Sunday, August 15, 2004
McGreevey: Dis-abling a disability
"Disillusion, lying. laziness, sadness, physical pain, and grief for lost love do not fall under the American legal definition of disability; a significant impairment to major life function. Yet who among us has not, in fact, been disabled by such labels? The inability to accept one's circumstances, or tell the truth, or stop putting things off, or manage pain, or go beyond affairs of the heart - although not legally defined as disability, do nevertheless represent socially perceived failures that condition individual nonachievement."
Jim Cohn, "Mahamudra: Ancient Indian-Tibetan Social Theory" The Golden Body
If no one has yet proposed that until this past Thursday Governor Jim McGreevey was living & trying to cope with a profound disability, let me suggest - more than that I am certain - that this is exactly the case. Regardless of what happens to him legally, or whatever political shenanigans he engages in between now & the date his resignation becomes effective, he has already begun the healing / recovery process following a revelation of self; that is, he is dis-abling his disability. His marriage, his fantasies of heterosexuality (common among older queer men, closeted or not, because they believe the lies straight people tell them), even his political ambition, all dis-abled him. Now, facing life without a family, without a home or job, he can afford to be honest. "Now that you got nothin' you got nothin' to lose." The old McGreevey is becoming invisible, he's "got no secrets to reveal." I don't quote this with Dylan's youthful cynicism. The crippled energies McGreevey set in motion three decades ago gave out last week. How that specific moment came about doesn't much interest me. We can begin seeing through it now. I don't need explanations, justifications, or proofs. As truths lifted out of context, the evidence will be a mishmash of statistics & pornography. Let the news media "report" the "scandal."
Add YOUR comments here
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Jim Cohn, "Mahamudra: Ancient Indian-Tibetan Social Theory" The Golden Body
If no one has yet proposed that until this past Thursday Governor Jim McGreevey was living & trying to cope with a profound disability, let me suggest - more than that I am certain - that this is exactly the case. Regardless of what happens to him legally, or whatever political shenanigans he engages in between now & the date his resignation becomes effective, he has already begun the healing / recovery process following a revelation of self; that is, he is dis-abling his disability. His marriage, his fantasies of heterosexuality (common among older queer men, closeted or not, because they believe the lies straight people tell them), even his political ambition, all dis-abled him. Now, facing life without a family, without a home or job, he can afford to be honest. "Now that you got nothin' you got nothin' to lose." The old McGreevey is becoming invisible, he's "got no secrets to reveal." I don't quote this with Dylan's youthful cynicism. The crippled energies McGreevey set in motion three decades ago gave out last week. How that specific moment came about doesn't much interest me. We can begin seeing through it now. I don't need explanations, justifications, or proofs. As truths lifted out of context, the evidence will be a mishmash of statistics & pornography. Let the news media "report" the "scandal."
Add YOUR comments here
