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  1. Final Crazy Rantings Regarding Same-Sex Marriage

    April 11, 2013 by Francis Flores

    I’m actually quite sad that this is the last civic issues blog for the year. It took a fair amount of time (approximately 2 hours) to decide what it is I wanted to write about. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to end with another story, or if I should go over the article about the Prop 8 debates, or even if I should talk about the Westboro Baptist Church (something I haven’t talked about in depth). After everything, though, I decided to go with a mixture of the last two.

    Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that not all people who believe strongly in their religion are against same-sex marriage, but it’s the radicals like the people of the Westboro Baptist Church that gives them a bad name. When I was doing research for previous blog posts, I came across their website, one of their websites, anyway. Their website is titled godhatesfags.com. I wish I was lying. When I first saw the URL, I thought it was a parody of their real website, but after about an hour and a half of just surfing their website, I came to the sick realization that this was in fact their real website. I would include the actual link to take you to the website, but I just don’t have it in me. Honestly, I don’t see how their religious beliefs should have such a strong impact on something that isn’t going to hurt them. They use the Bible for justification, but the Bible was also used to justify slavery. It really goes both ways, and why gay marriage is still illegal in some states absolutely baffles me. For a place that’s known for equality and freedom, no one is really equal.

    That’s my WBC rant. Here are other reasons I’ve heard that gay couples shouldn’t marry.

    1. “It would redefine and undermine traditional marriage!”
    2. “The only way to have a child is to have one man and one woman.”
    3. “If you allow them to marry, where does it stop?”
    4. Here’s my personal favorite: “This will let children think it’s okay to be gay!”

    Here are my counterarguments, or rants, whatever they turn out to be.

    1. Wow, okay. If we were really to be going off of what “traditional marriage” is, then women would still be considered property and interracial couples would not be allowed to marry. As for undermining marriage? The things that are undermining marriage, and this is just my opinion, is divorce and short, glorified, celebrity marriages. I’m not even going to begin with those (I’m looking at you, Kim Kardashian). In the year 2011, 41% of “first” marriages ended in divorce.1 It’s insulting that someone could have a first, second, third marriage while claiming that because two people of the same sex are in love, they shouldn’t be allowed the same rights to marriage as they are. Bravo.
    2. This is one of my favorite arguments. I was actually watching a video2 and someone said this. I know that it is a true statement, but to use it as a reason to not allow someone to be married is harsh. Honestly, I laughed out loud when I watched this video, not because it was funny, but because I couldn’t wrap my head around some of the stuff that he said, including this. Like I said, yes, this statement is true, but it doesn’t affect the way the population grows or decreases. People will continue to procreate at their own rate and life will go on.
    3. This is actually a paraphrase of something someone said. Yes, believe it. It actually broke my heart when I found out it was Jeremy Irons (the voice of Scar in “The Lion King”) who, in an interview said “Could a father not marry his son?” The fact that he actually thinks that same-sex marriage could lead into any kind of incest-type relationship, is extremely insulting. It isn’t even remotely close. As if that wasn’t insulting enough, he then states “Living with another animal, whether it be a husband or a dog, is great… It’s lovely to have someone to love. I don’t think sex matters at all.”3 Wow, okay, so I guess they’re animals, too. Jeremy Irons, you murdered my childhood with this statement, and I don’t know if I can ever forgive you. That is all.
    4. This one is the best. Allowing the children to think it’s okay is fine. Do you know why? Because it is! I think that instead of teaching children to have such narrow-minded and self-righteous views on what you think is right and wrong, you should allow them to think for themselves and have their own opinions. Take my mom for example. Yes, my mom and I absolutely butt heads on this topic because, no surprise, she doesn’t agree with this idea either, but she lets me believe what I want to. Plus, what if your child happens to be gay? Could you even imagine the kind of pain he (or she) would go through knowing that their parents hated everything about his (or her) lifestyle? It’s the same thing as bullying.

    I tried to choose arguments that weren’t religiously connected, so I hope I did a decent job. Not all religious groups are radical. Not everyone is close-minded. But this is a friendly reminder that, unfortunately, some people are. I hope you enjoyed this post. Sorry if it’s a bit long. Thank you for reading and remember, love is love.


  2. Roger McGough Meets Ray LaMontagne (Week 21)

    April 4, 2013 by Francis Flores

    Hello, everyone! So I was originally going to do a poem by Maya Angelou because I really liked it, but I started the whole analytical process and it turns out the whole poem was about sex. The whole poem was literally describing the speaker having sex, so I decided not to do that poem, even though I had perfect music for it. Wow. Anyway, I hope you guys are doing well. Is anyone else SUPER excited at how close the end of the school year is, or am I the only one? I honestly cannot wait to go home, no offense to Pennsylvania. I’m in a weird and jittery mood. I think the coffee is starting to actually seep into my skin because I don’t drink coffee.

