One Warm And Beautiful Day In September…

Everyone old enough to remember where they were that fateful morning has their story. This one is mine.

I was jolted awake by the telephone. The breathless voice on the other end didn’t wait for a greeting.

“I’m okay!” It was my partner calling.“Everything’s chaos here. I’m uptown, so I’m okay. ”

“What?” I said. “What’s happening?”

“Turn on the TV.”

“What Channel?”

“It doesn’t matter! Turn. On. The. TV!”

I grabbed the remote, and turned on the set. Images came into focus. It didn’t register that what I was seeing was real.

A plane had hit one of the Twin Towers of New York’s World Trade Center. Was it an accident?

It looked too much like a promotion for the latest Hollywood blockbuster. If so, it was an awfully long commercial.

From the side of the screen, I see movement. Another plane appeared. In slow motion, I watched as the plane hit the second tower. This was no accident.

The phone went dead.

I tried calling him back a few times but could not get through. A mild panic settled in the pit of my stomach. “Wait a minute”, I thought. “He said he was uptown.”

It was little comfort, but it would have to do. I knew I should probably leave the cellular signals free for those who needed it most.

Time slowed. Disjointed images appeared before me through tunneled vision. Horrific images. Smoke. Flames. People covered in ash and debris running for their lives. People jumping from the upper floor windows of the World Trade Center because their only other option was to be burned alive.

All sense of time and space was ripped from my consciousness.

For the next few hours, I joined the rest of America and watched the drama unfold. The Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania followed. The feeling that “this is all unreal” never left me.

I left for work at around noon. I worked at a bar and wasn’t due until 3:00pm, but I couldn’t stay in the house any longer. Maybe the nine block walk would do me good.

The streets were virtually empty. The usual sounds of the city were glaringly absent. I was aware of even the slightest sound; leaves blowing, foot steps, pigeons tapping on the sidewalk. People walked in silence. It was eerie.

The complex mix of emotions on people’s faces was dominated by a collective nervousness. A helicopter rumbled overhead. People glanced up in fear. Some, succumbing to survivalist instincts, ducked for cover. The possibility that Philadelphia could be targeted weighed heavily on the minds of many.

The bar was busy. The saying is true that there’s comfort in numbers. I kept the bar’s televisions on so that everyone could see the latest news. We offered the bar’s land line to anyone who wanted or needed to get in touch with friends or family. By 7:00 PM I received a call from my partner. He would stay in New York City for a few days to help friends.

For the next few weeks I felt as though I was disconnected – like a boat that’s come loose of it’s moorings and floats aimlessly at sea. I was just going through the motions. It’s impossible to remember any of the minutiae that usually bog us down because for the following few weeks we were as one, united against an unknown enemy. Each of us doing what we could to help anyone who needed it.

The most disgusting rhetoric that came out of 9/11/2001 was the assertion by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson that America somehow brought the terrorist attacks upon itself. On September 13, just two days after the terrorist attacks, they appeared on The 700 Club and claimed that God smote America because of all the “Pagans, Abortionists, Atheists, Feminists, Gays, and Lesbians, the ACLU, and People for the American Way”. What?! I thought my head would explode when I heard this. How could purported “Men Of God”, mock the memory of so many innocent lives with such hatred and vileness? I’ll let God settle that one.

Remembering September 11th still puts me in that numb place where time and space mean nothing.

I can’t begin to comprehend what those people in New York City, were going through. It would be an insult to them if I said I did. I also can’t imagine what could have transpired on UA flight 93 that made the passengers overtake the hijackers before crashing into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, or the passengers of flight 77 and their families, and those of the Pentagon. I have no frame of reference from which I can compare. The best I can do is empathize.

May the people, and their families, who were affected by the events of that day somehow find the comfort that they need.

Note: “One Warm and Beautiful Day in September” was originally posted Sept 2011 on ADignorantium.tumblr

Don’t lie that the US is a country based on Judeo Christian ideals when evidence proves otherwise.

I’m not a very religious person but I still believe in treating others with the respect and care that I wish to be treated.

Mark 12:31 “…Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

Leviticus 19:18 “…but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself…”

Exodus 20:16 “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor”

Ephesians 4:25 “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.”

