Posts from — May 2008

I am Claude Holcomb from ADAPT of Connecticut. I am here on the steps of City Hall because a friend of people with disabilities, Reverend Wade Blank, taught me that if you believe your rights are being compromised, you need to speak up. The library has denied access to people with all types of disabilities, not just people with severe disabilities, or people who use wheelchairs. Not having a power door at the main entrance of the library affects anyone who uses an assisted devices, such as a can, walker, crutches or scooter. It also affects people who have service animals and people who are elderly. [Read more →]

Note: The following remarks are by Jerimarie Liesegang.  Jerimarie is the Director of Ct. TransAdvocacy Coalition and a founding member of Queers Without Borders, Hartford Ct. When the city announced that it was going to correct the problem Jerimarie chose not to give her speech. I publish it here as it is a damn good speech and shows our willingness to correct this situation. Thanks Jerimarie for your leadership on issues affecting our people and many others.

It’s a Travesty.

As one enters New York Harbor the Statue of Liberty proudly proclaims, “Give us your poor, tired, your huddled masses longing to be free.” As one approaches the front doors of the Hartford Public Library in a wheelchair you see the proclamation: “Give us your poor, your tired, your homeless, your sexual predators..and those in wheelchairs GO AROUND BACK for your are NOT Welcomed through these front doors!”

[Read more →]

Note: These remarks were presented by African American Lesbian Activist Regina Dyton at the May 30th Press Conference at City Hall Hartford. 

The City of Hartford Commission on LGBT Issues is proud to stand with ADAPT, all members of the disability rights community, Queers Without Borders and all other allies to protest the lack of equitable access to the Hartford Public Library.

The ramp at the front of the library invites all who need to use it to enter with dignity, on par with all people wishing to use the library. The inoperable door at the end of the ramp sends a message of inequality, not to mention the work it take for many pepole to get to the end of that ramp, only to find no access. those who need the ramp include not only those using wheelchairs, but those who have difficulty walking up stairs and those who use walkers. All of us who find a dead-end at the end of the ramp are instructed to use the accessible entrance at the back of the library, next to the parking lot. As an African American woman in her 50s, using the back door sounds all too familiar. If it ain’t right for me, how can it be right for someone else? That entrance is commonly used by people who drive to the library (as it is next to the parking lot) or others who choose to use it. It is unfair to provide choices for some and none for others. [Read more →]

On Tuesday May 27 Claude Holcomb of ADAPT brought our list of demands to City Hall that had been put together at a meeting on Friday May 23. What followed was a whirl wind of activity that proves Fight City Hall and you can sometime win. It also shows what a group of activists who stand their ground can achieve. For a list of the demands click here  

First it was the e-mail send out on Wednesday May, 28 from Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez to officials in Public Works and in the City Managers office. Since there is no privacy notation on it I will share the letter here. The mayor wrote:

“Please take immediate action to modify the front entrance to the Library with an automatic *door device that will accommodate our severely handicapped residents. While I appreciate the reasons that led to the decision to limit handicapped access to the side door on Arch Street, I feel that it is necessary to enable access in the front of the building to all. Please provide a written estimate of costs and construction start date to me no later than this Tuesday, May 29th.” Eddie A. Perez, Mayor. [Read more →]

City of Hartford Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues proudly presents “A Panel Discussion of Transgender Issues in The Urban Communities.” This diverse panel will  consist of members from the Transgender Community and will be held on Thursday June 5, 2008 from 6pm-8pm at The Hartford Public Library, 500 Main Street, Hartford Ct. The Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition is a co-sponsor of this event.

Join us for a U. Utah Phillips Song

Stand hand in hand

There is power in the union.

 by Joe Hill

Everyone should click on over to AlterNet and read Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s recent posting published May 28, 2008. Mattilda certainly has a good perspective on this.  Click here for the full article. To read more of Mattilda’s work go to our side bar and click on her name. Check into linking to AlterNet if you are not all ready signed on.

