As far as I know, Barty Crouch Sr, Barty Crouch Jr, and Mrs. Crouch don’t have any Wizard Rock bands named after them. The story of their family is tragic and I think that Mrs. Crouch’s story: dying alone in Azkaban to allow her Death Eater son who her husband sentenced to life imprisonment is one of the saddest stories in the books. But it also makes for some incredibly rich thoughts about her character and the character of her husband and son. Stuff that I think most of us have done little talking about. Is it because it’s just so sad and disturbing? What gives?
I really want to be laughing right now. I don’t want to be making posts about how the Pentagon planted experts to lie to the American people (see below post) or about how President Bush is not following through with the Sudan Accountability Act. I was so excited when President Bush agreed to this last December. But he just missed the deadline for following through. Please send a message for him to take action today!
“I’m not gonna be your mascot, I’m not gonna dance for the Ministry….I’m not gonna put on the Monkey Suit for you and your political aspirations! I won’t pretend that things are cool for your approval ratings. Oh, Rufus Scrimgeour! I’m inclined to believe you’re a vampire, ’cause you’re gonna to suck the truth…out of the situation at hand. And we’re not gonna win this war, we’re not gonna win this war with LIES!” -Harry and the Potters
Despite Rufus Scrimgeur’s pretty intimidating request at the Burrow, Harry Potter flatly turned him down. He was not going to use his status as “the Boy Who Lived” or “the Chosen One” to make people think that the Ministry’s incompetent behavior was okay.
But Unfortunately there are those who we in the public think highly of who don’t have the same integrity as Harry Potter. The same group we are partnered with in the “Rocking Out Against VoldeMedia” campaign is calling for an investigation right now into the US Ministry getting high profile folks to lie to the American people in a pretty extreme way. Read the rest of this entry »
I think if Iorek Byrnison from The Golden Compass, ever met our beloved Rebeus Hagrid, they would make terrific friends. How could Hagrid not like a giant, loyal,and ferocious beast like Iorek? And how could Hagrid not have been outraged when Iorek and his kingdom of armored bears were forced from their home due to melting ice in the Arctic?
Now fast forward over to our world. We also have enormous bears living in the Arctic. And they are losing their homes and drowning due to ice melting in our Arctic as well. Read the rest of this entry »
“they saw Viktor Krum…(as he) dived, right into the lake…’..there’s still the giant squid,’ said Ron. He didn’t sound anxious–if any thing, he sounded hopeful” (Goblet of Fire 444).
Then again, post-snogging with Hermione in the middle of the Battle of Hogwarts/marrying her and having Hugo and Rose, I imagine Krum is no longer so much as a threat as he once seemed. But I digress. Turns out that a real world giant squid has been found to have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom. Yep. Eleven inches makes for quite a giant eye. And 26 feet long, weighing over 1,000 pounds makes for quite a giant squid.
I was at a hockey game a couple of years ago with my girl friend. As someone who doesn’t attend many sporting events I was overwhelmed by the size of the crowd and the game itself wasn’t easy for me to follow or even take much interest in. But then my girl friend started explaining the whole thing to me as if it were Quidditch and suddenly I loved hockey. But I love actual Quidditch even more so I’m excited that there is real world Quidditch and want to participate!
Dumbledore was gay. Most of us realized that his being gay does not change him in the least. In fact, all it does is help us better understand his tormented relationship with Grindewald. But what about the experience of being silenced for being gay? What about the experience of living in a closet because of one’s identity.
Harry was literally forced to live in a closet because of his identity. And while the Dursley’s tried to stamp it out of him, they could not because that magic was part of who Harry was. And when people say they are going to love the sinner but hate the sin, it seems that the only difference between them and the Dursleys is that on the surface they sound more pleasant. But beneath the surface, there is something highly unpleasant. There is a wish to stamp out one’s sexuality, which is part of one’s very identity, part of one’s magic. People should have the right to feel comfortable being who they are. Their sexual orientation is something to be welcomed and celebrated not silenced. Not pushed into a closet.
We feel for those like Lupin and Hagrid who had to hide their identity for fear of ridicule and torment. And let us draw our attention to all those brave people among us whose sexual orientation is different than what our Muggle Minded culture considers “perfectly normal.” None of us are perfectly normal, thank you very much. But we have commonalities. And one of them is that we have sexual identities. They are part of who we are. And they should be free to come out of the silence, free to come out of the closet. Free to be welcomed and cherished for being one important facet of the beautiful and complex creatures that each one of us is.
Tomorrow, please take at least part (or all) of your day to recognize the National Day of Silence. We are going to be silent in honor of the silence that so many members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gendered communities are forced into on a daily basis.
We are going to be silent in honor of those who continue to get ridiculed because they don’t seem to follow “gender norms.” We are going to be silent in hopes that the silence will be broken.
And this year in particular, we are going to be silent in memory of Lawrence King.
Lawrence King was a 15-year-old student from Oxnard, California, who was shot and killed in class on February 12 by a 14-year-old classmate because of King’s sexual orientation and gender expression. The hate crime received little media attention but has served as a rallying cry for the need to address anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment. Organizers have registered more than 100 vigils across the country in remembrance of King at www.rememberinglawrence.org.
In June 2006 I put out the first ever HPA blog post. It was on Global Warming. Harry and the Potters reposted it, putting the HPA on the map but Global Warming is even more dangerous today than it was two years ago.
A Voldemort that is growing stronger with each and every day, fighting Global Warming is something that I’d like to encourage HPA members and HPA chapters to make as one of their top priorities. So please read this HPA blog post on global warming and more important, please do at least one of the three things the post asks you to do. Remember:
The Earth Is Our Hogwarts. Let’s Protect Hogwarts!
BREAKING NEWS: On Tuesday the HP Alliance put out a challenge for 1,000 Harry Potter to sign a petition to prosecute those guilty of war crimes against children in Darfur at http://wantedforwarcrimes.org/hpa by June 1.
I am both thankful and flabbergasted (in a good way) to report that in only 12 hours we exceeded our goal of 1,000 signatures! In 24 hours, we exceeded 2,000 signatures!
To put some perspective on this: the “wanted for war crimes” petition was put out by a fantastic UK based group at the end of February and had collected about 2,000 signatures. The HP community doubled what they had collected over six weeks in 24 hours.
The fact is that we have the numbers, we have the heart, and we are standing alongside Jo Rowling’s statement of supportfor children in Darfur. Can we keep it up? People have told me: “it’s great but the most enthusiastic people have already signed the petition…you’re only going to get another handful of signatures.” But I think “We CAN get a lot more signatures!”
Will you help us get 3,000 more signatures by June 1? If you haven’t signed the petition yet, will you sign it here at http://wantedforwarcrimes.org/hpa? If you have signed, will you tell all of your friends, family. and people in your school to sign? And if you’re on facebook, will you add this facebook application?
Like Dumbledore’s Army who woke the Ministry up to Voldemort’s return, we are going to wake up the UN Security Council to speaking up in the name of all Darfuri children and call for the arrests of their attackers. That’s no small task, but we have the numbers and we have the heart so let’s bring together 3,000 more signatures by June 1!
thehpalliance.org is named Fan Site of the Month by JKRowling.com!
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