Thank you, Freespeechprof!

Wow! What an amazing class this was, always reminding me of the tenuous thread between free speech (what we can express) and ethical responsibility (what we should express). With a passionate, committed professor at the helm, we are all invited to explore complicated issues and be more fully ourselves.

Thank you, Freespeechprof, for facilitating such a rich, diverse learning environment, always keeping the topics interesting and relevant through a variety of media: historical documents, photos, films, the Internet, books, blogging, seminar presentations, and audio recording of great speeches and protest songs of the 60s.

Thank you also for giving us ample opportunity to teach and learn from each other. So many times in this class, I felt strongly in my position (pornography, controversial art, hate speech) but gained a deeper understanding of the complexity of the issues through our class discussions and seminars. Furthermore, the seminar presentations were all insightful and interesting. I think we all did a stellar job.

Thank you for giving us room to ask difficult questions of ourselves and others. Thank you for making the class a safe place in which to adamantly and respectfully disagree. I will miss this class, the controversial topics and discussions, my thoughtful classmates, and our amazing teacher. Have an inspired and restful summer!

Mixed feelings about semester's end

It seems strange to me to have mixed feelings about the last couple weeks of the semester, but I do! Most people are likely ecstatic being so close to finishing the semester or, in some cases, graduating from their college careers altogether. I feel mixed because my classes are stimulating, challenging, and diverse in students. I thoroughly enjoy seminaring, workshopping, and debating with my peers! I am fortunate also to have such caring and passionate professors whose classes I look forward to each week.

Another part of me jumps up and down when I realize I won't have homework for three months, although I best get most, if not all, of my capstone's creative work done this summer in preparation for my final semester at CSUMB (see, even writing this is bittersweet). Now, of course, I have to think seriously about graduate schools. But when I think about how far I've come in my education, the commitment my supportive partner and I have made, I fill with pride at my accomplishments. It's been a long road, and I'm happy to be moving along on it!

Need to do something!

With U.S. involvement in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, school shootings, bee population decline (a possible indication of bigger environmental problems?), an ineffectual media system, and widespread spiritual malaise, I often feel crushed and impotent, guilty of not doing enough, not taking enough action.

For the last few months, the last week in particular, I feel an urgency to do more, to get involved with gay/lesbian rights, to protest the wars, to advocate for environmental awareness. Or it can be something more intimate, less "political," like reading to kids or helping with a literacy program. In fact, since I'm an aspiring educator, literacy and nurturing a love (or at least appreciation) of the written word could well be my cause.

I don't know how others are feeling, but I feel the urge to DO something, to break out of my comfort zone, to combat all this negativity.

Listen to this...

This is a clip from youtube.com of the song "On Call" by Kings of Leon, performed on Letterman. For those of you who love fresh rock music with diverse influences, this band, Kings of Leon, is terrific. These three brothers and their cousin comprise my favorite new band. I just can't stop listening to them. Hope you enjoy the clip and possibly make a new musical discovery!

Another Kind of Speech

Someone typically known for talking in excess, always having an opinion, and speaking up in public, nature has a way of shutting me up, so to speak. Whether it's a cherry tree in bloom or lilies clustered on a bluff of Big Sur, nature stops me in my tracks. It quiets me. In lieu of politics or controversy, today I offer pictures (photo illustrations created in Photoshop) of things that often go unnoticed.

While we struggle to fully comprehend free speech issues, nature speaks volumes...with no words at all.

Family Weddings...a Gay Perspective

My partner and I have been discussing her two cousins' upcoming weddings a lot lately. Both young women are among our favorite family members from both of our families. We are happy and excited for them in their finding and symbolically culminating their romantic relationships. One wedding will be this summer; the other, this fall. Both cousins will make gorgeous brides. We are honored to have been invited to their wedding celebrations.

Admittedly, though, this genuine happiness for them is not all my partner and I have been discussing. The truth is that, on some level, we feel ambivalent about the weddings. For one thing, my partner and I have been together in a committed relationship and ever-deepening love for nine years (we just celebrated our anniversary last week), yet we as a couple are not legally and symbolically recognized as our two young cousins and their husbands will soon be. Not to take anything away from their joy and fulfillment, but weddings remind us in some way of something we cannot have at this point, though I have faith we will in the semi-near future.

For another reason, both ceremonies will likely have a strong religious tenor that further makes my partner and me uncomfortable, as neither of us is religious. Because religion itself is often used to criticize homosexuality, the religious tone will likely add another layer of discomfort. I fully respect their religious beliefs, however, and wouldn't expect their weddings to be any other way!

Perhaps less importantly, though not necessarily, the first of our cousins' weddings falls on the same day as Gay Pride in San Francisco. For the last several years, my partner and I have made a ritual of going to the city and celebrating gay pride with my niece and her best friend, who fly in from Las Vegas. Since we live in suburban South Salinas, making a pilgrimage to San Francisco (a Mecca for gay people all over the world) on Gay Pride Sunday once a year connects us to our gay culture and history. Though we celebrate and party in the streets of the Castro and take over Market Street and Civic Center, it is a symbolically potent and profound celebration of pride for the millions of us around the world who, to this day, don't enjoy the same rights and privileges as heterosexuals. In some parts of the world, even in our own country, being gay can get us killed. Though I am happy to celebrate my cousin's summer wedding, on that Sunday I will likely flash images in my mind of a rainbow flag waving gay pride into the lavender sky above the Castro in the city I call home.

Technology is glorious…when it works!

I adore the fact that I can surf the Internet, print papers from the living room, and sit in the backyard with my laptop on a sunny day. All of this gets accomplished with a wireless network. My partner’s laptop, my laptop, our desktop PC, and our printer are all gloriously entwined, sans wires. When you think about this, it is nothing short of miraculous, especially if you are rather new to both laptops and wireless networks.

And when the wireless network, this innovative system of invisible connectivity, doesn’t work, my hopes of turning in midterm papers on time and posting required blog posts are inevitably dashed, unless I want to drive 15 miles to the university campus or haunt some Internet coffee house in South Salinas. Alas, what’s a girl to do? I feel naked and violated somehow, deprived without my handy wireless network!

However will I survive a day without the Internet and e-mail? Seriously, though, I spent a few hours hurling epithets earlier today, to none other than inanimate objects (and perhaps myself for not knowing how to make my network purr again), but I got that out of my system…for now.