Today is Trans Rememberance Day

Isn't it time I did something more...productive with my blog again? Yes!

Anyhow, I caught this about last night but was too beat to do anything. I have to say that I don't actually have any trans friends but then again I scarcely have any gay friends either...but it's still sad to realize how many transgender (I hope that's right) people have fallen victim to senseless violence, phobia and hate :/ not knowing any transgender people doesn't mean I don't want to end the violence against them.

It's a pity when all it takes to be killed is to be different eh? This would be the point where I'd get all existential & cynical and shit but today I want to focus. For one thing if you look at that list I linked to (which I got from Womanist Musings)....well just look at it. All those names and faces. Who talks about them? Who gives coverage to their violent deaths? It should be no surprise that the mainstream media doesn't pay much attention to a dead transvestite in rare exceptions...and that's usually only if you watch CourtTV/TruTV where it usually pertains to, oh, a serial killer picking off hookers or for some reason domestic violence *blink*

But anyway, since school & location don't really allow me to run about willy-nilly doing the things I'd like to do (not even just activism wise *puts Xs on eyes*), at the very least I'd just like to take this day to reflect on these tragically lost lives.

Sigh...that post got cut off a bit because my room mate was irritating the fuck out of me and I felt myself turning too cynical. The truth is that I really do look at those names and part of me mourns. For the families and victims. I think we all should, as we should be working in our ways to end the violence & transphobia, transhate and I mean this sincerely. Have you ever heard John Donne's Meditation 17:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Yuh, the famous "for whom the bell tolls" line. I had to memorize it for English class but I don't think I ever really got it until long after I'd recited. And now I think I fully understand and agree: each person's death in the world diminishes myself, each violent end affects me, whether I'm aware of it or not. It should. We should feel for these people who have lost their lives to senseless hate, as human beings we are involved in mankind. Every person is part of us...and when that is gone part of us is gone too.

It's wonderfully simplistic, that piece; when you put it together with the rest of the meditation it begins taking on a whole different light, but just that section alone I've always thought wonderful, even if you don't subscribe to that particular philosophy. But in any case, I think I've gotten all I need to say out so let us take some time and reflect.