Reality looking like absurd entertainment

No, my rule isn’t working for me, not at all.

Since my PTSD light at the presidential election I, for sanitary reasons, have allowed my self to watch CNN for not more than half an hour a day. To keep track of the spider in the room. I was naively hoping (although not believing) things would calm down after the inauguration. As we all no, it didn’t.

I can’t believe it’s only been a week since I last wrote on this topic. The manic tempo in which this man is ruining his country and the already devastating impact his actions have on the people and the world is…again, unprecedented.

Wolf Blitz and his panel is on at my 7PM, perfect after dinner TV slot. It’s 1PM in Washington, which means it’s most often press conference or briefing room time. In other words, that’s when it happens.

For me, a former journalist who used to be commuting between Sweden and the U.S. for about two decades, it’s impossible to not follow the scene. I might also add I have watched most TV-series located in the White House over the years. And it’s here things get really messed up.

Every evening I am thinking no CNN tonight, I just don’t have the time for it and it makes my heart race and muscles tense. But than again, today it’s press secretary Sean Spicer’s first press conference. And the next day Trump at the Republican’s retreat. And then there is Theresa May visiting the White House. So of course I am watching. Day after day. 

I wake up in the morning asking myself what will he come up with today? Knowing I will find out in the evening. So, it’s like I am watching a drama series daily episode, addicted to it. Only, this is not fiction. No scriptwriter would ever have come up with such a story. This is reality. I am watching reality looking like fiction momentarily. It’s happening right now but it looks like some kind of absurd entertainment. No wonder I fall asleep and wake up as a mess.

Right now my Seattle friends are getting ready for an emergency rally at Westlake Park tonight, supporting the immigrants. Mayor Ed Murray called Wednesday “the darkest day in immigration history” since the internment of Japanese Americans as President Trump signed an order cracking down on so-called “sanctuary cities” for undocumented immigrants. He also stated “The executive order signed today by the president has put our nation toward a constitutional crisis,” promising to use any legal means to fight it. As a sanctuary city Seattle won’t back down.

And this morning, at a chaotic SeaTac airport governor Jay Inslee held a terribly upset speech towards Donald Trump and his administration, watched more than 9 million times and counting. 

I am talking to Trouble 2 about this last week. We agree on (desperately) that one good thing possibly coming out of this is the fact it is all happening so rapidly may cause that much disturbance in society having more Jay Inslees and Ed Murrays speaking up acting, hopefully making people surrounding Donald Trump realizing the country might collapse. But then I put CNN on… only to find Donald Trump saying all the airports are working great. There are no problems. And experts stating it’s most likely that the ban on the now 7 countries is only the beginning.

I have been in the Green Card Lottery for many years, not winning. At this point, would I even want a Green Card? No. I wouldn’t.

But please watch Governor Jay Inslee to see that there is resistance!

https://www.facebook.com/groopspeak/?pnref=story

We are the Champions!

Seattle must go totally crazy today!! 88°F (31°C) and the yearly Pride Parade happening two days after the U.S. allowing same-sex marriage, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision! Oh how I wish I was there on this historic day, but Trouble 1 and Fay are, representing the family!

In 2012 Washington State voters approved same-sex marriage, and the number of states following had climbed to 37 before Friday’s ruling which made U.S the 21st and most populous country to legalize marriage between same sexes.  And the world (at least that’s what we like to think) is celebrating!

For as long as I have known Seattle, the city has been identified as gay friendly, and liberal in that sense. A safe place for people who aren’t shaped for the square box family that’s the norm, at least inside the city borders. Seattle is also run by a gay mayor, Ed Murray.

“ - Grab your water bottles and your parasols and join us tomorrow for the Pride Parade! It promises to be an extra special celebration, and we'll be proudly marching. Hope to see you there!”

It’s the Seattle Men’s Chorus on Facebook inviting everyone to join them today. And yesterday they, as well as Seattle Women’s Chorus, were invited by mayor Ed Murray,  to sing at the Marriage Equality celebration rally at the federal courthouse in Seattle. What they sang? We are the Champions!

Somewhere around the Millennium I made a TV documentary piece on choirs, and Seattle was represented by Seattle Men’s Chorus. At that time there were about 250 singers in the choir, all gay. For me, meeting SMC was very special. A choral singer myself I know that every choir has it’s conflicts, as every community, but SMC totally embraced me, as they seemed to embrace each other.

