My Sochi Rant - Sorry, Will try to make it be the only one...

"Yes, a Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice."  ~Master Yoda, Episode V Emipre Strikes Back

So, I do try not to be too political or preachy on here – but at the end of the day, as my lovely wife will point out when my rants become slightly too intense, that is what this is for. So, like any good slightly too sure that my beliefs are the right ones person, I will rant here – but I do apologize in advance.

Look, I am not trying to reinvent the wheel here. I get that the XXII Winter Games are underway in Sochi, and I do get that no matter how much I yelled and screamed, they were never going to not be there. That is not the way life works, and blahity blah blah blah I know, I get it, I hear you, I acknowledge the logical and exact arguments and facts. With the disclaimer out of the way –

What the hell. Seriously….SERIOUSLY? How exactly did that decision happen? Flashback to 119^th IOC Session – July 2007 – Guatemala City: Um, I dunno. Let’s not give it to someone who has had it dude, that is so last century…Well man, I don’t know. We need to decide because there are 13 fun zones in Guatemala City I want to explore…Well, does it matter, just pull a name out of a hat…But we want it to seem more important than that…So who are the surviving bids again? UMMMMMM – I dunno, bubba you want to check that out for us?...Oh um, Sochi, Russia; Pyeongchang, South Korea or Salzburg, Austria – And here I interject not a what the hell but a WTF – did you get the bids from your asses, but hey what do I know, I excelled at English and History in school, not political sway and geography, so back to the decision making process – Well, we have to knock it down to two before we can go sight see, so let’s vote. Okay, by overwhelming numbers, Salzburg, Austria is OUTSKI. Yeah, it is a HUGE gem of culture and history. It is even know and has been voted as one of the best-preserved cities. It is FREAKING gorgeous, and gave us Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, not to mention was some of the set for “The Sound of Music.” – Another side note, Original Sound of Music here people, don’t talk to me about any LIVE Carrie Underwood Version – However, Salzburg is just, I dunno, too boring. They will most likely be able to handle the different cultures and beliefs that come with having athletes from ALL OVER THE FREAKING WORLD there for 2 weeks – they are a huge tourist city, no, no, no. They are way too capable. DUDE I KNOW – Russia, they seem like they are totally caught up and over dissolving the USSR and losing the Cold War. Lets reward their often 18^th century mindsets, and the fact that they still think that every poor decision they have ever made as a nation is just damn liberal westerners misinterpreting their close minded and hateful views with international attention – totally where the 2014 Olympics are! Pass the blunt, because we must obviously be very, VERY high.

Then, Putin took office (for an unprecedented and possibly illegal 3^rd longer term) in 2012. He went from officer in the freaking KGB to politician. He took over when Yeltsin resigned in 1999, and became President in 2000, holding the position for 2 consecutive 4 year terms. In 2008, he was made Prime Minister and in 2011, under a new law extending the Presidency to 6 years, he ran again – though there were protests, he won in 2012 and will be in power until 2018. Though many feel that Putin has done many good things domestically (especially financially) for Russia, he has been plagued with scandal since 2000 with the Kursk submarine incident, to allegations of fraud, to the 2002 Moscow theater hostage incident to the Beslan school hostage crisis – hmm, many hostage incidents I see – to being marked by most outside countries and organizations as decidedly undemocratic and very dictator like. With his new term, Putin has made strict anti-LGBTQA laws, faced many protests and shown an alarming alliance between the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church – an unseen alliance level since the days of Russian communism.

Oh and lets please not forget that currently, Russia’s relationship with America is at an all time low since the F***ING COLD WAR. For the first time since 1960, the US pulled out of a summit in response to Russia granting asylum to Edward Snowden. The US feels Russian is guarding nations that are controlled by terrorists or anti-American governments – Syria, Iran, Cuba…and Russia proudly “protects” them from US interference. When Putin and the Russian government confirmed that their new anti-homosexual “propaganda” (really just anti-gay) laws would in fact be in effect for the Olympics, and that they would in fact apply to all domestic and foreign athletes, media and tourists, they seemed to be upset that us damn western nations had an issue with their internal issues – because we like you know not just LGBTQA rights so much as BASIC CIVIL RIGHTS FOR ALL – and seemed to react like a toddler who was just told that you cannot in fact go through life stomping your feet and inconveniencing all around you because you don’t like it. Also, let’s give a hand for the IOC and the way they reacted…that they will completely support Russia in this and will punish any athletes that politically act out against these anti-gay laws, as that is not what the Olympics is about.

