Dear readers,
I’m a busy working woman but not getting paid to sing with the Denver Women’s Chorus. This is not supposed to be an elitist club, but there might be those who say it should be because the dues are expensive, no retreat scholarships, and so on. However, I managed to do the dues with scholarship, then I managed to get the retreat and costume fees paid, which total in $50. For you blind musicians who are fluent in Braille music, there would be absolutely no way that anyone could translate the music into Braille without increasing costs. That’s the problem, and I don’t want to focus on it now. What I do want to focus on, however, is the fact that the chorus has sung something amazing. I also want to talk a bit about MLK’s vision and how we’re doing with it.
First and foremost, I’d like to think J. E. Pinto for being the enthusiastic audience to the concert, as well as anyone else who’s ever been to a concert with the Denver Women’s Chorus. I personally had a lot of adventures with this music, so to hear the great commentary from people about the music was uplifting and great stuff all around. Let me say that we weren’t perfect, but then again, not a single concert is perfect. I’ve been in marching band concerts and festivals where people’s drumsticks split, and people’s clothes almost fell off and stuff. This is absolutely one of the better days I’ve seen. While nobody’s drumsticks split apart, nobody’s outfits were weird, uniformity was observed all around. I must say though that I almost came to Brighton with a mismatched knee-high, and I had one white and one black one on. Ugh. I almost didn’t have a pair of dark blue jeans, solid with no glitter or sparkles or anything, just a damn solid dark blue. Someone was able to pull that through, and my wardrobe needs a serious makeover anyway.
Then there was the food sauce stain that almost ruined my blouse. Ugh. If only if only I wasn’t eating and if only the sauce didn’t drip on my blouse, but oh well, my superhero choir members jumped in, and yes, I vow that I will buy a huge thing of shout wipes and pens to keep the stains off and all that stuff. Yes, fab, tide, and shout pens are your best friend.
Anyway, enough of my mishaps. Mark said we did good, and he’s the artistic guy. He’s the one who conducts, and seriously considers all the notes the choir gets every time we perform. I personally enjoy the diversity of women that I perform with in the DWC, but there’s something else I would like to share. J.E. Pinto liked the concert a lot, and also shared a recording of one of our songs, but done by Sweet Honey in the Rock. We did a choral version of Ella’s Song, a song with words by a black woman suffragette, which I love that song.
This brings me to another point before I get further into voting rights. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is today, and it honors the memory of a black man who stood up to white power bosses who wanted to eliminate civil rights, still happening today. I wish that Richmond in Virginia would please cancel the gun rally because of the number of white hooded supremacists hanging out at that rally, some of whom would have gone but were arrested by the FBI and identified. MLK would be proud of this.
There’s one thing I don’t like, however. MLK Jr. would have been furious to know that blind and black and gay all mean a barrier to enjoying the lives we want. My fiancé is African American, some splashes of Blackfoot and part Florida Seminole. Okay, that doesn’t shock me, but what doesn’t also shock me anymore is the killing of black mothers’ sons. As stated in Ella’s song, we can’t rest until freedom comes. We won’t stop until true equality is achieved. And even if Commander Judds show up to try to silence us, I say, just put those bastards in the trash and tell them they must submit to our wisdom, our feminine knowledge and teachings. Why? Because I don’t want some white dude sticking his spare parts up my spare parts and reading some justified mean scripture in which Rachel and Leah fight over kids, and get the maidservants involved. I will not be silenced, told not to read or write, or worse, told to bow subserviantly to men. Any man who demands that my body belong to him can grow his own, and try carrying a child and having a stick up his so yeah, it’s a difficult process for a woman to do it. Imagine a male person trying to understand where women come from.
Anyway, enough with the Handmaid’s Tale references here, but to prove a point, I want to state that the killing of women, black people, and disabled people must matter as much if not more than the killing of a frilly white dude who sits there playing golf and not paying attention to what his countrymen want. I’m probably the most militant feminist on the block, but I had to find my voice, had to differentiate between good and bad stuff, good and misinformation. Now, what will happen if we sit quiet and don’t speak?
We will have white men running the show, and the Proud Boys are much like the Commanders of Gilead, and they are ruthless in their pursuit of pleasure at the expense of woman’s dignity and comfort. Let’s just say this: I won’t be a Martha, handmaid, wife, or anything else, neither will our daughters or granddaughters. I will not rest until I make for darn sure my gay and queer friends are not hanging on walls, and where justice is served, I want it served on a golden platter with fries on the side. My friends who can’t stand up for themselves, those whose words fall on deaf ears should know this: I’m stronger than you think. I’m not gonna have a gunman stride into the Central Presbyterian Church and say something rather stupid, where the end of our rights is concerned. Yes, I worry, but I do have a reason to. It’s a five letter word I won’t write here, but to be fair, the guy is a menace to our country and he emboldens hate groups to take up the cause of killing perfectly good people.