SMC was too big to be a family. It was a village. A community of 250 they didn’t all know each other. But it was their village. It became clear to me that in a relatively safe city as Seattle, Seattle Men’s Choir was singled out as a place without fear.

I got to know Craig who became a good friend of mine. I was invited to his home which was a very special place. Together with seven other men he had bought a house with eight apartments. They were all gay and had their own place within the house. To me, it seemed obvious although I might have read too much into it, so I had to ask Craig the question: “so, is this your safe haven. The eight of you?” He looked at me, surprised. Paused. Nodding slowly. “Perhaps it is”. 

Historians date the modern gay-rights movement to 1969, when patrons of the New York gay bar Stonewall Inn fought back against police harassment. In recent years, the momentum for approval of same-sex marriage has escalated. But the court ruling doesn’t end homophobia. Discrimination lingers in areas such as parental rights for example. Suicide rates continue to be elevated among young people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transsexual. Harassment and bullying are still real. And coming out can still be difficult.

Let’s hope though that the law for same-sex marriages in the most populous country will make a real difference, not only to the U.S but to the world. And I picture the Pride Parade triumphing through a hot downtown today, and let’s all join them: We are the Champions, we are the Champions!

Pot more/Top less

- Heads up, this is Sweden, prepare yourself for some topless views! 

I keep coming back to the idea my two cities Umeå and Seattle have a lot in common. And that the regions are to a large extent breathing similar air. On two subjects though we are on different planets.

It was 2001 and my friends Matt and Elizabeth and their daughters were here to spend Midsummer with us. The weather was gorgeous and we were heading for a day at the beach. That’s why the heads up. I have to admit we were all kind of disappointed when  it turned out the warning was unnecessary. Nothing topless in sight. Sweden was acting very proper and behaved. And I didn’t get to show off the most exotic of the Swedish features.

What had happened? Well, I hadn’t been on a public beach since the late eighties, and it turned out times had changed.

In the seventies we all burned our bras. We didn’t wear them under our clothes and we didn’t wear them at the beach. Indoor pools were the exception, I don’t think I ever saw naked breasts in the public indoor pool. I, for myself, didn’t buy a bra again until 1993, packing for my first stay in Seattle. I had the feeling bras were mandatory in the U.S.

In Sweden swimsuits are not allowed in public saunas, like at the gym or an indoor pool. For hygienic reasons. In U.S swim suits are required in saunas. I don't really know why. For hygienic reasons maybe.

So what happened in Sweden between the eighties and 2001? I am not sure. But it seems like women have grown more protective about their bodies. I don’t know what the situation is in the ladies locker room sauna, but I know it’s become quite common for girls and young women keeping their swimsuit on in the shower - which is not allowed either, for obvious hygienic reasons.

Therefore, the action two young women in Umeå took this spring came as a surprise to me.

The Umeå City public indoor pool is run by a company, Medley. After swimming topless in the pool, offered to borrow swim suites but denied, the young women wrote Medley and argued for women having the same rights as men to swim only in their bottoms. The actions were gender based and interesting in that perspective. Even more interesting is the result. It is now allowed for women to swim topless in the Medley pool in Umeå. The politicians in Umeå (who also are entitled to have a voice since it is a City public pool) however, have postponed their decision until fall, because of the complexity of the subject.

I am thinking my Seattle readers are raising eye brows and maybe shaking heads at this information. As I am, at the fact that 21 stores for selling recreational pot is about to open in Seattle this summer.

The use, sale and possession of cannabis (marijuana) in the U.S is illegal under federal law. However, on November 6, 2012, voters in Colorado and Washington approved to legalize non-medical use of cannabis - the first states in the nation to do so.

The interest in starting businesses in the weed business in Washington has been so big the state Liquor Control Board decided on a lottery for the 1,174 applicants who made it through the initial screening, 191 of them in Seattle. Out of those 191, 21 lucky ones won the lottery and State officials expect to start issuing store licenses by early July.

I often feel like there is an American in me. A part of me feels more at home in the U.S than in Sweden. The part who starts chatting with people on the street and smiles at strangers. The part with an uncontrolled number of ideas popping out of my head and the drive to make them happen - when my body is not stopping me. The part of me that takes up a lot of space and prefers to live unedited. But on the subject of marijuana I feel a 100% Swedish.

I know quite a lot of people in Seattle my age, who grew up and were young on the West coast. A number of them were at that time deeply affected by drugs and alcohol, either by their own use or people around them. I’ve been told stories where all the adults, parents - parents friends - teachers, were constantly stoned. There were simply no grown ups (by definition) around. And those being young in this environment don’t touch neither alcohol nor drugs today.