John 15:34-35 “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

Mathew 7:12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

Luke 6:31 “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”

Proverbs 10:9 “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.”

Leviticus 19:9-10 ““When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner…”

I included that last one from Leviticus because I wanted to show that people who use Leviticus as an argument against homosexuals haven’t read Leviticus, or the Bible, fully. If they had they would know that Leviticus is a rule book for the priests who were in charge of caring for the ark of the covenant. This passage from Leviticus is about not being so selfish that you forget the less fortunate around you.

As stated at the beginning of this post, I’m not a very religious person. I don’t believe legislation should be based on any particular religious doctrine. I do believe in common decency. But when people claim the United States is founded on a Judeo Christian ideal, they are more interested in pushing an agenda than helping their fellow man. If the US was truly based on those ideals, racism wouldn’t be an issue, cops wouldn’t kill unarmed young men, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Pay It No Mind: Marsha P. Johnson

 

This feature-length documentary focuses on revolutionary trans-activist, Marsha “Pay it No Mind” Johnson, a Stonewall instigator, Andy Warhol model, drag queen, sex worker, starving actress, and Saint. “Pay It” captures the legendary gay/human rights activist as she recounts her life at the forefront of The Stonewall Riots in the 1960s, the creation of S.T.A.R. (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) with Sylvia Rivera in the ’70s, and a New York City activist throughout the ’80s and early ’90s. Through her own words, as well as interviews with gay activist/reporter Randy Wicker, former Cockettes performer Agosto Machado, author Michael Musto, Hot Peaches founder/performer, Jimmy Camicia, and Stonewall activists Bob Kohler, ,Danny Garvin Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt, and Martin Boyce, Marsha’s story lives on.

This documentary screened in 2012 at the IFC theater in New York, the British Film Institute in London, and La Mutinerie in Paris France.

I met Marsha Johnson in 1985 while visiting New York’s Gay Pride Parade with my first boyfriend. I was just twenty years old, it was my very first Pride celebration, and needless to say, Marsha made an huge impression on me.

I didn’t really know Marsha all that well, but feel fortunate that she and I chanced meeting twice again before she mysteriously died. Her joy for life was contagious.

I believe that people like Marsha, these innocents if you will, are put here to make the world a better place.

Happy Pride Month Everybody!

I don’t understand the Christian obsession with homosexuality.

On Sunday Morning, I read a post by twowisegals titled, Jesus Christ’s Super Star? … #CarlLentz … #HipsterPastor about this new hip pastor from NYC and his apparent waffling on the subject of homosexuality. It stuck in my craw. Seriously. Why is the first question asked of a religious leader always about homosexuality?

Here is my question to all Christians. It’s been nagging at me for decades and I’d really like an answer.

Why are Christians obsessed with homosexuals? Truly there must be things more worthy of your attention. Hunger, poverty, and war, are just the first three that come to mind.

Christians quote scripture from Leviticus, and they love Sodom and Gomorrah, as examples of God’s distaste of homosexuals. The trouble, besides faulty interpretation, is that these passages come from the Old Testament which is essentially the Hebrew Bible, The Torah, if you will.
Anyone who has read the New Testament knows that Peter and Paul spent a great deal of energy convincing the masses that there is a new way, essentially separating the new Christianity from the Hebrew, or Jewish, faith.
So the question arises. Why are Christians following the Hebrew text instead of the teachings of Christ?

The Christian obsession with homosexuality borders on mania. It’s almost entertaining until you realize the damage they are doing all around the world. Thanks to American Evangelicals, Homosexuality is punishable by death in much of Africa. The Reverends Scott Lively and Rick Warren are directly responsible for Uganda’s new “Kill The Gays” law.
Is this the kind of thing Christians want? The genocide of homosexuals worldwide? Was one Holocaust not enough? — It’s not much of a stretch to say that Putin’s use of homosexuals as scapegoats reminds me of a German madman who did something similar almost century ago.
The fact that Christians are obsessing over sex, instead of protesting the terrorization and murder of fellow human beings, is shameful!
I don’t think Jesus Christ would approve.

~ end rant ~

Now, get your butts over to the twowisegals and see what they’re all about. Their blog is interesting and entertaining and worth your time. 🙂

Amazing NY Street Artist!

Here’s something to brighten your Friday.

You’re welcome.