WHY WE CELEBRATE GAY PRIDE DAY ll

I did not write the helpful Information Provided Below it is from Wikipedia.

Stonewall riots From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Stonewall riots were a series of violent conflicts between New York City police officers and groups of gay and transgender people that began during the early morning of June 28, 1969, and lasted several days. Also called the Stonewall Rebellion or simply Stonewall, the clash was a watershed for the worldwide gay rights movement, as gay and transgender people had never before acted together in such large numbers to forcibly resist police.

Law enforcement raids on gay bars and discotheques were a regular part of gay life in cities across the United States, until the 1960s, when sudden raids on bars in many major cities became markedly less frequent. Most conclude that the decline in raids can be attributed to a series of court challenges and increased resistance from the Homophile Movement.

Prior to 1965, the police would sometimes record the identities of all those present at a raid, occasionally providing the information to newspapers for publication. Police used any convenient justification to make arrests on charges of indecency including kissing, holding hands, cross dressing - even merely being in the bar at the time of the raid.

In 1965, two important figures came into prominence. The first was John Lindsay, a liberal Republican who was elected mayor of New York City on a reform platform. The other was Richard Leitsch, who became president of the New York City chapter of the Mattachine Society at around the same time. Leitsch was considered relatively militant compared to his predecessors and believed in direct action techniques commonly used by other civil rights groups in the 1960s.

In early 1966, administration policies had changed because of complaints made by Mattachine that the police were on the streets entrapping gay men and charging them with indecency. The police commissioner, Howard Leary, instructed the police force not to lure gays into breaking the law and also required that any plain clothes officers must have a civilian witness when a gay person was arrested. This policy caused entrapment of gay men to become much less common in New York City (D’Emilio 207).

In the same year, in order to challenge the State Liquor Authority (SLA) regarding its policies over gay bars, Leitsch conducted a "sip in." Leitsch had called members of the press and planned on meeting at a bar with two other gay men—a bar could have its liquor license taken away for knowingly serving a group of three or more homosexuals—to test the SLA policy of closing bars. When the bartender at Julius turned them away, they made a complaint (D’Emilio 208).

The question then remains why the Stonewall was raided if gay bars were legal and on the rise. John D’Emilio, a prominent historian, points out that the city was in the middle of a mayoral campaign and John Lindsay, who had lost his party’s primary, had reason to call for a cleanup of the city’s bars. There were a number of reasons that made the Stonewall Inn an easy target: it operated without a liquor license; had ties to organized crime; and, “offering scantily clad go-go boys as entertainment, it brought an ‘unruly’ element to Sheridan Square” (D’Emilio 231).

Race may have been another factor. The Stonewall bar was heavily frequented by gay blacks and Hispanics. The decision by the police to raid the bar may have been influenced by the fact that most of the "homosexuals" they would encounter were of black ancestry, and therefore even more objectionable. A large percentage of the rioters were also black men.

Many of those present were transgender and/or drag queens.

Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine, who led the raid on the bar that first night, claims that he was ordered to close the Stonewall Inn because it was the central location for gathering information on gay men who worked on Wall Street. A recent increase in the number of thefts from brokerage houses on Wall Street led police to suspect that gay men, forced by blackmail, were behind the thefts. (Carter 262)

The patrons of the Stonewall were used to such raids and the management was generally able to reopen for business either the same night or the following day.

On Saturday morning, June 28, 1969, not long after 1:20 a.m., police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. A number of factors differentiated the raid that took place on June 28 from other such raids on the Stonewall Inn. In general, the sixth precinct tipped off the management of the Stonewall Inn prior to a raid. In addition, raids were generally carried out early enough in the night to allow business to return to normal for the peak hours of the night. At approximately 1:20 a.m., much later than the usual raid, eight officers from the first precinct, of which only one was in uniform, entered the bar. Most of the patrons were able to escape being arrested as the only people arrested “would be those without IDs, those dressed in the clothes of the opposite gender, and some or all of the employees” (Duberman 192).

