Honey

The primary elections are confusing me, because I want a woman for president more than anything. However, I’m beginning to fall for Barack Obama’s message, the smooth sound of his voice, and his innocence. Try to resist this very convincing music video.

207 people in Grand Central Station suddenly stop moving and freeze in place for five minutes. It’s simple and easy and yet also unbelievably moving. More art in public spaces!

I haven’t had much trouble in main-stream society as someone who has been generally classified as a “freak” in recent history. Although people certainly have staring problems, I don’t go looking for fights (usually) and the world has been kind to me, which isn’t necessarily true for others.

I generally have a non-confrontational nature, so it’s no surprise that I have never been physically or verbally attacked for my appearance. That doesn’t mean I’m not extra careful or especially afraid in certain situations. I’m lucky that my born sex is not male, which means that opportunities for confrontation are usually around women, who tend to be less aggressive.

The most precarious situation, of course, is the public restroom. When entering a particularly crowded restroom, I find myself puffing out my chest to give myself a more feminine presence at first glance. When a woman in a public restroom expresses shock at my presence, I have a reaction that is one part embarrassment and one part anger. I am angry because there are only two recognized genders in our society and her shock reminds me that this is slow to change and also I am angry because there is no bathroom for me to use that is comfortable and this is not fair. I am embarrassed because I feel bad for making an old lady upset.

A little while ago, Agent and I took a mini-vacation to the ocean. We drove the long way and stopped hungry in a little town on the way home. I went to use the restroom after ordering my dinner. Upon entering, I realized there was a man following me inside. I felt adrenaline shoot through my body as I turned around. I explained that this was the woman’s restroom and he realized his mistake and apologized profusely. I’m afraid this is the exact effect I have on unsuspecting women who have no reference for gender queer or gender-anything besides man and woman, male and female. After a run-in with me, though, hopefully she won’t freak out so bad the next time she sees a woman with short hair in the bathroom.

My co-worker, Barney, asked the question “What color is my collar?” in a post written over the weekend, concluding it was white. By association, then, my collar would also be white, since we hold similar positions in the same company. The thing is, I don’t like white collars. As Barney suggests, this lumps us in with lawyers. I would have previously felt this was very bad, but since one of my best friends is a lawyer, now I just feel it’s a little funny.

So I’m on a search to find out what I really am. This is what I know:

I am not a blue collar worker, because I do not earn an hourly wage. My work is not considered manual, even though it feels that way most of the time.

I am not a grey collar worker, because I am not post-retirement nor do I work in a service or an agribusiness industry.

I want very badly to say that I am a pink collar worker. Firstly, because pink is one of the best colors in the world, and secondly, because pink collar references a job that is traditionally female. Imagine if all these dudes were the minority as programmers!

Unfortunately, after all my research, I am faced with the fact that I am indeed a white collar worker, if only because I hold a job that is not blue collar. How boring. Interestingly, the white collar refers historically to the collar of a priest, as priests filled the roles of doctor, lawyer, and accountant in early society.

Note: This is a new kind of online protest that uses blogs to spread a petition globally. To participate, just add your blog by following the instructions in this blog post.

This is not an issue of partisan politics, this is an issue of basic human rights and democracy. Please help to prevent a human tragedy in Burma by adding your blog and asking others to do the same.

By passing this meme on through the blogosphere hopefully we can generate more awareness and avert a serious tragedy. As concerned world-citizens this something we bloggers can do to help.

How to participate:

1. Copy this entire post to your blog, including this special number: 1081081081234

2. After a few days, you can search Google for the number 1081081081234 to find all blogs that are participating in this protest and petition. Note: Google indexes blogs at different rates, so it could take longer for your blog to show up in the results.

3. If you know how to add tags to your blog posts, add the Technorati tag 1081081081234 to your post as well. This will make your post findable sooner in Technorati.

THE SITUATION IN BURMA AND WHY IT MATTERS TO ALL OF US

There is no press freedom in Burma and the government has started turning off the Internet and other means of communication, so it is difficult to get news out. Individuals on the ground have been sending their day-by-day reports to the BBC, and they are heartbreaking. I encourage you to read these accounts to see for yourself what is really going on in Burma. Please include this link in your own blog post.

The situation in Burma is increasingly dangerous. Hundreds of thousands of unarmed peaceful protesters, including monks and nuns, are risking their lives to march for democracy against an unpopular but well-armed military dictatorship that will stop at nothing to continue its repressive rule. While the generals in power and their families are literally dripping in gold and diamonds, the people of Burma are impoverished, deprived of basic human rights, cut off from the rest of the world, and increasingly under threat of violence.

This week the people of Burma have risen up collectively in the largest public demonstrations against the ruling Junta in decades. It’s an amazing show of bravery, decency, and democracy in action. But although these protests are peaceful, the military rulers are starting to crack down with violence. Already there have been at least several reported deaths, and hundreds of critical injuries from soldiers beating unarmed civilians to the point of death.

The actual fatalities and injuries are probably far worse, but the only news we have is coming from individuals who are sneaking reports past the authorities. Unfortunately it looks like a large-scale blood-bath may ensue — and the victims will be mostly women, children, the elderly and unarmed monks and nuns.

Contrary to what the Burmese, Chinese and Russian governments have stated, this is not merely a local internal political issue, it is an issue of global importance and it affects the global community. As concerned citizens, we cannot allow any government anywhere in the world to use its military to attack and kill peacefully demonstrating, unarmed citizens.

In this modern day and age violence against unarmed civilians is unacceptable and if it is allowed to happen, without serious consequences for the perpetrators, it creates a precedent for it to happen again somewhere else. If we want a more peaceful world, it is up to each of us to make a personal stand on these fundamental issues whenever they arise.

Please join me in calling on the Burmese government to negotiate peacefully with its citizens, and on China to intervene to prevent further violence. And please help to raise awareness of the developing situation in Burma so that hopefully we can avert a large-scale human disaster there.