Preamble of the American Corporate

We the dictators of the Disunited States, in order to form a more perfect disunion, establish injustice, insure domestic unrest, provide for the general offense, promote common warfare, and deny the blessings of liberty to our subjects and their posterity, do ordain and establish this Unconstitution for the Disunited States of America.

Revolution resolution

The following is a slightly altered telling of an age old document. Do you recognize the document? Can you tell which parts were originally written about the King of England and which were altered to speak of our current administration? The resemblance is uncanny.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which has connected them with another... they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government.

All experience hath shown, that humankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them unto absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these United States, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present Administration is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world:

It has refused It’s Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

It has made Judges to be appointed for tenure under constraint of allegiance to Its Will alone.

It has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our people.

It has effected to create a Military independent of and superior to the civil power.

It has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws, giving It’s Assent of their Acts of pretended Legislation.

For protecting It’s agents, by executive orders, from punishment for any crimes which they should commit against the inhabitants of these states.

For cutting off our Trade with parts of the world.

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of a constitutional trial.

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses.

For usurping positions of power to which It was not duly elected.

For consenting to acts of unlawful warfare and tactics of torture.

For consenting to acts of domestic civilian espionage and betraying the trust of the people.

For purposely misguiding our nation through the use of fear and deception, and prevaricating when queried as the the purposes.

It is at this time transporting large Armies of Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

It has excited foreign insurrections towards us, and has caused to bring on the inhabitants of our peers whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

Phony election after phony election, laws destroyed despite public cry for approval, laws created to curtail our freedoms (which the government never gave us in the first place- the government was created merely to protect those freedoms), laws created to throw off-balance the carefully created system of checks and balances, lies, deceit, outright war, and general disregard for the people of all nations. It is for all these reasons, and to uphold a just belief voiced by the Fathers of the Constitution that we need to raise up and reclaim our government. It’s current form is no longer serving the purposes and needs of it’s people, of us. Will an election help? Maybe, maybe not. Will the election actually be honest and actually carry through? Maybe, maybe not. A corrupt system cannot be used rightly. It will always remain corrupt. It doesn’t matter who is put in the controls, until the system is righted through systemic changes it cannot function again as it was intended to. Revolution anyone?

I Say, "Can you really see?"

Old glory still flies on high.

But really, what does it mean anymore?

Despised abroad.

Mourned at home.

Old fools use it as a power tool.

Young fools are mesmerized into silence.

Its meaning has been cheapened.

An icon drained and ashen.

The reds and the blues have bled so much shit.

Its hard to tell the color of that flag.

Is it purple or almost brown?

If in resemblance of Mr. Grey,

Surely it would be threadbare in tatters.

The country it is views itself as whole,

Yet the rampant rotting and putridness belie its vile being.

A raised torch no longer casts a beacon,

Inbound cargo tossed overboard and wished away.

Walls are going up.

People are exported.

The suits control the money.

Money controls the suits.

The dream?

Or just a prosaic pipedream?

A yellowed paper that no longer yields its strength,

Corruption took that away.

Old men as authors suitable for an old set of documents.

Oh for a merciful death while some dignity still remains.

New life maybe can be breathed.

But not from the mouth of status quo.

Not from the throat of corporate sponsorship.

Certainly not out the lungs of the good-old-boys network.

Lies lies lies.

Oy that sun spotted rag still flutters,

Over the land of the [semi] free [thanks to the Patriot Act],

And the home of its grave.

We need a new icon.

A new dream.

By ballot and by action.

A grand jeté of sorts.

A good kick in the pants to board a better aircraft.

Common goals.

Real Glory flies on indefinitely.

Naomi Wolfe Quote

The raw awareness that you have the power to change the world is more important than any other resource- it is the hardest one to develop and share, and the most essential. Giving your endorsement to political representatives, social programs, or radical ideologies will be of little avail if the fundamental problem is that you don't know your own strength.
Self-determination begins and ends with your initiatives and actions, whether you live under a totalitarian regime or the canopy of the rainforest. It must be established on a daily basis, by acting back on the world that acts upon you- whether that means calling in sick on a sunny day, starting a neighborhood garden with your friends, or toppling a government. You cannot make a revolution that distributes power equally except by learning firsthand how to exercise and share power- and that exercising and sharing, on any scale, is itself the ongoing, never-concluded project of revolution.

Trans-Stratification

I was recently at a meeting to discuss how the needs of the transgender community in the state of Maine should be addressed over the upcoming years. While a nice big list of needs was created which covered everything from medical to safety to family needs, there was also a "dirty laundry" list. Well, it wasn't actually written out- just aired out, if you will.
Here's the issue: basically, one woman quite passionately expressed that she feels that someone identifying as a crossdresser should not have as much right to identify that way as someone who identified as transsexual and had been in transition for 13 years, such as the woman who was voicing this opinion. She felt that the transgender umbrella should only extend its welcoming protection to those who were "serious" about changing genders and not to those who "only do it in weekends in hotel rooms for sexual pleasure". (A view which misses the purpose of crossdressing.) 
So here's the question: is one persons right to express their gender however and whenever they please less than someone else's right to express their gender? 
It's funny, all this time I thought that any action that challenged the constrictions of gender was good for us all- transsexual and crossdresser alike.

