Michael Writes

PREFACE:  This morning I came across this article which was a reprint of an article originally published in 2004 on a web site that no longer exists. In it, Star Parker presents an ill-thought out, painfully one-sided view on "Gay Politics, Black Reality".  Because I responded to it quite clearly stating my opinion five years ago, I went through my archives to present that response once again here.

I could easily rip the article apart point-by-point, but I don’t feel like giving it that much of my time or energy. I’m sick to death of the "my minority is more oppressed than your minority" mindset that pervades writings like Ms. Parker’s. In a nutshell, she accuses the gay community of contributing to the downfall of contemporary black society.

"Black America has already been devastated by the politics of victimization and undermining tradition. Forty years ago, 70 percent of black families were intact, with husband and wife together. Out of wedlock births were a third of what they are today. Here is a snapshot how things look now in America’s inner cities:
* 60 percent of black children grow up in fatherless homes.
* 800,000 black men are in jail or prison.
* 70 percent of black babies are born to unwed mothers.
* Over 300,000 black babies are aborted annually.
* 50 percent of new AIDS cases are in the black community.
* Almost half of young black men in America’s cities are neither working nor in school."

I fail to see how my partner and me wanting the same rights and responsibilities as any married couple causes 70% of pregnant black women to decide against marriage. I fail to comprehend how my wanting to raise children in a loving and nurturing household caused 300,000 black abortions last year. I just don’t get how my dedication to my partner and our shared desire to become parents in any way causes 60% of black fathers to leave their families.
Towards the end of the article, Star made the biggest error in my estimation. She says in part that "Martin Luther King’s dream was an American society that would permit black freedom." I’ve heard that speech. I’ve read that speech. I’ve recited and memorized that speech. And what I took from that speech, above everything else that was said, was:

"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!".

So, Ms. Star Parker, are you prepared to shove that size 9 a bit further down your gullet and tell the world that gay men and lesbians are not God’s children? Because if you’re not, it’s time to shut up. Stop trying to make your plight look more terrible, your people more needy, wake up and smell the Folgers Breakfast Blend honey - because "this land was made for you and me". You and me - imagine that! A land that was made with plenty of room for the conflicting beliefs of a strong black political activist, a loudmouth fag in the South, and the shotgun toting pickup driving bubba who’d give anything to get rid of us both.

ADDENDUM:  Thanks to my friend Brad Smith for sending me this video that further shows Star Parker’s insanity:

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Okay, let me get this straight (pardon the pun):

1.  A ditzy bimbo beauty queen who probably doesn’t have the slightest idea when she’ll be allowed to eat carbs again makes some sort of public statement against gay marriage at some pageant that is only watched by the gay men who probably did the bitch’s makeup and designed her fabulous gown.

2.  There is a controversy.

3.  Lawmakers in the state of Alabama (yes, Alafuckingbama) feel it necessary to adopt a resolution to honor the  homo-hating ho-bag.  I shit you not, folks.

Instead of working on something pointless like… oh, I don’t know, the billion dollar sewer debt controversy in Jefferson County (from where I only recently escaped)?  Or how to deal with the still-increasing unemployment rate in the festering sinkhole of a state?

For the record, here’s my $.02 on the topic:  If you are against gay marriage, take a lesson from Wanda Sykes:

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Michael’s Note:  This is a piece written from a single phrase writing prompt in an entirely stream of consciousness manner meant as a method for expanding my ability to develop realistic characters.  For this reason I called it the Stream of Consciousness Project.

As I lay on the bed dying, I thought to myself this isn’t happening. This can’t be happening to me. One grandfather smoked three packs a day for longer than I’d been alive and died of undiagnosed lung cancer. The other died two years after a late-stage diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. Dad passed on a predisposition for all problems orthopedic and Mom gave me a propensity for hypochondria.

With a glowing track record like that, how the hell am I supposed to die with a fucking needle in my arm? Could I be any more selfish? How stupid do I have to keep proving myself to be?

"This is it, then" I’m talking aloud to myself, wondering why my voice sounded so calm. "This is what it feels like to die." It wasn’t peaceful or still or gentle at all.

