Well, they finally seem to be coming for us.
I doubt anyone outside of San Francisco's subculture recognizes the name Jade-Blue Eclipse. I also don't doubt that some would see (or at least be able to argue) that the deportation of an illegal-alien sex worker is a good thing, due to their own prejudices and a certain lack of context.
So I'll give you the context.
For as long as I'd been coming to S.F. I'd seen Jade. Jade was beautiful, and also strangely plain. I'd see her on the busses after midnight, or dancing on stage at Bondage-A-Go-Go, or in the company of some of the other dark stars of the S.F. underground, the infamous and the contentious, the ones who no longer come out to play in the increasingly vanilla club culture of the City, but whose names seemed to appear ever-so-often in the City's weeklies, or to spontaneously manifest themselves in Michael Manning's art, or (more rarely, but somewhat inevitably) to float bleakly out from the Chronicle's obitiary pages. These were my antecedents, and sometimes my contemporaries, who became famous (or imfamous, or iconic), in an unobtrusive sort of way, often simply because of their otherworldly <i>fey</i> quality, or perhaps because of the quiet intensity and unquestioning conviction with which they were simply <i>themselves</i>.
Jade was one of those people whose very presence calmed me. Simply knowing she was a part of the city I lived in made San Francisco feel like a place where independence was allowed, where any of a thousand paths could be followed; not with desperation, but with a sense of serenity. She was one of the rare, beautiful few who made me feel that, here on the forgotten left edge of the country, there could still be a place for the mad and the beautiful, where the only real law was do as you will, be as you will, and harm no one on the path.
And the bastards chased her out.
But what the hell... It's only another illegal immigrant sex worker, right?
<i>Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.</i>
I doubt anyone outside of San Francisco's subculture recognizes the name Jade-Blue Eclipse. I also don't doubt that some would see (or at least be able to argue) that the deportation of an illegal-alien sex worker is a good thing, due to their own prejudices and a certain lack of context.
So I'll give you the context.
For as long as I'd been coming to S.F. I'd seen Jade. Jade was beautiful, and also strangely plain. I'd see her on the busses after midnight, or dancing on stage at Bondage-A-Go-Go, or in the company of some of the other dark stars of the S.F. underground, the infamous and the contentious, the ones who no longer come out to play in the increasingly vanilla club culture of the City, but whose names seemed to appear ever-so-often in the City's weeklies, or to spontaneously manifest themselves in Michael Manning's art, or (more rarely, but somewhat inevitably) to float bleakly out from the Chronicle's obitiary pages. These were my antecedents, and sometimes my contemporaries, who became famous (or imfamous, or iconic), in an unobtrusive sort of way, often simply because of their otherworldly <i>fey</i> quality, or perhaps because of the quiet intensity and unquestioning conviction with which they were simply <i>themselves</i>.
Jade was one of those people whose very presence calmed me. Simply knowing she was a part of the city I lived in made San Francisco feel like a place where independence was allowed, where any of a thousand paths could be followed; not with desperation, but with a sense of serenity. She was one of the rare, beautiful few who made me feel that, here on the forgotten left edge of the country, there could still be a place for the mad and the beautiful, where the only real law was do as you will, be as you will, and harm no one on the path.
And the bastards chased her out.
But what the hell... It's only another illegal immigrant sex worker, right?
<i>Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.</i>