Details about how the riot started vary from story to story. According to one account, a transgender woman named Sylvia Rivera threw a bottle at a police officer after being prodded by his nightstick (Duberman). Another account states that a lesbian, being brought to a patrol car through the crowd put up a struggle that encouraged the crowd to do the same (D’Emilio 232). Whatever the case may be, mêlée broke out across the crowd—which quickly overtook the police. Stunned, the police retreated into the bar. Heterosexual folk singer Dave van Ronk, who was walking through the area, was grabbed by the police, pulled into the bar, and beaten. The crowd’s attacks were unrelenting. Some tried to light the bar on fire. Others used a parking meter as a battering ram to force the police officers out. Word quickly spread of the riot and many residents, as well as patrons of nearby bars, rushed to the scene.

Throughout the night the police singled out many transgender people and gender nonconformists, including butch women and effeminate men, among others, often beating them. On the first night alone 13 people were arrested and four police officers, as well as an undetermined number of protesters, were injured. It is known, however, that at least two rioters were severely beaten by the police (Duberman 201-202). Bottles and stones were thrown by protesters who chanted “Gay Power!” The crowd, estimated at over 2000, fought with over 400 police officers.

The police sent additional forces in the form of the Tactical Patrol Force, a riot-control squad originally trained to counter Vietnam War protesters. The tactical patrol force arrived to disperse the crowd. However, they failed to break up the crowd, who sprayed them with rocks and other projectiles.

Eventually the scene quieted, but the crowd returned again the next night. While less violent than the first night, the crowd had the same energy as it had on the previous night. Skirmishes between the rioters and the police ensued until approximately 4:00 a.m.. The third day of rioting fell five days after the raid on the Stonewall Inn. On that Wednesday, 1,000 people congregated at the bar and again caused extensive property damage.

Numerous books on this North American gay civil rights flash point have been written. In 2004, St. Martin's Press published David Carter's Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution, based on ten years of research and interviews with participants. In the book Carter examines inconsistencies of historical record, debunking a number of myths that have surrounded the events of June 1969, including the oft-repeated urban legend that it was the death of Judy Garland that sparked the riots.

The forces that were simmering before the riots were now no longer beneath the surface. The community created by the homophile organizations of the previous two decades had created the perfect environment for the creation of the Gay Liberation Movement. By the end of July the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was formed in New York and by the end of the year the GLF could be seen in cities and universities around the country. Similar organizations were soon created around the world including Canada, France, Britain, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.

The following year, in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots, the GLF organized a march from Greenwich Village to Central Park. Between 5,000 and 10,000 men and women attended the march. Many gay pride celebrations choose the month of June to hold their parades and events to celebrate “The Hairpin Drop Heard Round the World" (D'Emilio 232). Many major American cities including New York City, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis and Columbus as well as other cities such as Toronto hold Gay Pride Marches on the last Sunday of June, in honor of Stonewall. Other cities such as Anchorage, Baltimore, Boston, Des Moines, Detroit, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Atlanta and Washington, DC hold their pride parade in June but not on the last Sunday of the month. Still others, such as Dallas, Texas and Palm Springs, California, hold their celebration in another month entirely. The prominent British gay rights group Stonewall is named after the riots. Numerous gay bars around the world take their name from the revolutionary bar - two of the most famous are The Stonewall and Moose Lounge in Allentown, Pennsylvania and Bar Stonewall in Sydney, Australia.

In 1998. a LGBT-rights group in the United States formed the Stonewall Democrats (affiliated with the Democratic Party). The group was founded by Barney Frank, a gay Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing Massachusetts's fourth congressional district.

The actual Stonewall Inn was vacant and closed for most of the 1970s and '80s. It reopened after its first renovation in the early 1990s. A second renovation in the late 1990s brought in new crowds to its new multi-floor layout. The club remained popular until management lost its lease in 2006. New management expect to reopen the latest version of The Stonewall in February 2007.

The general atmosphere of the days immediately before the riots are dramatized in a 1995 film called Stonew

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Do you know about fair trade?

Fair Trade is a commitment to social justice in which employees and farmers are treated and paid fairly, sustainable environmental practices are followed and long-term trade relationships are fostered. Fair Trade is an innovative, market-based approach to sustainable development.

