Motley Moose – Archive

Good morning, Moosekind. TGIF!

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

Tuesday night, the tea party wing of the Republican Party turned on one of their own. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) lost his primary to Dave Brat, a professor who teaches Ayn Randian economics to college students. Brat spent $122,000 to Cantor’s $5 million.  

Tweets …

@imillhiser: “The Tea Party’s been a tremendously positive input, I think… certainly for our party, you see the benefit.” -Eric Cantor, Nov. 10, 2010

@JuddLegum: Lesson GOP will take from Cantor’s loss: Kill immigration reform. Real lesson: No matter how much you pander to Tea Party, it’s never enough

@DanaHoule: This shows a resurgence of the Republican establ…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

@lizzwinstead: ERIC CANTOR IS TOO LIBERAL FOR THE REPUBLICANS IN VIRGINIA! #murica #YourPartyIsCurdled

The Republicans made a deal with the devil and released the hounds of hell … who are biting them in the hinder.

Good morning meese! Happy happy Wednesday!

The common Moose, Alces alces, unlike other members of the deer family, is a solitary animal that doesn’t form herds. Not so its rarer but nearest relative, Alces purplius, the Motley Moose. Though sometimes solitary, the Motley Moose herds in ever shifting groups at the local watering hole to exchange news and just pass the time.

As a black woman, I’m used to living with racial hatred against me and mine. It’s just one of those things that is part of the wallpaper of my life. When you are black it just “is”. It doesn’t take over my life, and I don’t worry about it daily. It’s just the the way my world is ordered-with an underlying malaise you start learning to live with as soon as you are old enough to know you are somehow “different”. Have lived through segregation and Jim Crow signs, seeing the Klan up close, and being spit on, beaten and jailed when fighting back. I’ve had partners and friends shot down by racist cops. I deal with racial microaggressions daily.

I also know that on the left that we have white allies against racism, and that’s important. But too often that alliance is to stop racism against blacks, or latinos or asians or native americans, and there is not enough discussion about how racism and white supremacy affects white people.  

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

Good morning Motley Meese! Hope your weekend was lovely. The above is another shot from my fabjabulous new camera.

Photo Credit: Victor Hugo Pinilla-Coxe (my friend)

I moved to Utah 27 years ago, end of May 1987.  I already knew a few LGBTQ people, mostly from college and campus ministry, and a couple in my small home town.  AIDS was still kind of new, and scary.  My church has long welcomed everyone, and I had friends: they were a lesbian couple with two adopted children.  

Equal marriage was a fantasy, barely on the radar.  Mostly, I wanted my friends to be safe, and able to have jobs & places to live.  I moved away, back, away again, and finally back 16.5 years ago.  

   

I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”.  

OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted

First Lady Michelle Obama was one of the speakers at the Memorial Service for Dr. Maya Angelou Saturday morning.

She spoke of how inspired she was by Dr. Angelou’s words. Her own words are inspirational as well.

I first came into her presence in 2008, when she spoke at a campaign rally here in North Carolina. At that point, she was in a wheelchair, hooked up to an oxygen tank to help her breathe. But let me tell you, she rolled up like she owned the place. (Laughter.) She took the stage, as she always did, like she’d been born there. And I was so completely awed and overwhelmed by her presence I could barely concentrate on what she was saying to me.

But while I don’t remember her exact words, I do remember exactly how she made me feel. (Applause.) She made me feel like I owned the place, too. She made me feel like I had been born on that stage right next to her. And I remember thinking to myself, “Maya Angelou knows who I am, and she’s rooting for me. So, now I’m good. I can do this. I can do this.” (Applause.)

And that’s really true for us all, because in so many ways, Maya Angelou knew us. She knew our hope, our pain, our ambition, our fear, our anger, our shame. And she assured us that despite it all — in fact, because of it all — we were good. And in doing so, she paved the way for me and Oprah and so many others just to be our good, old, black-woman selves. (Applause.)

She showed us that eventually, if we stayed true to who we are, then the world would embrace us. (Applause.) And she did this not just for black women, but for all women, for all human beings. She taught us all that it is okay to be your regular old self, whatever that is — your poor self, your broken self, your brilliant, bold, phenomenal self.

Full transcript below the fold along with a video of the entire service.