My boyfriend recently introduced me to a 1980s television series known as “Dynasty.” I’ve only seen three or four episodes, but I find it quite interesting. The show ran from 1981 through 1989, and follows the oil-rich Carringtons’ fabulous, drama-logged lives. If you follow TNG’s “What We’re Listening To,” you’ve probably noticed that I have a love for the music of the Decadent Decade. As a matter of fact, I’m listening to stereotypically 80′s music as I write this.

Last week, the Governor of America’s second-largest state suggested that secession from the Union should be considered if “Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people.” This statement from Rick Perry came at one of the many Anti-Tax Tea Parties that happened around the nation on April 15. In an earlier speech from April 9 supporting the Tenth Amendment, Perry mentioned States’ Rights enough that I thought he might be channeling George Wallace.

The fact is, we have come to expect this sort of rhetoric from right-wing nut jobs and college Republicans, but it is a bit more noteworthy when a governor suggests leaving the Union. Of course we all know that Perry is just posturing. He wants votes. He is probably not the type to actually try and leave the America, but his voice gives license…

Growing up in the United Methodist Church was certainly good for me. The UMC places a strong emphasis on the social work of the Church, which appeals to the (very) liberal in me. It also places a good deal of emphasis on making your own journey to God, to put things in my terms, which appeals to my independent nature and overly-analytical mind. But the Church has not yet taken the step to accept gays.

Last week I was downtown, but I missed the throngs of protesters marching between the White House and the Capitol. I’m kind of bummed too, because it would have been an interesting thing to see. According to the Washington Post, these “Intactivists” – around fifty of them – were out in defense of the most controversial part of the male anatomy: the foreskin. Their goal is to convince Congress and the President that a federal ban on male circumcision should be enacted. In fact, two of the group’s members, both twenty-one, are on a hunger strike until they achieve their ends.

According to the Post’s article, the young men are devoted to saving others from their plight. They claim that their circumcisions have caused them to miss out on “entire realms of exquisite feeling.” Instead of experiencing what’s left of their sensation, they’ve decided to sit in front of the Capitol Building until they starve or a ban is enacted. They are certainly committed to their side of the issue.

My Junior year in college turned out to be quite an adventure for me. Having returned from a summer living in the former East Germany, I found myself entering what would turn out to be the better half of my collegiate career. I was over halfway done with my academics, but I wasn’t close to being halfway through with my emotional growth.

I was living in an on-campus apartment with three male roommates and an almost-live-in girlfriend (not mine). One of my roommates, let’s call him “V”, I had known since middle school. We were best friends and had been virtually inseparable for years. But there was a growing specter on the horizon. I had come out to myself and was starting to come to terms with this. All of my roommates identified as fundamentalist Christians and I was somewhat worried about being out in that situation. Of course, I was generally worried about being out period.

The column stands alone amongst the trees. People come from thousands of miles to make pilgrimage to its nearby peers, but this object is easily overlooked. Unfortunately, the plight that it represents also went unrecognized for forty years. The gray pillar is less than a year old, but the controversy surrounding it goes back decades.

Over two thousand concrete stelae rise in a wavy, undulating pattern steps from the Brandenburg Gate. Meant to create a sense of uneasiness and to show a system fraught with disorder, Germany’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was completed in 2004. It’s often referred to as the Holocaust Memorial, but that name is not accurate. Officially, it only memorializes the Jewish victims of the Nazis.

It was a clear March night nine years ago. The stars were out casting their pinpricks of light upon the rolling Georgian hills. The parking lot where I sat was washed out by the sodium vapor lights high above. That Thursday night I was nervous as hell. I was about to step into a building and finish what I had started many years prior. My stomach was a tight knot filled with a volatile mixture of acid and butterflies. The scene was not unlike one I would experience a few years later – one which would rend my heart – but this occasion was, in the end, a happy one.

On March 23, 2000, I walked into a room in a church outside Woodstock, Georgia. When I walked out, I was an Eagle Scout.

TNG Contributor Matt wrote this piece.
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TNG contributor and District of Columbia resident Matt’ submitted this piece.
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