“We Take Care of Our Own,” The Boss
I was doing manufacturing throughput consulting in the eighties for Ingersoll Engineers. I was on a gig in Peoria, IL with an older man (I did the research and he presented as I looked too young to be an expert) at Caterpillar attempting to help them find out where all the parts went after they stripped them off the base tractors to meet a specific customer order, left them laying where they detached them, and promptly lost them. I guess Master Scheduling to demand was not in vogue then. You could see the history of Caterpillar unfold walking out from the building housing the serpentine belt carrying the E-Class Cats as they built them, and walk back through the old brick and mortar factories building parts, and continue to the corporate headquarters. “My Hometown” always reminded me of Caterpillar and the city of Peoria in which it resided, a city dying as Komatsu challenged Caterpillar with its copied version (parts actually fit from one to another) leaving a decaying infrastructure.
In 1988 Springsteen did a Human Rights Now! tour “on behalf of Amnesty International and it took place over six weeks. Held not to raise funds so much as to increase awareness of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on its 40th anniversary and the work of Amnesty International. The shows featured Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, and Youssou N’Dour, plus guest artists from each of the countries where concerts were held.” I was raising a family then
What is going on in North Carolina now (a place I am dissecting and writing a post on and the trash talk coming out of Western Carolina University of the state of the economy) is a step backward in the progression of human rights. It appears the state legislature are making laws and rules which can not be enforced (like who your kids hang out with at school). Samantha Michaels goes on to state this is not something North Carolina Republicans considered when they passed a law to force transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to the gender listed on their birth certificate. Repubs who love over using the word freedom in everything they claim to have a right to do as guaranteed under the Constitution and will shoot you in the name of their freedom claiming this is their right to do so also as an endangered species, just passed a law regulating who may use what toilets and showers. Don’t mess with my gun and oh-by-the-way your toilet is over there under the sign marked “transgender.” Kind of brings the fifties roaring back to the 21st century, when there was separate but equal facilities (if they exist).
This is more than just a fight over bathroom rights as the new North Carolina law places a large burden upon LGBT citizens of the US and those who just happen to reside in North Carolina. The burden of proof of discrimination has been shifted to them, you know that same burden of proof the Koch Brothers are fighting to have shifted to the Gov? Except the LGBT have committed no alleged crimes other than being human beings and citizens; while the Koch Brothers and their associates do not want to prove their innocence of not knowing their activities caused the pollution on their business sites.
The Boss Bruce Springstein had a few words to say:
As you, my fans, know I’m scheduled to play in Greensboro, North Carolina this Sunday. As we also know, North Carolina has just passed HB2, which the media are referring to as the “bathroom” law. HB2 — known officially as the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act — dictates which bathrooms transgender people are permitted to use. Just as important, the law also attacks the rights of LGBT citizens to sue when their human rights are violated in the workplace. No other group of North Carolinians faces such a burden. To my mind, it’s an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress. Right now, there are many groups, businesses, and individuals in North Carolina working to oppose and overcome these negative developments. Taking all of this into account, I feel that this is a time for me and the band to show solidarity for those freedom fighters. As a result, and with deepest apologies to our dedicated fans in Greensboro, we have canceled our show scheduled for Sunday, April 10th. Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry — which is happening as I write — is one of them. It is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards.
Hat Tip to Nancy Letourneau on her version of “Quick Takes” at The Washington Monthly.
And a thoughtful Friday night to all Bears.
Nancy is a thoughtful observer and commentator.
Transgender is a tragic condition — actually having the wrong sex body to go with your brain. 19 times the suicide rate according to a New York Times story.
“Although transsexualism (defined as those who want to change or do change their body) is very rare — a recent meta-analysis estimated the prevalence at about 5 per 100,000 … ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/opinion/sunday/richard-a-friedman-how-changeable-is-gender.html?_r=0
San Francisco school adopting gender-neutral bathrooms
By Jill Tucker Updated 7:11 am, Thursday, September 3, 2015
“The boys’ bathrooms and girls’ bathrooms will become just bathrooms at the first San Francisco school to go gender-neutral.”
“In schools across the country, though, bathrooms have become a battleground for transgender rights. On Monday, more than 100 high school students walked out of class in a small Missouri town to protest the use of the girls’ restrooms and locker room by a transgender teen.”
