Candlelight Vigil, March 4th

March 4th marks what JointheImpact.com calls "The Eve of Justice". Because of that, there will be candlelight vigils nationwide in hopes that justice will indeed come to California. So, no matter where you are, or whether or not you can attend. I strongly encourage you to light up a candle on that night.

For those who can make it in the San Francisco area. There is a meeting for the vigil on the corner of Market and Castro by 6:00 PM.

Let us make Prop 8 the last anti-gay bill. Good luck.

March 5th - Wear White

http://jointheimpact.com/2009/02/march-5-wear-white/

For those who have regularly read this blog, or for those who are part of my Facebook group, we have plenty of reason to take action. On the fifth of March, the California Supreme Court will meet to hear arguments concerning the validity of Proposition H8. This presents one of the best chances ever to permanently seal the deal for LGBTQ rights in California forever. However, this cannot be done without your participation. As I said in my earlier post, being imprisoned in the closet harms the gay liberation movement because it decreases visibility.

Visibility is essential to any kind of anti-discrimination movement because it demonstrates the pain that discrimination causes to a large population of people. With visibility, we can explicitly demonstrate what the passing of proposition 8 has done to the LGBTQ community.

Time is of the essence, and it is with extreme urgency that I encourage you to fight back to regain the freedom to love and marry the individual that you love. Thus, this is a call for unarmed struggle on the fifth. Should the Supreme Court succumb to homophobia and discrimination, we will use the power of civil disobedience to nonviolently fight for our right. We must never give up, as we are fighting a battle which would have dangerous philosophical results should it be lost.

So I encourage you to wear white on the fifth of March. White is a notoriously unconventional color. People who wear it stand out easily. Because of this, we can easily be distinguished from the rest of the crowd. Wear white, and you will be visible.

March 5th presents the final battle in a long struggle to gain freedom for sexual minorities. So to each of my readers, I ask that you fight on the fifth. We will be vocal in our opposition and be united in our knowledge that such disobedience is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. So help us, and show the world numbers and strong will that has never before seen in this world.

Sunday Sites Fifteen

The fifteenth Sunday Sites post brings us these sites.

http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/happy-birthday-to-the-art-of-nonconformity/ It's hard to believe that the art of non-conformity has been around for a year now. And yet, it was a resounding success. Congratulations Chris.

http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Reader-Documentary-American-Tradition/dp/1565848276 I strongly suggest this collection of articles for anyone who regularly reads this blog. A compendium of dissent, this book goes well with the general theme of this blog.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/01/30/2009-01-30_fifthgraders_of_the_nation_unite_against.html A fifth-grader's rebellion against the drudge, monotony and uselessness of modern homework. Let's help him!

http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/1972----.htm As rich people give other rich people awards on this night, this happens all over the world. Consider this and think about hypocrisy.

http://twitter.com/Wikip_Marlith Microblogging

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/22/i-survived-the-bush.html I went through some of the worst years in my life and all I got was this crappy T-Shirt

A Picture.

Well, look at the picture. What do you think about the homophobic initiative?

Why I am Somewhat, Infinitesimally Apprehensive of the Obama Stimulus Package

Just a day ago, President Obama passed a $75 billion stimulus package in hopes that it will start the economy up and begin the end of the economic crisis. However I remain somewhat skeptical of the effect of such a bill, not because I fear that it will not work, but because I fear that private individuals will hoard the money that they have and will receive from the government.

In an economic environment such as today's, people make significantly less money, and because of that, spend significantly less. In order for money to flow freely through a society, people must spend money in order to circulate it around social classes. When people spend, the entire economy benefits. However, as people are hoarding that money in fear that the economy will get worse, less money circulates and what money which is saved accrues and collects dust in the private vaults of individuals.

The ideological shift away from materialism in many individuals, while helpful for the happiness of those individuals, is unhelpful to the economy as a whole. Unmaterialistic people are happier people because they have less crap weighing them down, but because they buy less, they also tend to have more money gathering dust in their coffers that could be used for charitable purposes.

The rich and wealthy are also not helpful in energizing the economy, despite how much they produce. As they have the most money, they have the ability to be the most helpful people in stimulating the economy. Thus, should they spend more money, the worldwide economy will benefit.

Hoarding never helps in bad economies, so it is partially the responsibility of private individuals to help the economy recover.

The Closet: Social Distortion

There is no "right" to the closet.

If you are in it, it is not by your choice. You were forced into it as a child, and you are being held captive by a hypocritical, homophobic society.

