Boycott Christmas

Our representatives in the US government are showing in the most glaring way their ineptitude and hubris more and more every day. What they are clearly demonstrating is that they lack the ability to converse and negotiate - the basic skills of politics. These are supposed to be the jobs and basic duties of our representatives - not puffery, showmanship, and the iron-clad tenacity to supposed 'ideals' that primarily support corporate interests. And I'm not talking about one political party here. There's plenty of blame to go around.

Since our representatives seem intent on only representing the corporate and special interests that finance their campaigns, I say that we bypass the middleman and go directly to the source. If corporate interests control the membership of congress, then the pressure needs to be applied to corporate interests. Fortunately, unlike congressional ideologues who hold steadfast to their polar opposite views, corporations are inherently apolitical. They only worship the bottom line.

In that spirit, I propose that we deprive them of that bottom line. 

Boycott Christmas.

Yes, I said the unthinkable. Boycott Christmas - in an activist manner. We need to get together with the power of the internet and come up with a list of one or two focused demands - demands that must be met before we hand over our hard earned cash. If we are truly a market-driven capitalist society, then the true owner of the market - the consumer - must finally voice their objection. We make these companies possible. Without us, they are nothing. Recognize your power and use it.

Vote with your pocketbook - it will work far, far faster than the ballot box. Corporations live from fiscal quarter to fiscal quarter: an effective, targeted boycott could create real change within three to six months. Not the two years of the common election cycle, followed by years of inaction as the politicians gear up for their next election. Six months.
 
Do not think small. We need jobs. Demand that jobs be created, or you will refuse to shop at their store. When they whine about not having money to do so, tell them to sell the corporate jets and fly coach like the rest of us. Cut the executive salaries by 50%. End the irresponsible perquisites that are commonplace among the corporate elite. Some companies, notably FedEx, did just that at the height of the financial crisis in 2008/2009, avoiding layoffs. This is an example of socially-responsible capitalism: unemployed workers can't buy your product or use your service. This proves that it can be done - it is simply a choice of corporate greed that does not make it so.

Demand that corporations stop working their employees to death and hire enough people to reasonably perform the required job.  Demand the end to the out-sourcing of American jobs, for the sole purpose of shirking US regulations and increasing profits. Demand responsible capitalism. Create your own list of demands - but make it a short list of just a few items. This must be a focused demand, and coordinated.

You don't accept shoddy merchandise. Don't accept shoddy hiring practices, or shoddy treatment of your neighbors or your community. We need a return of the socially-responsible corporations of old, and the only way to do this is quit rewarding business that work contrary to our communities. Business cannot exist without you.  Forget government regulation - think spending regulation.

Yes, they will argue back that this will only hurt employees, and only hurt the consumer. They will buy TV time and broadcast on the networks that they own about the "grave injustice" being foisted upon them. When they send their corporate-paid congressmen/women to say that boycotting will only hurt working people and the economy, respond loud and clear with "BULLSHIT."  Act like a congressman and ignore everthing they say. Other companies, as stated earlier, made in-house corporate cuts in order to serve a purpose larger than the bottom line. We regularly demand that waste, inefficiency, and fat-cat salaries be eliminated in public-sector jobs. It's about time that corporate America got the same message.

Business will do whatever is necessary in order to survive. They will find the money, believe me. And if they don't, they deserve to go out of business. Somebody else will rush to pick up their customers and pay attention when we talk. Businesses insensitive to the needs of the customer, community, and nation as a whole deserve to die.

We the consumers are the real boss of these corporations. The customer is always right, correct? It is time that the customer began to assert their corporate rights. We pay their salaries with our hard-earned money. Corporations that continue to ignore our demands will see their stock prices drop, as their overall sales plummet. Corporations that do not meet our demands will see a drop in their fiscal quarterly earnings. Their board of directors and shareholders will demand that any drop in dividends and stock value cease immediately, by any means necessary. Only a few examples will have to be made - the others will see the handwriting on the wall and react quickly to consumer activism or become extinct.

Pick a company that is big, has a nationwide impact, and ripples into many ancilliary and subsidiary businesses, and is guilty of crimes against the American worker and the rape of the American economy. Tell that corporation you will refuse to shop at their store or buy their products until your demands are visibly met. Fill their email inboxes, and let the managers of stores know why you are not shopping there, or not buying a particular product. Make your voice known, and your pocketbook seen. Require action, not words. And hold true to the boycott. The stockholders will force the change to protect their interests. And don't shop at that store until they have actually met your demands, with action. Don't accept promises - corporations have already proven they will say anything in order to protect the profit margin.  Demand results.