Note: 

We at QWB since our start have been speaking out about “ gay” (damn I hate calling it that when lesbians are involved also(more blending in?)) marriage since early in our postings. What troubles me as a old activist is the fact that so much of our energy, resources, and time is being spent on this one issue. It has up to this date been hard to convince those in the marriage movement that there is a whole world out there that is struggling also and that GLBT people should as they always did in history past join in these struggles. I should think that by now these very same activists would understand that groups who stand alone are picked off rather quickly. It must be a awful line to walk being so caught up in the straight establishment accepting you and wanting so bad to be legitimized by them that their eyes are blinded to all other struggles. There are countless other wars going on out side your windows and doors. As I have said so many times before if we are indeed here, there and everywhere then these struggles are our struggles. When the shit hits the fan baby, all the blenders blending in won’t be saved. For the straights know you and know who you are. And there you will stand in your wedding gowns and tuxedo a blank look of why oh why on your face when they come to get those who tried to pale their genes but failed. At sixty I am realizing that I have less in common with the gay and lesbian movement, their wants and needs and more in common with others that struggle.

For other QWB postings on marriage click  here, here.

SEPARATE BUT EQUAL ACCESS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!

Organizations including ADAPT of Connecticut, Queers  Without Borders, Connecticut TransAdvocacy and other activists will gather at Hartford City Hall on Friday May 30th at 12:00 noon. We will be gathering to speak out about the lack of accessibility for people in wheel chairs through the front doors of Hartford Public Library.

Seven months ago Claude Holcomb of ADAPT of Connecticut began this effort to get the main doors of the Hartford Public Library accessible for all. Seven months later we bring this unsolved problem to the steps of City Hall. The work hasn’t been started and for seven months we have been given the run-a-round by employee’s in Constituent Services, Public Works and by the Director of Hartford Public Libraries. We have been told by these same people to “go around to the back door.” Hardly words to use in this day and age. Included in the new construction is a beautiful new ramp but once up the ramp a person in a wheel chair can not get in the front doors. While the city stalls for 7 months, a power button could have been in place by now.

NO MORE STALLING!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!

Our Demands are:

1. A power door opener must be installed at the front doors of the library.

2. This work must begin by July 1, 2008.

3. We must have in our hands a copy of the work order with a start date.

4. They mayor of Hartford must sign a letter committing to a start date.

For other QWB postings on this subject click here and here.

**note: Today I went to look again at the doors. Contrary to what Ms. McMullen is stating  in her comment on the Undercurent site, there is a good 2 feet of metal above the wing doors on each side of the revolving door. So I  don’t see what the problem is. Unless of course its this “lets play a game” talk, and she is talking about the inside foyer where there is a glass wall and glass doors to get into the closed coffee or party area that the library doesn’t use. Perhaps that is what she is thinking, we want to get in and have a cup of non-existent coffee.  Hardly MS. McMullen that isn’t what we are talking about and you know it, the mayor knows it and the activist community knows it! Let’s stop this game playing and get the problem fixed. **Richard Nelson, Queers Without Borders, Hartford Ct.

See Utah’s website for an official obituary.

[Read more →]

Following is the Press Release from Witness Against Torture; sadly due to personal reasons I cannot be there with them on May 27, though will be there in spirit with my brave comrades in this vital action.

GUANTÁNAMO DETAINEES TO GET THEIR DAY IN COURT
Witness Against Torture Activists to “Represent” Detainees in Trial, May 27

WASHINGTON, DC – Detainees at the U.S. Military Prison in Guantánamo will finally get their day in court on May 27 – Superior Court, in Washington DC.

That is when 35 Americans from cities and towns across the country will go on trial for a protest at the U.S. Supreme Court on January 11, 2008.  They face charges of either “unlawful free speech” or “causing a harangue” or both. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail, as well as fines and court fees. [Read more →]

Reprinted from the People’s Weekly World, “World Notes” May 24-30, 2008. www.pww.org.

Spain’s La Vanguardia newspaper recently interviewed Mariela Castro, director of Cuba’s National Center for Sex Education. Anticipating change, Castro believes that gay people’s rights will be protected under Cuba’s Family Code and will evolve through an educational and media strategy assisted by the Communist Party. A “legal union” formula will eventually guarantee the rights of homosexual couples.

All societies are patriarchal, Castro suggests, but violence against women has waned as women’s rights advanced under Cuba’s revolution. She envisions a future of reduced prohibitions, easy departures from Cuba, and expanded citizen participation in decision making. That’s the “principal objective of socialism,” she says: “the emancipation of human beings; their well being with fairness and social justice.” To view the entire interview with Mariela Castro, go to www.walterlippmann.com/docs1800.html. [Read more →]

The average gas price in Connecticut is $4.06 per gallon — prices in Hartford might be even higher. So what is Big Oil’s solution? Not cutting into their record multi-billion dollar profits to reduce your pain at the pump. Instead, oil execs testified before Congress Wednesday that their solution is to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

Please act now to protect the Arctic Refuge»

Our own government estimates that drilling in the Arctic will only affect gas prices by two pennies per gallon … in twenty years. But our polar bears could be extinct in less than 50 years.

