. . . philosophy, classics, art, movies, literature, writing fiction and screenplays, links to my photography — and also logic, artificial intelligence, mathematics, biostatistics, medical research . . . in other words, both halves of my brain: thinking in pictures and thinking in words . . .
Kai Wright, Drifting Toward Love: Black, Brown, Gay,
and Coming of Age on the Streets of New York
Beacon Press, Boston, 2008
ISBN 978-0-8070-7968-3
This is an important book.
Why would I — a dead, white male, a baby boomer — say that about a book from a culture so totally different?
Because when I was a teenager, growing up gay in a white slum in Buffalo, the Stonewall Riots were some 10 years off in the future and inaccessible to me — and, anyway, they were unthinkable. I drifted, lost, making bad choices and acting destructively — of myself and of others.
Kai Wright writes about black and brown kids today in Brooklyn. You might think they’d have a big advantage — with one of the most vibrant, openly gay cultures in the world right next to them in Manhattan, only a subway ride away. But in their social reality, the white, liberated gay culture might as well be on the other side of the world for all the good it would do them in terms of providing scenarios they can choose from. It’s as inaccessible to them now, for a different reason, as it was to me then. Read the rest of this entry »
Note: this was posted in 1997 to an early internet
experiment. For more of my posts, please see The Hyperforum on Sustainability.
This post was a reply I made to a post by another member, David, but I think it stands alone.
I’m tempted not to post this particular response — because it may sound to some people superficially like the message now popularized by Senator Barack Obama — and people might thereby think I’m a partisan of his against Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Primary. I wouldn’t like to sound that way, precisely because I’m dismayed at how fiercely partisan the election has become and I don’t want to add to intolerance on either side. The only two things I will say, in the interest of fairness, are (1) that I didn’t vote for Senator Obama in the primary, and (2) I will support the Democratic nominee, whoever he or she may be, in the general election against any conceivable Republican.
If you read more carefully, you’ll realize that I wrote the following in 1997, before Senator Obama was much heard of, and that my message isn’t the actually same as his. If you’re interested in history, you may recognize that I learned these ideas by reading The History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides — a book about Ancient Greece that I think is very relevant to our times.
When you speak of “courteous, vigorous debate,” you make me think we may be saying much the same thing with differing emphasis.
I was trying to say that citizens need have to have enough sophistication to work for two contradictory-seeming things at the same time. Read the rest of this entry »
“What,” you exclaim, “still more photos of snow in Buffalo?”
“Well,” I reply, “that’s reality.”
The fact is that I love it here and returned after 20 years of what I regarded as exile in a place that didn’t have 4 seasons. The fact also is that, this year, we haven’t had much snow at all — all the snow pictures are from a few years ago — 2002, I think.
View the other photos in this gallery: Buffalo — snow on Delaware Avenue. “Driving down Delaware Avenue, in Buffalo, NY, one snowy afternoon.”
I have no comment on this. There’s no way I could improve it. It says just what needs to be said — succinctly. precisely.
I am preparing other posts about being gay, including analyses of recent scientific work whose authors have shared copies of their published articles. But, right now, I’d like to help publicize Al Gore’s statement without pretending I can add to its exactness.
. . . Actually, though, I do have one comment about Al Gore. It’s what I’ve thought for years, and even far more so since the Nobel Prize. There’s been a link to algore.com in my sidebar all along. I mean, I have to support one of the few politicians who’s in contact with reality — and, in his case, on many issues. But now, Gore’s statement on gays makes my sense of conviction about him as complete as my sense of loss: “Why isn’t this man our president?” Read the rest of this entry »
View the other photos in this gallery: Blue-green winter evening. “Pictures taken, one blue-green winter evening, of a boy and his dog in the snow. Pure west side: Buffalo, NY.”
In two previous posts, I’ve discussed a vision of longitudinal healthcare responsible for people, rather than illness — and for the role that computers and medical informatics could play in making such systems possible. Those two posts discussed the ideas as they would apply to Latin America and to developing countries.
Actually, though, I originally thought about these ideas in the context of healthcare in the United States. I was working at the WHO coordinating center for medical informatics at Norwalk Hospital. By observing physicians daily, and attending rounds with them, I was trying to understand how they made decisions, how the hospital worked out its cost model, and how to follow up on care so that patients stayed well. Read the rest of this entry »
View the gallery containing this photo: Snow in the Bronx and Manhattan. “The walk when these pictures were taken started, after a winter snow storm, near the Jerome Park Reservoir in the Bronx. I walked down Jerome Avenue to the Bedford Park station and took the train to Manhattan, where I wandered past the Chrysler Building and the Flatiron. Eventually I returned to the Mosholu Station and walked up Jerome a bit to find dinner and then back to Mosholu Parkway.”
