Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I finally found a place to live and I’m almsot done moving in. Once that’s finished, I’ll be back. I did get to see my ex tonight for dinner before he moves to San Francisco on Friday, though. That was nice. He’s a great guy and I wish him and his boyfriend all the best out west!!!
edoro:adiosblowreador:motherfuckinradicalapologist:mjolkk:
:|
SEVEN
MILLION
CALIFORNIANS
HAD THEIR RIGHT TO HATE GAY PEOPLE STRIPPED AWAY BY FILTHY NON-HOMOPHOBES.
Dear Mr. Santorum, let me explain something that you and all of the millions of people like you seem to be misunderstanding on a very fundamental level.
You have lost no rights. You still have EVERY RIGHT to be as hateful, racist, homophobic, sexist, and awful as you want. You have the right to say hateful, racist, homophobic, and sexist things in most public places. You have the right to run for President on a platform of bigotry.
What’s happening is that people who actually HAVE been denied rights are having them returned. They are being granted the exact same rights as every other human being in this country.
Giving other people rights doesn’t take yours away. There isn’t a limited amount of ‘rights’ to go around, so that one group has to hoard them all in order to receive any justice or fair treatment. Being federally mandated to give every person in this country no less than their constitutional rights does not take away your right to be hateful, Santorum.
You don’t have the right to take rights from other people. You have never had that right. That right has never been part of our constitution. When people are stripped of the basic right to be treated like people and afforded basic civil liberties that every other person is afforded, that is nothing less than a blatant violation of every principle our country is founded on.
In conclusion, fuck you, fuck those seven million people, and fuck everyone who thinks it’s oppression to be told to stop denying people rights.
![loveincolororg:
We wish her the best of luck!
[article]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxjhq3Lvax1r08enqo1_1280.png)
We wish her the best of luck!
I miss this whole family sooooo much!!!! I actually kinda teared up. The hours spent at their old house in Memphis are some of my favorite memories!!!!
This was written by a member of the UC Davis English Department faculty to Chancellor Linda Katehi in response to the criminal assault by UC Police on peacefully demonstrating students this week.
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18 November 2011
Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi
Linda P.B. Katehi,
I am a junior faculty member at UC Davis. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, and I teach in the Program in Critical Theory and in Science & Technology Studies. I have a strong record of research, teaching, and service. I am currently a Board Member of the Davis Faculty Association. I have also taken an active role in supporting the student movement to defend public education on our campus and throughout the UC system. In a word: I am the sort of young faculty member, like many of my colleagues, this campus needs. I am an asset to the University of California at Davis.
You are not.
I write to you and to my colleagues for three reasons:
1) to express my outrage at the police brutality which occurred against students engaged in peaceful protest on the UC Davis campus today
2) to hold you accountable for this police brutality
3) to demand your immediate resignation
Today you ordered police onto our campus to clear student protesters from the quad. These were protesters who participated in a rally speaking out against tuition increases and police brutality on UC campuses on Tuesday—a rally that I organized, and which was endorsed by the Davis Faculty Association. These students attended that rally in response to a call for solidarity from students and faculty who were bludgeoned with batons, hospitalized, and arrested at UC Berkeley last week. In the highest tradition of non-violent civil disobedience, those protesters had linked arms and held their ground in defense of tents they set up beside Sproul Hall. In a gesture of solidarity with those students and faculty, and in solidarity with the national Occupy movement, students at UC Davis set up tents on the main quad. When you ordered police outfitted with riot helmets, brandishing batons and teargas guns to remove their tents today, those students sat down on the ground in a circle and linked arms to protect them.
What happened next?
Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.
What happened next?
Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.
This is what happened. You are responsible for it.
You are responsible for it because this is what happens when UC Chancellors order police onto our campuses to disperse peaceful protesters through the use of force: students get hurt. Faculty get hurt. One of the most inspiring things (inspiring for those of us who care about students who assert their rights to free speech and peaceful assembly) about the demonstration in Berkeley on November 9 is that UC Berkeley faculty stood together with students, their arms linked together. Associate Professor of English Celeste Langan was grabbed by her hair, thrown on the ground, and arrested. Associate Professor Geoffrey O’Brien was injured by baton blows. Professor Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, was also struck with a baton. These faculty stood together with students in solidarity, and they too were beaten and arrested by the police. In writing this letter, I stand together with those faculty and with the students they supported.
One week after this happened at UC Berkeley, you ordered police to clear tents from the quad at UC Davis. When students responded in the same way—linking arms and holding their ground—police also responded in the same way: with violent force. The fact is: the administration of UC campuses systematically uses police brutality to terrorize students and faculty, to crush political dissent on our campuses, and to suppress free speech and peaceful assembly. Many people know this. Many more people are learning it very quickly.
You are responsible for the police violence directed against students on the UC Davis quad on November 18, 2011. As I said, I am writing to hold you responsible and to demand your immediate resignation on these grounds.
On Wednesday November 16, you issued a letter by email to the campus community. In this letter, you discussed a hate crime which occurred at UC Davis on Sunday November 13. In this letter, you express concern about the safety of our students. You write, “it is particularly disturbing that such an act of intolerance should occur at a time when the campus community is working to create a safe and inviting space for all our students.” You write, “while these are turbulent economic times, as a campus community, we must all be committed to a safe, welcoming environment that advances our efforts to diversity and excellence at UC Davis.”
