On the Margins

T

hanks for all the ideas. There were a number of good ideas--I certainly like to write about my youth, and of course sex--but still, the will to write is faltering. I simply feel "blah". Is it andropause--male menopause? Or is it simply that time of month? Nah, I'm just over-worked and under-paid. That and the post-election blues. I watch the news and wonder where this country is going.

I know that some of you are supporters of the current administration. Other are not, but are still optimistic: This country is too big, too great for any one man to take over. I don't know. The news suggests that this administration is veering more and more to the right. The lone voice of reason--Colin Powell--is gone. It looks likely that Spector, the more centrist convservative, will be prevented from heading the judical committee because his pro-choice stance has marshalled the indignation of the religious right. This growing group has voiced its opnion and the administration is not necessarily ignoring it. Other republicans have complained of Spectors role in blocking the nomination of an earlier supreme court justice, Bork, who was nominated by Reagan. This attitude, shared by the administration, reflects their petty and vindictive attitude. If they are going to treat one of their own like this, how will they treat someone like me (us) who has opposed them on many more issues. Will my (our) voice be ignored? Will we be further marginalized?

I've felt marginalized for much of my life. Born an Asian American in the 50s was not easy. Ten years after WWII, a couple of years after Korea, I was viewed as the enemy by many in my neighborhood. I was the jap. I would be taunted on the street with words such as gook, occasionally getting jumped on my way to the library. I know all too well what it means to be demonized and marginalized by a group that is not necessarily unanimous, but large enough to feel emboldened to demean all those that do not fit their image of what is "normal".

Sorta like how gays are marginalized, their lifestyle demonized, today.

I look at current majority--represented by this administration and the religious right that have called for a federal amendment against gay marriages--and can't help but feel that this country is again heading down the road of discrimination and unequal rights.

And for me this is a bummer, a major one...