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Letters
Talking Crow Productions |
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Reseaching Rights
"Perhaps you could lend a helping hand and point me in the direction of some topics I might research aside from Harvey Milk that pertain to the rights movements." -- Patrick, Age 20
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Following is a letter composed in response to a question about how one might begin researching the civil rights movement. My response would urge readers to dig back into underlying basics, including a look at other civil rights movements. One one end of the knowledge spectrum is acquiring an in-depth grasp of answers to questions like "what are civil liberties and how do we know who has them?". At the other end are answers to the kind of day to day practical questions that PFLAG offers, such as "How can parents and friends of lesbians and gays build supportive families and networks?" Subject: Re: fm5mail: La Parola article Hi Patrick, I simply just didn't deal with my "issues" at all when I was young, so I didn't do a lot. Later, I like to think I made a difference. I suppose that is all that matters, that at some point we do give back and add to the community. Like yourself, I am grateful to yet others, who in turn are grateful to yet others ... and in the end we realize that there are really a lot of wonderful and talented people, some of whom happen to be gay, and some of whom happen to be straight, who have focused their life around the idea of "doing the right thing", and, having said that, who have made of the fabric of honesty a tougher and more durable banner than was passed on to us.
Your question on research topic pointers is tougher than it sounds.
Understanding the history of the civil rights movements is even better than having lived through them. I did not really appreciate gentlemen like Dr. Martin Luther King until after they were gone. So naturally I would recommend studying all the things I did not pay attention to because I was too young, or afraid of my peers, or just too busy trying to make my way through life.
It is useful to understand the history of the black civil rights struggle going back not just to 1964 but to the civil war or earlier. Slights and injustices have a memory measured not in years but in generations. Never forget that. I wish I had done a better job of reading source material from influential writers like James Baldwin. Whether we agree with all the ideas or not is not even particularly important in this context; understanding what is productive about the anger, and what is not, is crucial. Also, on the gay civil rights struggle, Stonewall (a little before my time of cultural awareness) is essential. Last but not least: Randy Schilts, "And the Band Played on" (AIDS) and Conduct Unbecoming (Gays in the Military).
If you feel up to it I would look into the history of the Pink Triangle and gays in Nazi Germany, who were victims in a much larger tragedy. Let no generation forget how that happened, and blessings to those brave souls with the fortitude to drill down into history far enough to begin to actually comprehend the horror of it ... and why it could happen again.
As long as you are tough enough to grasp all that, look at the nature of totalitarian government itself -- at least enough to know the danger signs. This would be World War II Germany, the old cold war Soviet Union, and China in the last 100 years.
The idea is not to get you hopeless depressed about the future of humanity. It's not that dismal. The idea is to make you a better and more articulate judge of history, civil rights, freedom and individual rights than the current attorney general or his drinking buddies.
If you really want to polish off the academic learning, study philosophy and rhetoric. There are no brass rings there, only honest answers and dishonest answers.
Then, go to the movies, watch "Finding Nemo" or something to purge all that and put it in the past perspective again, and realize that your friends and relatives on an average will probably care for absolutely none of the above. Honor their wishes. That kind of understanding is only for yourself.
Many people are simply not up to that kind of research and there is no reason why they should be. If this does not sound like your cup of tea, that just gives you more time for practical contemporary tools. You will learn more, working with others in a group in 1 year, than by yourself in 10.
I sincerely and strongly recommend working with a gay peer group or chat group (a physical community center, not just a web page). You could lose yourself forever in giving volunteer work back to the community, and that would not be a bad thing, but in time you will develop and discover talents that have outgrown peer group work. I was a peer group facilitator for a group called the Pacific Center, in Berkeley CA, for some years. Just working with peers and other facilitators taught me more about myself and my real capabilities than all of the other personal growth type communities combined.
I believe you will find PFLAG will give you more practical ammunition for dealing with friends and family, faster, than anything else.
I hope some of these ideas sound useful and not too depressing. I am not used to thinking along these lines any more, and the answers probably sound like something you would get from a community college professor (No; I do software QA for a living). In any event, any of the above that you pick up on and say "that's for me" is something to be accomplished in a few years, certainly not to be crammed into a few months or weeks.
For the most part of general research, I would prefer to avoid pushing a given book title or author because that is too much like pushing a personal philosophy. I would make a few exceptions that seem not to depend on distinct ideological agendas.
Thus it is written: the old man has spoken, and now we can all go back to the serious business of starting the barbecue coals up, and stuff like that. I have never written down ideas like this before. Would you mind if we shared them with others in La Parola (without names of course)?
Cheers,
Alex
posted July 17, 2004 |
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