We All Own This Economic Mess

Could everyone be at fault for the economic mélange that we are now facing? Whenever something negative happens, it’s human nature to point fingers and lay blame. Remember growing up, whenever something went missing around the house or something got broken, the first thing you did when Mom or Dad found out was find a way to lay blame and get out of a spanking or timeout. This is exactly the sort of thing that we see happening with the current crisis. Main Street is blaming banks and the mortgage houses for offering exotic or subprime loan packages to unsophisticated and unsuspecting consumers. Meanwhile, the bankers and mortgage brokers blame Wall Street for pumping up global investment portfolios with these same “toxic” securitized loans; and now, Wall Street is pointing the finger at Congress for putting pressure on the private sector to free up more credit to get more low- and moderate-income families into homeownership. At one point, the now, former head of H.U.D. was even laying the blame of over-valued housing stock and the ultimate bursting of the housing bubble on young, gay professionals! But, I digress.
Now, after a few days of wrangling and back-and-forthing, the $700-billion bailout bill was passed. I do not agree with the way the tremendously huge some of money is going to be managed. According to Katrina Vanden Heuvel of the Nation, Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, is going to hire Goldman Sachs’ Neel Kashkari to oversee certain aspects of the distribution and management of the bailout package. Obviously, it’s easy to see why this sort of “hiring practice” is going to be a problem, and it is easy to, once again, find people to blame. But, in some ways, we should all be held responsible for this economic meltdown.
The truth of the matter is that all Americans had reached a frenzied point of greed and over-extension. Those who were doing fine with their 1,500-sq. ft. home now wanted to upgrade to a 2,500 sq. ft. one. Those who were okay with their Acer laptop before, suddenly wanted an Apple. A friend of mine told me how his boss, when the value in his home sky-rocketed, took out a line of credit to purchase a Lexus for each member of his family! That’s how crazy things got.
Of course, there were those who were responsible and cautious, but many of the cautious stood by and watched their friends and families over-indulge.
At the end of the day, we are all to blame, and what needs to be done now is to help those who overindulged to climb out of this mess. I’m not sure the bailout is the answer, but we’re all going to pay for it, and so will our children and their children as well whichever way you look at it, so we might as well own it!

We Contribute, Too

I often find myself wondering about different groups and cultures that exist within the fabric of North American society, and just society in general. Also, I find myself wondering about their contributions. We know, for instance, of the undeniable contributions that African-Americans have made to humanity: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who used his life for the purpose of promoting peace and justice to Dr. Charles Drew who thought up the concept of the blood bank and devised a way to preserve blood through storing blood plasma, as opposed to whole blood. Then, I got to thinking about gay men and our contributions: from the German philosopher and activist, who is said to be the father of gay activism, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs to James Baldwin the prolific writer, poet AND civil-rights activist. Upon musing over it more deeply, I’ve come to the realization that gay men, particularly, Black, gay men contribute so much, not only to the general society but to our families. Recently, I attended a rally for Barrack Obama, and I started chatting with two of the young men who were manning the sign-in table. It turns out that they were both gay. Months before, I attended an event to raise money for a local charity, who were there committing their time and efforts? Women and, you guessed it, gay men. Few months back, I had a friend who had to care for his ailing father, after his straight brothers claimed that they had other family commitments and couldn’t take their father in. Even though, one of the straight brothers isn’t even married. Most of my gay friends are deeply involved at their churches, civic and community organizations and jobs. Where are the straight Black men? Why aren’t they stepping up the way their Black gay counter-parts are?

Yet and still, we continue to be derided for our, so-called, lack of moral fortitude and sexual restraint. We are constantly being falsely criticized for our selfishness and self-absorbed approach to life. But, we are the ones making the Black community look good right now. Through our love of self and love of our communities, we are the ones going back to school and getting our degrees, we are the ones with the good credit, who often have to bail out our straight counter parts in times of financial duress. We are the ones often times left caring for ailing parents and parent-less children. We are truly the ones leading responsible lives. Yes, truth be told, that the A.I.D.S epidemic might be testament to the opposite of what I’m proposing, but all groups within American society have succumbed to the growing epidemic of HIV/AIDS.

