i_id: (Here's Matt!)
Dear world.

There are a lot of things to be afraid of right now. The entire Middle East is boiling, like ant-hives poured one into another, and it's spreading at an alarming rate. Iran has warships in the Suez Canal. As of today, the Somali pirates are holding at least 33 ships and 712 hostages. Last year, they collected ransoms for more than a thousand, the country's only income. TSA, the folk responsible for keeping our airways safe, are being shown up as frauds and thieves every day. Gas prices in the US will hit four dollars a gallon again this summer. Unemployment in the US is recovering, but the dollar is not. It is now a lie to call our President the leader of the free world. That same President has made no move to repeal the abominable Patriot Act. A state in the Union is about to pass a revision to a law that would, in effect, make it legal to kill a doctor who performs abortions. A huge number of American citizens don't have the right to marry who they love, adopt children with that loved one, or hold them as they die. A celebrity who tortured dogs to death and another who raped a young woman are being paid thousands of times more than any teacher just to catch a ball.

It is so hard, right now, to be only one person when you ache to rouse those around you, all of them, to these outrages.

I meant to finish this post with the beautiful things, the things that make this world still worth living in, but it felt like an insult. I can't point to one good, beautiful thing and say, 'This. This weighs against rape or murder or corruption in the karmic balance of the world.' But they add up. They do not erase the bad. But they are the reasons why we have to fight the bad. "To take arms against a sea of trouble, and by opposing end them," to take one of those good, beautiful things out of context.

So here are a few of those beautiful things after all. )


Signed,
One voice.
i_id: (Here's Matt!)
I nearly chose to abstain entirely from this round. But two people, independently, suggested I write this entry, and a third jumped in with a generous, open hand. I got the hint. It still wasn't easy to write, and it doesn't say everything I wanted to say. My viewpoint is limited, and much of this is opinion, both mine and my friend's, but I make the effort to support it with reason. And it is all true. Thank you, Tod, for being such a good interviewee.

Trigger warning: Below is, among other things, mention of rape and violence.





Imagine that everyone's very first reaction to you is that you are lying to them. )

The 20th of November is the International Transgender Day of Remembrance. Worldwide, candle vigils and moments of silence will be held to remember transgendered men and women who have died in the preceding year due to ignorance, violence, and self-violence. Please remember this day.

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