Seattle is considered a progressive city. And it truly is. But to me, 100% grown up Swede on this subject, I feel a city fogged by pot is moving backwards, not forward. And what makes me worried, for the less grown up Swedes than me, is that the example Washington and Colorado is setting have an impact even over here. There is more room for being pro recreational drugs in an environment con, when there are allowing examples to fall back on.

I doubt it though, that being allowed swimming topless in indoor public pools in Sweden will work it’s way over to Seattle, I don’t think it would even be considered progressive. 

But here are some truly progressive news from this week: Seattle will be the first city in the U.S. raising the minimum wages to 15$ an hour! Meanwhile Barack Obama was stopped by the Senate on Wednesday trying to raise the minimum in the U.S from 7,25$ to 10,10$, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray managed to come to a deal increasing the cities 9,19$ an hour to 15$! That’s impressive and truly progressive!

Throwing up a legacy

When I first saw them I didn’t even react. It was some years ago and the fall rain was dark. He sat on the wet sidewalk in front of a downtown store with a mug in front of him. I’ve seen this before, it was familiar to me. Only, this wasn’t Seattle, this was Umeå.

The reason I didn’t react was the dark afternoon fall rain tricking me. It transferred me to Seattle where I was used to people in need on most every downtown corner, neighborhood grocery store and highway onramps. Once it was new to me, a scary uncomfortable picture for a small town Swede, but I became a Seattle citizen and learned how to handle this every day situation.

My mother had an aunt Rut. She was mean. There is no other way describing her in an honest way, she was simply mean. And the family let her have her way. No one ever confronted her when she spread her bad behavior and made people upset and sad, even scared. It was a normality and she got away with it. I have been thinking about aunt Rut this last week. For a reason.

Today panhandlers are a reality even in Umeå. They are mostly Romanies from Rumania and they come here to make a living. Their situation in Rumania is very difficult. Begging is the only way they can get a few pennies even in their home country, but people rather throw abusive language at them than money, they are spitted on and chased away. They rather make the long journey to a cold city way up in northern Europe to get a few dollars for sending back to their families. At least here they are not spitted on.

Until this week.

We don’t have the political system with mayors in Sweden. But every city has a top politician who is the public face and with quite a lot of power. In Umeå his name is Lennart Holmlund, and just to make it simple, let’s call him the mayor. This week the mayor of Umeå spitted on the Romani panhandlers, now a part of the Umeå picture.

On his blog (he is a very frequent blogger) Lennart Holmlund accused them for being a part of an organized business, shipped in to Umeå in BMW and Mercedes. People who looked disabled during their panhandling pass, miraculously rising up in the evening stealing high quality beef in the supermarkets. Information he had by hearsay. And there was more. Opinions you would only associate with racist parties. Lennart Holmlund is a Social Democrat.

As I said, the Umeå mayor is a frequent blogger. He has strong feelings against media and prefers to spread his word uninterrupted on his blog. And this is not the first time he is throwing up opinions making you wonder if the man is in his right mind.

What’s interesting though is that we are letting him. He is reelected time after time. And in the same time, he is kind of a joke. He is presenting himself as straight forward, impulsive (in a good way), speaking his mind up (in ways other politicians don’t have the guts to do), and he is building his politics on his daily strolls on the downtown square talking to people. Pretty much the same people every day is my guess. It’s like Mayor Ed Murray would act on a daily chat with the venders at Westlake Mall.

So, every now and then his vomits get public and we shake our heads and he makes the headlines in the news for a while, but hey it’s Lennart, what can we expect?!

And this week he threw up on the Romanies, sleeping in abandoned cars and elevators six hours south of the Polar Circle, eating what they can find or being given, and yet finding that better than staying in Rumania. 

And I am thinking about my mother’s Aunt Rut. How her family let her spit out whatever mean thing that popped up in her head. Because that’s who she was. That’s Rut. Lennart Holmlund, the most powerful politician in Umeå, has a behavior that’s been normalized in our city, to the point that we are hardly noticing it.

This time though, he crossed a line. He went so far even the national media reacted. The Social Democrats in Umeå, in the county and on national level makes it very clear the party is not behind his statement. In this Lennart Holmlund is alone.

Is that a problem for him? Not at all. He stands by his blog posting, making no excuses and no apologies.