If you believe polar bears and their Arctic Refuge home are worth more than two cents per gallon, tell your senators to protect the Arctic Refuge permanently»

From the Care2 and The Petition Team.

The Demands:

1. Install a power door opener at the Front door of Hartford Public Library.

2. Work must begin by July 1st, 2008.

3. We must have in our hands a copy of the work order with date of start.

4. The Mayor of Hartford Eddie Perez must sign a letter committing to a start date.

On Tuesday May 27th Claude Holcomb of ADAPT will once again go to city hall with the demands that were drawn up at the meeting. We will also be pursuing legal remedies with supportive attorneys and reaching out to the anti-discrimination coalitions.

On May 30th at high noon the coalition that has formed under ADAPT’s leadership to address this problem, will hold a press conference at City Hall. 

[Read more →]

Welcome, Welcome, We join in the Welcome.

QWB Stands In Full Support of Immigrant Rights. Queers know what it is like to be demonized, denied our humanity, blamed for society ills. We know what it is like to have our families and love ones threatened and denied legal recognition. We stand up and out in full support of immigrants.

Join Buffy St. Marie in this wonderful song.

LGBT activists from Harvard will be in New Haven on Wednesday, May 28 to protest the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. For information about the campaign of the students and for more info on time and on their tour click here.   The following dates have been given out but for up to the minute details e-mail the contact on their page.

Saturday, May 24, Boston Ma. 2:00pm, Tuesday May 27, Portland Me 10:00am, Wednesday May 28, New Haven Ct. 2:00pm, Thursday May 29, NYC, 2:00pm, Friday May 30, Washington DC, 2:00pm.

By Thirman Milner and Cornell Lewis

The media assassination of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright underscores the true message of what Rev. Wright was bringing out in his sermons, the racial divide that is not only damning this country but making an all-out effort to defeat the candidacy of Barack Obama. If words were not distorted from his sermons, preached years ago, the truth would clearly show that he was not damning America as a country but damning the injustices and racism that exist in this country as well as an unjust war. White media and ministers have done the same thing without any outcry. “One of this week’s hysterical press scandals was that Minister Louis Farrakhan praised Barack Obama’s candidacy even though Obama had previously denounced numerous Farrakhan remarks and the Obama campaign did nothing to seek out the Farrakhan praise. Nonetheless, Tim Russert demanded that Obama jump through multiple hoops to prove that he has no connection to — and, in fact, “rejects” — the ideas espoused by Farrakhan deemed to be radical and hateful. [Read more →]

“From the moment Nancy Pelosi became speaker she said impeachment is off the table. My slogan is as long as I am on the table, impeachment is on the table.” To regain our moral authority the American people have to make a statement that we don’t agree with what our president has done.”

“The Employment Non-Discrimination Act is suppose to be about non-discrimination right?” Yet they left out the T.  How is that not discrimination? It seems like discrimination to me, if she were fully representing the gay community’s interest Pelosi would have remembered the T.”

The above quotes are by Shirley Golub a lesbian who is running against Nancy Pelosi in the democrat primary in San Francisco. The article here was published in the Bay Area Reporter on May 15, 2008.

QWB would like to take this one step further and ask that Mr. Bush and all his cronies be tried for war crimes. 

LMF Press Release: 

Marriage Makes a Word of Difference

Is a featured film at the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

Saturday, May 31st at 3pm

Cinestudio, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford.

Marriage Makes A Word of Difference, which portrays the personal struggles and political challenges of Connecticut’s same-sex couples and their families who are fighting for the freedom to marry. Many of these loving couples have been in committed relationships for more than a decade, but despite their dedication to each other , they continue to be denied the respect, dignity, and legal protections that marriage provides. Through compelling interviews and archival and “slice of life” footage, Marriage Makes a Word of Difference celebrates our common humanity and shows why marriage equality is a fundamental civil right.

The Film Festival runs May 30 through June 7th. Check out QWB posting ***OUT Films*** for more details.

