A little nostalgia from NY City and the World Trade Center. This shot was created on ektachrome 100 aged 17 years. I used to buy bricks of film and age a few rolls to see how it changes. One I discovered is E100. It change the colors as in this pic. I started to save many on the fridge and use them for specific items that would benefit from this coloration. Here, the blue cast is part of the result, but it does not change the reds. As you see in the sky and the reflection on the WTC.By Isis Win
Famous words of Jack Nicholson when the homicide trial of gay FTC William Santiago in the movie “A Few Good Men.” You wanna know the truth? You can’t handle the truth!
His is not a movie review, but a recount of what is happening in our world now. Ranging from testimony I hear from people I know to social networks, I see too many people are acting up their anxiety because of the status we see today. In the US, as many countries of the world, people are chronically unhappy, and they are showing it publicly.
We are not passing the worst times in history, neither in the US or other countries nor the world. Yes, these are tough times, and at times it seems there is an option to pull out of them. The pandemic is not the trigger for such, but it is definitely the catalyzer. From my corner, I want to check three issues that together make this perception of “The world is ending” real for too many people. Before I enter into those three items, I need to emphasize that although everything may seem the end of something, the current issues are not creating the havoc we see. Mass media, from the press to the digital distribution of thoughts, ideas, and sentiments distort the factual news, creating the needed brain chemistry in a way that it seems we have to armor, get our weapon of choice and join the front.
#1 The status of our country is devastating. I give credit to this destructive element that furthers the distance between the American people. The abuse and dictatorial actions of this regime are a full departure of what more than two hundred years have been instituted in our country, diminishing important values as our constitution. As well, the imposed changes by the administration are a precise exposure of what a radical right-wing is capable of. Nothing to do with the Republican platform, but a recalcitrant move towards full control of our actual status, that feeds frustration of less .50 % of the population. A divide that is comparable to the times that triggered the Social Revolution.
#2 Coronavirus presents a scenario that we do not suppose to see in these advanced modern times. Sadly, the facts show a situation that lacks any potential to forecast the solution, while, millions of people have been locked down for months and are at the brink of losing everything they worked for, for so long. Apparently, the death potential lacks the exponent necessary to protect life, among those carrying themselves as if the disease is not a threat. Facts there are beginning to show and at this point because the novelty of this virus, are beginning to tell us that there is much more than dying from it. Too many survivors, whether light or severe, are showing signs of organs’ damage that may not only threaten their life but as well their quality of life while they are alive.
The third component in this crisis is one of personal value. Still, it can be shown in many other layers of our American reality and life, which shows the consequences of the increasing divide among us: The rampant attacks against transsexuals. In my opinion, this issue was to rise sometime because transsexuality is “considered” something new. It is not, but if we pair it next to homosexuality, gay people started to come out of their closer in massive numbers since the 1960s. Therefore, this issue has been in the minds of public opinion longer than fifty years, and advocacy had achieved many wins because of that. Transsexualism started to appear in the consciousness of people in the past one or two decades, and the number of transsexuals coming out of the closet seems to make this phenomenon like a spreading disease. Not at all, since reliable archeological and written finds present that these cases of transsexualism have existed since our early days of civilization.
My take:
Regarding the first issue, indeed, we have two significant aspects to attack. Number one, we have to change the direction we have taken in almost four years. Meaning, everyone in this administration should go for good. Left and center Americans are concerned that this monarchy could fight the results of the election, avoiding a change of administration, creating a more significant problem for the country. The only possibility to change that would be if the Republican Party steps up and persuades Trump to pass the administration to the newly elected person. Meaning, extreme right-wingers will have to let go of their issues and frustration and come along with the incoming administration. Why is that? We have to narrow our divide. Not that right-wingers should become other than what they are, but their approach, their tactics should change to a point they do not demerit, even destroy those they oppose to. At this juncture, it is evident to return to the status we know of, we must be together. We are facing several antagonistic forces against left or right. Reality is, we are not yet in a wrong, bad place. The US still is the most influential nation, economically and militarily. Nevertheless, we are losing terrain because of the administration and the radical divide. However, we still hold thousands of innovative licenses that grant us that place, and we can develop many more world’s dependent innovations to keep that place. Two items are of utmost importance here. #1 we must stop the theft of copyright ownership (mainly against China), and we must create more innovations before China, India, Russia, and others come up with life-changing innovations. That means higher levels of education should be created in all colleges, and higher education should be available to everyone seeking to achieve it.
Regarding the #2, it is true this is a controversial and seriously threatening virus. Our option right there is what has been suggested over and over, and some countries demonstrated it comes with positive results. It starts by, we open whatever under the strictest available protection. That is more than adequate PPE. Places are sanitized properly, social distance is fully enacted, regular screening exists, tracing becomes infallible, and more importantly, we all follow the required procedures. Meanwhile, the scientific community will continue healing the needed, will prevent secondary effects by proper treatment, and a reliable and trusty vaccine is created. It sounds simple, which is not unless we change the divide, so we all pitch in saving everyone in any regard.
#3 it is ridiculous what opponents to anything regarding transsexualism are doing. Their ignorance does not justify invalidating the perception and experience of TS people. It is absurd from any angle we can see it. For instance: why would a person pursue to change their gender everything? I think of MTF TSs when I think. However, maybe the cases of FTM are similar but different in some scenarios. It is undeniable a man is privileged in most areas of life, social, work, economic, etc. compared to women. Doing so makes it a stupid swap, a consideration we most, TS, take into account before deciding to proceed. The potential losses are more prominent than what anyone could afford. Family, friends, associations, work, achieved gains (schooling, awards), and more. Those are severe threats if pursuing gender congruence. The emotional turmoil we face is comparable to – or worse – than PTSD. It starts from the moment we realize something does not check, and it never stops. Coming out: dealing with what is required to address this nature’s mistake, to face a world that knows little to nothing about it and shuts the door in our face, entering to a corrected path in which either we accept the level of rejection, stigmatizing, ostracizing and violence associated with the reaction of judgmental people make the whole experience as a denial of life, or we quit. What we consider is a normal life may not become such if unlucky. True, there are so many people capable of handling that, but did you read well? Handling something that should not be necessary, and no one else deals with. The list is a long and painful process to the point that if the reason to transition is just desiring, having sex with a man and not feeling homosexual, or enjoying dressing up and looking like an attractive woman, makes the whole absolutely ridiculous and stupid. Denying transsexuality as a natural event result on what we go through, is a denial of the self, and that is something that should never happen because the result does not lead to anything positive and lasting. It is destruction towards TSs , and that will not change anything but make it worst for both parties. We TSs or judgmental people. Is it that opponents believe transsexuals just take the blue pill, and that is it?
In a country where freedom is one of the cornerstones of our fabric, freedom of expression, speech, etc. is vital. Not to be confused by destroying what is not understood, resulted from ignorance, based on that freedom. In fact, this ignorance deters the value of humanity at all levels. Therefore people expressing those toxic ideas should keep them to themselves. Not to use them publicly to invalidate and destroy people that have the very same rights as them. What we have seen through this administration is a clear example of the results of such an attitude. That has brought down so many of our values that, in its defense, caused the death of millions of Americans defending freedom, our freedom.
Those items are just the tip of the iceberg of the status we, the US, and the world, has been facing in recent years. All it takes to verify what I state here is to invest in an honorable and reliable amount of time to query, to find the visually clear facts, and check the results of all that. Well, that unless you are not able to handle the truth.
