We lost Gloria Johnson on Sept. 22, she had been ill since breaking her pelvis in a fall in June, had been in and out of hospitals, nursing homes, convalescent hospitals since then. She was such an ardent feminist, an early fighter for AIDS patients rights. She and Charlie often ran for Democratic Party positions together. We always had her up for Christmas or Thanksgiving. She led an amazingly constructive, positive, productive life. Maureen announced Gloria's passing at the end of the Democratic Club's awards banquet on the 22nd, the whole crowd gasped. She and I rode in the Pride Parade of 2012 honoring Charlie posthumously.
And on Oct 8 we lost Patty Plaster, only in her 50's, vivacious, healthy, happy, the whole world going for her, but she tumbled down a flight of stairs and suffered fatal brain damage. Incredible. I will always remember her smile, she never had a cruel or bitter word for or about anyone. She could express negativity about things without getting cruel or bitter. But her most outstanding feature was her wonderful personality, just a loving person. So our friendship group has now lost Patty and Charlie. Gloria was of course a friend, but of a different circle, the political circle. Wow.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Losses
Quite a few losses over the past few years. Charlie, of course. Nancy M, Nancy S, Paul S, Skip K, and now GJ seems very imperiled. Seems like only yesterday we were all getting together for meetings or parties or leafleting or signing up voters at the county fair or the OB fair, or doing midnight door hangings, getting chased by dogs around unfamiliar neighborhoods.
It'll be 50 years this November since the assassination of Kennedy. 53 years since he was elected and Nancy & Nancy were young women then, eagerly walking precincts getting out the vote for him in 1960. I guess the Pt. Loma club still has some energy but amazingly enough it looks like the SDDC is foundering. The banquet has become an afternoon snack, I don't think the club has the clout it did when it was a king maker, when candidates thronged for endorsements. Maybe now, too, but not as much. No more mailer work parties, its on line now. More efficient of course but getting the membership together to physically do something for the cause, the stories, the socializing, the bonding, made a lot of difference, it kind of made the club. Now it isn't even named the SDDC any more, its SD Democrats for Equality. Fine. The idea was to bring in the younger voters. Has it? Seemingly not though I could be wrong.
In reading Charlie's journals I am struck by how active he was, and he wasn't the only one. I guess in a way the movement has achieved so many of its goals gay people might not see the necessity of being political now. As gay people we were continually under attack, held up as enemies of the state, of morality, of God, by Republican politicians, even some Democrats. Our rights were continually under attack, being eroded, being extinguished. As Charlie said it was a matter of survival to organize and fight back. And now that so many goals have been achieved I guess it just doesn't seem important to people any more. I wonder if they are right. I wonder if our position is secure or if it can all be swept away in some kind of Christian Republican Revival. For sure a Republican gov and or legislature could trip us up badly. But for now I guess people are just relaxing, enjoying the complacency.
I am old enough I realize I won't be here when the shit hits the fan. Not so much on gay rights as on say the country's economy, the building of barriers to class and economic mobility, the privatization & expensivization of higher education. The middle class has been cast into unmitigatable debt, the infrastructure, the whole system is being allowed to collapse just to cut taxes for the already super rich, the formula for national collapse. Too bad. We tried. Hard. Its too far gone now. Oh I suppose some radical congress & pres could just cancel all the student debt but thats not going to happen, congress is gerrymandered and the big money will forever control it. Thus, the collapse is inevitable. It is too bad. And I am not going to be around to see it, thankfully. Ultimately the responsibility is on the middle class for ever having voted against its own interests, against its own existence, by putting into office Nixon, Reagan, and the Bush boys. They should have known better. But Republican appeals to racism or to glamorous empty suits (Reagan) worked, it conned them. Oh well. Nothing lasts forever.
It'll be 50 years this November since the assassination of Kennedy. 53 years since he was elected and Nancy & Nancy were young women then, eagerly walking precincts getting out the vote for him in 1960. I guess the Pt. Loma club still has some energy but amazingly enough it looks like the SDDC is foundering. The banquet has become an afternoon snack, I don't think the club has the clout it did when it was a king maker, when candidates thronged for endorsements. Maybe now, too, but not as much. No more mailer work parties, its on line now. More efficient of course but getting the membership together to physically do something for the cause, the stories, the socializing, the bonding, made a lot of difference, it kind of made the club. Now it isn't even named the SDDC any more, its SD Democrats for Equality. Fine. The idea was to bring in the younger voters. Has it? Seemingly not though I could be wrong.
In reading Charlie's journals I am struck by how active he was, and he wasn't the only one. I guess in a way the movement has achieved so many of its goals gay people might not see the necessity of being political now. As gay people we were continually under attack, held up as enemies of the state, of morality, of God, by Republican politicians, even some Democrats. Our rights were continually under attack, being eroded, being extinguished. As Charlie said it was a matter of survival to organize and fight back. And now that so many goals have been achieved I guess it just doesn't seem important to people any more. I wonder if they are right. I wonder if our position is secure or if it can all be swept away in some kind of Christian Republican Revival. For sure a Republican gov and or legislature could trip us up badly. But for now I guess people are just relaxing, enjoying the complacency.
I am old enough I realize I won't be here when the shit hits the fan. Not so much on gay rights as on say the country's economy, the building of barriers to class and economic mobility, the privatization & expensivization of higher education. The middle class has been cast into unmitigatable debt, the infrastructure, the whole system is being allowed to collapse just to cut taxes for the already super rich, the formula for national collapse. Too bad. We tried. Hard. Its too far gone now. Oh I suppose some radical congress & pres could just cancel all the student debt but thats not going to happen, congress is gerrymandered and the big money will forever control it. Thus, the collapse is inevitable. It is too bad. And I am not going to be around to see it, thankfully. Ultimately the responsibility is on the middle class for ever having voted against its own interests, against its own existence, by putting into office Nixon, Reagan, and the Bush boys. They should have known better. But Republican appeals to racism or to glamorous empty suits (Reagan) worked, it conned them. Oh well. Nothing lasts forever.
Friday, August 30, 2013
From Charlie's Journal Sept. 1989
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)