“Israel was built over the debris of 400 destroyed villages and sorrows of 750,00 people, both Christians and Muslims, expelled from their land.” To read Bessy’s entire article click here. This article appeared in the Hartford Courant, Friday May 16, 2008.

Seeking Justice is never out of date.

California Supreme Court Says Same-Sex Couples Can Marry!

Today, in a historic decision, the California Supreme Court affirmed the dignity of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, by ruling that same-sex couples can marry in that state. This momentous judgment profoundly supports same-sex couples and their families, and recognizes that two loving, committed people deserve the rights, respect, and equality that come with the freedom to marry. [Read more →]

The Connecticut Gay and Lesbian Film Festival will present its 21st festival this year from May 30-June 7, 2008. All screenings will take place at Cinestudio, 300 Summit Street, Trinity College in Hartford. For festival info: 860-568-1136. Click here for full schedule, tickets, and all other details.

Khadijah Farmer who describes herself as not the most feminine looking was asked to leave a woman’s restroom in the West Village NYC by a bouncer because she looked too much like a man. Ms. Farmer showed the bouncer her state issues ID which identified her as a woman but the bouncer insisted she get out. The group of people she was with were also asked to leave the restaurant Caliente Cab Company.

The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund filed suit in October in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan against the restaurant asserting that Ms. Farmer was a victim of gender discrimination. The Legal Defense and Education Fund took up the suit because it touched upon many issues that transgender people commonly face and could set in the Fund’s words a “very interesting legal precedent. According to Michael D. Silverman the executive director of the defense fund this case, “really straddled the line of gender expression.” Caliente Cab Restaurant decided to negotiate and a settlement was signed last Friday. Ms Farmer will receive $35,000 and the restaurant also agreed to pay the Fund $15,000. The restaurant also must put in place workplace practices adding gender identity and expression to its corporate non-discrimination policy; to adopt a gender neutral dress code for its employees; and to amend its employee handbook to sate, “persons patronizing or employed at Caliente have the right to use the bathroom facilities consistent with their gender identity and expression.”

“Over and Over again we told them, and they still don’t want to listen” my friend Claude Holcomb told me. “I guess they don’t get it”, I responded. Claude is the founder of ADAPT CT. whose site can be found here.  ADAPT has been working for 7 months now in trying to get the city of Hartford and the Hartford Public Library to fix a big mistake.  The city of Hartford built a beautiful addition to the public library. Everything is spanking clean and shiny and up to the minuet with the latest technology. They even put in a fine new ramp to get from street level up to the entrance but guess what? They forgot to make the doors accessible for people in wheel chairs. No button. No automatic door opener. Claude told me that in researching this the cost of a button and automatic door is around $2,000 dollars. Not very much at all. The city says that they can’t put a button because the door is glass. Well I don’t where they have been as many doors with a button are made of glass. In fact where I work we have them. But the thing that makes us the maddest is being told to use the back door. “Go around to the back, that’s accessible.”  Well, let me say this isn’t 1952. To say something like that is rather insulting. I wonder what it feels like to go up the beautiful ramp in your chair and then to be turned around at the door and told to go to the back. About three weeks ago I went down to Constituent Services and talked to a Sue Mc Mullen in the office. She told me that she was waiting to hear from corporation council on what the ADA law says and then could tell me how the city would proceed. Today I put another call in to her. She seemed to talk a good round and round talk, telling me what she thought I would want to hear. At one point she said, that it is only a few people who were complaining. Today May 13 I sent out a e-mail to some of my activist friends in the community about this matter. I have included it in this article. I will update this as more information comes in. All are welcomed to come to the meeting on May 23rd at 4:30 pm. The meeting will be held at 24 Park Place which is Park Place Towers, the 2nd building from the street.

[Read more →]

If you have not already heard, a dangerous thing happened this week that poses a very serious threat to the transgender and allied community, and could potentially impact lesbian, gay, bisexual, and allied people as well.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) recently appointed Dr. Kenneth Zucker to chair the task force responsible for updating of mental health language and treatment of diagnoses such as Gender Identity Disorder (GID) for the upcoming DSM-V (Diagnostics and Statistics Manual, Fifth Edition).

Don’t let his recent appearance on NPR sounding like a nice guy fool you. At a time when the American Medical Association (AMA) is supporting stopping discriminating against and stigmatizing transgender people, Dr. Zucker is a widely recognized proponent of reparation (”ex-gay”) and aversion therapy for children and youth. These techniques have been proven to be ineffective
at best and–more often–severely damaging to the mental health of people who are LGB or T.

