One small story of you, one giant leap for mankind

Hello, my friends.

Recently I began volunteering for the Courage Campaign out of California. What they want right now (for the next two weeks, especially) is for people from across the country to share their stories about dealing with homosexuality in our country. What challenges there are and if there is any backlash for supporting any people regardless of their sexuality.

Some of you may not think you have much of a story, because you aren't homosexual or aren't trans-gender, you may think that you don't have too much of a story to tell. But if you care about this issue, if you have one friend who isn't straight and boring heterosexual person, then you can find something to say. Every story says something and we want any story, big or small.

As an example, I have included the story I wrote for this (Also on http://whythefuckamistartingablog.blogspot.com/2011/06/declining-bigotry.html). It isn't too remarkable. It isn't a life-long struggle, it is just one of the only fights for rights I have been in recently and I thought it would be an appropriate one to tell. After you tell your story, write it down or (better for them) record it on video, or take a picture, you can upload it at: http://testimony.couragecampaign.org/home. If you have any trouble doing this, you can contact me and I can try to help you.

Please, tell use one story in your life about supporting equal rights for all. It doesn't matter how big it is or small it is or if you think you are a good writer. It only matters when you tell your story. It will do something, big or small, it will do something. And I hope you can be proud of that!

Thank you for your time,

My story is down here,

TTFN, Edward

Declining Bigotry

There are times when the problems in the world seem over whelming, that everything is going downhill. But then there are times when we have to realize that ignorant bigotry is disappearing. It is a slow and unsteady process marked at times by the passing of a generation out of our world, but it is happening, at least in some places.

Where I live, one hardly experiences it. The laws in Colorado are not always the most progressive; despite having a very well educated population, we don't spend very much on keeping it; and we are not of of the states in the Union which has done much to specifically legalize marriage between two people of the same sex, but at the same time, I have not heard much of a push to define it as a "one man one woman" thing. We just sit is political stagnation about everything.

However, out of all the people I have ever dealt with in my life, I have never felt much pressure against gay marriage, I have never felt that if I stood up for anyones rights I would be attacked. Or that anyone would care very much; apathy is the deadliest problem with my fellow Coloradans that I have witnessed. My few experiments into this arena testify to this for me.

I have a co-worker, we'll call him "Dave", who is constantly the butt end of every joke in the facility, has his intelligence insulted by his own parents, and has enough self-esteem to drink himself into making out with sidewalks at 3:00 in the morning most days. I am probably the only person at work who doesn't spend most of my time trying to make fun of him. Ryan takes slow parts of the day to seek Dave out and tell him to talk, because anything he says will be hilarious because it is stupid.

I feel a little bad for poor Dave. It isn't always that he is completely brain dead, but he doesn't have a lot of confidence and, after all, has been taught by our society to act this way. It has brought him social success; any attention is good. However, a few weeks ago, he expressed that, "if it weren't illegal, he would kill homosexual people. All of them."

Kill.

I immediately shot back that this pretty much proves what people say about him. He isn't very smart. "Really? A lack of law is the only thing that prevents you from being a homicidal maniac? That's pretty scary, Dave. I think we should probably put you in jail right now, just to get you off the streets. Because that is pretty crazy. That's really unhealthy. That is very bad."

He was a little taken aback. "What!" He replied after several minutes of this, "It was how I was raised."

"That's not a very good reason for anything," I told him, "That's just a poor excuse. You can be more than what you were raised told you to be. You don't have to do what your parents did. You can make up your own mind, Dave."

The part of this story which is the most heartening is that everyone who heard of this sided with me. Ryan, of course did. He likes Dave only to hear him say stupid things. But there was absolutely no one who gave Dave an ounce of support. He was instantly vilified for this. It wasn't funny (completely. Some people found it funny, because it was Dave and he is always stupid and this was just a one-up from anything he'd said before.) it was stupid, purely.

It is this which gives me hope. I see that even people like Dave will change their mind in the fairly near future because they will have to. It is no longer socially advantageous to be a bigot. There is nothing to gain, there is plenty to lose so that even the most selfishly minded in our society will not be able to maintain their bigotry.

