The O-town Scene

College Guy by Sam Spokony Marriage equality just part of wave of societal change By the time this is published, the Marriage Equality Act will (hopefully) have been voted on, and perhaps passed — but I’m not wait- ing for the verdict as I write this because it doesn’t really matter that much to me. Well, all right, it matters, and I understand that a bunch of New Yorkers see the vote as a de- fining and historic moment for the state and the nation. I just don’t recognize this event (or the state Senate’s rejection of the same bill in 2009) as some sort of peak on the societal graph, showing us the most important and enlightened images, words, thoughts. The whole issue, spanning generations on both sides of the present moment, seems to me much more like a wave. One day, in the not-so-distant future, same- sex marriage will be legal in New York — and, believe it or not, Alabama. It won’t be weird or offensive to be gay. An 8-year-old, reading about the Federal Marriage Equality Act in his electronic text- book, will wonder what kind of blockheads had been stumbling around in the dark ages of the early 21st century. He might ask, “Why would you ever treat such a big group of people — or even one person — so horribly, for so long?” His grandmother will acknowledge the question as entirely appropriate and just, but will, of course, remind him that: “You must realize … it was a very different time. A lot of people back then didn’t really understand the things they do now.” And she’ll be talking about us, you and me — the digitally adept, the ones who walk around with iPads, drive hybrid cars, or laugh at the stupidity of racists, anti-Semites, or anyone else we perceive as culturally out of touch with our modern sensibilities. Does it remind you of other civil-rights is- sues that have developed within this country over years of continued philosophical failure and ignorance? Or maybe a better ques- tion would be: did it ever really matter that Arkansas Gov. Orville Faubus ordered his state’s branch of the National Guard to stop African-American students from entering pub- lic high schools in 1957 after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision was being put into effect? Those moments must have been life-chang- ing for all who were involved, black or white, bigot or not, and the personal stakes were im- mense. But did they have any tangible effect on the wave of change that was beginning to sweep through the country at that time? Not really, I think. Or at least it doesn’t seem that way, now that we have the luxury of looking back on events like that with the level of scorn or mockery we understand they deserve. We’re in the midst of so many massive societal transitions taking place across the country and the world — technological, politi- cal, communicative — that it’s really difficult College Girl by Jennifer Tighe Job serves up dish of creepy So I’ve recently started working as a wait- ress in my town, and boy, let me tell you, I’ve met some interesting people. After spending three years at Oneonta and meeting all sorts of crazy characters, I really thought that I had a grasp on what folks were like in the “real world,” but I was wrong, very, very wrong. Now, the funny thing is, the people that surprise me the most aren’t the costumers, they’re the people that I so happily refer to as my employees. I mean sure, I get a few annoying costumers who have to try every ketchup bottle in the joint before they find the one that suits them. And then there are the ones who have to send their food all the way back to the kitchen just to get it thrown back on the grill for half a second and then sent back out. And of course, there’s my absolute favorite costumer, the one-cent tipper. But forget about all of them, it’s the staff that truly amazes me. I can get over the bitchy waitresses, the catty bar- tenders, and the managers and supervisors who seem to think sleeping with their employees is an intelligent way to run a business, but when it comes to the cooks, I get the heebie-jeebies. I mean these guys are truly the bot- for me not to lose touch with the votes and media blasts, letting them run blurry and out focus, while I daydream about how unbeliev- ably changed the world will be in 50, or 100 years. People with the same cranial structures, heart rates, and DNA sequences, thinking and acting so much differently. Maybe it’s sad that I’m not devoting that same kind of mental effort to time as an activist on the front lines of small battles on the road to change — but I’m just having trouble thinking in those terms. Maybe I have a horribly skewed perspective that’s distanc- ing me from the true vanguard of progressive thought, from living in the historic moment — but I can only see the wave. The wave isn’t really worried about how I’m spending my time. In any case, I’d vote “yes” for the Marriage Equality Act a thousand times if it were my job to make such choices. I am one person within the majority group of New York state residents that recognizes same-sex marriage to be the civil rights issue it always was. I hope it passes, or has already passed by the time you’re reading this — but I know it won’t yet mean true equality for my gay friends. And if it doesn’t pass, I won’t be worried about the fate of humanity, or think that we might be slipping into some permanent rut of closed-mindedness. Not all of our neighbors, taxi drivers, teachers, policemen or doctors have entered a new era of acceptance yet, so how could we expect anything more of our legislators? Their descendents will find the same glaring faults with them that ours will with us, and that cycle won’t really ever stop unless the sun implodes, or something like that. tom of the barrel. I popped in the kitchen the other day to check my schedule and proceeded to enjoy an array of quite vivid comments that the worst lawyer in New York state could easily make a sexual harassment case with — every girl’s dream in the work place, right? There is one particular cook, though, that makes me want to lock my doors at night. He spent 30 minutes the other day showing me pictures of his cats, he gives me free food for absolutely no reason what-so-ever, and he gave me his number the other night. Not that creepy, right? Wrong. When the other waitresses saw him trying to butter me up, they informed me that he basically stalked one of them, inappropri- In any case, this is just a daydream, and it, in itself, doesn’t matter very much — or at least not by now, when the issue of the mo- ment in New York has already (well, hope- fully, because it took a while, right?) been decided. Or maybe realizing that we’re only minute parts of a grand, beautiful, inevitably invincible cultural shift is just as worthwhile as sitting in front of your senator’s office with a big sign — but that might only apply to the observers. In any case, I never developed the “liberty or death” passion to campaign for same-sex marriage because I’m not gay — and while I’d like to think that I support human rights for all humans, regardless of whatever, I’ve never faced that kind of prejudice, so I can’t really internalize it. But without a personal understanding of that pain, I at least know that I listen to the gay Americans who continue to be persecuted — and I can learn the pain from them, like learning a song, an old spiritual. So when we’re not busy daydreaming, celebrating or campaigning, maybe we should all just do that — and ride their wave, silent and thoughful. — Sam Spokony Sam Spokony, a music industry and English major at SUNY Oneonta, is spending his summer interning at a publication in Chelsea, a neigh- borhood in New York CIty. ately touched one of them numerous times, wrote some seriously creepy love letters and threatened to beat up one of their fiancés for “taking his girl.” Seriously, dude? I mean you have a pony- tale, come on now. Maybe my managers should have thought twice before hiring all the ex-cons recently paroled from the Hill. I have to say, I didn’t realize that the safety of your employees was such a low prior- ity for businesses around here. — Jennifer Tighe Jennifer Tighe recently graduated from SUNY One- onta with a degree in English. June 30, 2011 O-Town Scene 5

• Cover