Life in the Promised Land
by Joshua Legg

LIFE IN THE PROMISED LAND IS BACK!

After much time away, I am back online. Please visit joshualegg.com for lots of new stuff, and the return of Life in the Promised Land! Hope to see you there.

posted by Joshua @ 10:07 PM

LGBT REMEMBERANCE DAY

Sullivan makes a great proposition: he suggests that we mark 19 July as a day to remember the oppression that LGBT persons face the world-over. This week's execution of two gay teens in Tehran is just the latest indication of how much hate our tribe faces on this planet.

I hope the global LGBTQ community will take up Sully's suggestion. We can't ever forget. And, we cannot stop the fight for justice and equality...we cannot stop the fight for our right to simply exist. We're here, we're part of this world, and we are not going away. Ever.

posted by Joshua @ 9:07 PM

SCHOOL'S OUT

SO, OK. School's not really out. The regaular acaedmic year is over and that means I've had time for a little bit of life this last few weeks, and am catching up on work (both on campus and at home). I actually got things in my home office straightened up and did about 2.5 hours of filing today--I can see the floor, and may sort of be able to find some shit now.

I'm spending the summer session actually taking (advanced poetry) in Harvard's creative writing program. Staff members at the school can get a master's almost for free, so I'm thinking about doing the program. It's only an ALM, not an MFA, but it's a great faculty (an ALM is like an MA).

Have also been logging in a lot of dance-related freelance writing this year...just put two more to bed and have three more to start working on now. So, between that and the time I'm supposed to be writing for the poetry class, I am finally starting to spend the kind of time writing that I've always wanted to spend...although it's certainly not full-time yet.

So, this seems like a good time to dust off the blog for a bit, and maybe reconnect with my old chums online. Missed y'all.

posted by Joshua @ 8:21 PM

PROTECTING FAMILIES

Here's the ad that I designed speaking out against the anti-marriage/anti-family constitutional amendment here in Massachusetts. The amendment was supposed to get a vote earlier this month, but was pushed back till November. The ad ran in 3 sizable publications, including the back page of the Metro, one of the largest dailies in Boston. It was great to see people looking at the ad on the T!

posted by Joshua @ 7:59 PM

ON MY iPOD

Fuck yes I spin the Chicks. Turns out, they were right. I'll take my ass-kickin', All-American, patriotic music from this powerhouse group everyday. Nuff said.

posted by Joshua @ 7:37 PM

POLLING HAPPINESS

I'm really becoming fond of Mike Mennonno's column in the Boston Metro. Check out his piece today on the Pew Research Center Social Trends Report, "Are we Happy Yet?" Loved his reaction. Read it here.

Also, check out Mike's other blog, T-Rage, which aims a well deserved arrow in the direction of Boston's T system.

posted by Joshua @ 1:53 PM

POLLS I WANT TO SEE - Death Penalty v. Euthanasia

This is a entry is about correlations--correlations for which I would love some empirical evidence...

As a result of the 9/11 trials, the nation is once again rehashing our stand on the death penalty. This is a recurring tennis match that seems in perpetual "volley for serve" mode. I'm noticing though an interesting relationship in conversations I've had recently on this topic: many supporters of the death penalty oppose euthanasia; and conversely, many supporters of assisted suicide/euthanasia oppose the death penalty.

So, on the one hand, you have folks who believe in killing as a form of punishment, but who also rail against the idea of assisted suicide as a way to end suffering. On the other hand you have the opposite where an act that is perceived to end suffering is fine, but one that punishing a heinous crime is some how antithetical to a just society.

As readers of this blog know, I love contradictions and dichotomies. I want to know more about these two groups of persons; and I want to know how members of two different groups can have reverse opinions about two conflicting ideas and still believe at a fundamental level that both of their perceptions are rooted in morality.

How does a moral code allow for taking the life of a criminal, and not for the compassionate ending of suffering? And, how is a compassionate killing any different at the moral level than killing someone who participated in the slaughter of thousands of human beings in a single event?

Then, there's the question of the death penalty and abortion...I'm not even going there today.

But, questions like these are necessary for a society such as our to ponder...and if we are to maintain our sense of morality, we must continually evaluate our beliefs.

And I want a poll on this one.

posted by Joshua @ 1:52 PM

LIFE IN THE PROMISED LAND -- And Defending It

This posting is part of what may evolve into an ongoing conversation with a reader. Check out the comments in the "America's Dishonor, II" below for Silverbear's full comments. But, I want to address two items:

Precisely what liberties are we taking for granted?...I admire your sentiments, Joshua, but it seems to me that you have bought into the mythology that we live in the promised land despite the fact that in nearly every way America dosen't measure up.

Americans, on the right and the left are equally responsible for much of the state of affairs in this nation, largely Silverbear, because we take our fundamental right to vote for granted. I'm not going to rehash the stats here, but we know how staggeringly few Americans have actually voted in the last two presidential elections. Had more Americans excercised that right in 2000, the Supreme Court wouldn't have had the opportunity to choose our president...had more Democrats gotten off their asses and gone to the polls in 2004, Bush would be gone (good Lord, that was a narrow margin!).

Is there a significant amount of un-American activity going on in the GOP? Sure. But, we know that. Question is, what are the Dems doing about it? And people wonder why I'm such a die-hard Independent.