Let’s just say that if my fiancé were killed, I’d be at the courthouse screaming justice because he is a black mother’s son. And I’d demand a high price on the head of the man who does this, since I’m blind and isolated and I’d have been even more lonely if Trenton hadn’t come into the picture. He’s amazing, sweet, loving, full of life. But there’s a fat chance that someone who doesn’t like him could do something to him and I’d have to be responsible for it.
If any of my other friends, friends I’ve come to know and love, were aced and speared by such ruthless people, I’d want to make for darn sure that well, let’s just say I’d make it plain that anyone caught in my house trying to perform things like this so called ceremony and so on will have to face trial for what I would call ceremonial violence, which is a book title too. Though the ceremonial violence I’ve thought of is actually the rape of women who are used as reproductive surrogates. This must end. All surrogate mothers should be paid, and the whole process should include insemination, which would be a lot more comfortable than having to lay in the lap of a ruthless wife while a commander unzips his fly and does what he does. The woman who chooses to be a surrogate carrier is already paid a certain amount anyway by insurance companies, and Kim Kardashian has used surrogates to have her kids. She can’t honestly be pregnant because it would kill her anyway. Kanye and Kim are lucky, however, and so many others are not.
What would a moral and pure society look like? I’ll tell you what it would look like without being weird, but let’s say that the number one emblem of equality is the right to vote. We are currently experiencing an attack on voting rights. Florida wants to tax the shit out of felons who get their rights restored, but that’s just not right. There are women who are routinely disenfranchised from the ballot box and must be allowed to speak. Let me say that we sang a beautiful commission piece about that. But does anyone know that the voting rights of blind people are under attack as well? Voter registration is often done by paper, and there are those who say well, fuck blind people because they are stupid. So they want all ballots to be paper print ones, but Utah took a step forward by allowing blind people to vote by app on a phone. Where we are failing is this entirely. I want an app that allows me to vote in an election, so that some ruthless Republican does not accidentally mark the wrong thing in a mail in ballot. Braille ballots are great, but you still have to mark the darn thing. People are trying to talk voter fraud and security, but here’s the problem: I think Trump doesn’t like anyone but himself. He might use the mighty I word a million times in a speech, misquote and misstate a lot of other things, and lie about where we are in American life. I’d like to tell the president that if he knows what’s good for him, resign, Commander Judd. Seriously, this commander better resign before Gilead becomes a reality.
We sang a lot of great songs at the concert, but what happened when we sang What Happens When a Woman was phenomenal. I’ll tell you what I’d do if a woman takes power, especially if it was me.
- I’d outlaw antiabortion groups from harassing women and girls outside clinics. It’s their damn body, people, and it belongs to them, not you. That’s what I’d tell the rest of those folks.
- I’d give Native Americans free houses, and grants would be open to pay the mortgages of any Native who is unable to obtain employment based on not only American indigenous identity, but disability as well. I’d also have to figure out how to restructure the laws about who qualifies for low income housing, and allow felons and those who commit nonviolent drug offenses to have housing because we have so much damn homelessness. I’d start this process in Denver, changing what it means to also be disabled and unemployed in the process.
- I’d also tackle the rent rate problem in states like California, and I’d assist the Californian government in making sure that there’s plenty of power and help all the country’s power companies keep electricity on, especially for people dealing with disability, who might need to charge a power chair and so on. Then there’s the issue of electricity powering things like my Mac, my friend and her phone, and oh so many other things. I have a friend who lives in Palm Desert who loves to bake, but she can’t bake without electricity. Before you say, “Well, she can make a fire and use a camp grill in place of the stove”, think again. Not a safe option, according to a lot of experts. My knowledge of this is quite clear. We need electricity to be powered on for all the time someone lives in a home or apartment building, and disabled customers in places like California and other states with wildfire danger must in any case of a power knockout get huge discounts on the bill. I hope PG&E is doing its part, but if I take over, they better do their darnedest or they could be liable for gross negligence of persons with disabilities. I’d make that charge a thing, and that would lead to the next item.
- If I took power in the capital, there would not be a single nursing home that would not go noodling under the radar because so many elders need our help. Elderly and disabled voters would get that long awaited app, and I’d say, “Fuck voter security for this moment. You are being inconsiderate.” Then I’d turn around and help app devs design an app for disabled U.S. voters, and it would have a registration thingy that would register you to vote online. No excuses, we’d have the hottest votes ever, and we’d certainly be able to cast private ballots at home.
- I would shackle Old Mr. Orange and put him in jail for the crimes he committed against immigrants, children, and the disabled primarily because he could continue influencing hateful groups out there. I’d demand that all hate groups register as hate groups, and when they are seen as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, there would be some rules about not funding these groups. There’d be lots more Terrorist orgs under my watch, including the Proud Boys, any white hate groups that want to shoot down women’s and black people’s rights. I’d even go so far as to keep all hate groups off federal property, including the White House. I would have to make for darn sure that if you want to form a 501c3 org, it would have to go toward the cause you care about, not a hate org. I’d have to label some of the Christian groups like the Family International a terrorist org because of the hateful things they say about homosexuals and such. I’d have a few different things, write a rubric about what a good group looks like, what a proper charity and tax exempt group does and is. Yes, people would shoot me in the foot for this, but we have to get the hate groups under control so that people can live safely.
