The Wonderings and Wanderings of a Curious Mind

Schizophrenia, Homophobia, and Political Disagreement

kohenari:

Several days ago, I wrote about the viral video of Jane Svoboda, a mentally ill woman testifying against an anti-discrimination ordinance in Lincoln, Nebraska. I thought it was clear, the moment I saw the video, that the woman was mentally ill and not simply someone who was railing against homosexuality. And a lot of the bloggers who passed along the video focused on how crazy her screed seemed and how funny it was that she seemed so crazy.

In short, the video went viral because people thought it was funny, not because they were disturbed by the woman’s homophobia. Lots of people say homophobic things on video and those don’t go viral, but very few people say these sorts of things and in this manner. 

And so I quoted the woman’s brother, who commented on how this incident said a lot about our society’s understanding of mental illness.

Of course, a number of people wrote comments that pointed out their disagreements with my assessment of the situation and, in doing so, they highlighted a crucial misunderstanding about mental illness and about how we talk about politics.

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Food, Ethnicity and Cultural Identity

What I love about history is discovering subtle ways people resisted the imposition of imperial values, or somehow transform those values to reflect small pieces of their own culture. A great example of this can be found in religion.

Now a description on food and its relationship to ethnic identity from Jeffrey M. Pilcher, professor of history at the University of Minnesota discusses findings from his forthcoming book Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food (Oxford University Press).

The Spanish conquistadors looked down on Native foods and tried to bring European foods with them. One of the reasons for this was religion. Corn was associated with Native deities, and wheat was the grain used for the holy Eucharist. These foods also had social connotations. In the 19th century, Native food was considered lower class and European food was considered elite, but here’s the catch: there was recognition that these Native foods were Mexican. So the patriots, the Mexican nationals, wanted to claim that they were really Mexican. So mole poblano, which is a turkey in this chili pepper sauce—very spicy—was considered somewhere in between [upper and lower class]. It was not associated with the Natives who were still alive; it was associated with the glories of the Aztecs. People who were of European ancestry claimed, “We are the descendants not of these lower-class Natives all around us, but of the Aztec emperors.” It gave them a political legitimacy.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Where-Did-the-Taco-Come-From.html#ixzz1v8WUwe2J

Guantanamo Bay Turns 10

In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the US’s detention center in Cuba here’s some fast facts  (You can click on this link for the entire Al Jazeera (English) article and 25 minute video by presenter Anand Naidoo, and guests: Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor for Guantanamo; James Carafano from the Heritage Foundation; and Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer who represents several current Guantanamo detainees.)

• A total of 779 prisoners have been held in Guantanamo since January 11, 2002
• About 600 have been released without charges, many after being detained for years
• Six detainees have been convicted by military commission
• Only one has been prosecuted in a US civilian court
• 171 detainees remain at Guantanamo

The detention center is still controversial, with vocal proponents of keeping it open and shutting it down.

Love, Heartache, and Connecting with a Man I Never Got to Meet

Amantes

Somos como son los que se aman.
Al desnudarnos descubrimos dos monstruosos
desconocidos que se estrechan a tientas,
cicatrices con que el rencoroso deseo
señala a los que sin descanso se aman:
el tedio, la sospecha que invencible nos ata
en su red, como en la falta dos dioses adúlteros.
Enamorados como dos locos,
dos astros sanguinarios, dos dinastías
que hambrientas se disputan un reino,
queremos ser justicia, nos acechamos feroces,
nos engañamos, nos inferimos las viles injurias
con que el cielo afrenta a los que se aman.
Sólo para que mil veces nos incendie
el abrazo que en el mundo son los que se aman
mil veces morimos cada día.

Canto XIII

La dulce tolvanera del silencioso otoño
va anegando tu imagen en su vaga humareda,
encendiendo en el tiempo la hoguera del olvido
para borrar la última ceniza de la ausencia.

Nadie sabrá que vivo para ti, que defiendo
contra las llamas trémulas tu desnudo recuerdo,
que lucho en el otoño de vientos desolados
y en sus ondas sombrías te reclaman mis sueños.

Nadie sabrá que fuiste mía bajo el otoño
de estrellas delirantes y crepúsculos vagos,
que llenaste mis labios con tu fuego de siempre,
que cayó mi tristeza sobre ti como un canto.

Porque nada resiste la invasión del olvido
cuando llega a mi alma su humareda de otoño.
Todo se va de mí, se fuga de mi vida,
tú también te me vas y permanezco solo.

—

Both by Jorge Gaitán Durán

He wrote these more than half a century ago. For the last several weeks I’ve been trying to put my feelings regarding my latest romantic adventure disaster into words. Despite never meeting him, my great-uncle managed to capture my sentiments, convey them beautifully, and give me some much needed solace.

For more of his writing go here, for more on his personal biography, click here.

Why Are Government Agencies So Frequently On The Wrong Side of History?

KING,

In view of your low grade… I will not dignify your name with either a Mr. or a Reverend or a Dr. And, your last name calls to mind only the type of King such as King Henry the VIII…

King, look into your heart. You know you are a complete fraud and a great liability to all of us Negroes. White people in this country have enough frauds of their own but I am sure they don’t have one at this time anywhere near your equal. You are no clergyman and you know it. I repeat you are a colossal fraud and an evil, vicious one at that. You could not believe in God… Clearly you don’t believe in any personal moral principles.

King, like all frauds your end is approaching. You could have been our greatest leader. You, even at an early age have turned out to be not a leader but a dissolute, abnormal moral imbecile. We will now have to depend on our older leaders like Wilkins, a man of character and thank God we have others like him. But you are done. Your “honorary” degrees, your Nobel Prize (what a grim farce) and other awards will not save you. King, I repeat you are done.

No person can overcome facts, not even a fraud like yourself… I repeat — no person can argue successfully against facts… Satan could not do more. What incredible evilness… King you are done.

The American public, the church organizations that have been helping — Protestant, Catholic and Jews will know you for what you are — an evil, abnormal beast. So will others who have backed you. You are done.

King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34 days in which to do it (this exact number has been selected for a specific reason, it has definite practical significant. You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation.

——

This letter, sent anonymously to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964 isn’t from a Klan member or a deranged lunatic, but rather by the FBI. Apparently starting in 1956 in response to Supreme Court rulings questioning the constitutionality of the Smith Act Prosecutions and challenging the institutionally based communist witch-hunts, (also known as the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Senate’s Internal Security Subcommittee led by McCarthy) the FBI created COINTELPRO

a program designed to “neutralize” those who could no longer be prosecuted. Over the years, similar programs were created to neutralize civil rights, anti-war, and many other groups, many of which were said to be “communist front organizations.”

Via Letters of Note where you can see an image of the actual letter transcribed here