Be loud. Be proud. And let your voice, position and intent  be known in forums, feedback posts, social networks and any other place you can post an opinion. The internet is a great equalizer. Use  it. Post on blogs. Post on social networks. Make this happen.  If enough people are involved, the mere threat may be all that it takes

Do not simply go over to a competitor's store and purchase what you didn't purchase at corporation X. We will need to find something we can all live without for 3-6 months. We must show that we are serious about this, and have a take-no-prisioners attitude.

Will this be difficult? Probably. Our parents and grandparents had to give up certain luxuries during World War II to help support the war effort for 4 years. A war is being waged on America (and the rest of the world) by corporate interests who have no allegiance to the US flag whatsoever (or any other flag for that matter). We need to fight back. We must fight back if we are to retain any semblance of democracy in this country. If we are focused and coordinated, it will take a very short time to achieve our goals.

Boycott Christmas.

And when this works, let's apply the same pressure to our elected officials. An active electorate is a politician's worst nightmare. Let's be that nightmare.

Why should you care, and who/what am I?

 I am reminded of a famous article by the composer Milton Babbitt, entitled "Who cares if you listen?" While that piece has such a variety of loaded phrases, opinions and attitudes, the one I wish to evoke is this - "I write for myself, for the elucidation of myself - not you." In that spirit, perhaps this should be titled "Who cares if you read?"

For some, this is outright blasphemy. For some, this goes against the whole "me-me-me" direction of blogo-social-tweeting networks. Instant drivel, served up fresh every 10 minutes. Or less.

I treat this more as a journal. One that I leave open for fellow travelers to read. If you like it, fine. If you don't like it, fine. Feel free to give your opinions. Realize, however, that I already have an opinion and as a result may not require yours.

I am a trans woman in her mid fifties. I am in the early stages of transition and as a result, if I do not apply the requisite chemicals, compounds, cremes and dyes, and then dress in an overtly feminine fashion, I may appear as the other gender to the casual observer. However, once you get to know me even casually in the au natural form you will realize that the male appearance is the deception.

I was born with an intersex condition; however, I appeared sufficiently marked by XY chromosomes to make a determination of gender. It was hoped that I would "grow out of it"  - the "it" being a disfigurement of my genitalia. My parents never told me about this - I learned it in the hardest way possible at age 12, in a school locker room. Needless to say, I didn't "grow out of it."  I might go into the gory details later, or not. Suffice it to say that it was not a pleasant experience, and a hellish puberty. I did have a wonderful early childhood, but things got worse as I got older - way worse. I was never really a boy, but I developed what I thought was a "male" persona around age 14 for the sole purpose of survival.

Repression of an idea, an identity, of your soul, is not a healthy thing. It creates an uneasiness about you, which allows disease to occur (dis-ease literally meaning "unease"). My disease manifested as diabetes in my early twenties. My selection in genetic material was also poor - everybody in my family going  back 2 generations and forward 1 has some form of diabetes. However, due to a variety of circumstances, I was not diagnosed with diabetes until it had been going on for 10 years, unchecked (no money, no medical insurance - guess my stance on universal health care). As a result, I had developed complications, which I deal with every day.

The diagnosis of my diabetes was an epiphany. I went through the usual steps - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It took me almost 5 years to do that, and it triggered the release of all of those unhappy memories I had been storing up. I spent a decade and a half working backwards through the unhappiness, until I got back to the happy time in my life. And then I realized what the problem was.

I was not male. I never was male. Being male was a mask I put on at age 14 so that the torture would stop. And at age 40, the weight of that mask was beginning to kill me.

So my realization of my true gender has taken a long time. Too long to suit me, but despite a 140 IQ I can be a slow learner. However, the length of time that it took to get here means that I am very certain of my decisions and my choices.

Yes, I am a transsexual. Hated and reviled by some, because I represent the most feared thought that can pass through somebody's mind: there might be more than two types of gender.