~ Michelangelo Signorile

"Being in the Closet" is a phrase that refers to a person who, hides his true sexual orientation to avoid suspicion and exposure. In times like these, to be in the closet is counterintuitive because it decreases visibility and degrades gays to the state of being just another minority. Because of this, being closeted only brings homophobia to communities, which is harmful to efforts to eliminate homophobia and discrimination. Now, while I am straight, I still feel the effects of homophobia, which explains why I wrote this post.

Thus, this post is a request to all my readers, who are either gay or questioning: Come out of the closet. If you don't, you are only helping brew homophobia and blocking the advancement of homosexual rights. Invisibility is an obstacle. Fear is what is responsible for self loathing and hatred.

Thus, you must tell your family. No matter how painful that may be. For if they do not know, philosophical and ideological conflicts over sexuality will be common.

Thus, you must tell your community and your friends. For if they do not know that you are gay, then they will assume that stereotypes are representative of entire demographics, deepening homophobia
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Thus, we must tell the media, as well as all society. For if they do not know, then unrepresentative stereotypes made by people who do not know how gay people are like will continue to be made. Such ignorant stereotypes will only make homophobia even more widespread.

Homosexuality must be normalized, the shame and secrecy associated with it must die. We must be open to ourselves in order for the world to be open to us. It is a social responsibility to themselves and humanity to remove such social distortion. And when we all have come out, let the world count all of us, and let them be awed. Awed to see that so many amazing people were part of a demographic that they associate with sin and misconduct.

Similarly, parents must not force their children into the closet. Such constitutes child abuse. It is brutal psychological terrorism that blatantly tells them that their parents do not love them. Breeding self-hatred as well as anger towards a homophobic society. Parents: Do not create murderers and bigots.

As I said in many, many previous blog posts. Social norms must be torn down in order to create an authentic society. The closet must fall to gain gay rights.

Diversity is our greatest weapon. Should delegates of all demographics gather to demonstrate the diversity of queer peoples all around the globe, people will see that queers are not bad at all. So gather gays and lesbians, the closeted and the straight sympathizers such as I. Despite our diversity, we all share a collective message. Gays are normal people, and we want you to know that.

Sunday Sites Fourteen

This week's Sunday Sites starts us up with these:


http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

http://thecorporation.com/index.cfm A documentary film about corporations and the significant harm that many of them do to indie business, authenticity and the environment.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=darwins-living-legacy Celebrating Darwin's 200th birthday, if I could decorate the site I would...

http://www.getgnulinux.org/ Software freedom advocacy at its finest. Just think about screwing around with your computer to learn how it works. That's why I like open source.

Product Endorsements in Schools

The Microsoft Office suite is omnipresent in nearly every school that uses computers. Considering how technology integration has grown so popular in recent years, PowerPoint and typed documents are a daily occurrence, making it a rare occurrence to find a teenager without his own computer. This has grown to the point where pencil and paper have been rendered near obsolete.

Despite the clear benefits that tech-based education has brought to schools, using such software has brought many restrictions and limitations to the students. For example, teachers will demand that assignments be submitted only in .doc or .ppt formats. As harmless this may seem, this alienates those who do not have such software, widens the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots", places families in financial turmoil in sticky situations and forces students to buy a product.

I oppose product advocacy by independent institutions in all forms, and while I understand that MS Office is the most popular office suite, I continue to have the feeling that education has sold out. In many ways, monopolies assemble themselves in the software industry. A popular product grows in popularity not because of its innovation and features, but because people need to have the same stuff that others have in order to communicate with each other. To see that your files that work at school are completely useless at home forces people to use the same software that thy use at school at home. Thus, in order to succeed in school, you must purchase a computer and run certain types of software. Marketing doesn't help Microsoft, schools do.

The government is not helping either, considering that the archives of the U.S. Census Bureau are available only in .doc or .pdf formats, just viewing government documents forces you to use certain kinds of software. Significantly reducing your freedom to use obscure pieces of software when you want to learn more about your own nation.

Using FOSS Office Suites like OpenOffice.org significantly reduces the hassles brought by using MS Office software at schools and government projects because it is consumer-neutral, free and open. As innocent as using a certain type of software at a public computer may seem, having students using certain products remains highly undesirable.

Sunday Sites Thirteen

After a two week absence, I am still alive, well and posting. It was a long hiatus, but here are this weeks Sunday Sites.

http://www.amap.org.uk/ Become more persuasive and a more logical thinker by mapping out your arguments.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ My brother introduced me to this blog, another self-improvement blog, and a great one.

http://www.betterthanyourboyfriend.com/at-least-5-ways-to-improve-something.htm I am certain that all of us can use this.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/ I have been planning to post this months ago, but forgot to do it until now. Cutting edge ideas are developed here.

Well, that's it for this week. Next week we will talk about memes.