O'Brien's biography while putting together yesterday's post, for instance, I was reminded that in the USA until very recently, "interracial marriage" was illegal in many states. (O'Brien's mother, Cuban; father, Australian). Seems absurd to have such restrictions now, doesn't it? And yet prejudices continue to block certain marriages, specifically gay and lesbian marriages.

Today, in fact, is a national day of protest over the passage of California's Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that specifically "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry." This is particularly heinous for taking away a right already granted by court of law. For now, this state amendment leaves Connecticut (as of just days ago) and Massachusetts as the only states or "commonwealths" in the USA where same-sex weddings can be granted by civil authorities. (And also in North America, Canada.)

My question is this: what are those who oppose same-sex marriage afraid of? Equal rights under the US Constitution? I'm not even concerned with the religious sanctioning -- separation of church and state keeps these jurisdictions from merging into theocracy, or should. We are not living in Iran or a Taliban zone. And there's no reason to take hypocrites like Ted Haggard seriously, either, precisely because they are hypocrites. So what's with it, America? What gives? And what next? I suspect a mix of direct political action combined with a protracted legal fight, in this latest battle royale over civil rights. May the progressives win sooner rather than later. Though personally at this juncture I don't give a damn about marriage, for those who want it, I do.

Today's Rune: The Self.

Stonewall Three America

Like many other writers, I love the magical power of words and their various meanings. Here's one example. Three strands of American history weave together through Stonewall, a word that means different things to different people, but also means all three things at once.

After all, how many other words unite the Gay Rights Movement, Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon, and the American Civil War? And the wonderful truth is we can pinpoint the exact moments when the word Stonewall began its arc toward prominence in all three cases -- variously as noun, verb and adjective.

Stonewall: a police raid in Manhattan's Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969, triggered the Stonewall Riots that propelled the Gay Rights Movement into a worldwide arc that continues right through 2007. In fact, this month the Stonewall Inn at 53 Christopher Street where the riot began is being reopened; the building is now a nationally registered historic site. The struggle for civil rights, for human rights regardless of sexual orientation, necessarily must continue, thanks to myopic resistance from homophobes and certain religious dogmatics and lunatics.


Stonewall: Watergate coverup. Richard Milhaus Nixon to his inner circle: "I want you all to stonewall it, let them plead the Fifth Amendment, cover up, or anything else." (March 22, 1973). To the greater American public via TV broadcast: "I condemn any attempts to cover up in this case, no matter who is involved." (April 17, 1973). Stonewalling became widely disseminated as meaning blocking the truth, or repeatedly passing off lies as the truth (a la the current Bush administration).


Stonewall: Thomas Jonathan Jackson (1824-1863). On July 21, 1861, at the (First) Battle of Manassas / Bull Run during the American Civil War, Jackson's brigade lined up to face a Union attack; Confederate units on the far left flank were falling back in disarray toward his position. C.S. Brigadier General Barnard Bee yelled at his retreating remnants something to the effect of, "There stands Jackson like a stone wall. Rally behind the Virginians! " The exact wording is not really known. A flowery apocryphal version has Bee stopping in the middle of a firefight to orate: "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer. Follow me." Bee was cut down and died before he could recount what he actually yelled. He may have been irritated when Jackson didn't advance to help his boys out. This version: "Look at Jackson standing there like a damned stone wall!" Yet another version: "Lookee yonder! There stands [that bastard] Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians! " All rather Biblical, with multiple gospel versions and all. In any case, Stonewall Jackson is a hero to many, aided by the fact that he was mortally wounded (by his own men) and died in 1863, well before the war's end. Pro-Confederates -- who are probably also homophobic Nixonians at heart -- still mutter: "If only he'd have lived!"

Three Stonewalls, three Americas-in-one.

Today's Rune: Harvest.

Birthdays: Kay Boyle (1902/1903-1992), Carson McCullers (1917-1967), Jeff Daniels (b.1955) .

Stay strong, dogs!