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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2001)
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They were/are To the E ditor : ell, I must say I pondered back and forth nearly omnipresent in our kids’ lives; the actual as to whether it was worth the effort to recruitment was/is just the end result of that respond to such misguided and ridiculous banter insidious grooming process. from Paul Gregory about my Rose Festival com There is no God-given right for the military, mentary [“Every Rose Has Its Thom,” June 15]. despite having limitless resources, to “buddy up” What amuses me most is that in his first year to children from grade school on just because he stayed throughout the event but never once there is federal money in schools. Should Head approached me and asked whether I knew any Start be forced to allow in recruiters? of the folks I was commentating about. Instead, No student interested in the military has dif he made assumptions. ficulty finding recruiters’ offices. Our greed- and By the way, your accusations about comments death-driven culture is suffused with military I supposedly made about larger folks is complete propaganda from early childhood on. ly wrong. You must not have taken a good look I’m unimpressed by the argument that poor at me, because I am not a skinny queen! students and students of color might not have Paul obviously doesn’t realize most of the other options. They do. To the extent that they drag queens in Portland, just like me, are the do not or think they do not, shame on us: par same ones who are out in the public doing most ents, citizens and public schools. of the work no one else seems to want to do. Derry Jackson said at the May 21 Portland Stonewall for me and them is more than just a Public Schools board meeting that, although he fairy tale but something all of us within the trans reluctantly supported the “clarification” com community—and the entire queer community, promise (with which I disagree but applaud the for that matter—continue to live daily. board for reaching), it meant that needed oppor I am truly sorry you could not find some joy tunities still would not reach some students. But in any of the experience with the Rose Festival those heterosexual students of whom he spoke party this year with the rest of us who obviously still can go to the nearest recruiter if they think had a good time. I believe it is an awesome it is their best post-high school opportunity. opportunity for all of the titleholders in our He never mentioned students who cannot community to receive the visibility and recogni access that so-called opportunity—i.e., the ones tion they deserve. It is also an opportunity for all who are gay and lesbian, including African of us to continue to show the straight communi Americans. When will those professing such con ty, who are so dismissive to throw us under the cern around this issue for those who are U.S. rug, that we are an equal partner in what is sup minorities by skin color gain insight and show pose to be a community parade. brother/sisterhood with those who are minorities I will not be going anywhere, and I intend to by another fact of their birth, their sexual orien continue to commentate and be there until our tation? African Americans have the most horri community has an opportunity to proudly take ble history of U.S. oppression, but that’s no justi its place within the Rose Festival Grand Floral fication for not standing in solidarity whenever Parade and all community events, receiving another group is being oppressed and when some equal treatment. It has taken me more than 10 of their own ethnicity are being doubly oppressed. years to get recognized for speaking, and I gladly Thanks, Marc Abrams and all board mem will take 10 more to ensure we have our rightful bers supporting the recruitment ban who were place within our Portland parade. trying to keep a portion of the limits set to mili They allow us to build their floats and make tary presence. Unfortunately, your “clarification” their costumes, but they don’t actively bring us strengthened the ability to groom youth for to the participating table in what should be an unquestioned acceptance of service in an unjust, ill-used military. But you recognized six years ago inclusive citywide celebration. I will continue to support the Rose Festival Association, believing and now that ignorance breeds hate, that hate you go a lot further making friends. breeds violence and that every time we stand up I could use your help in the future and would for one target of hate we inch humanity forward suggest a different approach with some of us who into finding alternatives to community and insti are doing more than our fair share of communi tutional violence on small and grand scales. ty work. Funny how some are so quick to be crit ical about the smallest of things but often are C laudia K ing not the ones to pitch in a dollar, help with our Portland fond-raisers and organize these events. Paul, maybe you should have dinner with me and try to get to know me. You might find we actually could be friends or, worse yet, have something in common! To the E ditor : read Marty Davis’ commentary in the June 1 issue and am compelled to respond (“Lord, M isha R ockafeller Portland Help Me Be the Person My Dog Thinks I Am”). First, 1 must state that your remarks about Peanut were not only very funny but were so descriptive that every reader truly will know her well. My con gratulations on your loving relationship. To the E ditor : 11 7 hen the United States decided, in my son’s Second, your right to reject our advertising is V V 19th year, to pulverize Iraq, 1 made a protest certainly yours, and I respect your decision as sign stating, “1’11 die before my son is sacrificed to being completely yours to make. the U.S. War Machine!" 1 joined Northwest Mili I do have an invitation for you—come visit tary and Draft Counseling, which was among those us. Look behind the scenes and make your own principally involved in getting recruiters out of determination about greyhound welfare here at schools for anti-military reasons and because that Multnomah Greyhound Park. There is no “Fast institution discriminates against nonheterosexuals. Track to Death,” as Stanley Jones-Umberger Then and now, grade schoolers receive mili wrote [“Lose Track,” June 1). tary grooming with trips to the air base and sol Greyhounds are tracked from conception through adoption. They are well-housed, well- dier presence on their playground; middle school fed, well-treated physically and emotionally, and ers had camouflage book jackets with soldiers placed into loving homes when their racing aiming tank weapons (later used to bury alive Iraq’s forced conscripts) and exhorting kids to be and/or breeding careers are over. 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