Something that Just Isn't Right

I know I don't usually post anything politically charged because I don't like to polarize my readers. I felt I could make an exception here because this is not really a political issue, it is a human issue. As further explained in this article from The Advocate, Clint McCance, a member of an AK school board has posted semi-violent and extremely homophobic comments on his Facebook wall. You can read the article for more details, but I've written a letter to that school district's superintendent (dstanley@midlandschools.org) and you can read it here, if you'd like.


Superintendent Stanley:

My name is Roman Voytko Barrosse. I am a college student and recent High School Graduate, and have suffered through bullying at the hands of other students and indifference at the hands of school administration. It has come to my attention that a member of your school board, Clint McCance, has posted some hideously homophobic comments on his Facebook page, comments that amount to him expressing the desire that all gay people commit suicide. These comments indicate a frightening indifference to the suffering of people who might potentially be in his schools. He clearly would allow his personal beliefs to interfere with the education and safety of your students - a gross violation of what the education community stands for.

Whether or not Mr. McCance believes that homosexuality is right or wrong is entirely up to him. If he chooses to express these thoughts in cyberspace, that is his personal choice. However, when a school official publicly expresses the desire to cause harm to members of a certain group, or expresses the desire for that group to cause harm to themselves, that person has crossed the line.

To say that Mr. McCance's comments were private and not intended for public use would be entirely naive. In recent years it has become apparent that posting something on the internet is tantamount to printing a personal ad in a newspaper. Just about anyone can see it if they look carefully - as evidenced by the exposure this incident has gotten.

In light of the recent suicides of gay teens and children across our nation, I feel I need not explain the severe implications of inaction on the part of your administration. These words have clearly resonated across cyberspace and will send a clear message to the rest of the world as to what your schools stand for. Do you want that to be a message of hatred, bigotry, and intolerance or one of acceptance, love, and community?

Thank you for your time,

Sincerely,

Roman Voytko Barrosse

PS: His usage of the homophobic slur "fag", derivative of "faggot", is also greatly distressing. This offensive and euphemistically violent expletive comes from the Middle Ages, when homosexual men were burned at the stake. The French word for fire wood - "fagot" - was translated into English and became associated with the GLBTQ community.

If I've offended anyone with these comments, I don't apologize. You have the right to believe what you want about anyone you want, but genuinely wishing someone harm is wrong.

Nostalgically (and angrily) Yours

Let's Go to the Movies!

Yes, I know. The sound is out of sync. There aren't any other versions of this on Youtube...

This evening at dinner, my grandmother told the story of her first visit to an American movie theater.

Edward Hopper - "New York Movie" 1939

She first left her native Colombia for the United States in the fall of 1950 to attend Mississippi Southern College. She still has all the correspondence she wrote in those early days. Much of the content of her letters pertained to the vast differences between her country and ours - for instance, how the black people were forced to sit in the back of the bus. She found this out the hard way when she took a seat in the rear of a city bus. The driver actually stopped the bus, went up to my grandmother and forced her to switch to a seat closer to the front. Needless to say, my grandmother was embarrassed and confused.

Poster for the movie that made Clara Bow

Many other things about the United States seemed very foreign to her, and the American movie theater experience was no exception. On a double date with her good friend from Colombia, the (American) men were very attentive. After buying their tickets and finding seats, they asked my grandmother and her friend if they'd like some popcorn. My grandmother's English was still rusty, so she asked for clarification. Her date explained that it was fried corn kernels covered with salt and butter. She and her friend exchanged looks - not because she didn't recognize the food; quite the opposite.

Damn. Good. Movie.

My grandmother had grown up eating popcorn as a side dish much like rice, so it was odd to think one would eat popcorn at the movies. The only movie theater treat my grandmother knew were candied almonds and other sweets. The movies weren't really a place to eat. In fact, eating at the movies would spoil one's appetite for tea after the movie in one of many local cafés. You can only imagine what she thinks of the nachos and hot dogs available today.

Not a movie poster, but you gotta love Barbi

I adore hearing these stories from my grandmother and from anyone who can share little gems of life in different times. I hope to share more and more of these with you as I blog my way through the ages.


