Today I was told to be patient by three people. My brother. My ex-wife (very good friend and LGBTQ ally). My other brother. In the end, I got really angry. I didn't get it. I love these people, but they seriously pissed me off. It made me wonder and made me write. And it it made think of "go slow" as advice from the politicians.
I didn't want to get angry with them, because I know where their hearts are, but they just ... don't ... get it. It fucking HURTS. So, after the third argument of the day, I thought I'd post this and add another log to the inexact simile of gay rights to African-American rights. It's time, it's time, it's time now.
In the words of Nina Simone:
Link to the woman herself ... brilliant and must be heard.
The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam
And I mean every word of it
Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
Can't you see it
Can't you feel it
It's all in the air
I can't stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer
Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
This is a show tune
But the show hasn't been written for it, yet
Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day's gonna be my last
Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here
I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer
Don't tell me
I tell you
Me and my people just about due
I've been there so I know
They keep on saying "Go slow!"
But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Washing the windows
"do it slow"
Picking the cotton
"do it slow"
You're just plain rotten
"do it slow"
You're too damn lazy
"do it slow"
The thinking's crazy
"do it slow"
Where am I going
What am I doing
I don't know
I don't know
Just try to do your very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
I made you thought I was kiddin'
Picket lines
School boy cots
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
for my sister my brother my people and me
Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie
Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you any more
You keep on saying "Go slow!"
"Go slow!"
But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Desegregation
"do it slow"
Mass participation
"do it slow"
Reunification
"do it slow"
Do things gradually
"do it slow"
But bring more tragedy
"do it slow"
Why don't you see it
Why don't you feel it
I don't know
I don't know
You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
That's it!"
I don't know where the Mississippi Goddam is for us - same place, maybe - but I'm tired of being told he's only been president 5 months. Don't make a fucking promise you don't intend to keep. And don't insult the people who you pretended to support. Two really easy rules.
I've been an Obama supporter. I was born a Democrat. But I was born gay, too, and that one's starting to rise as the intense one. Where's our goddamn? I'd rather Stonewall II didn't happen when we have a "Fierce Advocate" in the White House, but it just might have to.