"But it can't be! It's black or white! This or that! I have a book that says that (if I read it my way). Your science is bad. You're evil. Science is evil. Your doctors don't know what they are talking about. My parents told me there was just boy or girl. They didn't lie to me, they were experts. You're wrong. I know sex. I've been one sex all of my life. I don't feel that way, so you can't. Go to hell. I'll drive you there. In fact, I'll kill you so you can go there sooner. It's all a choice. You are choosing this. You are choosing to be a 5th class citizen, to be un/underemployed, to be discriminated against, to have no legal rights, to make finding true love nearly impossible. Yes, you are choosing that out of selfish greed or sin. It's not natural. You're crazy. I have another book that says so."

Yes, there are more than two types of gender. In fact, gender is a continuum - nobody is 100% male or female. 80% in any category is as "absolute" as it gets. And I'm only talking about one small portion of gender. There are a multitude of categories and factors that determine what we call "gender," and each one of those is a continuum too. Just think - with just 3 primary colors - red, green, blue, and the ability to raise the intensity on each from full darkness to full light in 256 steps, we can create 16,777,216 colors. How many genders are there when there are 7 sliders? Or 12? One consensus is that there are eight. That would amount to 18,446,744,073,709,600,000 possible variants in gender. More variants than there are people on the planet. We can accept that all people are different. Why not accept that all of those people's genders are different as well?
The outrage should be the crass categorization of this rainbow of gender into only two types. Nature does not create such limited categories - nature celebrates differences. Only mankind works so diligently to rid itself of differences, to bring all of existence down to two easily definable categories - man/woman, hetero/homo, black/white, Politics 1/Politics 2. It is comforting, and easy to grasp. But none of life is easy to grasp.

We make up artificial constructs to make this easier - but they are artificial constructs, and eventually they all get discarded. The world is no longer flat. The earth is no longer the center of the universe.  When these ideas became patently ridiculous (even though they too, were backed by books), they were discarded. New, frightening concepts of the limitless and infinite took their place. Scary stuff.

I, along with my intersexed and transsexual sisters and brothers, are living proof of the folly of these artificial constructs. I might agree that being intersexed/transsexual is a difficult concept to grasp. It's harder to live, believe me. I might find that your difficulty to accept me is understandable, and realize that you go ballistic merely trying to reconcile the concept: unfairly blaming me, the result of nature, for the problem you have in accepting a new way of thinking.

But how do you explain intersexed people? XY men with apparent vaginas? XX women with apparent penises?  Or those with XXY, XYY, X0 chromosomes and all points and variations in-between?  None of these people altered their bodies surgically (at least not until they got out of the womb). In no way can you say that it's all a result of "confusion" or "choice."  And if human beings are naturally created with genital variations that are out of sync with the chromosomes, what makes the brain exempt from the same variations? Or any other part of the body. 

For the faithful: didn't God make us too, as we are and not as you wish us to be? I didn't choose to be disfigured. I didn't choose to be the wrong gender. I did choose to act like a male - but that was an act of desperation to avoid being harmed. It wasn't natural. It was not how I was born, as God made me - He made me different than you. Acting male was a choice I made to avoid being killed by people.  And the others of my kind, the intersexed and transsexuals were born into the same predicament. Created that way by God, so that we could be tested. (I just guaranteed that I'll get feedback now!!)

If you are still reading, you are either accepting me, or furiously looking through a book so that you can discredit me, or try to cure me of my "confusion."

If you are willing to accept who I am, I am willing to accept you, as you are. The only condition is that you be sentient and capable of understanding semi-intelligent discourse. Read what I post - go on and waste, er, spend some time reading this. Or not.

For those that want to "save," "cure," or institutionalize me, or "protect their children" from me, I bid you peace. May you find the love and happiness that is missing from your lives, so that you may live without fear. But leave of your own accord. I do not wish your "miracles."

For those I have not completely alienated, welcome. The others have left by now. Let's create the secret handshake and password!!

Namaste to all.

my very firstest post

One of the wonderful things about technology is the ability to reproduce data repeatedly, without degradation -- at least without degradation of the data. The reader, however, is often debased and lured into reading copies of texts that are simultaneously posted on countless other sites, along with inane inclusions of really cute videos, links, songs, etc.

I don't plan on doing any of that. Note that the operative word here is plan. I hope this be a blog that offers a more personal insight, and not necessarily "broadcast friendly" type that you see on certain social networks. So much for my soapbox.