Finis
Nostalgically Yours

Food for Thought - Maternal Instincts

Night before last, I lay in bed asleep. In a dream, I saw a winged creature circling low over my bed. So vivid was my dream that I leaped from my bed and ran into the hallway, shutting the door behind me. After about ten minutes, I reentered my room to find it devoid of life.
Last night, I found out it wasn't a dream. A bat had somehow found its way into my bathroom and, consequently, was now stuck circling my bedroom. My first reaction was terror, of course. I knew that some bats carry rabies and I'm sure the fact that I was in a state of delirium at 4 in the morning didn't help. I was finally able to release it into the hallway and it went to hide somewhere in the house.
Later that morning my mother and I discovered it hanging off one of the rafters in the parlor downstairs (Yes, we have a parlor). We decided to let it be and deal with it later, but by mid-afternoon the bat hadn't moved - obviously because bats are nocturnal. Since it hadn't eaten in two nights, we feared for its health and my mom decided to take action. She used a broom to lift the bat off the rafter and into a hat. She came to show it to me. The tiny brown fuzzball sat calmly in the upturned baseball cap. My original apprehension turned suddenly into warmest affection. This creature I had seen as a threat was now in our care and under our protection. I realized how defenseless it was. In a moment my instincts went from that of fight or flight to the natural instincts of a mother.
What is this sense of kinship that exists in humans and animals? Countless stories exist of mother animals who share their milk and warmth with infants of other species, especially humans. According to mythology, the founders of the Roman Empire, Romulus and Remus, were raised by wolves.
Some scientists signal the hormone oxytocin, which scientists have attributed to love, rapport, and maternal affection. Some people say it is instinctual while others argue that we have long since lost our animal instincts. Regardless of where the feeling comes from, it is undoubtedly there. It is this thing that makes children and adults alike coo over babies of both human and non-human species. Some evolutionary scientists have argued that a baby's cuteness is a survival mechanism encoded into our DNA. In other words, if babies weren't cute, would we really go through the trouble of caring for them?
Perhaps in a more logical sense we humans tend to care for other animals (especially in cases when they're injured or otherwise helpless) because we subconsciously hope other animals or people would do the same for us; like a dolphin rescuing a shipwrecked sailor. Perhaps we see in these animals a bit of our own humanity and seek to do good by the creature because we understand that they have feelings just as we have.
It might even be a way of postponing the inevitable - knowing that we helped an animal in distress comforts us in the acceptance of our mortality.
This comes from the fact that after the bat suddenly flew from the baseball cap in which it was so quietly swathed, we spotted a butterfly with an injured wing, flapping feebly on our gravel driveway. I used a stick to move it into the flower patch so it could rest and probably die.
It's part of the circle of life. Helping an animal in distress makes us feel that we have some sense of control in the grand scheme of things.


Think about it.
Nostalgically Yours

Food for Thought - Implied "Consent"

In a post today, friend of the blog "The Annoyed Feminist" mentioned an article on Jezebel. The article talks about a recent St. Louis court case that found the victim of a sexual assault in a Girls Gone Wild video didn't need to give consent (or somehow had actually given it) for her breasts to be distributed in videos nationwide.

"Patrick O'Brien, the jury foreman, explained later to reporters that they figured if she was willing to dance in front of the photographer, she was probably cool with having her breasts on film. They said she gave implicit consent by being at the bar, and by participating in the filming - though she never signed a consent form, and she can be heard on camera saying "no, no" when asked to show her breasts."

(Jezebel)

I wouldn't be surprised if we end up hearing about this again. I certainly hope the victim (known only as "Jane Doe") will appeal the St. Louis court's decision.

This is exactly the sort of thing that has influenced my decision to pursue a law degree after I get my bachelor's. I want to work pro-bono and help people like "Jane" get the justice they deserve. If women can have their tops ripped off and their breasts filmed against their will, the sick logic of the jury implies that if any of those girls had been raped, their "consent" would have been "implied" by being involved in the filming.

There is certainly a fine line between an "entertainment" company and a company of sexual predators. This is not to say that the people at Girls Gone Wild all seek out women to assault. There are plenty of women (drunk and sober) who are more than willing to expose themselves for the camera. However, that just brings about the question of why the camera person at this shoot felt the need to remove this woman's top, when they were at a party full of dancing girls... It doesn't make sense.

Think about it.
Nostalgically Yours

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• Jury Decides Consent Is Not Required For Girls Gone Wild [Law And Order] (jezebel.com)

Eat Less

It seems a new Urban Outfitters [UO] t-shirt has the entire fashion community in a tither. In an article on her blog, Sophia Bush (star of the CW's One Tree Hill) has vowed to boycott UO and has demanded an apology and a recall of the controversial t-shirt. You see a picture of the actual thing on her blog. Above you can see my take on it.