    So, this week I found two gorgeous pieces. I’ll be looking at “The Trouble With Snowmen” by Roger McGough and “Are We Really Through” by Ray LaMontagne.

    I actually could not find the publication date for “The Trouble With Snowmen,” but if any of you poetry buffs happen to know, that’d be great.

    “Are We Really Through” was written and performed by Ray LaMontagne and released on his “God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise” on August 17, 2010.

    Here is the song *note: The “Pariah Dogs” are the other musicians he collaborated with on this album*

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5eSzHrkw8s

    The Trouble With Snowmen

    ‘The trouble with snowmen,’

    Said my father one year

    ‘They are no sooner made

    than they just disappear.

     

    I’ll build you a snowman

    And I’ll build it to last

    Add sand and cement

    And then have it cast.

     

    And so every winter,’

    He went on to explain

    ‘You shall have a snowman

    Be it sunshine or rain.’

     

    And that snowman still stands

    Though my father is gone

    Out there in the garden

    Like an unmarked gravestone.

     

    Staring up at the house

    Gross and misshapen

    As if waiting for something

    Bad to happen.

     

    Far as the years pass

    And I grow older

    When summers seem short

    And winters colder

     

    The snowmen I envy

    As I watch children play

    Are the ones that are made

    And then fade away.

     

    To be honest, I actually have no idea how I found this poem. I was on poemhunter.com (or something similar to that, I really don’t remember) when I saw his name in the suggestion bar to the side based on my recent views. I think this poem is so great. The beginning of the poem starts off so lighthearted and sweet. The speaker reflects on an important part of his childhood and does so with an ABAB-type rhyme scheme, which gives it that lighthearted tone. It’s almost as if the speaker (I’m just going to refer to the speaker as ‘he”) and his father are sitting inside after a long snowman-building session and drinking hot chocolate when the father brings this up in the hopes of lightening up his son’s eyes. As the poem continues, though, it is revealed that the speaker’s father has died even though the snowman still remains. When this is revealed the rhyme scheme doesn’t quite match up, and this indicates a nuance in tone; however, it’s not a complete change, because it takes up two stanzas to shift into the next major tone of the poem. Starting from “And that snowman still stands…” to “Bad to happen,” the speaker provides an image of how the snowman looks now. It is no longer an innocent father’s attempt to make his child happy, it is now a permanent stone-cold figure that will not leave the speaker’s sight. The last two stanzas are mournful now that the speaker is older and looks with the snowman with disgust instead of wonder. The last four lines are what really tie this whole thing together, though. When he says, “The snowmen I envy/ As I watch children play/ Are the ones that are made/ And then fade away.” It maintains the same light-hearted tone which creates a kind of ironic innocence that adults don’t necessarily maintain. As a child, building a snowman, especially with his father, was a magical thing. It was the ability to create something new, allow it to leave, and then start all over the next day. As a child, you don’t think about it as just melting away, you think about it as a chance to create something better. Now that he is an adult, though, he is constantly reminded of his father’s death. He is unable to move on and he cannot allow the memories to just melt away and begin anew.

    This song seemed to be the perfect match to this poem because the light guitar strumming allows for the image of a young boy and his father building snowmen, going inside, talking lightly, and drinking hot chocolate together, both of their cheeks pink from the biting cold outside. However, LaMontagne’s voice is exactly what mournful would sound like. His voice almost illustrates the speaker growing up and being there when his father dies and coming home to the snowman, knowing that his father once helped him with that, and knowing that his father can’t help him with another one. As the song progresses and LaMonagne’s voice becomes more haunting and melancholic, I can see the speaker sitting on his couch, sipping hot chocolate out of the same cup he used as a kid, and imagining him and his father building and re-building snowmen. He becomes increasingly agitated and begins to resent that grotesque looking snowman because of its permanence while his father no longer lives. As the song fades out, I can imagine the speaker walking around and watching children play, becoming increasingly envious and maybe even a bit sad. I can see him turn away and avoid going home to that permanent snowman. The tone of LaMontagne’s voice embodies the speaker as a whole and the music captures his experience and nostalgia. He still maintains a certain innocence but only because he is only able to cling to the memory of his father in a way that makes him resent the things that made him so happy as a child, like building snowmen.