- On another point dealing with hate groups, I’d eliminate the KKK and other groups and their funding sources, including certain churches. Yes, there might be churches who fall under level 1 Hate group status, and I’ll talk about levels next. But I’d have to outlaw Christians and other religious churches from sending money to antigay orgs, and like in the prior item, the money would have to go toward correcting a social injustice, something like feed the poor, feed the poor, feed the homeless or the poor, help the disabled get housing. What ever!
- There would be three tiers in hate groups I’d have to put on a database registry kind of like sex offender levels, but it helps some with classification. Let’s start with level 3. Level 3 is a moderately hateful group that despises certain people, is elitist, and is caught up in a hate filled agenda to preach against things like homosexuality and marriage equality for disabled and homosexuals alike. Level 3 groups might include a lot of Christian churches that say that “We’re not going to accept and love you for being gay etc.” Or it might be a church that panders its congregants for too much money, and yet does nothing but pay its own way. Churches should be less elitist and more socially accepting. Mile High church is not at all a hate group. I would not classify DWC as a level 3 hate group either, neither would first Mennonite or Soar. Those groups are fine, safe, and exempt from such status.
- Level 2 hate groups are a bit worse, and they’d include the Proud Boys and KKK or some NeoNazi groups. It all depends on what the group’s agenda is. But some groups like this would be considered level 2 if they applaud violence, but don’t act on it, and these groups would have supported Terrorist or level 1 hate orgs. See next item.
- Level 1, the worst hate groups in America, support terror and fear and do commit violence as well as applaud it. Such groups might include an arm of the Proud Boys and members of the KKK and a Mafia family. Groups like this would be ineligible for all government funding, and no, the Catholic Church would not be classified as a hate group per se, but I’d end tax exempt status for that church because of the virginity propaganda that hurts many females with disabilities. See next item.
- All schools, including private ones, would have to have a safe sex workshop. Don’t growl at me, if you are a St. Teresa alumnus, listen up. The whole thing about morality is wrong, and the whole sex before marriage is bad thing is also wrong. Why? 85% of females with disabilities will be raped this year. We need to teach consent for both sexes, and all the LGBTQI+ students who enter for a good education can learn about the religion, but do not impose it on anyone. So what if you’re private? Offer scholarships to low income Catholics who want to enroll their kids, but no more of this virginity propaganda. It hurts girls who are raped, and it hurts those who could be sexually assaulted in college. We’re not handmaids, of course, so please don’t preach about the book of Genesis, and don’t expect me to pick up a bible any time soon.
What would a good and just society look like? I’ll tell you what it would look like.
- Women rule. That’s right, so back off boys.
- Women would be allowed to be themselves and buy vibrators at adult stores, even in the most backwoods states like Florida and … Kay Ivy, are you listening?, Alabama.
- Women would not have to worry about being raped on a date or god forbid at a frat party in college. Boys would treat girls like goddesses, and because of this, they’d never force them into having sex and shame them if they do or don’t. We’re not prudes, okay? We’re not sluts, okay?
- Women and men alike would read and write. Aunt Lydia, are you so insolvent and listening that you want to raise that baton? Don’t raise that stun baton yet, because I’m writing this and you’re just a character of imagination, but you better not pop out into the world I live in … Women can read, and write, and do many things that men can. Right?
- When a woman is eighteen, she goes to college, or doesn’t. If she does or doesn’t, she might meet a cute guy on the street, marry him with both parties consenting, and so on. If she likes ladies, I’d be fine with that. Traditional marriage is off the table, and for most women, we want the choice to be there.
- When a woman leads a country or provincial principality, she leads with love and empathy. She roots out hate and shows the people what love looks like.
- Babies who are disabled will be given homes that absolutely foster their potential independence.
- Babies born out of wedlock are never bastard children, but in my kind of world, the DNA doesn’t lie.
Thank you all for reading my rants, but trust me, this concert weekend, think about all the things you want to do. I’ll tell you what I want to do:
- I want to write this blog without judgment.
- I want to read The Testaments without having my finger cut off.
- I want a concert weekend that is empowering and awesome, with women and guys attending who understand what we need or want.
- I want to sing, “What Happens When a Woman”, and give it all I have, without a gunman striding in and saying, “No, your bodies are all mine.” Nope, that guy is going to be somewhere quite miserable and stuff.
- I want an opinion and not have to please anyone, because that’s just me.
- If anyone wants to lend me Aunt Lydia’s stun baton, please do so I can stun a few of the bad guys, not the innocent women in our land. I’d only use it for self defense reasons, especially for being blind and all.
Thank you again for those who went to the concert. I’d be happy if the concert weekend of this week went by with no incident, so there you go.
Sincerely,
Beth
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