I do agree with Ms. Bush. The idea it conveys, though hopefully ironic, can have impact with the impressionable teens UO caters to.

Do I think that UO has the right under the first amendment to distribute these t-shirts? Yes. Do I think that the people at UO meant it ironically? Yes. Do I think it's a good idea to market "ironic" t-shirts like these to impressionable teens who already have enough body image issues? No.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a firm believer in the fact that it is possible to find humor in any (and I literally mean any) situation. This is probably why I appreciate comedians such as Kathy Griffin or Joan Rivers. However, when dealing with humor, you have to tailor it to be effective towards your audience. Instead of using the words "eat less", which could be interpreted as promoting unsafe weight-loss practices, UO should have used a t-shirt with a more clearly satiric message.

UO messed up, and they will undoubtedly pay for it, but they are, after all, a company, and companies have to answer directly to their customers. UO has the right to put out these t-shirts, but if they don't want to lose the business of "One Tree Hill" fans, then they'll have to stop selling them. Effectively, it's democracy at work... Certainly more directly effective than with our government.


Nostalgically Yours

The Case for New Orleans

Those of you who read my blog know that I was in New Orleans last week checking out my family's new home down there. It was truly heartwarming to see the Crescent City still pretty much unaffected by BP's criminal oversights in the Gulf, and to see residents banding together in unified hatred:

T-shirt Captions, clockwise from top: "FUBP", "Plug the Oil Leak with BP Execs!", "I Want my Life Back" (under a sad, oil-covered pelican)

I still believe what BP did is criminal, and I'm glad people like Susan Spicer are standing up for themselves. This situation is really a case of big business against the regular joe. Think of it this way: had I personally gone to the Deepwater Horizon drill and made an irreparable hole in the piping, I would be the most hated man in America. I would have been sentenced to a lifetime in prison, maybe even extradited to Texas so they could gas me. However, since it was a corporation, blame is tossed around like a hot potato and no one suffers but the victims of BP's criminal negligence. Yes, some (like me) will boycott BP, but mark my words: they will survive to somehow profit from the worst coporation-caused Ecological disaster in our country's history.

"How could they possibly make money off of us now?" you may ask. Simple: the new safety legislation that will hopefully soon be put into place will mean a whole lot of expense in a very short amount of time. Guess who's going to be footing that bill? Tony Hayward? Nope, his yacht is wind-powered. Americans will pay the brunt of the oil companies' oversight in gas prices, which are only staying low right now to avoid any more trouble.

The worst part is that all of this was completely avoidable. Most every major conflict and human-based disaster is, but we simply don't learn. Time after time as a civilization we make the same mistakes, then wonder how we possibly end up in the same bad situations again.

1928: Laissez-Faire is the policy for our economy!
1929: Those damn commies ruined the economy!!!

2001: Laissez-Faire is still the policy for us!!!
2010: What did this hippie/nazi/commie Obama get us into!?!?

Are we really so short-cited?

Nostalgically Yours

Wonders of Intelligent Design

No, I'm not talking about Spore, though that is a fantastic game. I'm just constantly surprised by the amazing things the human body can do. If you're wondering, the answer is yes. I do believe in intelligent design. In regards to who is behind all this - whether it was a guy on a cloud with a long white beard, or prehistoric alien scientists, or even a lonely child in her imagination - or whether or not they're still around, watching us, is something I have yet to decide.

No matter what your belief system, sometimes you've just got to wonder at what we're capable of under the right circumstances. For instance: a few years ago in India a three-year-old was hit by a car and thrown down a flight of steps. He walked away from the scene unharmed. It was all over Youtube. I'm sure you can still find it. After earthquakes one always hears stories of those who survive weeks trapped under rubble. Another good example is that man who was trapped in his basement and was forced to amputate his own arm... without anasthetic!

Then, of course, there are the much more mundane examples of extraordinary examples of the body's "special features". A mother who knows when her child is up to something, a person who can navigate strange cities just by their sense of direction, or people like me, whose biological clocks have a variety of built-in sensors. I once had an alarm clock that instead of playing music blasted an electronic beeping noise. I HATED this alarm clock. In retrospect, I'm not even sure why I kept it for so long. It got to a point where I flinched every time I heard similar noises, like alarms on digital watches or alarm clocks on TV. The noise still gets to me, but back then it was so bad that just hearing it would send me spiraling into a bad mood. One day when I accidentally slept in, I wondered at how the alarm didn't wake me. I then noticed that the alarm wasn't turned on. Thinking I must have forgotten I made certain to double check the alarm the following evening, but upon waking up (late, again) I saw that the alarm was, once again, off. The only reasonable explanation I could find was that my body woke me up before my alarm, and in a subconscious attempt to stop the horrific noise, would turn it off and return to bed.