Um. What.

So the athletes can’t be political but can be subject to another countries unjust law. Um Okay. Well you live in the land of the oblivious, say hi to Santa, and let me know how Elvis is at his next live concert. Morons.

This is where the IOC is sending the 2014 Winter Olympic Athletes. Excellent. Hey, for the summer Olympics can we just forego the ceremony and give them all guns and say ready SHOOT. Come on. Nothing may happen. I get that. There may not be one violent incident. I will say though that a non incident is not a victory here. I can honestly say that anyone who had to make the choice between not competing in the Olympics – a possibly once in a life time experience – or going and competing in Sochi will not feel that a non incident was a victory.  There are LGBTQ athletes that had to make hard choices, there are LGBTQ allies that had to weigh a decision that never should have been forced upon them. Well done IOC – way to not politicize the games – wait, I forgot, the host city can apparently politicize the games; by not listening to concerns from other countries and participating athletes, by siding with the host country the IOC can politicize the games; by making the choice to support the host city or not the tourists can politicize the games – the only people the IOC can and as they say will punish for politicizing the games are the athletes. The people who are the reason that the IOC have a freaking position at all. The people why tourists go to host cities. The athletes. So to what I am sure will be very few if any athletes that make that stand, you amaze me. You win a medal or not you are the champions to me. I stand next to you on the podium with my metaphorical fist raised as well, as if we were Tommie Smith and John Carlos in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. To the athletes who just go and perform and live out their lifelong dream – I salute you too. I support every athlete who puts it all out there on their respective course, whether it is snow, ice or anything. I wish you all the luck, I hope you all perform how you want to and I pray to all that I hold as holy (so, Joss Whedon, Star Wars, George Lucas, TBBT, paging Dr. Sheldon Cooper) that every single athlete returns home safely, and whether a medal holder or not, with the knowledge that they are an Olympian and that is a selective and awesome club to be in.

So yeah. That is my rant. Will I boycott the Olympics – to be honest I don’t know. I will boycott a good portion of them, but again, my theory is similar to the one I have always held on the “War on Terrorism.” I don’t support the invasion of countries for nonexistent WMD. I do not support the war. But I damn well support the troops. I do NOT, and I cannot stress it enough NOT, support Russia. I think Putin and his Kremlin gremlins, and his alliance with the Orthodox Church are our generations Hitler and the Third Reich. I think this is mimicking 1936 in so many ways I want to hit people over the head with their history books. I think that the IOC is full of political, spineless morons. I feel that not enough people will speak out or step up. I do however support the athletes. Every single one of them. So a full on boycott, I don’t know. Even if I watch, I will not watch silently. I will step up and protest the only way a person on a different continent who is a no body can. I will blog. I will talk. I will be the little activist I have learned to be in my 31 years on this earth. I will do so with the arrogance and security only a lifelong American can. And I will be proud, every time I do. Because I will not sit silently by. I will shout every time you come for someone else – I will be the one there to shout you down every time. I may not be able to change the world myself but I sure as hell will not silently let it pass. So to my friends and family and whatever poor slobs got sucked into this train wreck of a rant and couldn’t get away – I support whatever opinion you have on boycotting or not. Don’t worry – I will be here to tell you what I think for those of you who care. And for those who don’t.

SUMMER CAMP AT 30?

BY HEATHER MARLETTE

                I know I promised to return to normal after my last more personal and kinda preachy (I can admit it…) blog. This is nowhere near that level, but I do need to take a moment to get out some personal joy I experienced this past weekend and there is no better way to do that than to write it down right? Trust me, there isn’t. Sometimes you can’t think of the words to express the great things you have seen or heard or learned, but personally I can’t always think of the words to SAY them to people, I can to write them. SO here it goes.

                        I am not a nature type person. I have always hated pretty much all things that have to do with nature, like sweating from the heat, being hot, being cold, and rocks in my shoes, insects, arachnoids, and animals of all types, mold, fungus, trees, and leaves. Well, not all things – there was a time when mud puddles were some of my favorite toys, but I am Heather and these things happen. I NOW hate mud puddles as they make my feet wet, and that could make me cold and that sucks. So needless to say, though I did enjoy playing outside when I was a kid, I liked to do it on pavement, in very populated areas. Other then my excursions to the county fair for 4-H things, I didn’t want to do wilderness or camping and I didn’t. This is important to bear in mind because the place that literally made me happier than happy can be was a camp. Like a real camp. For a woman whose catch phrase is “I don’t BELIEVE in nature” this is strange, right? It could be, and the decision to go was not one I made lightly.

