Tag Archives: Politics and Gender identity

The 4th of July … What it means to me!

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Yes, it’s the 4th! The 4th of July! July 4th! July the 4th! Independence Day! For me it’s a day filled with memories and meanings. Great events have unfolded for me on July 4th. My most joyous and happiest 4th was the 4th of July 1952. I wrote about it in “Dear Mom and Dad.” That was the day that my old gray mare Ginger, presented me with a colt which I subsequently named Skyrocket. I think that from that day on I always expected great things to occur on July 4th. There were times when that did indeed happen.

In the early ‘50s do-gooders hadn’t yet stolen much of the excitement of American childhood by banning the stuff of a real 4th of July like real firecrackers, M-80’s, bottle rockets and the like. Of course that was supposed to protect the children, right? No, that was to absolve inattentive parents from the exercise of prudent judgement. But before that came to pass, there were battles along the shores of Kiddy Lake which involved small battlements of dirt and sand on which bottle necked bear cans were propped up. Then with the added assistance of small rocks and firecrackers those beer cans were converted to cannons. The battles would rage on for a couple of hours a day until that year’s supply of firecrackers was spent. From there we would move on to the latest model of sling shots or pea shooters.

The second greatest 4th of July event would of course happen 12 years later when I stopped for a midnight hamburger at the “Frostop” drive-in where I met the woman who would become the mother of my first 2 children. Although that memory does recall moments of joy it also recalls moments of hurt, betrayal and sadness.

Sadly, though the memories of 4ths of years past remain in vivid recall details, the meaning seems to have faded; not for me but for entirely too many of my fellow citizens. Without fail, there will be people like Jesse Watters of FOX news, interviewing what I can only classify as moronic products of an education system which has degenerated into a politically correct, though historically and educationally impotent production line which is aimed at determining time spent at a given level of education rather than lessons learned at a given level of education.

The question you might well be asking yourself is, why am I talking politics and education instead of gender identity issues? That’s a fair and reasonable question, especially on the subject of the 4th of July. I must admit that I think that answer should be fairly obvious. The independence declared on this date two hundred-forty years ago was a declaration of belief in the right of self-determination. Nowhere is the right of God given self-determination more infringed upon than the right of people like me, to determine to live lives that are congruent with our emotional and mental makeup as opposed to a life that is congruent with society’s norms based on the combination of 2 chromosomes.

Those 2 chromosomes are necessary for one simple reason … procreation. That’s it. They are not a determining factor in political outlook, who you love, where you live and who you associate with … and at the time the founding fathers stepped up to the plate and signed, what in many cases was the equivalent of their own death warrants, no one even knew how our anatomies would be determined. Furthermore, I don’t think they even cared. They simply wanted the freedom to determine the course of their own lives and the course of the lives of generations to follow.

The next question that’s asked of me is why would I choose to align myself with a political opinion which, on the surface is the very antithesis of the decision I’ve made about how to live my life? Another good question. The answer is just as good.

I’m not aligning myself with personalities. I’m aligning myself with a set of principles. It’s personalities not principles which condemn my choices. The principles of self-determination and personal freedom don’t give a damn what’s under my skirt. The principles of self-determination and freedom dictate that I make a careful examination of who in the government, established as a result of the declaration of July 4th, 1776 is going to best defend my right to self-determination and freedom.

It’s been my experience that while a certain segment of our political spectrum relies on a few biblical verses to restrict my freedoms, the other end of that spectrum demands laws which purport to defending me, i.e. hate crimes bills which are totally unnecessary if existing laws would just be enforced. In general, with each and every law passed another of the freedoms envisioned by the founding fathers all those years ago is eroded just a little bit further. And with each of those laws passed under the guise of helping the less fortunate, the people who are willing to work to achieve the results alluded to in “the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”, another chunk of our freedoms is taken away.

For me … what I fear is that the same freedom eroding efforts of the people we elect to protect those freedoms; those efforts will eventually be turned against my community when our votes are no longer needed. Those same people who seem to not care what goes on in my bedroom want total control over everything that goes on in my life the minute I step out of my bedroom to, oh say to buy firecrackers, bottle rockets and M-80s. That is not what our founding fathers had in mind … at all.

What the 4th of July has come to represent for me is a time to re-commit to the principles which allow me the freedom to be … me.