Dr. Zucker holds the fate of our young people in his hands. WE MUST ALL TAKE ACTION to remove Dr. Zucker as well as his cronies from this all-important APA working group, based upon his approach to clinical treatment of transgender and gender non-conforming identity in children & youth.

Please sign this petition to remove the most outrageous members from the DSM-V GID committee, and then the link on to everyone you know: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/412001300

It only takes a moment or two, and your signing could literally save lives. Thanks so much for your help and support.

From,

Michael Woodward

Tucson, Arizona

See also:

http://transactive.blogspot.com/2008/05/dsm-v-kenneth-zucker.html
http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/kenneth-zucker.html
http://www.exgaywatch.com/wp/2007/05/zucker-and-bradley/
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Dreger/ASB%20paper/Zucker/Zucker%20subverts%20ASB.html

By Special Request of Miss Emma Furbird and Ms. Cassey Role

Just a little to shake off all the heavies. We love you and wanted you to know.

Cousin Emmy on Rainbow Quest

Hope you all never run out of air.

[Preface: My gratitude to CT blogger Gideon, from whom I learned about the movie described below in his blog A Public Defender. Though I encourage everyone to read Gideon’s blog to understand more about what’s really going on in the trenches of criminal defense law, it’s lucky for us that he also raises other important issues.]

It’s a difficult 21st century balancing act. Revolutionaries have a positive obligation to validate peoples’ deeply held and powerful spiritual experiences and beliefs. We especially have an obligation to create a space for stories of real people that have been marginalized by white supremacist and sexist and heterosexist ideas about “normalcy’ and “rational thinking.” For millions of people, their spiritual experiences and religious affiliations are expressions of resistance to oppression. It is sometimes the only language allowed to people whose very existence as human beings is denied on a daily basis. [Read more →]

Back in August 2007 Punk Pink reported a story about a couple named Duggar in Arkansas. The Duggars were proud parents of their 17th child. Well word has it today published, in the Hartford Courant, that Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar are now expecting their 18th child. Can you believe it! For Punk Pinks article Be Fruitful & Multiply, Candidates for a Breeders Statuette please click here. All I can say from my chair is I am glad that more couples are not into breeding like this. Check out the Duggar’s site where you can cast a vote to name the darling little bundle of enough is enough. The baby should arrive on January 1, 2009.  

This e-mail was sent out from Jerimarie of Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition and I wanted to share it with all our readers. Jerimarie is also a founding member of Queers Without Borders, Hartford Ct.

 Session Ends…Bill Stalls In House.

Thank you for getting us this far.

Thanks to you we had a remarkable year with HB 5723 An Act Concerning Discrimination. We kicked off this short legislative session with an overwhelming turnout for Trans Lobby Day at the Capital. This was followed by testimony form Child Psychiatrists, Parents, Allies, Trans Folk, Executive Directors and many more that revealed the depth of growing support we have for Trans Equality! The Judiciary vote was an overwhelming bipartisan support for HB5723 and Trans Equality. Your calls, your advocacy and your support has moved more and more legislators in support of HB5723. Unfortunately, this bill was raised in a short session that saw many critical bills being raised as well as a challenging budget issue that time simply was not on our side this year. However, we are already preparing for next years session and your continued support and advocacy will be mandatory for us to secure Equal Rights. We recognize that achieving this equality is not as simple as waking up one morning and reading in the paper that HB5723 was passed. It requires a vital amount of public and personal advocacy, meeting and calling your legislator, mobilizing your friends and neighbors to become advocates and continually educating and increasing the drumbeat that this legislation is not about Special Rights but about Human Rights. [Read more →]

On May 10th 1933 Nazis and university students in 33 towns across Germany burned books that they considered to be “un-German” In Berlin over 40,000 people gathered to hear Joseph Goebbels the German Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda as thousands of books burned in Opera Square. This event was titled, “Action Against the un-German Spirit.”

On May 6, 1933 trucks pulled up to the doors of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin . Hundreds of students and Nazis smashed open the doors of the institute and marched into the building to the strains of a brass band. They ransacked the premises and removed books from the library. Later truckloads of storm trooper arrived to finish carting away books and on May 10 these books along with a bust of Hirschfeld, books by Jewish authors and others considered degenerate were burned.