All of the things that you bring up Silverbear, are clearly important to me personally. I've been fighting for queer rights since I was 15--now more than 1/2 of my life. Working in the marriage movement I've certainly seen the damage the denial of our rights does not only to us as individuals, but to society by extention. I've written at length about the harm anti-marriage laws do to families. Hell, I lost the man I loved because I couldn't marry him when he lost his visa and had to leave the States.

But, Silverbear, and this is a huge but: I am clinging to the same vision that people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Lanston Hughes, Thomas Jefferson, and Susan B. Anthony all shared for America.

This is not a black and white world we live in, my friend. It is all about the shades of grey. And, the title of this blog isn't about my belief in a myth. The title of this blog is about irony. It's about the irony of a nation that you described in your comments juxtaposed against the kind of nation where thousands of immigrants come to each year (many illegally) because while much may be wrong here, things are far worse in other countries. And, I think you know that, otherwise you would have already left the country.

While I rail against this government on an all-too-frequent basis, at least I can. And while MA is the only state in the Union where I and my brothers and sisters in my tribe can marry, at least we live in a country where this issue can be discussed. Imagine it in let's say Iran. Oh, that's right...in Iran what happened to Matthew Shepherd would have been a legal, state-sanctioned sentence for being queer.

Do I understand that the far right is trying to destroy democracy and finally enshrine theocracy? Of course. And, I do anything I can every single day to combat that. I don't give a shit if it seems like a loosing--or even lost--battle. I was born an American, and that's how I'll die one day. My citizenship is the one thing outside of myself and my Creator that has been a constant in my life since the moment I was born...even more than my family. Anyone on the right or left can try their damnedest to define for me what the limits of that citizenship are...they can even nibble away at the rights that come with that citizenship...but as long as I can continue to define my own expectations for that means in reality and how I behave as a result, then I too will continue to sing America.

This is a time of oppression, Silverbear. We can either sit and rail, or we can join the Movement. And, isn't that always the core of a test of faith? And what is citizenship,? It is above all, a matter of faith.

posted by Joshua @ 10:41 PM

AMERICA'S DISHONOR, II

In response to my posting on the Call To Duty Tour, a reader adds:

I'm not near a tour site...but you gotta admire these folks for trying. I used to live in Charlottesville (home of the U. of VA) and their choice of that conservative venue sure indicates that they aren't just trying to preach to the already-converted. So what makes folks like these (and others) want to fight this [the ban]?

I'm astigmatic in my left eye and got glasses in March my senior year of high school...I'd known since I was about five or six that I wanted to be a Naval fighter pilot. Glasses grounded me, and despite having my ducks in a row, I decided to forego the Naval Academy and a career as a service member. It was my honor instead, to serve my country instead as a White House staff member...but it even that didn't fulfill my deep, heartfelt desire to defend the liberties too many Americans take for granted.

At the point in high school when I realized I couldn't fly, frankly, I was only coming to a foggy notion that I was queer. But, my desire to serve this nation was more potent than my sexuality at that point, so even if I'd been aware it wouldn't have been enough to keep me from joining. Being permanently grounded was though. No way was I going into a career at a desk. That was the last thing I wanted, and ultimately why I've made as many choices as possible through school and building my career path that involve as little paper-pushing as possible.

Anyway...in my gut I understand the desire to eradicate this ban. Not only is it un-American, it is antithetic to the goals of the military in the first place as it clearly is leaving the US unprepared to defend itself.

Besides, would value does freedom hold if our citizens are bared from defending that freedom?

posted by Joshua @ 10:13 PM

DISPOSABLE CHILDREN REDUX

Those readers who've stuck around through my periodic postings this last year may remember this story I posted in June 2005. I was on the train platform at the JFK/UMass T stop and watched a mother try to kill her baby by throwing him in front of a train. Fortunately, several of us were able to prevent her from succeeding. The police arrived, took our statements, arrested the mother, and I haven't heard another since.

Well, the wheels of justice are nothing if not unbelievably fucking slow. I was just called to testify for the DA this past Thursday. Of course, the defendant failed to appear. So, I have to go back to court in May to testify...nearly a year after the original attack on this child.

So, while I was in court this Thursday, I provided a statement to the DA's office and the defense attorney...I've had some strange complements in my life, but the defense attorney actually said I'd make a good witness even though I was providing solid support for the DA's case.

Now, this is were things really go from bad to fucking enraging: the charge in this case is only reckless endangerment of a child, which only comes with a 2.5 year maximum sentence in a correctional facility.

The mother threatened to kill her child, and attempted to carry out her threat. How does attempted murder become reckless endangerment?

AND, to top it all off, the defense attorney told me that postpartum depression is the defense...at which point I said, "I watched a mother try to kill her baby. I don't buy that." The defense attorney dropped her head and couldn't look up at me. The look on the DA staffer's face was a priceless shit-eating grin. She was clearly glad I'd said my peace.

The only good news I got Thursday was that the little boy is in protective custody with DSS. Now, I'm not thrilled that this boy is now in the system. But, at least he's safe...but how incredibly sad that he has to be made safe from his own mother.

posted by Joshua @ 9:47 PM