Self-Organizing Man

As Jay begins his journey into the proverbial "heart of darkness", my heart goes out to him and to everyone whom this tragedy touched.  I give thanks in plenty to Jay for having the faith in me to ask me to blogsit. That being said…It’s difficult to think about identity politics when so many of our brothers and sisters have suffered so much - and suffered more profoundly than they should have had to, given the disastrous Federal response to such an unprecedented storm.  At times like this, I can draw no lines around who is in my community and who is not. I wish this same feeling extended to everyone, but sadly, I have read, heard and seen too much over the past few days to hold on to that naive belief.

I find myself agog at the growing divide between rich and poor, between homeless and housed, between black and white, between able-bodied and those who need a little more help…the country and its citizenry are being fractured anew along fault lines that have, clearly, never fully healed.  At my favorite blog, Americablog, the sense of outrage and frustration is palpable. The anger is real. The targets have never been more clear than through the crosshairs of trust betrayed. The Germans have a wonderful compound noun to describe this: Weltschmerz. The feeling of all the pain and suffering in the world at once, in one person.

Accountability. Six syllables that mean more to our ability to come together out of tragedy than all of the eleventh-hour photo ops ever scheduled. Six syllables which carry the hopes of folks who share the same humanity, the same pain and grief beneath their skins that I do.

You can’t have accountability without "BI". And that’s why I’m here - to try and share my perspective of what it means to be bi in a society that does its best to divide us. I am drawing up a seat at the table, and I invite you all to join me…

Namaste.