Film: In the Name of the Father

WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
[post is unfinished]

Those of you who know me have probably become familiar with my tendency to personalize things I see/hear/read about/etc. I like to put myself in as many different shoes as I can to get a more complete story. It's actually part of my introverted personality - I take in and absorb information first, process it internally, and then evaluate or act.

So the first effect of having watched this film was to wonder how I would respond under pressure of torture myself. It's a very real question, since I definitely foresee myself potentially entering high-profile high-stakes human rights situations, where I definitely could become a political target. I realized I need to have a conversation with my friends and family members about this scenario too, since it's too easy to bring one's family


Links to the background of British/Irish conflict
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_%28Ireland%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organisations_known_as_the_Irish_Republican_Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildford_pub_bombings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildford_Four_and_Maguire_Seven

Articles [9]

John Boehner's push to redefine rape
Published: 1 Feb
Source: Salon
Tags: gender, women's rights, local, abortion, rape, legal definitions

This article made me absolutely sick to read. I don't think men have ANY business making laws about abortion, period, and I want to throw up when I think about how rape cases are so much about blaming the victim.

Articles [8]

Ugandan gay activist David Kato's funeral marred by angry scenes
Published: 28 Jan 2011
Source: The Guardian
Tags: Africa, Uganda, LGBT, government lies, murder, activism


Holocaust Survivor Creates Unique Jewish Museum in His Valley Home
Published: 30 Jan 2011
Source: Patch - North Hollywood
Tags: holocaust, reconciliation




http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/28/AR2011012807284.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/28/AR2011012807284.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/26/AR2010122601699.html

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2011/01/25/ctw.intv.elbaradei.cnn


http://www.fly.co.uk/news/pc-air-recruits-transgender-flight-attendants-1983480.html

http://lezgetreal.com/2011/01/gay-lesbian-transgender-asylum-seekers-in-usa-given-a-raw-deal/
http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/01/27/renaming_our_transgender_child_open2011/

Report: Henry David Thoreau - "On Civil Disobedience"

Henry David Thoreau

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/
http://www.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau/thoreau_faq.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0503e.asp
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/71/71.txt



was born July 1817, died 1862
American of French descent, Concord Mass.

studied at Harvard, declined his Master's degree diploma (which was meaningless)
traditional professions bored him
spent time as a ink maker

Interests were in natural history, ecology, personal experience, symbolic meaning,
proponent for simple living

civil disobedience - refused to pay poll taxes, opposed the Mexican-American war, beleived both would extend slavery
his aunt paid his taxes


Civil Disobedience
essay, published 1849
Argument for individual resistance to civil gov't and moral opposition to an unjust state gov't should not override conscience

Civil disobedience - resistance to civil government

gov't is a machine, when it produces injustice it must be stopped by people

became "Civil Disobedience" in 1866
power to state or individual? INDIVIDUAL




---------


Karl Marx
'Communist Manifesto'

born May 1818 German (Prussian)
studied in Berlin
influenced by Voltaire and Immanuel Kant
was lower middle class most of his life
died of bronchitis in 1883


Communist Manifesto
published in 1848


capitalism replaced feudalism; communism should replace capitalism
stateless, classless society
capitalism is a contradiction, creates tensions that lead to its collapse
ideas hit the Russian Bolsheviks in 1917

1843 "on the jewish question"
argued against a statement saying religion is basically what keeps the Jews unemancipated

spiritual and political freedom still bound by economic slavery


state or individual power - state





The section ends by outlining a set of short-term demands:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.[12]

Articles [7]

Egyptian government on last legs, says ElBaradei
Published: 28 Jan 2011
Source: The Guardian
Tags: Africa, Egypt, democracy, riots, censorship, diplomacy, violence, protests, elections


Can the U.S. get on the right side in Egypt?
Published: 28 Jan 2011
Source: Washington Post
Tags

Trans vs. HRC

This post doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the content of the class itself, but I do feel it's kind of relevent.

Recently a link to a page for the Human Rights Campaign appeared on the "recommended pages" section of my Facebook, indicating that over a sixth of my friends have "Liked" them. A few names were displayed, and my immediate response was to balk at the sight of a trans-person's name next to that little thumbs-up symbol.

Why is this?

Let me start off by saying I actually don't know much about the HRC. I have their increasingly ubiquitous bumper sticker (the dark blue square with the yellow equal sign [=] on it) on my laptop, but I don't like it being there, and it would seem my aversion to associating with the HRC has become almost "instinctive." Something unconscious bothers me about seeing a trans person (but not non-trans folks) associating positively with HRC. But whyyyy???

I don't know if it's something you can be expected to be aware of if you're not inside the trans community. Basically this is something which is pretty common and a sensibility which is beginning to be passed from older (by which I mean "been in the community longer") trans folk and new ones without much explanation. Young trannies like myself find in ourselves an unexplained anger with and distrust of HRC.

This blog post does a pretty good job, in my opinion, of explaining the history behind the strife between HRC and the broader transgender community. Their agendas have included blatant trans-exclusion (most notably in their backing of a version of ENDA in 2007 which specifically excluded addressing gender identity and trans issues, "to get it passed quicker") and individual members have exhibited unrepentant transphobia.

(Note: The blog author employs the term "Macchiavelian", a word I previously did not have a concept of until this past class!)

The truth is, I'm actually not very familiar with all this history, and the vast majority of it is "before my time" even though it all affects me today. What I'm saying is I don't necessarily carry that baggage; nevertheless, I have inherited a prejudice against HRC from my fellow transfolk.

It reminds me of the Jewish story about the roast [link] [link] and inevitably results in the fallacious argumentum ad antiquitatem. Trans people I believe are inherently called to question and problematize any ingrained concept, whether it be "you are a girl therefor you must love/wear pink" or "you are a transgender therefor you must hate the HRC."

Now, from my personal experience, the HRC has actually pissed me off concerning trans rights quite a few times, and the reason I don't like that their sticker is permanently affixed to my computer is because while I may not be totally against them, I don't want to be perceived as supporting them until I really do.

Nevertheless they are prominent and do a lot of good stuff, so I will leave their link up on this journal page for the time being.

Articles [6]

Super Bowl week gives Dallas chance to enforce panhandling ordinance; fines up to $500
Published: 26 Jan 2011
Source: Dallas News
Tags: Dallas, local, homeless

Sources: DPD to Crack Down on Panhandlers
Published : 25 Jan 2011
Sources: Fox [myFOXdfw.com]
Tags:

Ugandan Who Spoke Up for Gays Is Beaten to Death
Published: 27 Jan 2011
Source: The New York Times
Tags: LGBT, violence, Africa, Uganda, murder