The pendulum is slowing. There isn't much to fight against, so fewer people fight very hard. This leads to stagnation on any issue. This is what has to be fought where I am. But the good news is: that progress has been made which can lead to political action.

Declining Bigotry

There are times when the problems in the world seem over whelming, that everything is going downhill. But then there are times when we have to realize that ignorant bigotry is disappearing. It is a slow and unsteady process marked at times by the passing of a generation out of our world, but it is happening, at least in some places.

Where I live, one hardly experiences it. The laws in Colorado are not always the most progressive; despite having a very well educated population, we don't spend very much on keeping it; and we are not of of the states in the Union which has done much to specifically legalize marriage between two people of the same sex, but at the same time, I have not heard much of a push to define it as a "one man one woman" thing. We just sit is political stagnation about everything.

However, out of all the people I have ever dealt with in my life, I have never felt much pressure against gay marriage, I have never felt that if I stood up for anyones rights I would be attacked. Or that anyone would care very much; apathy is the deadliest problem with my fellow Coloradans that I have witnessed. My few experiments into this arena testify to this for me.

I have a co-worker, we'll call him "Dave", who is constantly the butt end of every joke in the facility, has his intelligence insulted by his own parents, and has enough self-esteem to drink himself into making out with sidewalks at 3:00 in the morning most days. I am probably the only person at work who doesn't spend most of my time trying to make fun of him. Ryan takes slow parts of the day to seek Dave out and tell him to talk, because anything he says will be hilarious because it is stupid.

I feel a little bad for poor Dave. It isn't always that he is completely brain dead, but he doesn't have a lot of confidence and, after all, has been taught by our society to act this way. It has brought him social success; any attention is good. However, a few weeks ago, he expressed that, "if it weren't illegal, he would kill homosexual people. All of them."

Kill.

I immediately shot back that this pretty much proves what people say about him. He isn't very smart. "Really? A lack of law is the only thing that prevents you from being a homicidal maniac? That's pretty scary, Dave. I think we should probably put you in jail right now, just to get you off the streets. Because that is pretty crazy. That's really unhealthy. That is very bad."

He was a little taken aback. "What!" He replied after several minutes of this, "It was how I was raised."

"That's not a very good reason for anything," I told him, "That's just a poor excuse. You can be more than what you were raised told you to be. You don't have to do what your parents did. You can make up your own mind, Dave."

The part of this story which is the most heartening is that everyone who heard of this sided with me. Ryan, of course did. He likes Dave only to hear him say stupid things. But there was absolutely no one who gave Dave an ounce of support. He was instantly vilified for this. It wasn't funny (completely. Some people found it funny, because it was Dave and he is always stupid and this was just a one-up from anything he'd said before.) it was stupid, purely.

It is this which gives me hope. I see that even people like Dave will change their mind in the fairly near future because they will have to. It is no longer socially advantageous to be a bigot. There is nothing to gain, there is plenty to lose so that even the most selfishly minded in our society will not be able to maintain their bigotry.

The pendulum is slowing. There isn't much to fight against, so fewer people fight very hard. This leads to stagnation on any issue. This is what has to be fought where I am. But the good news is: that progress has been made which can lead to political action.

Raising Funds or the Moral High Road

I have been spending some time lately in Denver's Alliance Center as I am pretty much bent upon doing something worthwhile with my life. And while the Center is not the be all and end all of humanitarian missions in Colorado (and, in fact, houses some groups I am pretty unhappy with; by "some" I mean "one" and they are the real subject of this angry "rant" - read "argument") it is a good place to start.

I am currently working for the Fund for the Public Interest in the basement of this building as a databaser. The Fund is like a gang of mercenaries. They are a small office of people and they do the work that no one else wants to do: ask for money. It is a good thing to do, very important. There are so many things wrong in the world and so many people trying to make it a good place and The Fund raises awareness for some important issues and makes money for them. Goodness, yes. Yet I am afraid.

I am afraid that The Fund is far to focused on the making money part and are not taking the "moral high-road" which is short sighted. They have traded long-term support for money now.

