by Dennis Myers
This ModeRn WoRld
by tom tomorrow
Will you participate in Earth Day? Asked at Java Jungle, 246 W. First St. Robert Molina Barista
My girlfriend is making our plans. I think we’re going to the city event. She’s the one who keeps tracks of these things.
Mike Zuckerman Retiree
No, but I live a lifestyle that is worthy of Earth Day. I don’t own a car. I ride a bicycle. I’m a vegetarian. So I’m kind of an Earth Day guy all year long.
Luke Nyhammer Bartender
Think about it
I’ll be bartending that day. Last year I went down to Idlewild for the celebration. I kind of wandered around and enjoyed the people there.
There’s no debating the fact that sexuality isn’t as Legislators have difficulty with transgender issues. simple as innies and outies or Xs and Ys. Genetic science We understand. Human minds are pattern recognizers, has proven beyond any doubt that sexuality and gender is much more than they are analytical machines. For a spectrum that includes any possible permutation. those who’ve never been closely associated with a We’re born with our chromosomes. Some of our person who looked like a boy, but who understood sexual and gender identities are set at the moment their own identity to be a girl, the idea of this violates of conception. Some change as internal and external the patterns they’ve known all their lives. It violates factors within our lives change. But the idea that their own sense of self. someone would lie about how they feel about their We ask legislators to look a little deeper into identity—unless forced to by someone or an agency themselves to recognize the truth of this. For many, more powerful—just doesn’t make sense. Where’s the their only association with transgender and transsexual benefit? people is through pornography. The Trans people None of this is threatening. fact is, for most people, the vast There’s not even that much to debate bulk of naked bodies we see of any shop, have on the topic. Liberals would say people is through pornography, so people should accept other people we judge everyone by those patterns families, have because it’s the right thing to do. we see. lives. Conservatives would say government We shouldn’t dismiss this hard should stay out of people’s lives fact just because it says negative because it’s the right thing to do. things about our society. We need to step outside your So when people who haven’t been taught how to open own prejudices and recognize the truth of it. their minds make decisions to attack the identities of other Just as most people who aren’t transsexuals or people’s children—to attack children—because they’re transgender don’t publish photos of themselves naked, simply unable to logic out how someone can walk like a neither do people who are. woman but talk like a man, they deserve a certain amount It’s the majority of society that objectifies transof sympathy. It’s more often ignorance than stupidity that sexuals and transgender people, just as it fetishizes or makes them act intolerantly toward others. objectifies women or large penises or shoes. But while we must be sympathetic to ignorance, while All trans people have lives. They shop for grocerstriving to inform, human beings of conscience can’t be ies, have families, go to church, go to school, read tolerant of intolerance. We need to stand up for those books, watch TV. Like the rest of us, they’re sexual children and men and women who are routinely crushed when they’re sexual, and they live nonsexual lives the by ignorance. Ω rest of the time. OPINION
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NEWS
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GREEN
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FEATURE STORY
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ARTS&CULTURE
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ART OF THE STATE
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FOODFINDS
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FILM
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MUSICBEAT
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NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS
Bob Wildman Clinical psychologist
Yes, if there are local activities, I would enjoy participating. Certainly, I support green causes. I believe in global warming.
Paul George Copywriter
I won’t do any fracking that day. I’ll avoid littering. Yes, if there’s something going on in town, I’ll check it out.
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THIS WEEK
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MISCELLANY
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APRIL 16, 2015
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RN&R
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