Aunt Rut was mean. I’m sure there were reasons for it, we are all carrying our luggage, but what came out of it was malevolence. Is Lennart Holmlund mean? No, I would say he most of the time knows exactly what he is doing. It’s politics, he does his thing and as long as he is not passing that line he gets away with bad headlines for a week or two and with being “such a character”.

Then why would he trespass at this point? I don’t know. But maybe because he is about to retire from office. Although we get the impression he is never thinking twice about all the absurdities coming out of his mouth, he might. Maybe this time he didn’t edit himself though. This is him. The election is coming up in September and he will not run for his current position again. I can’t help wonder about his legacy. Does he? 

Gay/Socialist: the people's choice!

It’s been called a watershed moment in the US history. And it happened this Monday. Seattle’s first out gay Mayor and it’s first socialist were sworn in to office. To me, I must say the latter is more surprising.

In my photo show Away is Home Home is Away, which I produced on commission for The Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle 2002, there is a pair of pictures called Love.

One of them is from my Swedish village, picturing the hands of my beloved neighbors Alida and Värner at that time 85 and 92 years old. The other one two tall and fit macho men in tanks, one of them black the other white, holding hands, looking at each other. I caught them from behind at a red light on Broadway. It’s a street shot and they are not aware of me. To me the Seattle gay community is a signum for the city.

Mayor Ed Murray took the oath from former governor Gary Locke (the first Asian governor on the US mainland) on a Gaelic bible held by his husband. Socialist City Council member Kshama Sawant’s oath was administered by Washington State Labor Council Vice President Nicole Grant, after which both women turned to the audience raising clenched fists.

I must say, I have never seen a raised clenched fist in Seattle. Perhaps I need a new set of photos juxtaposed, one fist in Umeå and the other one in Seattle.

The event was moved from more or less closed chambers to the City Hall, which was packed with about 1000 people. Reporting happened in national and international news outlets including CNN, Fox News, The Guardian of London, The New York Times, The Times of India and Al-Jazeera International.

Seattle is a liberal American city, no doubt about it. Certainly all my friends are. A couple of years ago I had a meeting with a friend of an acquaintance who was a Republican. I had never even met a Republican before. Driving there I felt like I was meeting with someone from a different planet. It turned out he was a nice person, and we didn’t discuss politics.

I would say my friends are not only liberal, but very liberal indeed. They are opinionated and on top of the political debate not only in Seattle, but national and international. We have never discussed the subject but I doubt that anyone of them would call themselves a socialist though. That’s why I am amazed I have to say, to find a raised clenched fist in the City Council.

Kshama Sawant is known for her uncompromising stands and idealism. She is a former Seattle community college economics instructor, and in her remarks at the ceremony she denounced the “glittering fortunes of the super wealthy” in the city, saying they came at the expense of working people, the poor and unemployed whose lives, she said, “grow more difficult by the day.”

Ed Murray is the architect of the state’s marriage-equality law, which made same-sex marriages legal in December 2012, and one of the country’s longest-serving gay politicians. Murray and Sawant come from different places, but I am thinking those places might be befriending. And this far they agree on a very specific subject: the raise of the minimum wages.

The minimum wage in US is 7.25 dollars per hour. State of Washington has the highest minimum wage in the country, 9.19 dollar by 2013. Now, Kshama Sawant is set on making 2014 the year of the minimum wage 15 dollars in Seattle. Ed Murray chose to make a $15 minimum wage for city employees the topic of his first official press conference. And the pledge by both Murray and Sawant to propose a $15 minimum-wage ordinance to the City Council by April has fueled national interest.

The buzz around the Monday inauguration seems to be an extension of Seattle’s progressive reputation around the country. Washington State already was in the national spotlight for its recent legalization of gay marriage and marijuana. Seattle also was the third city in the country to adopt a paid-sick-leave ordinance that primarily benefits low-wage workers. Since then, three more cities including Portland and New York City have followed suit, putting Seattle at the forefront of liberal initiatives.

Growing up in the Umeå area in the sixties and seventies a raised clenched fist has been more natural to me than same sex marriages. Although Sweden was the seventh country in the world making same sex marriage legal, it didn’t happen until 2009. Umeå has been voted Gay City of the Year twice, but I wouldn’t say gay is a major signum for the city as I feel it is for Seattle; hey, Seattle recently sailed past San Francisco as the most gay city in the US! I would say though that Red Umeå, an epithet from the sixties, still has an accurate ring to it.

Anyhow. Anyway. I am wishing Ed Murray and Kashma Sawant good luck serving the people and City of Seattle, and I am looking forward to what will come out of it!