#social deviant

[cooltrash95]

more Social Deviant

[colaface]

Who needs pants?

[socialdeviants]

dr. jack kevorkian, the deviant who fought for the right to die, is dead at 83. i hope he will be remembered for the hero he is and was for so many people who were denied their voice and CHOICE to die on their own terms. thank you, dr. kevorkian for your fight, for standing up for those who could not do so themselves. you have blazed a trail that i hope becomes a mainstreet. may you and the ones you've helped rest in peace.

[socialdeviants]

deviant of the day: dorothy parker

it's Martin Luther King Day, and so you  might be wondering why i picked a short, white woman as the deviant of the day. dorothy parker was known for her acerbic wit, her drinking, her writing and for being a part of the legendary "vicious circle" known as the algonquin round table. however, she was a civil rights activist, in her way, promoting tolerance of, and collaboration between women, men, homosexuals, blacks and jews, if only by spotlighting the ridiculousness of our human natures.

From the Dorothy Parker Society:

"When she died, her will was plain and simple. with no heirs, she left her literary estate to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. she'd never met the civil rights activist, but always felt strongly for social justice. within a year of her death, Dr. King was assassinated, and the Parker estate rolled over to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. To this day, the NAACP benefits from the royalty of all Parker publications and productions.

In 1988, someone figured out that Mrs. Parker's ashes were unclaimed, 21 years after her death. New York tabloids ran stories and readers sent in letters about what should be done with the dust. But the NAACP stepped in and took the box from Paul O'Dwyer's drawer. The NAACP built a memorial garden at the national headquarters in Baltimore, and interred the ashes there.

On Oct. 20, 1988, the president of the NAACP, Benjamin Hooks, dedicated the memorial garden on the office property. The brownish brick memorial is circular, meant to recall the Round Table, according to designer Harry G. Robinson. The memorial stands in a small grove of pines outside the offices, with pine needles and pinecones scattered around the ground.

There is a round urn that holds the ashes, and an inscription on the top. This is what the realParker epitaph says:

"Here lie the ashes of Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) Humorist, writer, critic, defender of human and civil rights. For her epitaph she suggested "Excuse My Dust". This memorial garden is dedicated to her noble spirit which celebrated the oneness of humankind, and to the bonds of everlasting friendship between black and Jewish people."

What does that last sentence mean? You should read Parker's 1927 New Yorker short story "Arrangement in Black and White" to know. Parker was way ahead her time in pushing for social justice. She may be more often recalled as a drinker and wit, but for many, she was a pioneer in the civil rights movement and her memorial is a testament to it."