View the gallery containing this photo: Peace Bridge. “The Peace Bridge spans the Niagara River, just at its source in Lake Erie and about 15 miles above the falls. It connects my home, Buffalo, NY, with Fort Erie in Ontario, Canada. I took these pictures on the Canadian side and on the Bridge itself, one wintry day.”
Henry David Thoreau, in one of his famously crusty moods, gave some famously negative advice in Walden about accepting advice from those who are older:
Practically, the old have no very important advice to give the young.
I’m sure he intended this to be taken seriously — after all he did think it’s important for each person to break from the past and to re-invent himself — but I’m not sure he meant it to be taken literally. After all, how straight would I read someone who also remarks the following, very dryly, tongue in cheek?
It is true, I never assisted the sun materially in his rising, but, doubt not, it was of the last importance only to be present at it.
Although my response to William James uses my intellect, I don’t know if I can state the gist of it intellectually. Somehow, I seem to hear him speak very directly. His writing isn’t just words: there’s a voice. Read the rest of this entry »
Wyman Park is in Baltimore, just in front of the Baltimore Museum of Art and near the Homewood Campus of the Johns Hopkins University. It has two statues, not far from each other.
The first statue has an inscription on its base saying that it represents Stonewall Jackson saying farewell to Robert E. Lee at Chancellorsville. Another inscription explains that the statue was donated by a private individual.
One inscription at the top of the base reports Jackson as saying, “So great is my confidence in General Lee that I would follow him anywhere.” The other quotes Lee as saying, “Straight as the needle to the pole Jackson advanced to the execution of my purpose.” Read the rest of this entry »
If you'd like to know more about me, please see the About page. My qualifications for the scientific entries are in my CV. I see no reason to segregate scientific and technical posts from humanistic ones. In my life, scientific concerns mix with ethical ones, and they shade into a philosophical interest in the nature of cognition and the nature of people. Doing science is as creative as writing fiction, and I get inspiration for both from the same gods. You will find little here on current politics. I'm activist, but in causes not symptoms. Experience in martial arts shows me that the sure way to lose is reactivity; but if you stay cool and remember your training and what you're there for then you achieve goals and, when conflict is unavoidable, you fight and win. The idea of the liberal arts I was brought up in is that broad understanding of cultures and ideas gives you deeper, better goals -- making success more likely and more satisfying. Negatively, the hysteria since 9/11 shows how a country frightened and reactive can destroy itself more than an enemy can. I'm trying to contribute by changing the terms of discourse. See Hyperforum and Thoukydides. . . . As Allen Ginsberg wrote, "America, I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel." One fact shouldn't require special mention; but -- given the nature of the society in which I've grown up and lived -- it often does: namely that I'm gay. You'll see it in some posts and in some links below. I'm proud of being gay and do not hide; more about this on the About page. Gayness is one topic among many here that interest me. The proportion of gay subject matter is shown in the "Table of Contents." Posts on gay subjects are similar to the others and reflect an aspect of my life and world.
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Book Review
In two previous posts, I’ve discussed a vision of longitudinal healthcare responsible for people, rather than illness — and for the role that computers and medical informatics could play in making such systems possible. Those two posts discussed the ideas as they would apply to 
I see no reason to segregate scientific and technical posts from humanistic ones. In my life, scientific concerns mix with ethical ones, and they shade into a philosophical interest in the nature of cognition and the nature of people. Doing science is as creative as writing fiction, and I get inspiration for both from the same gods.
You will find little here on current politics. I'm activist, but in causes not symptoms. Experience in martial arts shows me that the sure way to lose is reactivity; but if you stay cool and remember your training and what you're there for then you achieve goals and, when conflict is unavoidable, you fight and win. The idea of the liberal arts I was brought up in is that broad understanding of cultures and ideas gives you deeper, better goals -- making success more likely and more satisfying. Negatively, the hysteria since 9/11 shows how a country frightened and reactive can destroy itself more than an enemy can. I'm trying to contribute by changing the terms of discourse. See 
One fact shouldn't require special mention; but -- given the nature of the society in which I've grown up and lived -- it often does: namely that I'm gay. You'll see it in some posts and in some links below. I'm proud of being gay and do not hide; more about this on the 