And, In other news …

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And in other news … ? What other news? There really isn’t any other news today that doesn’t somehow relate to politics. It doesn’t seem to matter what you’re most interested in, it will somehow manage to find its way to a matter of politics. This presidential election year has become so contentious and so polarizing that everything has become an issue for the media to relate to politics. No matter what the issue is, it’s now a political issue. So far I’m amazed that the story of the three-year-old who fell into the gorilla habitat in a zoo, leading ultimately to the death of the gorilla, hasn’t been blamed on a politician or a political party. On the other hand, maybe it has and I just haven’t paid enough attention.

Politics even came up in the discussion I related in my last blog post with the author from Italy. I can’t even remember how it happened. I just know that she was appalled by the fact that I am a political conservative; a very politically conservative person. I have written on other occasions about why I am conservative but since I have attracted a new audience I’m going to explain it again … since it’s the only thing in the news and the only thing referenced in popular culture or social events these days.

To begin with, I am not necessarily a fan of Mr. Trump. He’s not conservative enough for my taste. To say that I’m conservative in LGBT circles can tend to attract a certain number of sneers and exclamations of disbelief. That’s okay because I really don’t much care if people disagree me, but I do care if they attempt to force their beliefs on me. It’s my experience that the practice of attempting to force beliefs on others, while certainly not limited to liberal progressives, is however far more common on that side of the political spectrum. And I’m asked … “How can you say that? Look at the North Carolina Bathroom Law.” Okay, let’s look at the law, but let’s look at what generated the law in the first place.

President Obama, by imperial decree decided that anyone and everyone should be able to use whatever bathroom they chose depending on their present and/or momentary gender identity. I’ve not had time, nor do I intend to take the time, to research his reasons for choosing this place in time to issue such a blatantly political decree. I really don’t care what his reason was, because whatever it was, it was just plain wrong. It is one of the big reasons that I think the “T” in LGB”T” and whatever other letters are tacked on, the “T” should extricate itself from that alphabet soup of identity.

LG and B are a matter of who you are attracted to sexually. T is not a matter of who you sleep with but rather a matter of who you sleep as.

In the last episode of “I am Cait” the collection of “tranies” that have attached their collective wagons to Caitlyn Jenner were all over her because she is, at least up to present, a Republican. Good for her. What the people around her don’t get is this. They have isolated themselves to the whole of our society. They take the minority of conservatism, and I do mean minority in every sense of the word, who are the hyper-conservative Christians and make them out to be, not just the majority of the conservative moment, but the totality of it. And it’s not. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

It’s been my experience that I can sit down and have a reasoned and intelligent conversation about my lifestyle with any conservative. They will listen and if they don’t understand, or even if they think I’m wrong in the way I’m making my way in the world, they will calmly and without rancor tell me how they feel and why. They may tell you that they know you are wrong and may well go to hell but … they will never, not in a million years tell you, with vitriolic rancor, that they hate you or attempt to physically harm you.

Frankly, with few exceptions, I’ve never been able to conduct a reasonable conversation about politics with a liberal progressive. I know that on occasion there have been some rude inappropriate actions on the part of some conservatives but I have never known of or seen a group of conservatives storm a gathering of liberal progressives in an attempt to silence their voices. Why is that? It’s a matter of respect for others and rights and freedom of others to express their opinions. Liberal progressives have no, absolutely no respect for the rights of anyone disagreeing with them.

President Obama’s decree has done more to harm the cause of equality and acceptance for the trans community than any recent action by any person in public life. If anything it has set our cause back years, even decades. While there are some activists in our community who make their mark by attempting to force acceptance on society, the vast majority of us in the trans/gender identity world, simply want to live our lives as who we are just like “normal” people want to live their lives without reference to what their chromosomal makeup is.

I said in the beginning of this piece that I didn’t care what Obama’s reason for issuing this decree was, but I will tell you what I think it was. I’ve seen nothing in his words or actions that gives me reason to believe that he isn’t the kind of man that cares one whit about anyone different from him. He knew that what he was doing would bring out the craziness on the extreme right; case in point North Carolina’s bathroom law; and that it would be picked up by the liberal press who would use it to smear all of us who fall into my mother’s description of Republicans: “Republicans believe that individuals are better suited to make the decisions that affect their own lives than bureaucrats and politicians.”

In closing … Liberal progressives, you don’t want people interfering with what goes on in your bedrooms … I don’t want you holding the door to my bathroom open for any confused/curious adolescent or pervert who wants to put on a bra and heels so they can take a walk on the wild side.