Holding On

“I went down a crooked highway
I went all outside the line”

         “Holding On,” The War on Drugs

“Holding On” is an early release from a forthcoming CD, “A Deeper Understanding,” from Philadelphia’s hottest band, The War on Drugs.  One verse goes:

Ain't no way I'm gonna last
Hiding in the seams, I keep moving past
Feel like I'm about to crash
Riding the same line, I keep keeping on

Other tracks on “A Deeper Understanding” include “Pain,” “Knocked Down,” and “In Chains.”  On October 19, after playing two gigs in Philadelphia, the band will be playing at Chicago’s Riviera Theater.  Earlier in the month, I told nephew Bob, who saw them with me at Pappy and Harriet’s in Pioneertown, California, they’ll be playing at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles.  I have The War on Drugs’ more upbeat CD, “Signs of Light,” on heavy rotation, along with The Head and the Heart, headlining Lollapalooza Saturday.  Granddaughter Miranda and Sean will be there.

On the OutHistory website Anne Balay posted stories of trans military veterans James MacGregor Halleman and Marilu Fanning, the latter a trucker from Northwest Indiana.  Balay wrote:

    Since President Trump issued his tweet banning trans Americans from service, countless personal stories have surfaced about who this will affect, and how. Many have pointed out that trans people volunteer disproportionately for military service, and that this has always been true. Long before trans was a category, gender nonconformists and sexual outlaws of all kinds worked as soldiers.

    What doesn’t get enough attention in these stories is that military service is work, and that access to enlistment, and service once conscripted, are labor rights issues. What follow are two accounts, one from a former steelworker and one from a former truck driver. Each demonstrates that Trump’s gratuitous rant serves not to limit trans people’s access to military service, but rather to make education, employment, and daily life harder for trans-identified folks. Given what we know about how many queer and trans youth lack financial support from families, and how few protections there are for trans and queer workers, Trump’s apparently casual words cause real and immediate harm.

young James Halleman(above) and Marilu Fanning (below)

Halleman wrote: “Most of my adult life society viewed me as a very out butch lesbian; however, I always knew that I was male.”  

      I am a transgender woman. I have been transgender all of my life. I tried, for much of my life, to deny who I was and lead the life that I was expected to live. That included, like many of my Trans-sisters, a stint in the military. I am old enough to have had my time in the military be a product of the draft system during the Vietnam War.  However, it was not.  I volunteered to serve in the US Navy. Unlike the current President who was happy to buy himself deferment after deferment, I served proudly and was discharged honorably.  A lot has changed since then. The Research has been done, and we (transgender people) are no longer relegated to the ranks of the totally misunderstood. The majority of our fellow citizens have been open to the advances in the understanding of who and what being transgender really means. Apparently, this current President is not.

      At the beginning of the campaign I supported Trump on the Republican side and Bernie on the Democratic side. Neither was paid for by establishment money. I liked the idea of their independence from being bought and paid for. But Trump really showed that he wasn’t worthy during the campaign. Still, I thought that Trump would actually be friendly to us considering the part of society that he has always been a part of. He’s not all conventional and he likes to have fun, right?

      Instead, I see his utter abandonment of his campaign promises to protect the LGBTQ community to be an example of just how petty, vindictive he is. If you dare to defy or disagree or criticize him, he will come down on you with all of the vengeful hate and fury that is the currency of all tyrants. These are the not the actions of a President of All of the American people. They are certainly not the actions of a great leader and protector of our Freedom. They are the actions of a very dangerous kind of despot that history has shown us to have the potential for the destruction of us all.

      While I started out as a Trump supporter, I became disillusioned with him about half way through the campaign. He has proven to be more dangerous than I ever could have imagined. The transban is not policy just yet and hopefully it will not become policy, but his pandering to the religious right by handing them our heads on a platter has made him dangerous in a very real way. Real people’s lives will be ruined: assholes will think they have a license to hunt transgender people, and people will die because of his ego, and the deaths won’t all be LGBTQ. We have second amendment rights as well and a lot more of us are arming ourselves.