Fair Trade helps family farmers in developing countries to gain direct access to international markets, as well as to
develop the business capacity necessary to compete in the global marketplace. By learning how to market their own harvests, Fair Trade farmers are able to bootstrap their own businesses and receive a fair price for their products. This leads to higher family living standards, thriving communities and more sustainable farming practices. Fair Trade empowers farming families to take care of themselves - without developing dependency on foreign aid.

The Fair Trade Certified label guarantees:

A fair price

The Fair Trade Certified label guarantees that farmers and workers received a fair price for their product. The Fair Trade price means that farmers can feed their families and that their children can go to school instead of working in the fields.

Care for the environment

Most Fair Trade Certified coffee, tea and chocolate in the US is certified organic and shade grown. This means that the products you buy maintain biodiversity, provide shelter for migratory birds and help reduce global warming.

"Fair Trade supports some of the most bio-diverse farming systems in the world. When you visit a Fair Trade coffee grower's fields, with the forest canopy overhead and the sound of migratory songbirds in the air, it feels like you're standing in the rainforest."
Professor Miguel Altieri, Leading expert and author on agroecology

Community impact

Fair Trade provides a solution for poorer developing countries a way to economic stability. Members of the COSURCA coffee cooperative in Colombia successfully prevented the cultivation of more than 1,600 acres of coca and poppy, used for the production of illicit drugs. In Papua New Guinea, the AGOGA cooperative, is investing in a medical team to meet the healthcare needs of its isolated rural community. In the highlands of Guatemala, indigenous Tzutuhil Mayans in the La Voz cooperative are sending local kids to college for the first time. Near Lake Titicaca, in Peru, the CECOVASA cooperative is assisting members from Quechua and Aymara indigenous groups in raising coffee quality and transitioning to certified organic production. Quality products

Quality products

By receiving a fair price, Fair Trade producers can avoid cost-cutting practices that sacrifice quality. The Fair Trade producers' traditional artesanal farming methods result in exceptional products.

If you agree with Fair Trade practices buy fair trade products and support your local small buisnesses first.

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Destiny

One of my jobs I work as a cashier for a small convenient store in downtown Dover New Hampshire. The store sits on the same block as City Hall, our municipal building. This is where we got the name for our store,” City Hall Market”. I know many of the town’s people who reside in Dover from working at this location over 13 years now. Many interesting and unique characters walk through our doors.

One of these people is a man I have become friends with. He has witnessed first hand many of the atrocities our society has burdened the human spirit with. One day last month we were riding the same bus together to Portsmouth New Hampshire and we got into this philosophical discussion about Destiny! Something I have not thought about since I was in my early twenties.

The conversation went like this: What if everything that happens in our lives is pre-destined? Every single choice we make, from the jobs we work at to the mundane choices like what will we make for dinner tonight. The routines in our lives and the rituals; every single moment has been mapped out for us even before we have experienced it. The only thing that can change in our lives is our attitudes and the way we react and respond to the events in our lives. Writing this blog entry has been pre-determined, that I was going to write this from the moment I was born. The idea of this gives me the Goosebumps.

What do you think? Do you think this is probable?

That’s all for now,

Jasper

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Code Purple

My three year old HP computer has become ill with a disease that is closely related to Alzheimer's disease; named code purple it prevents your hard drive from functioning because the hard drive is not remembering how to connect with the mother board. This happens because the imprint is either missing or becames damaged. The imprinting is like a tattoo. Microsoft and HP have an arrangement to protect their software by imprinting their mother boards and hard drives with these electronic tattoos. If one of the tattoos becomes disturbed it prevents the hard drive from recognizing the motherboards imprinting then you are locked out of your computer system with a code purple. How inconvenient of hp to prevent me from using my perfectly good computer that has lost its mind. In this case HP is the disease that has taken away my computers brain to run its functions. Shame on them.

If you are interested in finding more out about "CODE PURPLE" do a web search on the name Code Purple. I have been able to bypass the code purple with an operating system other then Microsoft based. This does not help me because all that I know is Microsoft.

Thank the universe for good friends. My friend Jim recently built me a computer for a small price. This has enabled me to get back to my internet functions in the last week. Thanks again Jim! Jim is Tracy's husband. Tracy is the author of the "Internet Geek". When they wrote the book about true friendship Tracy and Jim were the subjects.

That’s all for now....