Reference: Out of the Past, Neil Miller, Vintage Books, The Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals, Chapter 15.

             For other information see posting on the Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

A real interesting site is this one. Check it out.

QWB got this leaflet yesterday. Let’s support the Cafeteria Workers of Travelers’ in any way we can.

COULD YOU LIVE ON A CAFETERIA WORKER’S SALARY?

A Cafeteria Worker employed by Aramark, serving food to the employees of Travelers, earns $9.68 an hour. That’s $387.2o a week before taxes!

The average rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in Hartford is over $700.00 a month. (1)

The average gas price per gallon in Connecticut is $3.83. (2)

After all the bills are paid, would YOU have money left to put food on the table?

Call on Travelers’ Brian Maclean, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President to tell Aramark to Respect its Workers. 860-277-0111.

We Can’t Live on Poverty Wages!

(1) http://www.ct-housing.org

(2) Source: AAA Daily Fuel Gauge report; www.fuelgaugereport.com/sbsavg.asp.

Info: www.unitehere.org

UNITE HERE! Local 217, 860-246-2561

A prominent football player gang raped and murdered in South Africa last week was a victim of homophobic violence, according to activists. For the full story click here.

This was received by e-mail from Jon Green, Director of Working Families Party. 

You might’ve seen it in the news. The legislative session came to a close at midnight, and despite hundreds of citizen lobby visits and thousands of phone calls and even more emails to legislators, the House never brought the Paid Sick Days bill to a vote.

But because of all your support, it’s not over. We’re pushing into over-time.

Yesterday, the leaders of the House and Senate began planning for a special session to complete unfinished business. And we have a chance to get the Paid Sick Days bill on the schedule for the special session, if we act now.

We need your help to bring Paid Sick Days back to life. Click here to email the House and Senate leadership and DEMAND they put Paid Sick Days on the agenda for the special session. [Read more →]

One of our links is AngryBrownButch. The site is run by Jack and always contains some real good stuff. Click on over there and read Jack’s article, The honeymoon is officially over, about the Obama/Rev. Wright controversy. Check out Jack more often from our sidebar.

Robert Sims and Odetta sing Down By the Riverside. 

“Another black gay youth has been gunned down in Fort Lauderdale. Shanesa Conaway, 22, was shot to death on April 26 during a domestic dispute between her partner, Shameca Davis and Kevin Cartwright, the father of Davis two children.”

Click over to the Bilerico Project to read Waymon Hudson’s full story. QWB thanks Waymon for his diligence in keeping our community informed and his wonderful postings over at Bilerico. Fight Out Loud a group that Waymon is president of fights against hate directed at our community. Check them out.

WE REMEMBER

NEVER AGAIN

Please see here.  So It began February 23, 1933.

For a first person story please see here.

For info on the Holocaust and Homosexuals in Germany click here.

Ringling Brothers Circus will be at the XL Center in Hartford. Please Join To Protest Ringling’s Exploitation and Abuse of Wild Animals. Protests will take place on the following dates.

Wednesday, May 7th at 5:45 (opening night). * Thursday May 8th at 6:00,  *Friday May 9th at 6:00, *Saturday May 10th 4:45, and on *Sunday May 11th at 2:45.  Signs and leaflets will be provided but feel free to bring your own. For directions to the XL Center which formerly was the Hartford Civic Center see: http://www.hartfordciviccenter.com/directions.cfm

cynic: an idealist whose rose-colored glasses have been removed, snapped in two and stomped into the ground, immediately improving their vision. …from the Cynic’s Sanctuary. 

I going off this blog for now. My writing is going on a vacation, a little leave, a bye; bye. I need to think and get my stuff in order, stuff that needs to be in order maybe, and if I find nothing needs to be in order than I will come back out swinging. The other day I read over a pamphlet that a friend of mine had written and I read these words, “Without an alternative a critique would be nothing more than an exercise in cynicism and depression.” I remarked that some of my written works come out of being depressed and out of a certain amount of cynicism. He then told me that the line was written for me. I don’t know if this is good or bad, a put down, a rebellion of youth against old, or what but aim to study it. I think that anyone being presented with something like this needs to check it all over before going any further. I don’t want everyone thinking that I am just a Koo Koo oddball. A person to run away from or cross to the other side of the street if they see me coming. Oh wait, they do that now. Maybe my breath smells. [Read more →]