I will leave it to my colleagues and every reader of this letter to decide what poses a greater threat to “a safe and inviting space for all our students” or “a safe, welcoming environment” at UC Davis: 1) Setting up tents on the quad in solidarity with faculty and students brutalized by police at UC Berkeley? or 2) Sending in riot police to disperse students with batons, pepper-spray, and tear-gas guns, while those students sit peacefully on the ground with their arms linked? Is this what you have in mind when you refer to creating “a safe and inviting space?” Is this what you have in mind when you express commitment to “a safe, welcoming environment?”
I am writing to tell you in no uncertain terms that there must be space for protest on our campus. There must be space for political dissent on our campus. There must be space for civil disobedience on our campus. There must be space for students to assert their right to decide on the form of their protest, their dissent, and their civil disobedience—including the simple act of setting up tents in solidarity with other students who have done so. There must be space for protest and dissent, especially, when the object of protest and dissent is police brutality itself. You may not order police to forcefully disperse student protesters peacefully protesting police brutality. You may not do so. It is not an option available to you as the Chancellor of a UC campus. That is why I am calling for your immediate resignation.
Your words express concern for the safety of our students. Your actions express no concern whatsoever for the safety of our students. I deduce from this discrepancy that you are not, in fact, concerned about the safety of our students. Your actions directly threaten the safety of our students. And I want you to know that this is clear. It is clear to anyone who reads your campus emails concerning our “Principles of Community” and who also takes the time to inform themselves about your actions. You should bear in mind that when you send emails to the UC Davis community, you address a body of faculty and students who are well trained to see through rhetoric that evinces care for students while implicitly threatening them. I see through your rhetoric very clearly. You also write to a campus community that knows how to speak truth to power. That is what I am doing.
I call for your resignation because you are unfit to do your job. You are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis. In fact: you are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis. As such, I call upon you to resign immediately.
Sincerely,
Nathan Brown
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Program in Critical Theory
University of California at Davis
This is important. Pepper spray should only ever be used to pacify a dangerous suspect. In this case it is being administered as a punishment, in clear violation of the 8th amendment and Article Five of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Activist were peacefully protesting on their campus at University of California, Davis Quad.
Friday afternoon police showed up in riot gear to disperse the protesters by using pepper spray at point-blank range.
The officer who pepper-sprayed UC Davis students is Lt. John Pike. Give his PD a call. 530-752-1727
This is pretty awesome! Look at those boards! They each change slightly!
rebloging for all of America being Texas.
It’s too much.
Canada as seen by Canadians
Canada as seen as the rest of the world
I’M DYING
Gotta admit, this is pretty friggin funny!!!
Lately I’ve been feeling pulled in so many directions. Pulled toward graduation. Pulled home to Memphis. Pulled to the West Coast. Just pulled. But I’m not sure where to.
The more I think about the future, the more apprehensive I get. As kids, we all thought we’d end up in Memphis together. We’d all buy houses on the same street or at least in the same neighborhood, and raise our kids together. But that dream is long since dead. I’ve realized we’ll be lucky to all live in the same state.
I just don’t feel like I have a home anymore. I don’t feel at home in Knoxville; I never have. It’s definitely grown on me, and I have a few great friends, but it’s just not home. And when I go back to Memphis, I don’t feel at home there anymore either. Don’t get me wrong, I love it there and it will always be my hometown…but I feel like I’ve left a <emphasize>piece</emphasize> of my heart there, not my <emphasize>whole</emphasize> heart there. Memphis shaped me in so many ways (probably more than I’ll ever realize) and I couldn’t be more thankful for that, but I think the things that I can learn from there are few and far between anymore.
I really thought I had all this under control. I had come to terms with it. But apparently not. Ryan is seriously considering moving to Nashville once his year with the West Memphis, AR, police department is up, which is only being aided by the fact that he says his parents are wanting to move up to Sugar Tree, just ~45 minutes outside Nashville. Cassie has said for years that she wants to move to NYC, but I’m just not sure I see that ever happening for multiple reasons. She’s just so Memphis. Heather wants to escape, but I think she’ll end up in Memphis forever. She’s way too close to her family to ever leave, I think. Jason says he plans to move back home to get his Master’s and teach, even if only for a few years. He also randomly mentions working for CNN in Atlanta every so often and has for years.
But I keep feeling the call to California. I absolutely love the South. My heart is here in the culture and people, but I still feel the pull. Maybe just for grad school. I want to say that I wouldn’t even allow myself to stay permanently, but who am I to say that? I never though I’d be in Knoxville this long. And what if I met the perfect guy out there? Could I make myself leave if he wasn’t willing or able to? And the West is such a central hub for art in the US. Who’s to say I wouldn’t have beaucoup more opportunity out there? I know it’s pointless to worry about the future, but I just can’t seem to help it lately. I feel like I go through this almost every summer. And every year that I think I’ve handled it, the next year seems to sprout a whole new crop of possibilities.
This is how I felt after I went to San Francisco for the first time….
