I awoke this morning remembering the remnants of the eeriest dream, one of those dreams that mirrors reality so closely that it's hard to tell upon waking if it's memory or dream.

Well, somehow Zachary Quinto (Sylar on Heroes, link is to some of his earlier work) surfaced as my comparative literature professor, and that somehow this was a really great fit for his brain-dissecting experience. My friend and I were really excited about this as we went off to grab coffee. And as I do with all things these days that I'm excited about, I twittered about it. In my dream.

I feel like I've made some sort of breakthrough, the same kind that you get when you are studying another language and dream in it for the first time.

Yes, I am punishing California

Reply to: pers-922101876@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-11-16, 9:04PM

Hello My Children. I just want to clear the air a bit.

Many of you have heard that the wildfires in California recently are my doing, out of displeasure for the passing of Proposition 8. I write today to let you know that this is true. Let me explain.

When I created you, and the world for your pleasure and sustenance, I did so with great love. I wanted you to be happy, and to prosper. I gave this all to you with very few conditions. But I did insist these conditions be met. I asked you be fruitful and multiply, and to nourish and replenish the earth. I also asked you to love one another, as I have loved you. How well you kept up your part of the bargain is, well let's just say it's been hit and miss.

You've multiplied, but paid little attention to caring for your wonderful planet. You pollute the skies and waters at will, and pay each other large sums of money to come up with reasons why pollution is necessary. Some of you love each other, but many of you spend so much of your time and energy on ways to hate others, and deny them the same bountiful fruits of life that I wanted you all to have.

This greatly displeases me.

More than two thousand years ago, I sent my only son to you with a mission: to teach you to love again. While today you make laws that make your fellow citizens less than yourselves, unequal to yourselves, reflect for a bit on what my son did with his time on earth. While teaching and imploring you to love one another, he socialized with and assisted the most hated segments of society. Prostitutes. The poor. Homosexuals. Wherever the downtrodden, the forgotten were, there he was. He was trying to tell you something then, but you didn't learn it. Even after they savagely took his life, you didn't learn it.

So when you passed yet another sweeping judgement against your brothers and sisters, I could not hold back any longer. I let the fires burn to remind you what your future is if you let your own fires of a hateful, fearfull heart rage unabated. I let things smolder so that you could see what you will reap from your hard heared intolerance. You will reap ashes.

But I still love you, and you have an opportunity to change. You see, if I chose to, I could wipe earth clean again and start fresh.

However, I don't want to. I am the quintessential optimist. I believe that love will eventually reign.

My children, please prove me right. Stop hating your brothers and sisters for whom they choose to love and commit to in a life relationship. For, as my son said, when you do that to the least of them among you - you do it unto me.

your ever faithful, but disappointed, Father in Heaven,
G.

• Location: God
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

 

Original URL:http://saltlakecity.craigslist.org/rnr/922101876.html

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via the Mint Blog (originally by WallStats.com)

 

I AM THANKFUL: FOR THE WIFE WHO SAYS IT'S HOT DOGS TONIGHT, BECAUSE SHE IS HOME WITH ME, AND NOT OUT WITH SOMEONE ELSE. FOR THE HUSBAND WHO IS ON THE SOFA BEING A COUCH POTATO, BECAUSE HE IS HOME WITH ME AND NOT OUT AT THE BARS. F OR THE TEENAGER WHO IS COMPLAINING ABOUT DOING DISHES BECAUSE IT MEANS SHE IS AT HOME, NOT ON THE STREETS. FOR THE TAXES I PAY BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM EMPLOYED . FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS. FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOO SNUG BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT. FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES ME WORK BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM OUT IN THE SUNSHINE FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING, WINDOWS THAT NEED CLEANING, AND GUTTERS THAT NEED FIXING BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE A HOME FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING I HEAR ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT BECAUSE IT MEANS WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH. FOR THE PARKING SPOT I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING AND I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH TRANSPORTATION . FOR MY HUGE HEATING BILL BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM WARM. FOR THE LADY BEHIND ME IN CHURCH WHO SINGS OFF KEY BECAUSE IT MEANS I CAN HEAR. FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY AND IRONING BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR. FOR WEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES AT THE END OF THE DAY BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD. FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OFF IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM ALIVE.. AND I AM THANKFUL: FOR THE crazy people I work with BECAUSE they make work interesting and fun!     AND FINALLY, FOR TOO MUCH E-MAIL BECAUSE ? IT MEANS I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE THINKING OF ME. SEND THIS TO SOMEONE YOU CARE ABOUT. I JUST DID. Live well, Laugh often, & Love with all of your heart!