    I heard of Ray LaMontagne when I watched the movie “I Love You, Beth Cooper.” They played his song “Let It Be Me” (which was on his Gossip in the Grain album), and I absolutely loved the song. I was reminded of him today when I was on Tumblr and one of his songs (Burn, which was on his Trouble album) came up. Like I said earlier, I found the poem somewhere on the internet and I loved it. I thought it was the sweetest thing ever until I finished it, but that’s the kind of poetry I like: the kind that leaves an impression. I really hope you liked this week’s post. It’s the second to the last, which makes me sad, but I’ve got a surprise for the last post that I hope you’ll enjoy. Thanks for reading!


  3. Civic Issues: What exactly is DOMA?

    February 14, 2013 by Francis Flores

    Hello, everyone! So for this post, I’m going to explain DOMA a little bit because a section of it is going to be looked over this March. DOMA is the “Defense of Marriage Act” and it was passed in 1966 by Congress. “It has two main functions. First, it prevents the federal government from recognizing any marriages between gay or lesbian couples for the purpose of federal laws or programs, even if those couples are considered legally married by their home state. Second, it makes it so that individual states do not legally have to acknowledge the relationships of gay and lesbian couples who were married in another state. Only the section that deals with federal recognition is being currently challenged in court.”1 The particular section that has been brought up has to do with the recognition of same-sex marriage (more on that in a bit!), and it has proved fairly controversial. Along with the many others that argue against DOMA because it is discriminatory to a large community, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics and Washington argue that it allows certain loopholes for gay politicians, using, for example, anti-nepotism laws that heterosexual politicians must follow.2 Personally, I think that DOMA is discriminatory because there is no real reason that anyone is benefitting from not allowing them to be married, but I digress because I already ranted about that last time I posted.

    On a happier note, I have related news that made the headlines today in the United States (and then one from Europe that made headlines a few days ago just for fun)!

    The first one that happened today was that ILLINOIS APPROVED THE BILL TO LEGALIZE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. Why am I so excited if it doesn’t affect me directly? Because it’s a step towards progress, acceptance, and equality. Upon discussing why the Senate chose Valentine’s Day to cast the vote, he stated that it was “scheduled on the holiday to celebrate love to disguise what is truly a devaluing of traditional marriage.”3 Another large part of this legalization was due to the fact that same-sex coalitions protested in what is called “Freedom to Marry Week,” in which they requested marriage licenses in “18 places around the country, including a number of states where same sex-marriage is not legal.”4

    In another part of the United States, Virginia to be specific, as a part of a “Witness for Marriage” protest, 3 couples applied for marriage licenses in Arlington. All three of them were denied. One pastor David Ensign remarked, “A license to marry the one you love, the one to whom you made promises of faithfulness and love. It is way past time to change the law,” and after, he thanked the couples for stepping forward and being brave for a cause that they felt so strongly for.5

    Oh man, oh man. Two good things in one day. Valentine’s Day really is a day of love for everyone. I can’t wait for the day when we can proudly say that we are equal and truly mean it.

     

     

    **Extra story: Earlier this month, the French parliament approved gay marriage, and after a couple weeks of debate, as of February 13, 2013, the entire law passed. Congrats!**


  4. Valentina Thompson meets Randell Milan (Week 14)

    January 31, 2013 by Francis Flores

    OH MAN I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS BLOG POST. Okay, so a new thing that I’m doing this semester is looking at poets and singers/bands that aren’t necessarily published or famous. Is it biased that the first post I experiment with happens to be one of my best friends and my boyfriend? Maybe, but they’re talented so it doesn’t matter. Anyway, a little back story: I was listening to my music while doing my Spanish homework, and even though I’ve heard this song so many times (iTunes says 17, but it doesn’t know that Randell sings it to me too), today it stuck in my mind. I asked him if I could use it, and then happened to go over to Facebook (not procrastinating, if that’s what you were thinking) and I saw a newer poem that Valentina had written, so I explored more of her other poems until I found this one.

    So, without further ado (no one says that enough), this week I’ll be looking at “In the Background” by Valentina Thompson and “Raindrops” by Randell Milan.

    Here’s the song in mp3 form: Raindrops

    In the Background

    The dripping of a faucet

    On an old marble sink

    I sit alone atop cold granite

    At times forgetting to blink

     

    I’d rather not go home just yet..