I got an e-mail from the Pride Center of the Capital Region that if I was interested, they were looking for counselors for their first ever summer Leadership Day Camp for LGBTQA Youth. I love the work I do with my Youth Group kids, and I knew a few of them were going. Also, the Pride Center of the Capital Region is staffed by people who are very good at their jobs, but more than that by people who every day go out and try to make a difference through their professional and personal lives. These are people who astound me every day, who do what so few are willing to do and do it publically. They are honestly amazing people who I love to work with and learn from literally every time I see them or work with them. Then there are the kids. Going into this I only knew a quarter of the kids going to the camp, but the ones I did know, they are amazing. They are these kids who stand up and say no, we aren’t normal and we won’t bend to the pressure of society to try and make us normal. We aren’t going to lie down and date people of the opposite sex until we get to college to make you happy. These kids, anyone who meets them could never believe the things you hear about kids today. They aren’t the mean little cliques who exclude anyone outside of the bubble they have made for themselves. They are the kids who stand back, look around to see who is being excluded and then walks over and sits down with them. I could write blogs and blogs, and books full of the greatness of these kids, just the ones I knew going in. Now that I went and met the rest of them – well, neither my talent is good enough or my life long enough to write the praises of the kids I was privileged enough to meet this weekend.

Anyway – I got this e-mail and at first was like UM yeah, is that gonna be in a Hotel or Nature, because I think we are having a definition issue here – camping for me is where it’s not my sheets on the nice actual bed and it’s not my preferred brand of toilet paper. Then I realized it was a day camp, so there was a pause in my immediate NO. I have been behind this idea since the start. A camp where LGBTQ youth and their allied friends can come and relate to each other in a completely safe environment - that is an idea I can completely get behind! So, despite my loathing and chosen methodology of not believing in nature I said Yes – sign me up Scottie…more accurately sign me up James, but I digress. So I signed up. Now, I did this in typical Heather fashion, so the week before I was out until late each night leading up to and running around to get ready. We went, and I have never done anything like a leadership camp before, as a youth or adult and it was a little nerve wrecking. What happened in actual detail that is for the youth and adults that were there. I can say that at the end, looking at these kids sitting in a circle debriefing the first year, begging for it to go longer, I was very emotional. I don’t like to cry in front of people, and managed not to, but these kids and this staff, and my fellow volunteer AC’s, and the EMT/nurse/tech who also came as a volunteer…words cannot describe the bond I feel with them all. If any of you have seen a new saying on twitter #hotterthanhot, and if it is annoying you, e-mail me, I will do the whole cheer for you and you can blame my partner in crime, fellow crew AC and new platonic life partner/soul mate for it.

In all seriousness I saw that future LGBTQA youth isn’t waiting to take up the fight when we are gone, they are already joining in. The best feedback I heard from a camper was that he woke up for it on Saturday morning going oh yeah, going to gay camp – but left after the whirlwind two days just having gone to camp. There were specific workshops geared towards LGBTQ issues of course, and it was a constant conversation topic. However, many of the kids don’t see this as anything special, because they are members of the LGBTQA community, and they don’t see it as weird to talk about it or learn about it. So these kids signed up for a LGBTQA Leader Ship Day Camp, and really just got a Leader Ship Day Camp. There were some issues here and there, things we could do different, maybe even better. But every single kid learned, had fun, made a friend, and felt like they final had a place where they were free to be them, that it was okay to like who they like, identify however they identify and know that there is honestly no judgment and no fear. That my friends was a beautiful beautiful thing, and unless you have seen something like it, you may understand what I am saying, but it may seem cheesy to you, because you do not get it. Watching them, I kept having this quote from my all time writing mentor Superstar Joss Whedon (told you, will almost ALWAYS bring it back to him) in an introduction video in 2011, he said “…I want to make some noise. I want to make a joyful noise, I want to make too much noise. I want the neighbors to complain. I’m tired of being polite about something that matters.” Yes I do Mr. Whedon, and so I have been and what I learned this weekend is so do this amazing adults and youth, and so we have and so we will.

Now, I would say I promise next time will be a normal sarcastic/sassy blog, but apparently I was wrong last time so I make no promises. Thank you for indulging!