This afternoon I got an email from a long-time friend who surprised me with a political/religious point of view I never expected. I will change her name to Alice, for her protection, because many of our mutual friends know her and would feed her to the wolves for what she wrote.
“John, (She actually addressed me as Larry, the nickname I grew up with.)
I read you blog today (ED: “Education versus Bullets” Wednesday May 9th) regarding the foul mood of the Republicans in Congress and their failure to spend another dime on the lazy-ass students who don’t pay their school loans. I couldn’t disagree more. It is time we turned the deadbeats off in America. It is time we get them off public dole. What the Republican Senators did was PATRIOTIC (Ed: my emphasis.). It is helping to save America and her values.
But what really caught my eye was your painting gays and other perverts as good Americans. They are not. They are helping to undermind (sic) the very foundation of our principles and our beliefs. We were founded as a nation who believed in God and Liberty and they want to take that away from us in their perverted lifestyle. Read the Bible, John. You grew up with it. What does it tell you about these people? They are sinners.
Why honor them? Why give them any credit? It is like giving our enemies comfort. And that is treason. You wrote about treason the day before (ED: She must be a regular reader…good to know my audience is now so widely based.) and I can tell you that when you support these people, you are giving comfort and aid to the enemies of America.
We grew up together and I know that you know better.”
And so I stared at my computer screen for quite a while realizing this wasn’t a hoax from one of my comical friends; that she was really ticked at me. Here are the words to which she reacted so violently: “I know some awfully good Americans who are gay and atheist. Some are black and Asian and Hispanic. Others fought in wars, still others marched for peace. Many did both. Some believe in evolution and others are creationists. But they wave the flag as strongly as Dick Chaney and Rush Limbaugh ever did, and they never lied to the American people. So where is this strangle hold on American Value? It is not with the GOP. It is in each American’s heart.”
Am I nuts or has this whole us versus them gone so far haywire on the extreme right, that discourse cannot be maintained in a civil manner? After all, the Christian right is screaming the loudest about being persecuted. “It is a war on religion – a war on our values. They are out to get us – to take our rights away!” Really?
They can scream that in one breath and then accuse me of treason for saying I have gay friends who are patriotic in the next breath – really? What about the gay soldiers and sailors who fought for our freedoms? Treasonous? I think not.
What about a war on the godly in the USA? Again, I think not.
To quote Buffalo Springfield (Alice we grew up listening to them together.) “Paranoia, strikes deep…into your life it will creep…it starts when you’re always afraid…step out of line than man will come and take you away. (I just think the man will be dressed in white with a straight jacket for you, Alice – not the cop in blue they were referring to.)
If there is treason in this: I blame the folks in North Carolina who voted against a stand for liberty of an oppressed minority in our land. And they based it on saving the sanctity of marriage and religion. I blame Billy Graham (who I love dearly and respect) for his narrow view, not of religion, but of America. Thomas Jefferson is probably rolling over in his grave; or Arizona for being as backward as any third-world dictatorship. Or Kansas or Texas or Oklahoma or any of the other states that continue to enact oppressive laws against gays, women and others that don’t fit their very narrow window of conservative values.
Remember, Hitler did the same thing.
(ED: Since the writing of this blog, The President of the United States has come out supporting the right of all Americans regardless of race, color, creed or sexual orientation to have the opportunity, under law, to be bound in marriage. That is a huge step forward in civil rights and a huge step forward in coming to terms with an inequality that has existed for too long in this country. To all you right wing Christians this does not mean you have to be gay. It doesn’t even mean you have to like gays. You don’t even have to talk to them or pray for them. It does mean you have to respect their rights as citizens of the United States of America. Because if you don’t, maybe someday they will just outlaw all Baptist. Or all Methodist. Or all… see how this bullshit works?)
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