“So far, bathrooms in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms at Miraloma, as well as a centralized bathroom, are gender-neutral. The school will phase in the other restrooms used by older children over the next few years, including outside bathrooms with multiple stalls.”
“The school district’s responsibility is to create a safe environment for all students so they can learn and thrive, said Kevin Gogan, the district’s director of safety and wellness. That, he said, means accepting and accommodating the 1 percent of all middle and high school students who identify as transgender — who add up to more than 300 students.” [my emphasis]
“First grade twins Ari Braverman (left), and Ella Braverman (right), both 6 years old, show first grade gender neutral bathrooms at Miraloma Elementary school in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, September 2, 2015.” [caption for multi stall bathroom -- Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle]
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bathrooms-at-Miraloma-Elementary-in-S-F-go-6481544.php
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This is not quite as crazy to me as male police all over the country trained that a man is just like a woman when it comes to stop-and-frisk.
http://ontodayspage.blogspot.com/2012/08/taking-male-leo-hands-of-females-late.html
Anybody ever hear about AC/DC as in switch-hitter, as in bisexual? Bruce made a lot of kids before he became Caitlyn (nothing funny here — see above). Really want to allow males who may or may not be sexually attracted to females into the womens’ bathrooms.
“A transgender woman says she was raped in a unisex bathroom at the Stonewall Inn — and police are searching for the suspect who they say regularly frequents the landmark gay bar.”
http://nypost.com/2016/03/28/transgender-woman-says-she-was-raped-in-stonewall-inn-bathroom/
One in 20,000 may be transgender (actually wrong body to go with brain) — a lot more than that identify with the opposite body gender. A lot more than one in 20,000 are willing to fake transgender for whatever nefarious or silly motive — maybe just some college frat boys drunk and mischievous.
What sex is attractive to a physical male with a female brain anyway (not to mention the 1% with gender dysphoria)? I have no idea.
I read a story the other day (can’t remember where) of a young guy (male brain — female body) who is now taking male hormones to grow a beard and muscle and hangs out with other guys in bars, etc. Who does he want to have sex with?
Who does a physical male with a female brain want to have sex with — depending on whether heterosexual or homosexual. This is where I totally lose track.
I had a gay teenage boy living with me in the Bronx back in the late 70s. I quickly picked up that he approached every older woman with a salute — careful not to brush her toes (“lest she lash out at him for no reason” — as I like to put this). Me, he wasn’t too afraid of — not bad to, but sort of like you are less afraid of your mother than you father (if you are hetero).
One of his little buddies, 16 years old, would come at me disrespectfully — I would back him off — he would be visibly intimidated — next time he would be right back at me; never caught on what he was up against in a male — I was just Hillary, a noisy girl.
You can’t be sexually dangerous to the dangerous sex — you can’t be sexually endangered except by the dangerous sex. Depending on who you think is the dangerous sex.
But, how does this understanding of homosexuality — and heterosexuality — translate into which sex a (truly rare) truly transgender person is attracted to? ??? Anybody care to clear this up for me?
The not so rare gender dysphoric are guaranteed to be all over the place.
In any case it is intolerable for women to have to share multi-stall bathrooms with physical males. I understand full well the anxiety and suffering this may cause the extreme to not so extreme examples of dysphoria but we — and police departments — cannot simply ignore the most basic vulnerabilities of half the human race.
On NC, Bill, don’t miss this op-ed in today’s NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/09/opinion/my-north-carolina-state-of-mind.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
It brought tears to my eyes. I’m not gay and I’ve never been to that state (other than a layover at the Charlotte airport, which doesn’t count), but it just ….
What disturbs me about the NYT article is the author’s indifference — or is it glee? — over NC losing 400 jobs, not to mention all the other corporations that are planning to economically ding NC.
Last thing academic liberals seem to think about is the pay check of the average working person. Watch them utilize what amounts to “unisex” bathrooms to alienate voters and drive them back into the arms of the Republican party all over the country.
Just so we all know what, exactly, we’re talking about, this is the law in question:
http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2015E2/Bills/House/PDF/H2v1.pdf
Please tell me exactly which part you have a problem with.