In a similar vein, we found out that trains pass by our new house very early in the morning, but I have yet to be woken up by the train. Twice this week I've woken up at ridiculous hours to use the restroom - something I never do at night to begin with - only to have a train pass by minutes later, tooting it's very loud whistle. I have no idea what could have done it. I don't know the train schedule, even by experience. The only warning of an oncoming train is the clanging of the railroad crossing sign about a block away where my street intersects the tracks. Thing is, I slept through that the first night because it was malfunctioning and wouldn't turn off despite the abscense of oncoming locomotives. Anyway, perhaps it's something similar to what warns animals of oncoming earthquakes. I just think it's funny that most of my strange stories revolve around sleeping...!

Nostalgically Yours

N'awlins - Oh, Sweet Mystery of Life at last I've Found Thee...!

Oh, I know at last the secret of it all...!

Readers, I've found paradise on earth (Hint: it's in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans). I never thought I would see a place so perfectly marvelous... When my mother unveiled her scheme to find the Grail my aunt had been searching for since Katrina - a family home in New Orleans - never in a million years did I think we would ever go through with it. So, how could I possibly have imagined I would fall so madly in love with this city? The human mind is incredible. I've been here three days, but I feel like I've lived here my whole life. I can barely conceive of living anywhere else.

As a child of the Foreign Service, I moved countries every 2-4 years, and though we did have a permanent house in NoVA we returned to often, I can honestly say that this place feels more like home than anywhere else I've ever lived. Something about the Crescent City has captivated me, and thus I officially introduce a new column: "N'Awlins". In this column I'll discuss anything and everything I love (and hate) about the Big Easy. I'll even give you some tips on what to see and do if you're visiting the city! I'm just so excited about this new chapter in my life, and I really hope to share as much of it with you, my dear readers, as possible.

On that note, even paradise has its snags... I apologize for not writing yesterday. We were supposed to get cable and wifi then, but upon our arrival we found half our double shotgun cottage was without electricity- thank God the air conditioner, refridgerator, and pool filter are all on the side with power. Of course, the only cable hookups are on the black side, but instead of trying, failing, and charging us twice to come and fix it, the nice gentleman from the cable company recommended we wait for an electrician. Anyway, I'm sitting here typing away on my phone as the auto-correct tries my patience again and again (yes, I meant "need" and not "née"!!), and with all the shopping we had to do, it simply slipped my mind. Until we get Internet, I will do my best to keep you posted on the goings-on of our new home... just expect posts to be short and sweet (perhaps that's not so bad, after all)...

Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler!
Nostalgically Yours

Project Runway - New Season! (Thoughts, no spoilers)

Okay, how many babies is Heidi Klum going to have? I can barely remember a season where she's not bursting with baby happiness...!

(On a related side note, I assume you've all seen the previews for the "Pregnancy Pact" Lifetime movie. Is there anything that can't be turned into a TV movie?)

Seems to be a pretty good group of designers so far, but it's hard to say so early into the season - not to mention the episode.

Why are the designers always so judgmental of unusual methods of creation? So Ping's trying to see the motion of the fabric on herself; stop staring at her like she's an alien. They're probably just jealous because she's the same size as her model...

I thought Anthony would be annoying, but he's actually rather charming!

Lots of West Coasters this season - represent!

It's interesting to note that I believe anyone with experience in costume will have a distinct advantage. Think about it: costume designers have to do the most with the fewest resources and in the shortest time frames. They'll also know tons of shortcuts to getting similar effects with less work. (Just look at Emilio's work)

There's also always one designer who is never seen sewing, and is always seen wandering around the workroom giving advice to the other contestants. What's with that?

How do models not go bald? With all the sheer torture their hair goes through, it's incredible to think they can go from gig to gig without completely destroying their hair.

Why is Nicole Richie starting her own clothing line?

I also wasn't convinced by Anthony's fabric choice, but he surprised me again! :)

Overall this seems to be building up to a pretty decent season for PR. I won't give away what happened, but the winner totally deserved it - and in hindsight the "loser" was pretty obvious.

Go watch it now!!


Nostalgically Yours!