fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station
In a move that surprised most, myself included, not only did the US Supreme Court uphold the Affordable Healthcare Act, aka Obamacare, pretty much intact, but it was Chief Justice John Roberts who provided the swing vote. The sticking part of the AHA was the individual mandate, the part of the law which requires everyone…
Gabriel lived in a makeshift. Makeshifts were housing units made out of old, abandoned buildings, factories, shopping malls, car dealerships, whatever happened to be available. His makeshift unit sat in the back of an old car factory. It was four times the size of Lillian’s old apartment, and had high ceilings and a balcony/loft where…
In conjunction with an exhibit on the life and music of Billy Strayhorn at the San Francisco Main Library, in May of 2009, there was a concert held one Saturday afternoon. The performance featured The Junius Courtney Big Band and singer Denise Perrier. They alternated between music and short stage vignettes that dramatized various milestones in…
In one of my Civil Rights History classes way back when, the professor explained why the NAACP very specifically took up the case of Rosa Parks as a means of challenging the Jim Crow era bus segregation laws. She had been a secretary for the organization for a number of years and had an unimpeachable…
That last insult was the last straw. “How dare you!” she yelled. Her hand smacked him upside his head multiple times as her mouth frothed on variations of the same insult. Little bastard! Dirty bastard! Stupid bastard! Blasphemous bastard! Ángel started crying. Lillian restrained her mother’s hand, if not her mouth, until she finally shouted…
Lillian had to go shopping. She left Ángel with her mother, a harmless enough move, so she thought. Her mother would watch her favorite TV shows, too engrossed in them to fuss about this or that. Ángel would read. Thing was, though, that Lillian’s mother had an old school way of looking at baby-sitting. The…
(For Ray Bradbury) By the early 22nd century, guns were ubiquitous. Folks started getting trained on how to use them in kindergarten on account of all the drive-by shootings that took place. As a means of defense, a gun was alright. But it rarely worked as a means of securing justice. Perpetrators tended to get…
As predicted, and feared, foes of marriage equality in the great state of Washington have filed more than enough signatures to put the issue on the November ballot. The Washington secretary of state office recommends those seeking to put an initiative on the ballot collect at least 150,000 signatures. The anti-marriage equality folks gathered over…
A friend in college hipped me to the Syracuse Cultural Workers’ Carry It On Peace Calendar. I’ve purchased them ever since. It features photos, art, and notable anniversaries from social movements both contemporary and historical. For June, they always do a nice spread for Gay Pride month. This year they are featuring the story of…
