On this election day, nobody’s waiting for the Hymie’s Record endorsement and besides we seem to be those few, rare undecided voters. Last week I worked with Pocahontas County to present the return of Theme Time (now at the fabulous Turf Club), a monthly revue celebrating one peculiar topic or another, and for our first theme we chose ELECTIONS. You can see a playlist on the offical Theme Time website (here). In my post on that new site I quoted from Steve Goodman’s silly 1976 single, “Election Year Rag”:

The winner’s always someone else and the loser’s always us.

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(“Election Year Rag” by Steve Goodman)

The voter ID legislation implies there is a problem with voter fraud in our state and nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s protect the integrity of our well-earned reputation for fair elections – even during the senate race recount four years ago our officials – Democrats and Republicans – resolved the conflict with decency and decorum. There are many people who didn’t agree with the way it was handled, but few who would argue there was genuine corruption and dishonesty behind the actions of officials. We are a state where you can buy a firearm at a gun show without a background check and that seems more important than casting a vote (again, see quote above).

I am a person who often forgets my driver’s license and keys when I go out. I have never been upset when I am refused a drink in a bar because that is the law. I will feel the same when, inevitably, I am unable to vote for the same reason. It may well be that on that particular Tuesday I don’t have the time to go home, find my license (usually a chore) and get back to the polls. I resent the fact that I may, in some future election, be unable to cast my vote against a further expansion of government authority because of the outcome of this one. I vote NO.

On the subject of the second proposal I will make a similar conservative argument – it is an unnecessary expansion of government power. Same sex marriage is already illegal in Minnesota. This vote will not change that. What it will do is unprecedented in American history: It will amend a Constitution in order to restrict the rights of the people, not of the government. The men who conceived our Constitution would find same sex marriage an abomination, but they would be all the more aghast at any restriction of the people’s rights being included in a state constitution. Consider the number of times you see the phrase “Congress may not” in the Constitution, while you don’t once see the phrase “the people may not.”

This abomination to the core principles of our Constitution will not make my own marriage stronger, nor prevent the staggering divorce rate or the heartbreaking statistics about children born out of wedlock. All I can see it doing is fuck up the lives of the same sex couples in my neighborhood by enormously expanding their already oppressive ostracism. And, in blurring the line between church and state to an unprecedented degree, the proposed amendment will set the stage for other laws that will, ironically, bite churches in the ass (as pointed out with precision in this essay in the Star Tribune last week).

It will also not deal with this nation’s mounting debt, it’s un-paid wars (and the coming veterans’ health crisis neither Presidential candidate has the courage to address), or our stagnant economy. I own a small business and restricting the peoples’ rights will not help us limp along for another year. It will not help my family keep our home in spite of still-falling values and the complete inability to refinance because every appraisal will compare our home to a bank-owned foreclosure sale. It won’t address the fact that we’re terrified to go to the doctor because we seldom understand what is covered and often are disappointed when we find it out. In fact, all of the problems we are facing as a nation will still be here regardless of the presence or absence of state-recognized same sex couples.

It won’t fix a goddamn thing. We vote no.

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(“Someday my Day Will Come” by George Jones)

#1 Rafiki is totally a mandrill, not a dumbass baboon. I looked it up. If Mustafa were here he’d kick your ass.

#2 Yes, taking your kids out for ice cream sucks. We’re not doing that again for a while. You know what’s awesome, taking your kids out for donuts. Trust me, everything works better in the morning.

#3 I finally found a copy of Joe South’s last album, Midnight Rainbow. In fact, a couple of them so there’s one in the shop right now if you’d like to buy it. Next week we’ll post some more Joe South songs.

There’s not a lot of precedence for local politics in our little blog – I like to write about silly songs and stupid records, so if you get worked up getting worked up, this is not the place for inspiration (unless you’re worked up about John Maus, the guy who said, “I’m glad they all have little ‘closed’ signs on their doors now” at the end of his tirade against record stores).