The first time I faced their tenancy toward deceit, I thought that it was a mistake. I was living in Gunnison where there are precious few paying jobs and even fewer funds for what I would call "good work". It is a small town. But I was making progress. They are weathering recession better than most because it is easier to make a small umbrella than a 90K hectacre umbrella. They don't realize this and are trying to grow the size  of their economy rather than the effectiveness of their economy, but that's a different issue. I interviewed with The Fund and was told I would have a job over the summer in Denver. What's more, my girlfriend got the same message. Stupid me, I then quit looking for other jobs and missed out on  being a rafting guide or working for the Coal Creek Watershed Coalition in Crested Butte. Or interning with ORE. All of which would have been the very job I was looking for! Or at least a lot of fun. Instead I said: I have a job.

But when I arrived in Denver, I realized that such status was as tenuous as thread. I did not have a firm position. I was on trial: if I couldn't raise $110, I was not a canvasser.

This makes sense. If you cannot pay your own salary, then no money can go to actual projects. You are hired to make money for the organization, not take money away. There is a minimum and you must meet it quickly. What I am angry at is that they do not make this very clear and now I am stuck in a city 40 times bigger than what I can happily stand. What I think is a mistake: if you make over $110, the rest is commission. if you make $400 not only does Environment Colorado or CoPIRG (who contract The Fund) get more money, but so do you. This makes it too much about the money and not about the cause. You push people harder and harder to donate money at the door. This is where I have fear. That a senior canvasser gets more money because they pressured some "member" to donate more money and they do, but leave the door thinking "Wow. That was... uncomfortable. I didn't like that. You know, I don't think I'm going to donate to them ever again." Next year (or month if they feel like harassing people for a specifically important goal) when some young rookie comes to their door they say instead: "No"
"But--"
"No I'm am not donating today, sorry."
"Can I at least--"
"Thank you." slam.

When I was a canvasser, I felt really good if I got a post-card signed. This would represent support, even if they didn't donate money, they would have voted and with a big stack of citizen support, an elected official will listen. This was a palpable action: it did something specific and important. It is an action, it is what we are raising money for; it is change. While the money is just the funds to keep doing this. I also felt really good if I left a door with a positive impression. Left a little leaflet which explained the group, left with a promise for the person that they would look into it, were really interested, and would probably donate online. They just didn't do this sort of thing at the door.

"That's Alright." I would say, "You know, if you can donate at the door, that is what keeps me out here, and this is a very pertinent issue right now, so we would really, really appriciate your support." But I wouldn't press them. "If you don't feel like you can donate at the door, I understand. I know that people like to do their own research, but the sooner you can give in whatever way you want, or support us in any way--be a volunteer, whatever--the better. Thank you." I would leave thinking that they would do something and liked our group and that was more important to me than extracting $30 from their wallet right then like an oil miner or downright thief.

If they didn't donate with me, or even that year, maybe they would donate next year, for some other rookie, because they remembered me. Because they thought I was respectful and kind and not too pushy and remembered that they forgot to look into it or donate or even if they did remember trusted the group more and would give at the door. And then that new kid can keep his job and perhaps, just maybe, he will be a less pushy canvasser and that will continue.

If there is any lesson to be learned from the successes of the Civil Rights movement in this country it is the long lasting and ever growing power of non-violence and active peaceful work. Here a black man sits in a restaurant and refuses to leave because of some archaic, biased, stupid rule that anyone of his skin tone cannot be served in the restaurant; there a black woman doesn't give up her seat in a bus because they are the wrong race. Here and there they are beaten by policemen for there insolence and all though the ordeal of having their teeth cracked and their bones broken, they never lift a hand in violent retaliation. They allow the beating to occur and do not respond in kind. Their house is blown up, still they are peaceful. Anyone watching such a spectacle cannot hold for long the belief that a black person has any sort of inferiority to any other person anywhere for it must take such strength, such courage, such temerity and bravery to do such a thing that it will move leaders, doctors, the homeless and downtrodden, even, to tears. And soon, as Gandhi would say: "and then you win."

