LINKS BELOW:
Sunday, April 18, 2004
THIS THURSDAY, APRIL 22ND! Starting at NOON. The Anti Gay Marriage cult is coming from all over the nation to rally at the state house in boston. we need more support here than ever! If no one knows about this we have to get the message out ASAP. they are trying to remove the judges and cancel the ruling FOR gay marriage. if we want to win this war, this CANT be allowed to happen!------
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Hello dear friends, yes, the day of silence occured today, which is as good a day as any. We had some 500 signatures on the signup board, I don't know if thats just participants or participants AND vocal supporters, either way that is a rip-roarin good time and I'm very happy that so many people put their two cents in (or didn't put their two cents in, depending on wether you where speaking or not.) We had a table in the atrium that I manned (and i use the term loosely) during A block, where we handed out the DOS "speech" card (another term I am using rather loosish) and the vocal supporter/participant cards. We also had the usual SPEAK OUT meeting after school, which was actually the first speak out meeting I have frequented, even though I did DOS last year. It was good, there where a good amount of people there and some interesting stuff was said, but we didn't dwell for too long on anything. I start to get uncomfortable when GSA meetings go on unusually long, because I feel like people get the wrong impression of GSA. But maybe thats just me. When you're silent, you hear a lot of things you wouldn't normally hear, and a big thing I heard today was "Whats the point of being silent for a whole day to try and change things? That seems counteractive to your cause. You should speak up, instead of being silent." (This was rarely said with such good grammar, and was severely punctuated with a barrage of interjections such as "dude" "fags" and "that is so stupid.") And believe me, I HAVE thought of that, and I have come to this conclusion. Yes, it is important to speak up about these matters, and that is an excellent point that much about being an activist has to do with speaking, indeed, it often comes to yelling and chanting has been witnessed. However, I do think day of silence IS EFFECTIVE. Calm down, I'll explain why. When you walk down the halls and you see so many people with supporter or participant stickers on, it just shows how many adamant supporters this cause has, and that just makes my little pink triangalur (sp?) heart skip a beat. If nothing else, DOS shows what a huge community the GLBT has. Now, about the speaking thing. I feel like you should be speaking out all the time, at any given chance. One silent day against many many days of speaking can have a shocking and drastic effect. People seem to think its just ridiculous, especially when you have a class where a teacher is not speaking. And, to be certain, there IS quite a bit of gesturing and charades and motions that resemble those of a crazy man with his pants caught aflame. But think about it for a moment. These are all gestures trying to get your attention, trying to desperatly communicate. Maybe there's something else they've been trying to communicate, but can't be so open about it. Their arms are flailing, their legs are kicking they're losing their MINDS trying to convey this one important, oh, so important message to you, but just in time they catch themselves, slap themselves around and remind themselves that they CAN'T talk about that, that that is not acceptable. So don't come to me whining about how it doesn't count if you gesture, or write on a piece of paper. Writing on a piece of paper as an alternative to communicating is not different then having another outlet because you can't be who you are, say, shooting up your school? They seem far off, but honestly, think about it. My silence drives me to write down my thoughts on paper, no problem. But look what being silent did to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, look what it did to James Sheets, to John Jason McLaughlin, to Kip Kinkel. Because for them there is no scrap of paper, no way out. There is only silence, constant, haunting silence all the time. And it never lets up, it never shuts up. I'm not saying all these kids where gay, and I'm not saying that being able to "talk about their problems" would have stopped their senseless slaughtering, but these boys didn't even have a chance. I'm willing to shut up for a day if it means that maybe we can evolve a little bit. Happy Day of Silence, everybody. I hope you learned something, god knows I did.
~ZukDI
"Anyhow, I brought 'em all out here into the middle of nowhere. It's all my fault. Still...whether you promised them something or not, you gotta remember they wanted to come.But that's because they believed in me. No, they believed in the dream. Well, so do I, but-- You do? Yeah! Of course I do. Well then? Well, then...I guess I was wrong when I said I never promised anyone. I promised me."-Kermit, talking to himself, The Muppet Movie.
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Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Because of April vacation, we are having our Day of Silence on Wednesday, April 14th. We'll have an exhibit up in the art space, on the 2nd floor across from the auditorium, with poetry, photography, and whatever else you fine people would like to submit. We will be signing people up in the atrium, handing out stickers and speech cards all day. Day of Silence T-shirts are available in room 236 from now till we run out, so the faster you get here the better. Buy one and we will love you.
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