Ida the political Goth

Excerpts from The Journals Of A 21 Century Schizoid Man;

I was at a party held by Alice and John, and this was always a good way to meet not only young Goths, but some of the older people, as myself, who just like parties. They house was an old Victorian style home, with an upstairs and plenty of rooms for people to meet. They often built a fire in the back yard so people could enjoy going outdoors.

It was here that I met Ida, a forty eight year old Goth. She was average size, somewhat thin, average boobs and at first I didn’t really find her all that sexy, even though she wore a leather outfit and common Goth clothing. She had bright orange hair.

I talked to her for a while and learned that she had been very active defending the legal abortion clinics from the religious idiots who thought they could run abortion out of town, if they harassed people around the clock.

She was also occasionally active in the local Peace group. So it seemed I found a Goth, who was both into the culture, but could understand my political commitments. I was intrigued to say the least.

Her favorite band was Bauhaus. But she also appreciated some of the older music, such as Pink Floyd, the Beatles and Patti Smith.  For the first time, since I went to a Goth club, I met a woman I actually had some things in common with besides just the Goth scene.

“So you’ve gone up against those antis (anti-abortionists)?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m not a Christian so I get tired of hearing them pray and sing at us. However, I hate bullies and I refuse to let them get their way just by trying to harass us.”

That she was even political was amazing to me. As with her, I couldn’t stand the fundamentalist religious bullies and as with her, I was willing to do what it would take to stop those idiots.

But I also got an idea of what her background was and what motivated her to leave her middle-class sub-urban life.

“We got married young,” she said. “Then I had a kid by the time I was 21. My husband, Mike, made good money, but all he cared about was having SUVs and Pick-up trucks. I drove our three kids around to school, sports practice and music lessons. After the kids got old enough to move out, I realized I was nothing more than a house-wife for my husband and I was sick of playing that game.”
“We got a divorce,” she continued. “Then I moved to a smaller neighborhood, bought a smaller working-class home, and I began to establish a new identity for myself.”

“That explains a lot,” I said. “I found out I have Hepatitis C and I decided to get into the Goth movement also,” I sad. “I needed something to make my final days seem more interesting. I also wanted to learn something new and the Goths just seem to fit my moods better.”

“How long do you have?”

“I’m trying this new treatment soon,” I answered. “They tell me it usually works. If it does, I could be cured for life and I can go back to having an actual future. The medicine takes almost a whole year and of course I can’t drink anything while I’m on it. But at least it offers me some hope for the future.”

“That sounds great,” she said. “It may be a long wait, but if it works, it beats dying early.”

“I think so.”

“I’m also a Marxist. I’ve been involved in peace issues and labor issues for the later part of my life,” I said.

“I’ve never met a Marxist before,” she said interestingly. “That sounds interesting. You’ll have to tell me about it sometime.”

“I’ve been involved in clinic defense also,” I said.

“That is something I really found interesting,” she said. “There is a lot of discrimination against non-believers, non-Christians, Buddhists, Wiccans, Moslems, atheists and agnostics. It makes me sick and I used to be a Christian. Now I’m a Wiccan.”

“I’m an agnostic and a follower of Epicurus and his philosophy.”

“That’s interesting,” she said. “You’ll have to explain that to me sometime.”

Then she went on a rant about Christianity;

“These are the typical people who live in certain parts of the US and certain parts of the world.
There are still those religions that are incompatible with progressive change. Fundamentalist opposes evolution and they are outright hostile to a scientific outlook. It also promotes bigotry against homosexuals and religions outside of Christianity. They oppose left or liberal religions as if they were devil worshipers. This type of religion has to be challenged and opposed at all times. 
One thing we need to do is read and understand the Bible as well as the fundamentalists do. When they suggest that homosexuality is denounced in the Bible, we need to point out that the Bible also suggests we smash the heads of babies of our enemies during times of war and rape women captured in areas we take during war. We have to point out that believing in a book and its ideas is not worth taking every word literally without question. There are parts of the Bible that are outdated and we need to point that out. Many religions don’t use the Bible as a reason to attack homosexuals, so we can make a distinction between progressive Christianity and conservative fundamentalism rather than arguing that Christianity is simply wrong.”

By the end of the night, I had taken Ida’s phone number and we agreed to get together again. We especially planned to go together to more clubs, but we also figured we could visit each other’s homes and get to know each other.