Robin Hood Was A Communist... or What I Learned from North Carolina and Obama.

Pick your favorite horrifying moment of (social) history. Imagine the people of that time period. Show them the the past, and they would be horrified by it. Show them the future, and they would be horrified by it. I bet this works with any point in time.

Take the Disney propaganda of WWII:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2I7rlmefA8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQqCeEG5hs0&skipcontrinter=1

The people who made these videos probably wouldn't be pleased with many aspects of our society today, and yet some of you probably consider them racist fucks. (I mean, did you see the generic Disney Asians? And that was acceptable then.) I have this image in my head, almost like a chart of the stars. I think of someone standing at any given point in time and judging all the other points, but what they see when they look out into "space" is all the other points in time staring back at them in judgement, too. Everything is a reflection of the time in which you live. The judgement of actions is also dependent on the time in which you live. We know that most things are relative. But there seems to be something about being in the present -- we're constantly blind to what we're doing in our own time. Or at least, we're incapable of judging it.

I've talked to some of you about this... When I saw, "The Help," I had this realization... A lot of people seeing it and talking about it saw it as a historic film, when in fact, nothing has changed since then but the group being discriminated against. Sure, each generation that has faced some sort of struggle for equality or human rights has conquered it. But the trouble is, we're unable to learn from the past (and the future) and realize that we are in the midst of doing something horrifying right now. We seen to be unaware (or at least surprised) that we're falling into our old pattern. Yesterday, a lot of people in North Carolina lost their rights, and it is painful to think we're at it again, repeating our old mistakes.

But what bothers me almost as much as this law is that it passed due to uninformed voting. Let me repeat this again: This law passed because a lot of the people who voted did not know precisely what they were voting for. From what I heard on the news, if the voters knew the law also restricted civil unions and domestic partnerships, it would not have passed.
I heard one sound bite that went something like: "The people in NC said they wanted extra protection." That sentence is sickening on its own. But try this on for size--you know how you can protect yourself? Read the entirety of what you're voting on--especially if the result is going to change the lives of the people you share this planet with.
And more than that, how in the fuck do we allow people to vote this way? I've said in recent years that I think there should be videos in each voting booth. You punch your choice, and there's a recording. It says, "You have chosen candidate A. Candidate A stands 'here' on the issues. Here's a little video by candidate A. You have chosen not to select candidate B. Here's a little bit about them. If you are still confident with your choice, press the green button to continue."
Hey, look at that. An end to uniformed voting and the needless stripping away of human rights.

I realize you all won't agree with me. I realize that the state of our country right now means that we're just about divided. 50/50... You know that scene in "Love Actually" where David (the Prime Minister) stands up to the President of the US and says that the countries are in a "bad relationship?" Well, if our country is truly divided, maybe we should treat it like a bad relationship and just separate... divide up the states like we're dividing up our things. If the reality is that we're a country of 50/50, instead of trying to force it, why not just become two happier countries?

Here's a funny thought. Our country, which we say was founded on people being equal... was actually founded by a guy who pushed another group out to make room for all this equality (equality takes up a lot of space, you know). Our founding history almost makes sense of our present day mess. From tarnished to tarnished--isn't that what they say? So let's say I wanted to secede and start a country where all people are equal and all of them are fed and stuff (I'll get to that more later). Where would I begin? Well, I suppose I could just go find the center of where all the bigots live, pretend they aren't there, and plant a flag right up their--
Anyway, all will be welcome in my new space--as long as you leave your bigots at home.

What we should do is take away the titles. We shouldn't use those Democrat and Republican words. After listening to a lot of NPR election coverage lately, it's become apparent that it's very important for opposing candidates to be completely different. The second there was common ground between a Republican candidate and Obama, the other Republican candidates were all over it. Wouldn't it make it easier to vote if candidates had the same stance on some issues and different stances on others? It just seems so contrived that they must disagree about almost everything. Wouldn't it be easier for us to come to a decision, to agree on a leader, if we could just look at a Presidential venn diagram?
The new leader of France made a comment about being able to see eye to eye with Obama on some issues, and I saw a near facebook explosion about Obama having too much in common with this Socialist. First of all, having something in common with someone does not make your entire belief system the same as theirs. And second of all, what about celebrating the fact that world leaders can connect with each other? Isn't this whole game about allies? Or dare I say peace? I heard a similarly disturbing sentiment about the US and China the other day. Someone suggested that the US is the country that's supposed to put its foot down, keep China (and everyone else for that matter) under control. Here we have this president who's trying to work with them on our relationship instead of bullying them. Maybe I'm a moron, but I thought that was a good thing.
(I'm not a moron.)

And you guys. You guys. If we're talking about what we have in common... what about our common instincts as humans? Do we have an instinct toward violence or toward compromise and problem solving? Toward selfishness and survival of the fittest or maybe toward caring for those less fortunate than ourselves? I'm not sure. But can we agree that we want everyone on Earth to have food? Can we start there? And what if we go as far as to say that just maybe, we should never again put any group in a position where they're discriminated against. And if I can go one step further, don't all humans believe we should find a way to make sure that everyone gets taken care of when they're sick?
So let's take away all the labels and just be humans together for a minute. If we can at least agree that we want to live in a county of equal rights and a place where everyone's fed, that should be the goal, and we shouldn't be so sticky about how it's done.
The thing is, people are really sticky about how its done, because, well, lots of people are afraid of Socialism. I don't claim to know much about Socialism or specifically Communism. But sometimes I hear myself talking about how I think we should just insist that everyone get fed. I mean, how can anyone alive think that it's ok for people to starve while others have so much? I admit, on one hand, if we think about it too much, how can we possibly enjoy an ice cream cone or a vacation without feeling guilty? We can't let that heaviness rule our lives. But at the same time, I really do believe that before we focus on fixing anything else in the world, it's reasonable to make sure our citizens aren't starving to death. And isn't the government the entity with the power to help us do that? That's my belief, and I think I've been told that's some form of Socialism, and some people may think I'm a crazy radical... But gosh... You know what? In that case, you know who was a total Commie? Fucking Robin Hood. That boy needs to trade in his green tights for some red ones.
Anyway, even people who are against certain political associations... don't they share those deep human beliefs with those like me who wouldn't mind if we leaned a little closer to the red light, just enough to make sure that everyone could eat, stay healthy, and be able to enjoy the same rights and freedoms as their fellow countrypeople? Or are there really humans that think some people deserve less than other people? If the former is true, and I hope it is, we should match our political actions to our human instinctual values more than our political ones. And then maybe, just maybe, we can unite.
See, here's the thing. While I honestly believe that if we can't unite, we may as well divide, my hope is of course that we can realize we all have those same basic values that will help care for everyone on this planet. Common ground is the key to everything because if we took away the titles and just looked at those instincts, I really truly believe that as humans we would be able to use the common ground to improve the world. If we didn't think we had to disagree with each other, maybe we would actually get some things done.


So... I spoke the general outline of this into my phone's video recorder on the way to the Marriott yesterday. I was really brooding about it when I got there. And then two magical things happened:
1) While talking about this in the dressing room, we all found comfort in the fact that the people of NC shot themselves in the foot a little, also taking away civil union and domestic partnership rights of straight people. So maybe they can learn their lesson a bit here?
2) Maybe I'll dedicate more writing to this part later... But most importantly, and historically, Obama swooped in to make yesterday a bold and happy day as well. My dear President stepped up to endorse equal rights and make me adore him even more than I already do. I'm still angry and upset about the state of things. I still want them to change. But there is a brave man leading our country who also wants things to be different. And that makes this day in history a little bit better.