    While my emotions teeter at the brink

    It’s one of those moments that leave me offset,

    Triggering me, simultaneously, to really start to think

     

    The humming of an appliance

    Trudging on to an empty scene

    Consistent amongst absence,

    It works for anything and everything in between

     

    However it’s only me in this instance

    Trying to take myself out of life’s chaotic theme

    Relishing in the temptation of defiance

    After everything unravels opposite my dreams

     

    The normality of surrounding

    As so much more transpires within

    The depths the mind travels, astounding

    While I’m still here in my own familiar skin.

     

    I guess you could say it’s a self-inflicted grounding

    No “toys,” no contact.. no distraction

    But my ears keep throbbing and my head keeps pounding

    I’m trying to get to my feet, without any traction

     

    So the continuity of the intricacies

    Shows life goes on with no regard for anyone

    And as much as we try and fight to foresee

    Nothing is really predictable before its time comes

     

    Right now the arm of the clock’s at 4:03..

    With the early morning darkness still enveloping the sun

    But if suddenly the sentient leaks stop or engines freeze,

    I wonder if my mind too will no longer strive to function.

    My friends make me feel like such a potato. Wow, I’m sorry if that was weird, but it’s true. Anyway, this poem. There are at least 3 tones at one time, but there aren’t really any nuances. It’s kind of an intense and hopeless loneliness. Does that make any sense? I want to say a depressing tone, but that would be underselling this poem, and that’s not all that this poem is. She uses words such as “life’s chaotic theme,” “temptation of defiance,” “self-inflicted,” and “pounding” to bring out this intensity; words such as “forgetting to blink,” “emotions teeter,” “triggering,” “trudging,” “everything unravels,” “no regard,” and “no longer strive to function” to accentuate her feeling of hopelessness; and then, to emphasize her loneliness, she uses words such as “alone,” “empty,” “it’s only me,” and “darkness.” These tones complement each other well because of this intense hopelessness that comes from feeling lonely. This poem, unlike others that I’ve looked at, also has a rhyming sequence (ABAB), but in the third stanza, the sequence is broken. Why? ­It reveals a certain sense of inconsistency in her own life. The humming of these appliances in absence may be consistent, but people around her are not. It feels to her that they have left her to crumble alone in her thoughts, and this is further revealed in the fourth stanza when she says “it’s only me in this instance.” Not only is she feeling this loneliness, but it’s keeping her awake into the wee hours, leaving her alone in the dark literally and figuratively. When she says that the darkness was “enveloping the sun,” she is saying that this feeling of inner darkness has absolutely consumed her; even though she knows she still has to find her own way of standing up on her feet, she wonders if she can even do so. Her use of ellipses in the second, sixth, and last stanzas also gives a sense of hopelessness, almost as if she’s even given up on wanting to tell her own story. It also makes her seem hesitant, as if she is afraid to admit how alone she really is, or even how doubtful she feels about her ability to believe in herself. Even the title makes her seem secondary; she feels like she is quite literally in the background of everyone around her. That’s where her loneliness is stemming from, and that’s what is making it stay.

    Oh, and this song. I can picture her sitting on her bed, absolutely enveloped in this darkness. I can sense how’s she’s feeling. The heart-pounding bass lends to the intensity of the millions of thoughts racing through her mind. The organ and drums also complement the bass by adding to its darkness. It helps add to the feeling of hopelessness. The dark intensity of the instruments can almost correlate with the racing mind, and beating heart that she may be experiencing. Now, the vocals. Oh, man, these vocals. The growl that he uses from time to time, exemplify her inner intensity and even allows for a mental image of what she may be doing. She starts the poem off by saying she sitting “alone atop cold granite,” but I feel like she might have gotten off at one point. Maybe she walked around about, and let herself cry. Maybe she let herself break down. This poem is the representation of her loneliness, but maybe she felt it earlier. She’s been alone in the dark so long, or so she seems to think so. Even the self-harmonies (which rock, by the way) adds to this feeling. It feels desperate. It feels almost as if she is literally being pulled into the darkness. She says her emotions are teetering, and I can actually see this happening when I hear this song. I can feel her heart racing along with the drums, I can feel her head pounding along with the bass, I can see her glazed over expression with the harmonies, and I can see her tears falling with the vocalist’s growl.

    Hmm, so that was a bit more intense than I thought it would be. I read the poem and immediately sent her a text. In case you were wondering, she feels much better now. She’s so very talented, and she has a few of her other poems on Facebook. I think you’d have to be her friend to see them but I could ask if anyone is interested in more! As for Randell..Well, it’s not fair. This is one of his original songs, and I’m pretty sure only a few people have heard it (which includes you guys, too). Anyway, if you’re interested in more of his music, he has a Facebook page, which includes a few originals and a few covers. If you like him, well then hey, you should like the page! Just saying (totally not biased or anything). Anyway, I loved the poem and the song together and I’m glad I got to share it with you guys. I hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading!


