Curtsey to Scout at First Draft.
June 30, 2007
Interesting reading…
I’m currently reading “Whipping Girl”, A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, by Julia Serano.
Most of what she advocates I’ve already been actualizing in my life, but now there are political changes coming from what she is teaching me, and what New Orleans is teaching me. I am seeing an expansion within myself… a step larger than my decision to undo the curse that the doctors placed me under 50 years ago.
The end result is an Epiphany from Hades. And it ain’t done downloading into my Spirit. This sucker is coming in it’s own time, and all I can do is absorb each and every fragment of it. It’s something that I have searched for over the decades and tens of thousands of miles. In a way, I think I always realized that the answer could only be found here in New Orleans.
Maybe that’s one reason I didn’t die when the doctors said I was a gonner back in the ’90s. Maybe their strange looks at my charts actually represent something: I won’t die, not until I have found myself, and even then, I will be able to dance the Dance of Life for many years. That could only happen here in New Orleans. (Been in pain all day, but that will pass…)
I’m surrounded by wonderful folks with great hearts. I have a fantastic life-mate. (I have too many catz.) I live a life I couldn’t even considered 30 years ago. Even though the post-Flood world is shit here, it’s still better than any other place.
It all boils down to being here, in this Sacred place, under the protection of the Goddess and Her defenders. Here… a place that allows, nay… demands, that you be true to your soul. Here we dance the Dance of Life… we celebrate the fact of living and dying. Here we are whole.
I can’t really explain why I’m writing this, unless it’s just that the praises of this place must be noted, or maybe I just need to give thanks to the wonderful people of this city.
I raise my wine glass to New Orleans. You helped save me. Now it’s my turn.
May the Goddess always protect and nourish you. So mote it be.
June 28, 2007
Lost On the Spirit Trail?
Today was really strange… my soul was searching for something. I had the choice of two meetings, and I went for one and then walked away from it.
Came home and jumped into the bed. When I woke up Betts asked me what was going on, and I answered: I wanted something bigger and better. (That’s why I fought for with the founding of the GCIA.) Something is haunting me, and I CAN name it: A Socialist Society in New Orleans.
This is a crucial period of History. Jefferson called for this. (His premonition about the danger our city placed upon the nascent Republic in 1803 is finally coming to be.) We ARE….
Everybody has a choice, but the proof of the pudding comes out in the end. I’ve been a staunch defender of the Constitution and the Founders for 3+ decades, but I did have an Epiphany since the Flood. I have become a Social Democratic type of creature. In fact, I’m no longer part of the old two-party system…. I am of the New Orleans Party. It’s like 1927 kids… the world is changing.
This where being a Transsexual comes in: we must live within our “realities”. The culture of NOLA allows latitude for so many… we all can live in our own skins, so to speak. HERE, one can be real. (Can you see the power in that?) Alright… consider the political aspect of that position.
Can you see the effect this can have upon a racially and economically-based populace? Can you see where being yourself is the most powerful thing one can do or be? That you are not a slave, but a determinant? To take control of your life and that of your prodginy?
To fucking stand forth for yourself… to state that you are Human, and yes… you freakin’ matter?
Then get on the wagon kids… we must create the New World. I’m stepping out, and I want you to shake your tushes with all of us. Oyster has written on this topic, just as many other NOLA Bloggers have done.
Maybe it takes someone from the Otherworld to make a change… (just blew out the secrecy thing from the Psyches being Trans, but screw it!. I AM!)
Welcome to the New World.
June 26, 2007
LGBT Film Festival
July 20-22, 2007
Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center- Tulane
THE FILMS-
Friday, July 20th-
7:30 pm – “Itty Bitty Titty Committee”
9:30 pm – “A Four Letter Word”
Saturday, July 21st-
3:00 pm – “Fat Girls”
5:00 pm – “The Godfather of Disco”
7:00 pm – “Puccini For Beginners”
9:00 pm – “Black and White/Boy Am I”
Sunday, July 22nd-
4:00 pm – “B.D. Women/The Female Closet”
6:00 pm – “The Gymnast”
8:00 pm – “Arie/The Bubble”
Sponsored by LGCCNO, the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of New Orleans. (I still don’t see the “T” in that title… drat!)
DecaFest 2007
The Second Annual DecaFest is August 29 through September 3.
You have been warned…Â
June 21, 2007
Why Are There Progressive Bloggers?
Digby received an award yesterday from Take Back America 2007 for her Blogging.
This is one of the many reasons I Blog, and her words on the topic sum it up well.
Curtsey to Sinfonian for transcribing her speech.
June 20, 2007
Campaign For Your Cause- City Park
Okay, I know that many of us NOLA Bloggers were voting for Children’s Hospital in the Burger King Campaign For Your Cause, but Children’s didn’t make the cut. After looking over the final choices, I decided that I’m casting my votes for the Friends of City Park. The park needs the $50,000 more than the other candidates and it is more vital for all of us NOLA folks.
Flood Risk Assessment Maps
We finally have the ACOE’s Flood Risk maps!
I’m glad we raised the house to 9+ feet… the map for our neighborhood shows an 8+ flood in a 1 in 500 chance event.
Whew!
June 18, 2007
ICF’s Fun on the Yellow Brick Road Home
The Gret Stet’s Legislative Auditor’s Office just released an audit of travel monies paid to ICF for travel expenses… why am I not fucking surprised at the damn results?
“The state has paid the private contractor running Louisiana’s Road Home program $770,000 more for travel expenses than its actual travel costs so far, according to a review of the expenses by the state Legislative Auditor’s Office.
The audit, released Monday, said the state has paid ICF International Inc. $770,449 more for travel than its estimated costs for the travel of ICF employees and Road Home subcontractors from October through March 31.”
And ICF’s answer?
“ICF officials said that over the life of the three-year contract their travel costs could be larger than the $19 million it will be paid for travel by the state. They said they developed the travel budget in compliance with federal travel reimbursement standards.
“Given the high level of uncertainty in what the actual travel cost would be for such a large and dynamic Program, and over a nearly three-year period, the fixed-price nature of the arrangement presented high financial risk to ICF,” the company said in a statement responding to the audit.”
Round up these carpetbagging Virgina hams and send their asses back to an orbit around the Beltway. Freakin’ ICF earned less than $50M per year prior to taking on the Road Home Program, they’ve done a lousy job doing it, and they’re carving out more profit based on “possible travel expenses”? Travel to where you freakin’ money pigs? Are you going to take separate flights to visit each of the exiles who aren’t home so they can get their grants? No mooks, you will never do that.
Is this how you were able to “reward” your executives with large bonuses when all you’ve done as an administrator is screw the Program up? When you have strung out so many for so long in getting their Block Grants given by Congress for those victims of the Federal Flood of our City? (Like the 11 months we’ve been waiting to fix our house under this Program?)
Where is the Humanity in these Virgina fucks? How can they sleep at night? (Oops… forgot: have 10 Scotch & Sodas, take the Penial Recovery drug, and drop a sleeping pill. This way you can do your old lady for all of 3 to 8 Minutes, and then just roll over and enjoy the sleep of the unfairly enriched Carpetbag crowd)
Oh to Hell with giving these Carpetbabbers travel fare back to Old Vir-”ginny”.
Let’s hang these mooks, fight for our Reparations, and commence with secession from a culture that breeds these kinds of demons.
Sinn Fein!