Long Live the King!

Today is Martin Luther King Day. I know it's kind of a douchey, white-liberal guilt thing to say, but I have to admit that I'm moved by the fact that in less than fifty years our country has managed to go from segragation laws to a black president. Many blacks would argue that the country still has a long way to go, and I would agree. However, I've always found it distasteful to downplay the progress our society has made just because racism still exists.

Bayard Rustin, one of Dr. King's advisers and an organizer of the march on Washington, was an open homosexual. In fact, he ended up voluntarily distancing himself from the movement because segregationists tried to use him as a liability. I also remember reading in Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin that civil rights activists had to avoid using public restrooms when touring as speakers because the opposition would plant men in the bathroom who would accuse the activists of soliciting sex. It's nice to think that such tactics wouldn't fly today. So there's progress all round.

Dude, Have You Ever Looked, I mean Really Looked, at Your Paws?

My poor cat is stoned out of his tiny little gourd. He had to have his teeth cleaned at the vet today, and they put him under for the procedure. He's spent the last two hours sitting in the middle of the floor and staring vacantly off into space, mouth hanging open with his enormously dilated pupils. I want to take a picture of him to post, but I'm afraid the flash will hurt his eyes and fry his brain.

On top of all that, my other cat has decided she doesn't much care for the smell of the vetrinarian that my stoned cat came home with, and she's been hissing and spitting at him. So it's been an evening of nonstop cat drama in my apartment.