And sexism in the country began a descent at the same time. As an outgrowth. Because such profound work couldn't be contained to any one group of people. And even now, it is that legacy now 50 years old which carries movements for my generation. It has petered out a bit, it needs to be rejuvenated with more of the same, but it is still here a little.

But I do not think that The Fund is on the moral high road. Not most of the time.

There is good that The Fund does: I think they bring in new activists, if they are successful in canvassing. They spread awareness and they do make money. But they also alienate people like me. Because I am a passionate activist, I am just not very good at canvassing and now, because they were unclear--and I am beginning to think they were purposefully unclear just to get us in the office at whatever cost--I and my girlfriend have no job.

Well, I have one now. As a databaser. I do about 10, maybe 13 hours of work a week at minimum wage pouring over the pages of poorely penned numbers from the day before which were made by the canvassers. They spend 5 hours a day filling in these sheets and leave out so much information that I think they should all be databasers before they are canvassers or at least trained in what those little blanks they are filling out really mean -- because most of them have no idea.

I get to listen to them every day give the same spiel to prospective job candidates and they are just as vague with them as they were with me. They say that you will have the opportunity to have an "observation day" as if it is a day to get used to canvassing, get some help and get used to it because the idea of going door to door is understandably frightening for anyone who is not a sociopath. But it isn't so much an "opportunity" as your trial day. If you can raise $50 in an hour and a half, you get to be in training and if you don't raise $110 in one day on one of the next three days, you are let go kindly.

If you are me, they call you back to do database work. But you are no longer respected. I have recieved such a frigteningly small amount of training. Instead of showing me about the office, showing me where yesterdays forms are and giving me the tools I would need to access their computers and their online database and an email which I can send mail to the system with (I tried to contact the company and they refused gmail service. I assume that you have to have an associated email to contact the system administers). In short treating me like a trusted employee. Instead, I am yelled at for going in the office. Because it is private.

Hiding something?

It's annoying for me to work this way and I cannot imagine it is any less annoying for my supervisors. I have to have them set me up every day rather than go about their business and allow me to set up myself and just get to work.

Nope. That would be too foresightful. And The Fund, whatever else they are, are not foresightful. And that is why I am beginning to really not like them. I am treated better as a dishwasher at the Nursing Home in Gunnison. I went around to other groups in the building and had better treatment as a stranger.

And so I am afraid of what will happen to the groups they work with. Environment and CoPIRG. These are important groups which are actually doing the good work. I would rather be there. Fundraising is important, but I am not particularly brilliant at it, I can admit that. I know that.

But is The Fund good at it? Really? And could they admit it.

I want to do a study: I want access to their records. I want to see when people pledge. Make a graph to show their giving and see who got them to pledge, when they ceased being a member, who talked to them last before they ceased being a member. My hypothesis is that the senior canvassers aren't the last person they talk to, but the second to last. That they ruin people's experience, make them annoyed, and they do not donate next year.

Maybe I am wrong, but I still believe that it is important to take the moral high road. Every time. Short term, you may lose, but long term you will have more effect. And more importantly, better effect.

They are already losing me. I would rather work with a different group doing Good Work.

Walt Disney was a Dancer

Music and visuals are as important as each other.

Plus it is a great double alliteration. Doesn't that just sound great?

Walt Disney was a Dancer!

Protect Our Land; Say NO to Tar Sands!

Tar sands is awful. Head-twitching, wide-eyed, seizure-inducing awful. Please sign against it.

I just sent a message calling on the State Department to protect our land from tar sands oil, the dirtiest fuel in the world. You should join me! Check it out:

To take action on this issue, click on the link below:
http://action.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy?s_oo=bDnrA5-BHZ6EmkewZnP_dw..&id=6265
If the text above does not appear as a link or it wraps across multiple lines, then copy and paste it into the address area of your browser.

If you no longer wish to receive email messages sent from your friends on behalf of this organization, please follow the link below:
http://action.sierraclub.org/site/TellFriendOpt?action=optout&toe=bff760785038dbe279505de4090471731ccd4c50a5c00593