Rising Up Wading through whatever foul mess comes along. BY SALLY SHEKLOW At $11.99 a pound, the brand-new organic pistachios should not have landed in our kitchen compost tub. Yet there they went, down into the black lettuce slime and shriveled apple cores rotting in our sink-side container. It was my fault. The pistachios had been sitting on the counter next to a pile of cucumber peelings destined for the compost. I'd meant to put the golden gems into the lovely serving bowl Wifey and I got for a wedding present. I took the bowl off the shelf and set it on the counter, then reached for the pistachios. Not until the last nut plopped into the goopy compost did I notice that I'd tossed the cuke peels into the serving bowl. Oops, my bad. I've been absent-minded a lot lately. I'm doing a million things at once, my mind always elsewhere. I'm preoccupied with strategy meetings, letter-writing campaigns, and lobbying days trying to persuade our state legislators to pass Senate Bill 1000, Oregon's new civil rights bill. SB 1000 would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity (no-brainer) and would also create the civil union option (better than nothing). I stared down at the pistachios and wondered if I should give up. Retrieving them seemed hopeless — the way I feel sometimes about having to slog through the latest skanky, homophobic right-wing barrage. It's exhausting and disheartening and once in a while even we die-hard activists get sick and tired of battling stupid rotten politics. Deep down in the compost goo, a perfect pistachio glinted in the kitchen light. I thought saving the nuts was a lost cause, but there it was, a beacon of hope, a nugget of promise, a glistening pearl amidst the rot. Then it hit me. We couldn't salvage the 3,000 Multnomah County marriages, but, dammit, I could save the pistachios. I upended the plastic container into the sink. The nuts spilled out in a sluice of moldy tea bags, limp melon rinds, and gelatinous banana peels. I ran some water over the slop. Bad idea. Wilted onion skins sank to the bottom and clogged the strainer. The sink filled with soupy brown slime. Fortunately, I discovered that $11.99 a pound pistachios float. Just like lesbian/gay/bi/trans/queer people! When the low-life right-wing scum pass slimy constitutional amendments to push us down, we rise again. We do this after every nasty political battle, every distasteful campaign, every heinous onslaught of myths and stereotypes and dumb-ass elections. We'll climb out from whatever pigswill is hurled at us until justice is ours. Equality for everyone, including LGBTQ people, is worth fighting for, no matter what kind of repulsive gunk stands in our way. Despite the rank smell and yucky glop, I had to rescue those pistachio nuts come hell or a sink full of bilge water. In a sheer act of kitchen butch derring-do, I ran my bare fingers through the sludge and fished out every little pistachio. I meticulously rinsed clean each nut and laid them all out on fresh dishtowels to dry. I'd made a dumb mistake. In one distracted, harried moment I inadvertently used the compost tub instead of the serving bowl. Crazy, but it happened. Now the premium-priced pistachios sat on the kitchen towels in shock, airing out from their mucky ordeal. I hoped they'd recuperate. Luck was with me. In a few hours, the rinsed, air-dried pistachios crisped right up, none the worse for the stress they'd been through — maybe even a little better. In fact, they tasted great. No matter what kind of garbage comes along, valiant queers — and our trusty allies — will wade through it to claim our inalienable rights. The 'phobes can dump us into their foul mess and still we rise up again. We're amazing. Whenever it seems like we're sunk, we pick each other out of the mire, flick off the residue, and rise again for the next push forward. To support Senate Bill 1000 see: www.basicrights.org Writer Sally Sheklow has no intentions of becoming a caterer. She welcomes comments at sally@wymprov.com
		Table of Contents | News | Views | Calendar| Film | Music | Culture | Classifieds | Personals | Contact | EW Archive | Advertising Information |