We as gay men, and - especially - as Black, gay men have a lot to be proud of. We should NEVER allow society to down-play who we truly are and what we mean to this world, both as individuals and as a group. Stand up, my Black, same-gender-loving brothers and be proud!

Just "Palin" Wrong!

We are already aware of the obvious reasons we should not support the McCain/Palin ticket. From McCain’s non- stance on how to help solve America’s growing energy and financial crises to Palin’s horrible anti-environment/wildlife track record… I mean, aerial hunting? Who does that in modern society? That’s just plain – or should I say “Palin” -- wrong.

But, what is little-known about this not-so-dynamic duo is Palin’s view on gay rights. According to Human Rights Campaign, Palin supported a 1998 Constitutional Amendment “… Barring marriage for same-sex couples…” That’s just “Palin” wrong
Oh, and there’s more. According to the Anchorage Daily News, she told reporters that she would not support healthcare benefits for domestic partners of Alaska state employees. Okay, so you don’t support gay marriage…Fine. However, why waste resources to overturn a state Supreme Court mandate that provides more healthcare coverage for people? Not only is that evil and inconsiderate, it’s wasteful, too.

Anyway, the crux of all this is her close ties to anti-gay and anti-choice groups such as the Family Research Council. She was even honored at the “Life of the Party” event at the boring 2008 Republican National Convention along side anti-gay advocate and Minnesota state Representative Michelle Bachman.

If there are members of the GLBT community, and particularly those of the community who are of color, who are supporting this team, I urge you to rethink your endorsement. As same-gender-loving people, we need to be moving forward, we need to be making progress, not slipping backward. Supporting the McCain/Palin ticket is just “Palin” wrong on so many levels!

Laziness or Illiteracy?: Black, Gay Culture & Conversations Online

“I’ve had it with BGC (Black Gay Chat Live)!” I yelled at my computer, after checking my mail where a ‘brutha’ left me a message with “Sup?” as its only content. What does “sup?” mean? Of course, I know that it is an abbreviation for “What’s up?” But knowing that doesn’t make it any less frustrating. And then, upon reading several profiles from the sordid mixture of gay, bi-sexual, and Down-low brothers, I really became frustrated at the myriad of spelling errors, bad grammar and quite offensive language that many of them used routinely. This phenomenon leaves me wondering if these brothers do this out of laziness or illiteracy. There should be cause for concern if the latter is true because on further investigation, I find out that many of these men have college degrees or are – at the very least – pursuing some form of tertiary education. If it is, in fact, the former, then what is the whole point of posting a profile with such base standards? Most gay, Black men will probably find their lovers and future husbands online. That is the reality and the zeitgeist of this age, so it is important to put our best “virtual” foot forward, isn’t it?
I expressed this concern to a few friends, and the reaction was mixed. A few of them are in my camp, agreeing with me completely that these men, like me and many other non-gay people, are members of a society whose primary and secondary education system did not always aptly prepare many of us to take on the intellectual complexities of life. My other friends delineated themselves with the, “who-gives-a-damn?” club. In other words, why should anyone take these profiles seriously? “It’s all a game anyway,” they say. Well, perhaps, they are right. Why should we take them seriously? However, the whole point of posting these profiles is to meet men for fun or a possible relationship, right? Therefore, if that is the case, then we should give a damn, granted that having fun or finding a relationship is important to us.
Now, I do understand that not everyone is a master typist, poet or wordsmith, but what about a profile, whose content is certainly going to have more permanency than an instant message? With a profile, each subscriber can take time to choose the right words, sentence structures and develop his particular voice or tone. Therefore, it seems to me that more time and effort should be expended and expected when creating one. Are my standards for online etiquette too high, perhaps? Am I being unrealistic in my expectations of my same-gender-loving brothers?