Still, we’re passionate about our neighborhood and about the communities that support it – You can find a lot about our East Lake Street if you search through the Hymie’s blog archives, and if you’ve been coming to our Sunday afternoon in-store performances you’ve seen a lot of Longellow & Seward artists perform.  We’re really proud of that – this is a safe place where you wave to neighbors and friends when you bike down the street, and where you can find a great many of the Twin Cities’ best businesses according to the City Pages‘ “Best of the Twin Cities” issue (including Merlin’s Rest Pub, Leviticus Tattoo, T’s Place, Gandhi Mahal and Miller Upholstery).

But it’s also the neighborhood where a transgender stabbed a bar patron after getting hit in the head with a bottle.  I wouldn’t blame anyone for staying away after the media coverage of CeCe (Chrishaun) McDonald’s trial, but I’ve got to say my piece now that her sentence has been handed down.

It’s bullshit.

Now I know I’m not the best CeCe McDonald supporter because last summer I led a neighborhood fight against the unlicensed nightclub located in the old Hymie’s building which happened to be an active supporter of her cause.  I stand by anything I said or wrote, whether here or in the newspaper, because there are very good reasons that nightclubs are regulated and not located in residential neighborhoods.  And I do not feel that the case of CeCe McDonald was or is being accurately reported by local media.

On June 5th, 2011 CeCe McDonald, a black transgender woman, and her friends were accosted by three patrons outside the Schooner Bar.  After an exchange she did not start she was struck in the face with a beer bottle, and in defense she stabbed one of the assailants with a pair of scissors.  He died at the scene.  McDonald has been cooperative in custody – she flagged down the squad car that arrested her in front of Cub Foods – but has been portrayed as a criminal by the media.  The Hennepin County Attorney has refused to address the assault of McDonald as a hate crime in spite of testimony that homophobia and transphobia were the motivation for the harassment that led to her self-defense.

On Monday McDonald was sentenced to three years for the crime of defending herself (Weirdly biased Star Tribune article here).  It’s a travesty of justice because she didn’t start the argument that led to the conflict.  She was a victim, harassed and struck with a bottle while walking to the grocery store.  I live in this neighborhood and I have to walk by the Schooner every time I buy groceries – even I, a heterosexual white male, often walking with his children, am harassed an bothered, especially in the evening. I am often embarrassed in conversations about the case and about the Schooner when people say, “isn’t that your neighborhood?”

McDonald was smashed in the face with a bottle and had every right to defend herself. Isn’t that what the George Zimmerman people would say? She was not an instigator and has no past criminal record – CeCe McDonald does not deserve a prison sentence for defending herself.

While the nation has spent this past spring in discussion about the legitimacy of Florida’s reckless “stand your ground” law, Longfellow residents struggle with persistent problems. I wish I didn’t have to worry about my wife and children when they went out.  As it is an ex-con with a swastika tattoo can threaten them or anyone else with hate-filled epithets and his friends can assault them.  The only crime seems to be self-defense.

I don’t have a song that can go with this, which usually helps my more serious posts.  I don’t have anything that can go with this. This is probably the worst post in Hymie’s blog history.  I just believe that CeCe McDonald was targeted for violence because of who she was, and for the audacious crime of self-defense she will continue to suffer in a prison cell.  The entire story makes me sick to my stomach.

I recognize we may lose some customers by supporting a transgender person of color, but I’m comfortable with that – we’re here regardless and going to a record store is always going to be fun, no matter who you are.  Everyone should feel welcome coming here, just as everyone should feel welcome walking down the goddamn street.

In addition to her sentence, CeCe McDonald has been ordered to pay over $6000 in restitution – you can support her legal cause, if you feel so inclined, here. 

You can contact the Hennepin County Attorney’s office at 612-348-5550.  He might not hear the phone ring because his head is pretty far up his ass.