mocus:

from Greg Laden (@gregladen)

The vast majority of American public school students are proficient (sic) [probably meant deficient] in the level of science learning expected for their age group. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has issued “The State of Science Standards 2012” as part of an effort to assess the causes of this dismal state of affairs.

Read more…

Seriously, TN?  We got a D?  Come on, now! The one thing I will say positively about this is that not a single Southern got an F.  Gotta find a positive somewhere.  But a D being the average for the South is completely unacceptable.  

Something I can happily report about my home state and adopted city.  I recently talked about Stacey Campfield, a state representative from Knoxville, and his ever-so-enlightened comments about HIV infection, his most recent bigoted, inflammatory, and completely false statements.  Don’t forget he is also the lead sponsor of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.  Well, I’m happy to report that other Tennesseeans are listening to the trash spewed form his mouth.  

Anyone who has lived in Knoxville for any length of time knows that Gay St. is one of the best parts of downtown.  Restaurants, bars, and a few unique shops surround the iconic Tennessee and Bijou Theaters and it’s just a generally great experience.  Well, one of these restaurants took a stand when Rep. Campfield decided to make a (laughably ironic) visit to a Gay St. classic.  Bistro at the Bijou is well known in the area and Cempfield decided he would stop by for a bite, but when owner Martha Boggs heard he was in the restaurant, she made a pit stop at his table…and told him to leave.  

“I didn’t want his hate in my restaurant. “I told him he wasn’t welcome here… I feel like he’s gone from being stupid to being dangerous, and I wanted to stand up to him.”

She then took to Facebook and said, 

 ”I hope that [Stacey] Campfield now knows what [it] feels like to be unfairly discriminated against.”

 It’s so nice to know that even here in the most conservative part of the state, people are standing up for what’s right.  I’ve always loved Bistro at the Bijou, but I’ll make sure my patronage is even more frequent now.  Thank you, Ms. Boggs.

Seriously.  I’m so tired of Tennessee being in the national news for crazy things like this.  In a radio interview on Thursday, Knoxville’s incredibly intelligent state representative said, 

“My understanding is that ut us virtually — not completely, but virtually — impossible to contract AIDS trough heterosexual sex.”

I would really like to see him say that to the face of 66% of women (85% of female African Americans) with HIV.  Guess how they got?  Yeah.  Saying things like this are only detrimental to society.  HIV infection is on the rise.  The young adults now are too young to remember the AIDS epidemic and panic of the ’80s and their parents likely weren’t old enough to really be concerned about it.  Add to that a culture on intolerance and bigotry and we’re beginning to have another wave of major infections.  People today, en masse, have the idea that “it will never happen to me.”  But it can.  Gay men still make up the largest percent of new HIV infections and it’s for the same reasons as it was in the ’80s.  

• It’s not like anybody’s gonna get pregnant
• I don’t sleep around
• I was drunk

But, guess what?  That doesn’t mean you can’t catch it. 

The African American community is particularly struck by this.  70% of new HIV infections in men are in young, black men.  And if you think about the fact that African Americans are only 14% of the US population, you realize how severe this problem is.  Some of this is attributed to particularly fierce homophobia amongst African American men.  When a group is already largely marginalized, fighting social norms and morés isn’t always an option.  By being seemingly forced to live out gay lives in secret and then return home to a “normal” heterosexual life, it opens everyone up to a whole new world of problems.  

But Campfield, the sponsor of the “Don’ Say Gay” bill here in Tennessee, keeps spouting his ridiculous rhetoric, pseudoscience, and blatant lies and he’s is damaging the reputation of our state and the harming the people who live here.  It’s time for the people of Knoxville to give him the axe. 

Tennessee had yet another teen commit suicide in the last week from being bullied.  His name was Phillip Parker from Gordonsville, TN, a town about an hour east of Nashville.  He was 14 years old.  14.  And his life is over.  All because other students couldn’t just leave him alone.  While acceptance of everyone would be great, it’s unrealistic.  But tolerance or apathy is mandatory.  You don’t like someone?  Fine.  Don’t talk to them.  Avoid them in the halls.  Don’t invite them to your awesome party.  But to bully someone so much for so long that they take their own life is completely unacceptable.  

As someone who grew up gay in Tennessee, I know how hard it can be.  And I even grew up in Memphis, the liberal end of the state, with the best high school experience anyone could ever ask for.  The hatred and bullying I experienced was all from church and fear of family finding out.  That alone lead me to a very dark and dangerous place.  The pain this child endured was obviously no longer bearable and he felt death was his only way out.  I want to wish the kids that caused this be haunted by what they’ve caused for the rest of their lives, but that wouldn’t be right either.  In the end, they’re kids themselves and likely can’t/couldn’t fathom the true consequences of their actions.  I do hope that it haunts them for many years to come before they are able to move past it and that they realize just what they’ve caused.  

This is a sad, sad day for the South, the LGBTQ community, America, and the world.  When are we going to realize that no matter how you feel about another person or group of people, they deserve respect.  

fifty50fifty:

I am thoroughly Southern. My family on my mother’s side is all Arkansas and my family on father’s side is all Alabama.  I’ve got a lot of Southern pride.  In fact, I’m pretty sure that after I get out and see the world a bit, I’ll come back to the South because there’s really no place on earth I’d rather live.

I love the South, so it really bothers me to see people who equate Southern pride with pride in the South’s immoral and racist history.  Some people do this intentionally, others unintentionally.  In both instances, I find it really disheartening.

I don’t understand why people fly Confederate flags and claim that it represents Southern heritage.  The South to me is so much more than a four year war that killed thousands of good people, Northern and Southern.  The South is more than its foundations in slave labour.

To me, the South is hot summers.  The South (at least in my Arkansas experience) is humidity that completely defeats the purpose of a hairdo.  The South is sweet tea, lakes and the Mighty Mississippi, old houses, mosquitos, dirt roads, watermelon and peaches and pears, comfort food like cornbread and grits.  The South is catfish and swimming holes and tire swings and slow talking, front porches and bare feet.  

The South is William Faulkner, Louis Armstrong, Rosa Parks, Atticus Finch, Bill Clinton, Zora Neale Hurston, Mike Disfarmer, Thomas Jefferson, Johnny Cash, Helen Keller, Elvis Presley, and Tennessee Williams.

Why pick one of the most shameful parts of your history and parade it as ‘heritage’?  If we claim that the South’s heritage is the Confederacy and the Civil War alone, we are glorifying mistakes and ignoring the true source of Southern pride: the ingenuity, perseverance, and character of Southern people, black and white.