No one ever knew about the meth. I was too good at covering my tracks (literally and figuratively) and too vain to admit I had a problem and ask for help. Now my biggest fear - hell, my only fear - has become my truth. I’m going to die alone and no one is going to give a damn. Hundreds and thousands won’t be mourning my loss as they sit transfixed watching my funeral mass on NBC. No, I’m just another fucking junkie who took things too far and that doesn’t even make the tiny print obituaries.

I wish I could blame it all on a bad life, but I didn’t have one. I could’ve got clean, sure. But by the time I stopped getting lost in the high long enough to take stock of everything I had to lose, the list was too short to keep my mind off the next fix. I had friends before I pushed them all away. I had a great house before I couldn’t afford to pay the mortgage anymore. I was at the top of my game at work until they got tired of me being "unable to perform" and put me permanently on the bench. I had it all. Now everything I own is compressed into what’s left of a three hundred dollar eight ball taunting me through the familiar plastic of a syringe.

When there’s nothing left, a fraction of an ounce is the world.

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One of the most frustrating things about social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace (or LiveJournal before them) is the ever-present ‘meme’.  In short, a meme is a little quiz or questionnaire that in many cases doesn’t mean a damned thing to anyone other than the person who answered it.  That said, some of them do get me thinking and the concept of starting my own “Top 5” lists was born.  Today’s list includes five films that had a profound effect on me for one reason or another.

Out of Africa
As young as I was when the film came out (I was barely 13) I was completely taken by the amazing African scenery and the tremendous chemistry between Robert Redford and Meryl Streep – two of the most incredible actors who ever lived.  The dual love stories experienced by Karen Blixen as she falls in love with the land and the people in Africa and then with the English adventurer played by Redford are sweeping, romantic and timeless. 

A Clockwork Orange
The classic Stanley Kubrick film that follows a young band of misfits led by Malcolm McDowell who wreak all sorts of havoc while stealing cars, burglarizing homes and raping women.  Dark and frighteningly intense at times, it is also a phenomenal work of social commentary that seeks to teach its lessons by being anti-entertainment.

Philadelphia
Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington delivered two of the most heart-wrenching and true-to-life characters in this film that brought the realities of HIV/AIDS and the discrimination against people who suffer from the disease into the forefront of our minds, not to mention a phenomenal soundtrack.

The Green Mile
Not since The Shawshank Redemption (which should be on this list but deserves its own post entirely) has a Steven King story truly moved me.  This time it was Michael Clark Duncan’s mind-and-light bulb blowing performance as a gentle giant on death row and Tom Hanks’ portrayal as the hardened but understanding prison guard who befriends him.  The Duncan character’s final monologue left me speechless and reaching for the tissues.  Here is that scene:

Dead Poet’s Society

Sharing the distinction only with The Color Purple this is my favorite film of all time.  It was in this movie that I first realized the brilliance of Robin Williams as a serious actor but my connection to the film is far deeper than that alone.  I know what those characters were experiencing because they each (including Professor Keating) represent me at different points in my own life.

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Sometimes there’s this feeling I get; it doesn’t necessarily mean that something is wrong, just that something isn’t quite right.

Such is the case this morning when I awoke roundabout five o’clock this morning for no apparent reason.  A cat was sleeping peacefully at my feet, my partner was finally resting after what was no doubt another night of up-and-down and up-and-down with early season pollen issues and I was wide awake.  As I said, nothing felt wrong per se, I was just awake.

No worries.  I knew I had a writing project on my desk that could keep my time well occupied and my body relatively quiet until it no longer needed to be.  Though my brain is craving coffee it will have to wait until the softly snoring creatures upstairs break from their slumber; I don’t want to interrupt what little sleep Barry has had.

This week (yesterday as a matter of fact) I returned to writing for two websites that I absolutely adore – Tomato Casual and Urban Garden Casual – both of which I wrote for last year.  The readers of both sites are loyal and friendly and I am always learning new things even though I am there to help teach them.  Kind of a nice trade off in my humble opinion.  At the same time I have begun work on bringing My Earth Garden into 2009 and will soon do the same for Gone Frugal, a site that has been allowed to sit quietly for too long.  I wish there was someone other than myself I could be mad at for that, but it’s no one’s fault but mine.

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