Tuesday, September 21, 2010

WHERE’S THE SENSE... I don’t even try to understand quantum physics; Lady Ga Ga’s meat costume puzzles me totally; and I’m still trying to understand maybe seventy-five percent of what James Joyce obviously must have meant in Finnegan’s Wake or whatever it is Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was trying to say in his Phenomenology of Spirit... I’m actually not bothered all that much by Lady Ga Ga’s fashion sense, and I admit I haven’t even tried to reread Finnegan’s Wake for at least thirty years, and I probably won’t get to it way down there on my bucket list for the next thirty.

But something happened today in Washington that puzzles the hell out of me. Actually, I think I understand it... It’s just that I don’t want to believe it. I was sure the end to the disgraceful policy called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would come today. For some of the same reasons that I am willing to excuse severely brain damaged folks from carrying out tasks involving high level cognitive skills, I don’t expect fundamentalist Christians locked in their medieval mindsets to understand the absurdity of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The people who believe they hear the voice of God telling them gays and lesbians are dangerous have enough problems sorting out what’s real and what isn’t; so I guess I’ll cut them some slack. It scares me though. Anybody who sees no problem with the policy would be comfortable with an American version of Sharia Law, and that is a problem for all of us.

But I’m not cutting the legislators who voted NO today any slack at all. I expect anybody elected to represent American Citizens in Congress to see immediately that continuing the policy in the military doesn’t make any sense at all. I don’t feel like going into the reasons here, because it would be an insult to people who are reading this journal entry to assume they don’t understand. I believe you share the sense of shame I feel because we ask people to serve and defend our country but deny them the privilege of acknowledging who they are. I am embarrassed that they must live with the knowledge that many of the very people they serve consider them a risk to other personnel in the military. What nonsense!

What seems obvious is that Republican legislators are unwilling to do anything that might be seen as cooperating with President Obama. They desperately want him to fail. The couple of senators from Arkansas, the state where I was born, are simply suffering from a serious case of moral cowardice. They are afraid the heavy concentration of Fundamentalist Democrats in their state will vote them out of office if they take the right moral stand. So we are stuck at this moral intersection. Eventually we will get through it.I couldn't resist seeing something here besides a dent in a wall made by a car bumper.How can there be anything but hope in this flower!...And how can there be anything but reassurance in the unfolding of these fern fronds...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My friend, Ginny, forwards your photos and writing to me. I was taken by your response to the deaf, dumb, and blind Republican Right about "Don't ask; don't tell." I just want to assure you that this, too, will pass, and much more quickly than these "old white men"* can imagine. I have been teaching in a community college in Ocala, Florida for the past two years, and I am so heartened by the open mindedness of my students. Mind you, they are Southerners! I would expect a liberal philosophy at Grossmont College, where I taught for 17 years, but Central Florida???

They, quite simply, do not care! Most of them have gay friends, (several are gay themselves, although they do not have the security to display it openly here as CA students do), many of them have gay relatives. I suppose there are some Fundamentalist Christians (talk about an oxymoron) who just keep quiet on the subject, but I am pretty sure that even they are in the minority.

I am betting that you remember the song, We Are The World. Well, these kids ARE the world. They are electronically connected to every other kid in the world, even if those young people in the Middle East and China have to hide in basements to Google, twitter and text message. I am convinced that we cannot stop them, and I shout Hooray! We must have the patience to wait for those "old white men"* to die. In 20, no, I think in 10 years, this will all be so much silly history.

Unknown said...

Loved this post Jerral. And your right, it comes down to the simple fact, us against them, or, republicans against Obama.
I just hate how common sense gets set aside because of the game called partisan politics.
I am disappointed in the result of the dont ask, don't tell....but not surprisd at all.
It's so frustrating.

Anonymous said...

"those ferns are ready to pounce, always reminds me of the first Alien movie. Look, if it isnt lady gaga, it would be someone else. We need someone to always fil in the blanks."
Michiel

Anonymous said...

"American politios really befuddle this Canadian. Big vote today on scraping the long gun registry here, should be close."
Michiel