Peace

Jasper

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A Spring Poem I Wrote in 1993

Living Canvas

A faint whisper alerts us
wildlife
manifold
assorted
pairs of wonderous ears
await
listen . . .
GO GROW !
Go GROW !
GO GROW !
GO GROW !
Reverbrate
Grow wild and free.
Grow colors and textures and scent.
Grow plants and flowers and fruits,
nuts leaves and seeds.
Grow bark herbs and vegetables,
shrooms and fungi.
Mate, have orgasms
have cubs, fawns, ducklings, eaglets, tadpoles.
Eggs cracking
Rain falling
Plants creeping
Road kill multiplying.
Chirping, growling, gobbling, purring, peeping, croaking, crying.
Procreation
Copulation
Pollination
Intercourse
Proliferation
POTENCY. . . ENERGY . . .FERTILE . . . SPRING

Copy Write 1993
Jasper Salach

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PERSONAL RAMBLINGS ABOUT BANKS

PERSONAL RAMBLINGS ABOUT BANKS

I had two bank accounts up until 10:00 Am. this morning. Off and on I have made mistakes in my calculations on debits and credits to these accounts and accordingly I was charged the high fees the bank deems appropriate as a penalty; $28.00 there, $5:00 here, $1.00 at the ATM. My brain has questioned these fees periodically and has come to the conclusion to play the game for financial convenience.

When my income was higher those pesky fees would just remind me I had made a stupid mistake and maybe I couldn’t afford to go to the movies that week. Until four days ago when all financial hell had broken loose; now these fees made me choose between doing my laundry and buying groceries for two weeks.

This is how it happened; I deposited $100.00 two weeks ago, to cover a post-dated $100.00 dollar check, and another $45.00 in cash at the ATM machine one week later. I thought everything was fine until I noticed on my online banking that my check had bounced and with it was added two insufficient fund fees of $28.00 each. I realized then I had deposited the money into the wrong account. I thought for sure the bank would understand in my favor and to the banks credit they did reverse one fee leaving me to pay the other fee. I was still screwed though; the money I had posted to the ATM was not available for over 24 hours, so the ATM debit I made that morning for coffee was not covered under the $45.00 dollars in cash I had deposited the night before. Again the bank penalized my account with another $28.00 fee. I was back to owing the bank $56.00 in fees.

I wanted to close my account, but the bank opened a big window and said as long as I have a negative balance the bank would keep my account open charging me a fee of $28.00 a week indefinitely; raping me repeatedly week after week. I felt panic; like I was in a bog of green-back quicksand that had many hands piling fee after fee on top of me.

The next 24 hours were crucial I thought long and hard about what I could do. Part of me wanted to yell loud obscenities at the tellers. Then I would climb atop the Customers Service Desk jumping up and down demanding the fees to be reversed. My feet would kick all desk paraphernalia onto the floor as more profanities spewed out my mouth. Finally, bashing in the computer screens I would release my pants to wiz all over the paperwork. The Dover police would then come to take me away as I yelled more about the financial rape I was experiencing.

The other part of me wanted to see how long they would debit my account. Then I could hire a great lawyer team that would take my case on for free. They would file a suit against my bank and win. I would get all my fees back plus psychological damages. My name would go down in history as the man who broke the bank. I would also be a hero for all other Americans in the same situation.

These two scenarios were a problem, one was unrealistic and the other would get me into a-lot of trouble. To my credit I paid the bank the $100.00 I owed them and the $4.06 I owed them for the coffee and donut that morning, though I still did not know how to handle the bank fees. I had no more money and I felt like I was being financially raped. I then did some research on the internet on whether or not these bank fees were justified by banks recovering legitimate costs. Article after article I read admitted that a good portion of the bank fees were profit makers for the banks. Banks were averaging 10 million dollars a year from insufficient fund fees. At this point I had a huge headache as I came to the conclusion on what I must do. For me my actual solution was worse then the other two scenarios. The actual thing I did first was to calm my active imagination down, then I became docile, called my ex-husband and groveled as I asked to borrow money to fix this expensive quandary.