  5. Osoanon Nismuss meets Jeff Buckley (Week 5)

    October 12, 2012 by Francis Flores

    Hey, guys! So this week, I got sick and so on Tuesday, I was resting up and listening to music when I came across the most beautiful rendition of “Lilac Wine,” and my thoughts immediately strayed to a poem that I read a while ago. I actually got this poem out of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, written by Stephen Chbosky, and I fell in love with it.

    I’m not going to be doing the full poem because it’s so long, but I thought I would do the last few stanzas instead. This week I’m going to be analyzing an excerpt from “Absolutely Nothing” by Osoanon Nismuss and Jeff Buckley’s rendition of “Lilac Wine.”

    “Absolutely Nothing” was written by  Osoanon Nismuss but the publication date is unknown; it is published in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1991).

    “Lilac Wine” was originally written by James Shelton in 1950, but Jeff Buckley covered it and included it on his “Grace” album in 1994.

    “…Once on a paper torn from his notebook

    He wrote a poem

    And he called it “Innocence: A Question”

    Because that was the question about his girl

    And that’s what it was all about

    And his professor gave him an A

    And a strange steady look

    And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door

    Because he never showed her

    That was the year Father Tracy died

    And he forgot how the end

    Of the Apostle’s Creed went

    And he caught his sister

    Making out on the back porch

    And his mother and father never kissed

    Or even talked

    And the girl around the corner

    Wore too much make-up

    That made him cough when he kissed her

    But he kissed her anyway

    Because that was the thing to do

    And at 3 a.m. he tucked himself into bed

    His father snoring soundly.

     

    That’s why on the back of a brown paper bag

    He tried another poem

    And he called it “Absolutely Nothing”

    Because that’s what it was really all about

    And he gave himself an A

    And a slash on each damned wrist

    And he hung it on the bathroom door

    Because this time he didn’t think

    He could reach the kitchen.”

    Also, as always, here’s the song!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PC68rEfF-o

    This excerpt gives off a melancholic and somber tone, especially within the last stanza. With words such as “torn,” “never,” “forgot,” “Absolutely Nothing,” “a slash on each damned wrist,” and “he didn’t think he could reach the kitchen,” the author depicts the downfall of this one person in particular. In the beginning of the poem, his life seemed perfect, but the last two stanzas (the ones I have chosen for the post) directly contrast the happiness that was felt in the first two stanzas. These last stanzas are incredibly haunting because, from what we can infer, the subject has given up on life and committed suicide. It seems that as everything around the speaker (such as the death of Father Tracy, the crumbling of his parents’ marriage, and the lost innocence of the girl around the corner) seems to reveal the true nature of life. This poem provides us with the same naïve ideas we may have felt about childhood and then crushes them as this innocent naïveté caves in on itself.

    The song starts off with just a guitar and vocals, which creates a haunting and somber tone. As horrible as this sounds, I could almost play out this scene in my head, as if it was happening in a movie. When it starts off, it’s almost hypnotic while still maintaining its melancholic sound, then it picks up a bit to add the cymbals, drums, and bass. This allows the listener to feel the growing intensity, which is also taking place in the poem. The world as the subject (of the poem) knows it is crumbling, and this desperation is noted along with the pause of instruments in the song. The song breaks, and allows the guitar and the vocalist to duet by themselves, and then it picks up again. This correlates with the poem because as the rest of the instruments break, the end of the first stanza (of the excerpt) has ended. The next part of the song builds up the final stanza and further intensifies the actions that the subject takes. The tone of the vocalist himself lends to the desperate and haunting tone of this last stanza; he sounds almost as if he is in pain, or as if he is crying. The music builds up as the vocalist dies out, thus correlating with the rash action that was just taken.

    When I first read this poem in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, I cried because of how powerful it is. It holds the power of being beautiful and sad. I wasn’t sure if I could exactly relate to this, but I did feel a certain closeness to it, which confused me. I became obsessed with it, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to use it for this blog. I heard of this song on Tumblr. There was a huge uproar because Miley Cyrus covered it (her cover is beautiful, by the way) and I was curious, so I looked up Jeff Buckley’s version and I fell in love. As I obsessed over the song, this poem began to come to mind and they clicked in my head. Like I said earlier, I can picture this scene in my head to this song, and it gives me chills.

    Anyway, thanks for reading and listening! I really hope you enjoyed. Also, if you want to read the whole poem, here it is: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/absolutely-nothing-2/


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