Common Sense	Common Sense Archive

Three years ago, while busy at work with a colleague on some project, we listened to the radio. Over the radio came the news that the Italian-American fashion designer Gianni Versace had been shot and killed on the front steps of his mansion. My colleague snapped "Good!" with a vehemence I still recall today as shocking. Versace and his sister sold those expensive tacky clothes, "prostie chic," I think, was his game. It was hard to imagine that anyone­ other than his murderer, who turned out to be, they think, Andrew Cunanan­ would be glad he was killed; yet my co-worker seemed pleased.

View our poll archive

I recall a lunch I had with Carl Wittman and Allen Young back in the 1970s. Both Carl and Allen were red-diaper babies (I was not; I was a Young Republican). Our conversation turned to mention of the Kennedy Assassination (the first one), and I recall both Allen and Carl saying that they thought that it was probably good for the country and that Kennedy certainly deserved his murder. I am still confused over that one.

But let's take a modern example. What if this happened to you: you're at work, the radio is on. At the news broadcast at the top of the hour you hear that "Dr." Laura, the right-wing hatemonger, had an intruder burst into her studio, pull a gun, and blow her fucking face off and killed her. How would you respond? Would your first thought­ come on, be honest!­ be: "Gee, another senseless tragedy." Or would you say to yourself: "Good riddance to that piece of shit!"

Is murder ever an appropriate response to injustice? I thought of Gerald Levin, the CEO of the behemoth Time-Warner, after his son was murdered. The son was a teacher; one of his students came to visit the son and killed him to get his ATM cards. As I read all about this, I wondered if there weren't some sick justice in all this­ the elder Levin was in charge of much of the filthy gangster rap that got pumped out in the 80s and 90s­ and his son was murdered by a black man, perhaps fanned by the music Papa published. In the strange and cruel logic of the ancient Greek dramas, this somehow made sense to me.

My dear friend, the noted American composer, Charles Fussell, and I were talking one day. Charles, who came of age in North Carolina in the 50s, told me that the two bright, gorgeous guys in his high school, both from local prominent families, he figured were gay guys. Neither could carry on in the hometown. Both guys moved to New York City. Charles told me both were subsequently murdered in situations involving sex­ either fag-bashed, killed by hustlers or tricks. Charles said that the specifics were never mentioned back home, but everyone knew. Two from one town murdered. Think of all the others. You know, The Jews have their Holocaust Museum. Where's ours?

If "Dr." Laura met her Maker in a violent scenario, not to worry, The Shit Machine will cough out another like her in minutes. The right-wing/media conspiracy has them stacked up, like prop planes trying to land at Idlewild (sometimes known as JFK airport) during a storm. Which brings us to the Public Safety issue. I have said this time and again and I will say it once more: these various persons pose a Public Safety Issue to gay men and lesbians and all the ambientes. Whenever a "Dr." Laura opens her trap, we face a public-safety threat. Whenever the likes of Trent Lott opens his upper alimentary canal orifice, another Matthew Shepard-type gay-killing is in the works. When I ponder and read about the French Revolution, the biggest movie of them all, I find some, like Simon Schama, would bitch about how violent and terrible it all was. And yes, the French Revolution was violent and terrible. But you know what? As I get older and see how truly vicious the established culture can be on a regular basis and the violence it regularly inflicts, with no accounting, I sometimes am amazed how restrained the Revolutionaries were, despite the thousands slain. Our gay men are murdered, women slaughtered by men on a daily basis, and no comment, just headlines, nothing is done. Where is our Holocaust Museum?

The Shit Machine continues apace. Why don't all the faggots at Paramount Studio just up and quit the day the studio goes with the "Dr." Laura TV show? Why is there not more violence against those persons and institutions in this society who and which regularly spew out the cause and the implementation of violence against the poor, the deviant, the dissenters, and the queer? I think it would have been hard to be in John Brown's circle, but John Brown is a great American hero. In the face of institutional violence, he did something, yes, violent and brutal, but he did something. And was slain by the beast. Read Thoreau on Brown's conviction (just before Brown was to hang). Shy Thoreau's peroration on Brown's fate is always an inspiration, and I recommend it.

The Shit Machine. Voltaire spent most of his life crusading against the evils of the Catholic Church in France­ "We must crush the infamous." He noted, once, when someone asked him what he would put in the church's place once it was got rid of. Voltaire said, and I paraphrase in English: If I can destroy a monster that devours the human race, do not ask me what I will put in its place.

I do not care the means. Shut down the shit machine.

Author Profile:  Mitzel
	Mitzel was a founding member of the Fag Rag collective, and has been a Guide columnist since 1986. He manages Calamus Books near Boston's South Station.
	Email:	mitzel@calamusbooks.com
	Website:	calamusbooks.com