I just wanted to attempt to track the evolving sources of information and opinion that have been flying across my computer screen this last week. I don't necessarily agree with what's expressed in the articles below, but I think they're worth reading if you haven't seen them already.

There are protests taking place around the country tomorrow (Nov 15, 2008). I'm not sure what the point of them is, but I do think if nothing else it's a good rallying point for lgbt & allied people who are rediscovering their political voices. To find out what's happening near you, check out http://jointheimpact.com

11/5/08 - Dan Savage on "Black Homophobia" (which pissed me off, as Dan Savage does even while he often makes me laugh). Particularly because this blog entry spawned the phenomenon of every anti-Prop 8 blog post leading with a comment about how African-Americans "caused" the passage.

11/7/08 - Facts Belie the Scapegoating of Black People for Proposition 8. Granted, this is a long, detailed, and data-laden piece on the Daily Kos, but it gives concrete reasons why people are fucktards for BLAMING PEOPLE OF COLOR.

11/7/08 - Utah faces boycott after Mormon work for Prop 8 (from Yahoo News) This was the only article I could find just now about the crazy boycotts people are suggesting now of Utah and other things which are not directly related to the elements within the Mormon church who funded the Yes on 8 campaigns. I understand people are looking for a target for their anger, but boycotting a whole state is a little... ridiculous.

11/8/08 - No-on-8's white bias (latimes.com) This piece seems to really annoy white (gay) people, and I'm not sure why, or I don't care why? Something like that. It says a lot about the current fractured (and racist) state of the gay (specifically gay) rights movement.

11/8/08 - Mormon and Catholic churches complain about being the target of Prop 8 protests

11/8/08 - Andrew Sullivan even had some things to point out in a post called Gays, Blacks, Marriage (I'm sure he wrote more, but I'm only linking this one)

11/9/08 - Open Letter to White Activists (which I'm glad someone wrote)

11/10/08 - A rough night for gay Obama supporters on Salon.com

11/11/08 - Anti-Gay, Anti-Family is Dan Savage's Op-Ed in the New York Times, which thankfully avoids railing on people of color and instead points out the law in Arkansas which passed, preventing gay people and single people from adopting in Arkansas. He also mentions despicable role of the Mormon Church (Church of Latter Day Saints in funneling funds & volunteers towards the passage of Proposition 8.

11/11/08 - Prop 8 Myths is Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com weighing in with his amazing grasp of polling data
(I included dates where I could so you can sort of see the evolution of the discussions)

Exactly.

from Of The Invisibility of Social Privilege and Institutional Racism

Via the indispensable Ampersand:

This should be mandatory material for any introduction to sociology course to explain the simple yet often hard to understand for our students fact that we do not all experience the social structure and interact with its social institutions in a similar fashion. Our social statuses, here race, generate a whole set of social circumstances, privileges and disadvantages that are often left unexamined. Which is why it is absurd to even discuss "equal opportunities" as something other than clever propaganda and foundational myth.

Moreover, social disadvantages and privileges are invisible, especially for the dominant categories (and sometimes even to the disadvantaged who might buy into the dominant ideology). That society is overall experienced as more structurally and interpersonally violent for the disadvantaged is a greatly under-discussed social fact that contributes to the reproduction of these forms of violence.

Full-size on Flickr