A Tale of Gender: Part 2 Change

This second time is much harder. People don't accept me as easily as they did before. Some days I struggle just to even be recognized. I was a woman once before. Well, not a woman per se, more of a girl really. I was born that way, I think. Then, somewhere in childhood, I decided to participate in this great social experiment that would turn me into a young man. It turned out to be less glamorous than it was promised to be. The entire time was awkward and unpredictable, pressured and embarrassing. Sadly, it was far harder to quit the experiment than it had been to get into it. I wanted to give up once or twice but found myself too restricted and confined to do so. So, I slowly managed to get out. A little bit here and there; whatever I could find to help. But, as I said, this second time is much harder. People don't accept me as easily as they did before. Some days I struggle just to even be recognized. That would all be the result of the male hormones I got when I was younger. They changed my body. It doesn't work the same the other way around though. Even after getting it all switched around again- it all takes so much time. Some days are better than others. Some days I think that it would be easier to return to the experimental programming- to letting myself be turned into someone I'm not. I don't think that'll happen though. I'm back as the way I was meant to be. And this time I'm here to stay.

Adventures In This Gendered World

Is a community within the LGBT population possible or is it just a grand dream that could never really function? Many people hear the idea of a gay community and immediately think of the Castro in San Francisco or of New York City where streets are lined with rainbow flags and gay-run-and-focused bars and businesses. Of course there are also large LGBT populations in other cities as well, such as Boston, Provincetown, and Philadelphia. There are many very gay-friendly cities in Florida, Oregon, Washington, California, etc. Outside of these major metropolitan areas, though, the atmosphere changes and community presents itself differently. Or is it really that different?
Yesterday I attended a small gathering of LGBT folks from varying parts of my state. As people came into the little café we were at, I watched as they all grouped off. The gay men congregated in one corner, the lesbians claimed the couches, and a couple people who might have been bi kept walking back and forth between the two groups. Finally, the transgender individuals just milled about for a while before introducing themselves and chatting in an adjacent room. I think that all of these interactions had some very strong connotations to them, which I'll mention briefly before getting back to my original train of thought. Namely, the gay men were hidden away in their corner, the lesbians took over the lounge area [read as being aggressive], the bisexuals couldn't settle in one place, and the transfolk hesitated before gathering together separately from the lesbigay groups. Yeah, more than a few stereotypes were being played out there. And so much more could be said just about these few points.
Back on track, when I met a few of the transfolk the interactions that occurred there were interesting as well. First, I should clarify that although I'm referring to them as transfolk, the group I was talking with included only transwomen- that is, no one was presenting themselves as male; they were all male-to-female. As we all chatted one lady approached and "outed" me as being trans. After I confirmed it, she stated that she knew as much since "we transgender folk can usually spot another without much trouble." I agreed in the moment and the conversation moved on. That part of the conversation kept bothering me though and the more I thought about it later, the more it bothered me. But I knew why all along.
Under the transgender umbrella there are many ways that being trans can be played out. Underlining it all, though, is a huge pressure to "pass". This means that regardless of how someone fits into the transgender grouping, there is always the question being asked of how well they can look like a male or look like a female- how well they can "get away" with appearing a gender they weren't assigned at birth. This brings up a great number of assumptions, but we'll deal with them later.
So, as I kept thinking about the lady who expressed that someone who is trans can spot another transperson more easily than someone who is cis-gender identified (cis-gender meaning the individual identifies with the gender corresponding to how the doctor identified them at birth) I kept thinking about how true that statement is and how brutally that statement plays out. Coming back to the pressure to pass, Chris Beam gives a good overview in her book transparent where she mentions that one transperson in more likely to identify and critique another transperson than someone who isn't trans. This means that they will call another person out on not being able to pass well enough or, as Chris Beam related, they identify which transperson is too "brick" to pass correctly. These interactions often can become quite cruel and sometimes violent. This all reinforces why the transgender group at the gathering took their time before assembling. Perhaps each was busy sizing the other up. Perhaps each was busy assessing how well the others were able to pass. Perhaps this explains why its hard for a transgender community to really come together and feel like a community.
The pressure to "pass" severely undermines transgender diversity. First, if someone is able to pass well enough that they get by in all aspects of their life, are they still transgender or have they then become simply male or simply female? Second, the concept of passing marginalizes the entire portion of the trans population that isn't about passing. The concept of passing is all about staying away from the ambiguous, away from the unknown. This automatically pits transsexuals, cross dressers, intersex individuals, and those who do drag (who often strive harder to pass) against those who identify as genderqueer, androgynous/pangender, neutroid, or otherwise gender variant (who are more interested in the ambiguity of what is between or outside of the male/female binary). 
As I was talking in the group at the café, one transwomen (who did an amazing job of passing) asked me where I was in my transition. (This implied that I must be transsexual and wasn't near the end point yet. Of course, I was not passing as male or female very well at the time. Granted, I also wasn't trying to.) I told her that my "transition" wasn't what she was thinking of- that I had no problem with the unknown territory of ambiguity. She looked at me blankly for a second and then told me about how she went through her transition as quickly as she could and then talked about how androgynous appearances make it difficult for everyone to gauge what level of protection or interaction they are going to have when they see you on the street. So even though we continued on to chat about transitioning and identifying gender, the assumption was that I was naive and would eventually be transitioning "for real"- that eventually everyone has to pass, one way or the other.
How can the transgender population come together as a community and provide support for each other if there are such deep divides within it? For that matter, how can the entire LGBT population ever come together as a community if the lesbians are busy defending their couches, the gay men are stuck in their corners, the bisexuals are left wandering and the transfolk are in another room altogether? To make this even more overwhelming, what about those who don't fit into the categories of LGB or T but also don't fit into the "straight" group either?