Tag: politics

Button Sunday

Somebody gave me this button years ago, and I figured I’d never use it for a Button Sunday. When I moved from LiveJournal to here, I resolved to give as little of my blog real estate as possible to people who I find deplorable. If I wouldn’t invite someone into my home, why would I let him/her hang out here?

But I decided if ever there were a time to use it, it’s this week. I really don’t care what politics you espouse, there are lines that decent people don’t cross. I can’t think of a single group he hasn’t exploited and mocked for his own personal gain; this past week, it just happened to be my gender.

Do I believe in free speech? Of course. I also believe exercising that freedom doesn’t mean there are no consequences when we choose our words unwisely.

Wisdom has never been a trait of bullies.

Button Sunday

Helen, who I know through Tim, sent me this photo of a button that she says has “a political statement close to [her] heart.” Mine, too, Helen. Mine, too.

Thanks, Miss Harris, Mrs. Griffin, Mrs. Norton, Mrs. Adair, Mrs. Couch, Mrs. Lester, Klaus Duncan, Toni Niblett, Mike Craton, Joene Bedwell, Billie Bryan, Sandra Rhodes, Helen Jones, Arlina Jones, Gary Sanford, Mike Fincher, Sheila McElroy, Culpepper Clarke, Don Noble, Phil Beidler, Jewel Hudgens, Henry Jacobs, Dwight Eddins, Virginia Foscue, Gerald Globetti, Pat Herman, Neal Lineback, Francoise De Rocher.

Work of Art, 2:5

Bravo’s Work of Art challenge as described by Lindsey on Follow Work of Art: Find a headline from any newspaper that strikes a chord with you and create a piece of art illustrating the story you select. Additionally you need to find a way to incorporate some of the newspaper itself into the work.


“The Polarizing Nature of Celebrity Outing”
Mixed media on 8×10-inch canvas

I drew words from newspaper articles and ads to illustrate contentious issues around the public’s near-obsessive speculation about celebrities’ sexual orientation. These words surround closet doors which, when opened, reveal an article about yet another couple thrust into the limelight and the “Are they? Aren’t they?” publicity that surrounds them.

Button Sunday

I found this button a while back in some of my mother’s belongings. I could be wrong, but I’m reasonably sure my mother never voted for Richard Nixon and only had it because she liked to collect political buttons. This one is from the 1972 campaign and was distributed by the Committee to Re-Elect the President, later known as CREEP. Most of the committee’s members landed in legal trouble and even prison for criminal activities relating to the election, including a little action known as Watergate.

Houston is coming up on an election of its own. Though I’m being driven nearly mad by political phone calls, this button is a reminder that it’s good to be mindful of where my vote goes.

Magnetic Poetry 365:299

Working on my final PR collection while watching the first season of The Vampire Diaries. When I’m not reading the news. Which is making me feel, as it has for about eight years, uncomfortably prescient. It’s one of the “benefits” of having turned thirty-five a few times, I think.

One of the other “benefits” is that I know no one much gives a crap about my politics.

National Coming Out Day

National Coming Out Day has been recognized on October 11 since 1988, when it marked the first anniversary of the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. My friend Alan linked to a video of a newscast from that event in 1987, and as I watched it, I found myself thinking, In those days, because of AIDS, coming out, being visible, was a matter of life and death. When I finished watching the video, I realized–coming out is still a matter of life and death.

I’ve been thinking a lot about courage lately. It’s one of those words applied to a wide variety of human experiences: Her courageous battle with cancer… The fireman courageously entered the burning building… They have the courage of their convictions… The courage of our troops fighting in Afghanistan…

Is it an overused word? I don’t know that it is. Because I’ve always believed that many of our biggest words–courage, strength, honor, love, heroism, honesty, compassion–are shown in the smallest acts of our daily lives. For those people who showed up in Washington, D.C., in 1987, courage meant saying, publicly, “I am a lesbian.” It meant contributing a quilt panel with the name of a beloved someone who died of a disease that everyone had kept a secret. Or walking down a street with a sign even if you didn’t feel like it was “your” cause because you believed it was a right cause.

  • Courage is being visible when a lot of people would like for you to remain invisible so they can be comfortable.
  • Courage is knowing that not everyone who is gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgendered has the supportive environment you might enjoy, so you commend their first step toward visibility, whether it is taken gloriously or hesitantly.
  • Courage is not mocking people because they look or behave or express themselves in ways that aren’t your ways but are authentic to who they are.
  • Courage is understanding that some people are not ready to open that closet door and letting them know that when they are, you will stand with them against whatever comes their way.
  • Courage is using your voice for people whose voices have been silenced by hate, by fear, by death.
  • Courage is understanding that even if you can’t raise your voice loud and proud and publicly, you can say quietly to someone, “I love you for exactly who you are, and I always will.”

Poetry and dolls and buttons, oh my

The lack of written content on this blog isn’t because I’m not tuned in to the world. In fact, lately I feel like I’m a little too tuned in again. Too much TV, too much news, too much politics, too much hateful language and behavior. But do you really want me to add my voice to the cacophony that is the Internet’s opinion on every wretched bit of human behavior we can display?

I didn’t think so.

Though I’ll admit to completely cracking up when I saw this Tweet:

We now return to our regularly scheduled rainbows, unicorns, dogs, and happiness.