I've been thinking about my life, and mortality. I mean what with being officially an "Old Guy" now'n all. What I've been, and will be. Yeah I've gone over this here, and elsewhere a few times, but I'm thinking about it again.
I used to have very strong faith. In fact to the degree of wanting to enter the priesthood. Fortunately the Church back then was profoundly racist..eh in a polite condescending way.
They didn't mind us at Mass too much, but being part of the Holy Corporation was out of the question. It's similar of their current on the ground attitude towards Queer Priests, and Queers in general.
Pope Francis can go bleep himself on this one they feel.
So I was spared going through all that trouble just to eventually walk away from all that sad noise.
So I just lived a life of a gleeful artist broadcast engineer more or less nice guy, and general trouble maker. Only now I see the last reel being installed.
Bleep it that's cool.
So what was the point? Who da hell knows. There's folks that make a nice living on film-flaming people about all that. Various gurus, and assorted "I gots the Answer" crooks.
Heck with all my double talk mojo I could easily do it too.
Aw, but that's too much trouble, and besides the real deal is far more interesting. Ya see gang them old religions wasn't that far off when they said that on death we'd all go up into the sky.
Turns out we 'actually do',...eventually.
If you have any level of scientific literacy or at least watched the old or current versions of "Cosmos" you know the deal. We that is our actual personal bodies are made up of atoms that were once in the Heart of Stars.
No bleep for real.
'And not once or twice, but endless times, and will again. Cool that. Heck of a pre, and afterlife.
We had a Bright, and Holy beginning, and will continue to have it. For we will be reborn time, after time after time into the infinity of the Multiverse.
That makes each of us from Virus to Ancient Oaks to Great Whales part of something Great Vast, and Wonderful.
Not bad that.
Try to keep this in mind when you're on the subway stuck between stations during a heatwave, and the air conditioner has crapped out. That or ya scrambling to pay the damned bills or dealing with a bleeped up relationship.
'Or perhaps like me trying to figure out what the bleeping hell them last 65 years was all about.
So class to sum up,...bleeping chill will you.
You're about as special as "Special" can get. Maybe there's a reason that we ended up calling them we think cool,..."STARS".
Because we 'are'. All of us are actually "STARS"
Not bad that.
Amen.
Stay Tuned.
Yes, I like that Sydney. We are each and every one of us part of something wonderful. We are part of this universe which always was and always will be. I like your thought, ‘We each one of us are part of the stars.’
ReplyDeleteSo here we are making our place for this short time when we can be conscious of whom we are then bye-bye.
And, them damn queer homophobe priests. They got some things right like Monetary Policy/Money Creation, i.e., The "Scholastics" early in the 1200's with Aristotle as a guiding light got it right. Even the present Pope gets money creation right. He gets it that money creation is in the wrong hands, the bankers. But on sex even while doing it with the Acolyte Altar Boy the Church get's it all wrong.
Back in the day when priests were able to be fairly open about sexually loving boys weren’t some of them actually active in NAMBLA and spoke at group meetings? I have for a long time imagined them as kind of our philosophers. At the very least they were well read and able to formulate thoughts. Of course now they have been silenced out of fear, exiled into hidden away places and some even murdered in and out of prison.
We will survive even this. We are made out of star dust huh? I like the thought dear Sydney.
Love,
Lukas
Yes some Clergy were supportive of Nambla, and Queer Rights generally in the latter part of that 1970's. As a Journalist, and Queer Activist I covered the "Gay" beat for Pacifica Radio. I even tried to be objective. I used to be critical of the pre-AIDS mass promiscuity among gay men. I feared there might be biological blow-back eventually. There tragically was. The random multiple sex encounters spread the virus, and turned it into a pandemic. As for Nambla it didn't actually start as a pedophile group. It was about teen boys, and gay men, and the relations they had through history always had. A group of men were rounded up in Boston, and charge with sexual activity for a large group of teens. On investigation this had been a gay tradition in the area for more than 100 years. Nambla was formed in response to this, and even had tentative support within the general Gay community. The very first meetings of this group were sheltered in various Churches even a Synagogue. The first official meeting even had member of Academia, and the medical profession that had been studying the tradition. Members of the arts at later meetings came, and discussed the cultural tradition in various cultures for inter-generation relations. For the first two years Nambla believe it or not was just another wing of the larger Queer movement. This radically changed due to gross mistakes made by that organization, and growing hostility among lesbians. Sadly we all know where this went.
ReplyDeleteWhat were nambla's biggest mistakes, do you think? I didn't come on the scene til the early 80's, so I missed those earliest developments. By then the die was pretty much already cast, I think.
ReplyDeleteI've begun to think that a big part of the problem is that there's no Left left in this country. By Reagan time the radicals either disappeared like Abbie Hoffman or turned into yuppie "progressives." If we'd maintained a vigorous culture of opposition to the neoliberal corporate zombie model, lots of causes and organizations would have survived that have been swept down the memory hole.
Z
It's possible that if the conservative reaction to the 1960's, and 70's were not as complete as it was there might have been some space for the more radical ideas in the culture to survive more or less intact.
ReplyDeleteAs I said the tradition of the love between men, and youths was at least within the realm of discussion. this without it being drowned out by feminist reactionaries or the book burners. That had not happened...yet.