Haverford College professor Anne Balay posted this comment on Facebook along with a photo: “I’ve started setting up my new work office. James Lane present and accounted for.”  Anne apparently had loaned out or given away volume 46, so I sent her another copy.

In People Bodies Susan Keating interviewed Kristin Beck, 51, a former Navy Seal who became a woman after leaving the military having served as part of seven deployments. During that time, she remained in the closet, never revealing that she identified as a female since childhood, when she favored girls’ toys and clothes.  “We value our liberties because we know what it means not to have them,” Kristin declared.  Her main message: America’s trans population is much more widespread than people realize.

 Phil Chase

Neighbor Phil Chase passed away suddenly at age 57.  He was barbequing Sunday and the next day landscapers discovered his body on his deck.  For years we had been trying to get him to serve on the condo board. He finally agreed recently after a job change that didn’t require him to be constantly on the road.  I was looking forward to getting to know him better.  Here is part of the obit:

Phil was a graduate of Merrillville High School, class of 1978. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in business. He started working at Long John Silvers 39 years ago as a cook and worked his way up to Director of Operations with BR Associates. Also, Phil had many successes in his new endeavor working as an Agent for McColly Real Estate. Phil was an incredible musical talent and he loved to share this gift. Phil’s involvement in the music ministries spanned many years. He sang with the St. Peter and Paul youth choir in Merrillville and most recently added to the tenor section of the St. Patrick adult choir. He was an avid pianist and organist and was involved in many performances over the years. Additionally, Phil enjoyed cooking for family and friends, cheering on IU basketball, following the Chicago Cubs and watching his six grandchildren grow. 

According to a biographer Marty Appel, at age 57 Casey Stengel managed the Oakland Oaks to a Pacific Coast League championship and was considering retirement when the New York Yankees called.  Casey went on to win an unprecedented five straight World Series championships, beginning in 1949.  He won two more in 1956 and 1958 before getting fired after the Yankees lost to Pittsburgh in 1960. After a year in retirement he managed the woeful New York Mets for five years.  His “lovable losers” outdrew the Yankees during those years. In those 15 years Stengel became the most popular sports personality.

The clue for “Final Jeopardy” in the category “First Names” was: “This first name of a 21st century activist was inspired by a Pashtun heroine known as the Afghan Joan of Arc.”  Having read Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography, I knew the answer.  One contestant added an “h” to the end of the name, which would have been permissible, but Alex Trebek thought it was an “la,” making it Malalala.”  He ruled his answer incorrect, saying, “you added an extra syllable.” It didn’t affect who won, however.  The Afghan Joan of Arc was Malalai of Maiwand, whose martyrdom at the hands of British troops spurred Afghan warriors on to victory in the 1880 Battle of Maiwand.

On the final day of Stem camp Zoran Kilabarda taught James chess and, explaining probability, Vesna Kilibarda used as an example the odds of a basketball player making one, two or three free throws at games end.  At the closing ceremony Arts and Sciences dean Mark Hoyert, standing well over six feet, quipped that IU Northwest selects its administrators by size.  Director Bhaskara Kopparty said he hoped to see many I the audience next summer or as IUN freshmen.

I met VU professor Allison Schuette (above) at Hunter’s Brewery in Chesterton to discuss expanding her and Liz Wuerffel’s Flight Paths NEH project.  They are focusing on Gary’s Tolleston neighborhood, and I promised to contribute a brief history of a community that dates back to the 1840s. Hunter’s is in such a nondescript facility I drove by it a couple times, but it seemed to be a popular place and, surprisingly, served only vegetarian and vegan food.  Allison had ben there before and would have biked there except for the threat of rain.  She filled me in on VU grads Christina Crowley and Marla Gee, and I told her about Anne Balay’s latest accomplishments.  I’ll try to get Dave to go with me at Hunter’s on some open mike Wednesday.