Doesn't Anyone Understand?

We toured Toledo today. The city is very beautiful, very old but very very beautiful. We saw the oldest synogogue in Western Europe. It's no longer a working synogogue, but now more of a museum. For a long time in Toledo there were three groups, Jews, Christians and Muslims. The three groups lived in relative peace and harmony, as far as any records can tell.

Then Queen Isabella came and ruined it all and had all the synogogues torn down and all the jews basically converted or killed. Very unpleasant times indeed.

The Spanish didn't take part in WWII (from what I recall from high school history lessons), because they were dealing with their own civil war at the time. Francisco Franco, the fascist dictator of Spain from the 30's until relatively recently, being a facist, let Hitler use his country and his people for target practice for testing out bombs and weapons of destruction. That's where Picasso's famous "Guernica" comes in (I'm seeing it tomorrow, I hope I don't weep). Joan Miro, my most favourite artist, has some very insightful pieces reflecting on the civil war and the years of tumolt for Spain. We went to the Miro museum in Barcelona, which was such an astonishing experience for me. The first time I saw a Miro first hand was in Hartford in 2004, I believe, at the Athenium (if you're from Connecticut you've probably been at one time or another, it's very small but it's a cute museum and I believe it's the oldest public art museum in the United States, but I could be mistaken). He is a contemporary artist, and most of his works seem very primitive and unrealistic, but what you really must do is look beyond the figures, the paint, the frame, the palet, and make the painting something for you. I like art that becomes whatever you want it to become.

But this wasn't meant to be a rant about Miro.

In Toledo today, I noticed there to be a lot of graffiti of swastikas. I don't understand how anyone, particularly someone in Europe, particularly someone whose country suffered under a fascist dictator for decades, could possibly promote the fascist way. Don't they know how their parents and grandparents suffered? Don't they know how all the people of Europe suffered? Fleeing from bombs falling here and there, shrapnal everywhere, air raids, no food, never knowing if you'd live to see tomorrow or if your children would live to see the end of the war. Or worse, if you were one of the direct victims of the fascists, if they stuck you in a ghetto and then huddled you into a cramped box car and sent you off to never be seen or heard from again. Spain is a Catholic nation, don't they know what the Nazis did to the Catholics? Don't they know, don't they understand? How can anyone draw the swastika without silently killing their soul?

Sadly those aren't the first swastikas I've seen in Europe. There is a little shrine, with candles and swastikas in chalk on a stoop near my school in London (in one of the most affluent neighbourhoods in London, might I add). I got so angry and sad when I saw it, that I blew both the candles out, and I don't even care if CCTV saw me do it. They're English, the Nazis tried to wipe London off the map of the world, don't they understand?

On a MUCH happier note, I just got word that Obama signed the Hate Crimes Bill into LAW! How awesome is that?

Perhaps there is hope after all. Yes, I'd say there is a lot of hope. Things are getting better all the time :)

http://www.hrc.org/13699.htm


Miro, 1973, "The Smile of a Tear" very appropriate for today

Mr. Obama and the Human Rights Campaign

I watched this for the first time tonight.

Despite my feelings regarding the president at the current time (call it disillusionment, all the hype from the election turned into a huge post-election let down, but everyone can identify with that, within and without the LGBT community), I think the man did a good job. Whether he did a good job of pulling the wool over our eyes or whether he sincerely meant what he said, it doesn't really matter.

The fact of the matter is, there is progress. It is slow. Much slower than it should be. Much slower, I think, than anyone expected it would be. Perhaps even in my lifetime there will still be mountains to climb.

But as a hiker, I suppose, I have to admit that the unclimbed mountains are far more alluring than those which are climbed daily. The unchartered waves are more daring than the warm bay waters. The forest is more tempting than the field.

We can all feel this movement heating up, swelling around us, becoming bigger with every pulse in every vein in every crowd at every rally.

And in the end, we know that love wins. Love always wins. Love wins in Revelations, oh you who would quote God's word. Love wins in every story ever written. And if you would argue that no, love does not always win, I would tell you to read between the lines, and perhaps then you would see that yes, in fact, love does win.

This is about the pinnacle. The peak. Triumphing over hate. The journey there is long and arduous. Dangerous, perilous, often sorrowful. But some day, in some sleepy little down in America, a little child is going to read in their history books about how LGBT individuals were persecuted, and with the hard work, dedication and compassion of LGBT individuals, leaders and supporters, they overcame and are now treated as equals.

And that little child won't be afraid to be who they are,

because love always wins in the end.

HRC Gala on Saturday

Can I just say that I am sooo GLAD that the gays are going to be picketing the HRC gala on Saturday in DC.

I wish I could be there to fight the good fight with them.

I've got some choise words for Barack Obama, he's just about my least favourite politician right now. At least the Conservatives don't SAY that they are going to do a damn thing for our rights. But Mr. Obama, you lied. I'd rather gouge my eyes out with hot pokers than vote for a Republican, but you can rest assured I won't be voting for Mr. Obama again. Fool me once...

So, to everyone who will be picketing the Gala, I salute you, and wish I could be among your ranks. Godspeed, maybe Obama will get the message that we're here, we're queer, and we vote and pay taxes too.