It looked hopeful.
Gay men, and women were still comrades. that schism also was in the future. So there was actually room for dialogue on this, and a host of other important topics.
The right-wing tide however was unprecedented.
Historians now could with justification say the Reagan era was the true, and final last hurrah of the "Angry White Men". This before simple the math of the new demographics became clear a generation later.
These pissed off bigots are now a minority, and with every passing year they become more so. this is why the republican president race of 2015/16 is such a pathetic circus, Not so in 1980.
As for the death of Nambla.
For one Nambla never understood parenthood, and the nature of the parent to child continuum. "...Hi we've come over to butt fuck your kids you don't mind do ya?'
This is how that group was seen, and this is how they eventually presented themselves. This is why I left, and the early movement supporters, and indeed the founders mostly left.
They didn't love youngsters they wanted to fuck'em period.
They were most certainly not boy-lovers. True the law didn't care. We were all the same to them. However beyond that within the then Gay Community, and the progressive community in general the difference 'was' recognized. Hence the space for discussion.
Some window dressing about the ancient Greek, but fucking was really just it. that, and trading porn among them selves. No wonder they were ripe for police, and FBI infiltration.
At one point their treasurer was a police agent.
It was an open joke. The only people that came to meetings towards the end were a hand full of unbalanced people hoping that there would be little children there or police agents.
It became like that 1950's joke about Communist Party Meetings.
"The only persons there were FBI agents, and maybe 2 or 3 collage students thinking they could pick up girls."
The last I heard was several years back when these moral geniuses though it would be a swell idea to go to a third world country to fuck hungry street kids.
They all pooled their money for tickets to some dreary hell-hole where they could screw 9 year old kiddies for Hersey bars. well of course the treasurer was a cop. As soon as money passed hands the crime was committed, and a bunch of them went to make new friends in federal prison.
So ended Nambla.
The butt of late night comics "South Park" the "Simpsons", and a hate target for the whole country especially straight gays.
It's possible that if the conservative reaction to the 1960's, and 70's were not as complete as it was there might have been 'some' space for the more radical ideas in the culture to survive more or less intact.
ReplyDeleteAs I said the tradition of the love between men, and youths was at least at that time within the realm of discussion. This without it being drowned out by feminist reactionaries or the religious or far right. That had not happened...yet.
It looked hopeful.
Gay men, and women were still close comrades at least on the ground if not in the upper levels of the then Movement. That schism also was in the future. So there was actually room for dialogue on this, and a host of other important topics that have since become taboo verboten.
The right-wing tide however was unprecedented.
Historians now could with justification say the "Reagan Era" was the true, and final last hurrah of the "Angry White Men". This before simple the math of the new demographics became clear a generation later.
These resentful working, and middle class white men are now a minority, and with every passing year they become more so. In 2012 more non-white babies were born than whites. Their parents vote, and in 18 years so will their children. They changed the shape of government in the past two general elections.
The die is cast.
This is why the current Republican Presidential race of 2015 is such a pathetic circus. Not so in 1980.
ReplyDeleteAs for the death of Nambla.
For one Nambla never understood parenthood, and the nature of the parent to child continuum. "...Hi we've come over to butt fuck your kids you don't mind do ya?'
This is how that group was seen, and this is how they eventually presented themselves.
They refused to compromise in any way. They stuck to the plank of absolute over turn of 'all' age of consent laws. One Nambla representative interviewed by the gay rights program at the station at which I worked went so far as to say that children under 10 could give informed consent to anal sodomy with an adult.
The sound of jaws dropping could be heard at the Canadian border.
This is why I left as did pretty much all of their movement supporters. The founder generation has already mostly left.
They didn't love youngsters they wanted to fuck'em period.
They were most certainly not boy-lovers. True the law didn't care. We were all the same to them. However beyond that within the then Gay Community, and the progressive community in general the difference 'was' recognized. Hence the space for discussion.
Within that organization there was some window dressing about ancient Greeks, but sex was really just it. It had degenerated into what the cops assumed it always was,...a sex club for perverts.
Trading porn which I witnessed, and on occasion boys from whom I as a reporter heard first hand testimony many years later from. It was a sad, and tragic business. So far from the idealistic roots. As even the i as a Queer revolutionary anarchist Sex yes love yes, but not like this.
Not this.
No wonder they were ripe for police, and FBI infiltration.
At one point their treasurer was a police agent.
I was told by a colleague at the "Times' the only people that came to Nambla meetings towards the end were a hand full of unbalanced people hoping that there would be little children there,and police agents.
It became like that 1950's joke about Communist Party Meetings.
"The only persons there were FBI agents, and maybe 2 or 3 collage students thinking they could pick up girls."
The last I heard was several years back when these geniuses though it would be a swell idea to go to a third world country to fuck hungry street kids.
They all pooled their money for tickets to some dreary hell-hole where they could screw 9 year old kiddies for Hersey bars. Well of course their treasurer was a cop. As soon as money passed hands the crime was committed, and a bunch of them went on to make new friends in federal prison.
The butt of late night comics "South Park" the "Simpsons", and a hate target for the whole country especially straight gays.
So ended Nambla.