Tuesday, April 13, 2004
She'll tell you when and where and how and why you'd hurt
A beautiful young lady
Yesterday, "The Daughter of the Four of Pentacles" lurched ahead by a meager 1,046 words. But I think the hardest bit's behind me, and it's just possible I'll finish this piece today. That would be a Good Thing. As of this morning, the story stands at 8,599 words, and it would be preferable to keep it under 10,000.
Changing the subject...
When I was a kid, growing up in East Nowhere, Alabama, I was surrounded by adults who lived in a world where racial prejudice was still permissible — indeed, it was expected. And I was told, repeatedly and often with great vehemence, that I would understand why we shouldn't play with black kids, and why blacks shouldn't go to the same schools as whites, and why they shouldn't hold public office, and why they shouldn't marry white women, and so on and on and on and on, just as soon as I Was Older. So. I got older. And, meanwhile, America, as a whole, moved on and left the bigots in East Nowhere behind. I moved on, as well, into a world that I never could have imagined as a child, and despite my advancing years, I never came to embrace the hatred I'd seen almost every day growing up. Sure, the South is still full of bigots, but they're an acknowledged embarassment now. And the reason that I'm telling you this is because I'm really telling me this. Lately, I suspect that a lot of people are promising their children that they'll come to understand why gays shouldn't be permitted to teach public school, or to be parents, or be permitted to marry, or hold public office, just as soon as They Get Older. But now I'm old enough to see certain patterns emerging and I think I know that this is as surely a lie as the lie I was told as a child — that adulthood would bestow upon me an understanding of the need for racial bigotry. I have come, instead, to believe that in another decade or two America will view the men and women trying to deny equality to gays, lesbians, and transsexuals with the same revulsion as it now generally views the men and women who tried to preserve segregation. This moment in history will pass, as all moments do, and the idiots crusading for the sanctity of heterosexual marriage and the "Christian family" will become distant, bad memories. There will still be hate, of course, and idiots. There will always be hate and idiots. But we're learning, slowly. Which means, I suppose, that I might have a scrap of hope after all.
Moving along...
Spooky's experiment with a Species of One CRK LiveJournal community seems to be a success. Check it out. I think they've just begun a discussion of Low Red Moon.
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