He was gracious and helped me out. I then went to the bank and closed my accounts. Then to make my impression of banks incredibly terrible this happened. In the process of closing my accounts I realized my work check was actually drawn off of Bank of America. I proceeded to that bank, to cash my work check, to pay my rent. The teller told me I could not cash the check there with out two forms of ID. I only had my driver’s license. A man came up to me after being motioned over by the bank teller to examine my driver’s license. He said to me that the ID was fine except he needed two forms of ID or I could open up an account at their bank. I said I did not want to open an account with them. He then replied “well, it’s because of the “Patriot Act that we need two forms of ID now”. In the long run, after I gave them a long winded speech about banks not serving the poor and that would have to change; they cashed my check this time as a “courtesy” but next time I would have to go to Wal-Mart.

Now on a serious note; What if more and more banks require these policies and then once the national ID goes into effect we won’t be able to cash checks anywhere unless we succumb to this national database that knows everything about us. We won’t be able to travel, receive social security, access basic services at the post office, etc with out this national ID. This is scary. Think about it. It’s not worth giving up your freedom to be safe and sound. We will never be completely safe.

That’s all for now

Jasper.

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Health and Life

My entire Life I have been living the American diet. Periodically my body has told me I need to change my lifestyle in diet and exercise. Last year I was diagnosed with a fatty liver. Nothing to be of great concern, but it could cause me problems as I get older if I don't try to change my diet. Many alcoholics have fatty livers that turn into a chronic diseased liver. You can also have the genetic liver that is more prone to storing fat such as mine is. It concerns me, that is why I am now going to make a dramatic shift in my eating habits and I will be reporting on my Blog the ups and downs of my health plight. As you already know I want to live a long productive life and this endevour can only help me achieve this goal.

That’s all for now …

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A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE BUSH

A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE BUSH

At work I was wheeling a cart full of dog steps towered the front entrance of the store and to my surprise a bird was startled by my cart. I heard the fluttering of its wings and up it flew to the gadget wall. Along the way my feathered friend bumped its tiny head into several poles and other objects. It was scared and it didn’t look good for this special creature.

Two months earlier we had a pair of finches get trapped in the store; no matter what we did we could not catch them. I think they ended up starved-to-death somewhere in the rafters. I did not want this to be the fate of our current captive.

I saw the bird attach it’s self to the gadget wall about 9 feet up. He was huffing and puffing. His beak was staying open to catch its breath. I walked up to him/her and talked calmly to it. I said, “its going to alright, I will make it all better”. I then proceeded to get a three step latter and ran to get a cloth to scoop the bird up in.

I found an apron in the brake room. I then ran back out to where my friend was hanging and I was glad to see him/her still there; almost like it had listened to me.
This is the amazing thing; I then let the bird know that I would be catching him to take him outside. Thinking he would fly away as I drew the apron near to him/her the bird did not flinch. I was able to gently cup my hand around the bird. As soon as I had the bird in my hand it calmed down and was not breathing heavy anymore. Wow, I really think it trusted me to help.

The bird had a beak like a humming bird and its wings were an iridescent blue, green, and yellow. I had to show the store office my find so my co-workers could experience the joy of helping out this trapped guy. Everyone was amazed that the bird allowed me to help him; except one manager remarked, “Whose apron is that” in a harsh tone. I ignored her comment and we released the bird outside on the peat moss in front of the store. In one quick moment the bird flew up and over the store roof never to be seen again. I was so happy to see the bird fly free after that long ordeal.

I share this story for several reasons. Respecting all life is so important to the act of preserving our own future on this planet. We need to be the caretakers of the earth in order to insure that we take care of ourselves too. Life is too precious not too. I happened upon this trapped bird. It was scared shitless. One person made a comment so selfish, that it embarrassed her and all of us who heard her. She made it sound like the apron was more important then the bird’s life. You will have to decide for yourself what was more important. I think its obvious what is more important.

Last the more big business swallows up all of our land the more we are at stake of becoming an endangered species. We need all of our animal and wildlife friends and the echo systems they live on to ensure that the planet is healthy. We are not the only ones here yet we surly act as we are. We need to hold our lawmakers accountable for working in balance with nature.

That’s all for now.

Peace

Jasper

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Imagine New Hampshire

I am developing a new website called Imagine New Hampshire, check it out:

imaginenh.tripod.com

I will write more about my goals for this site later

Peace

Jasper

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