Kumbayah, My Whatever
I was getting ready to snark on this Melissa Etheridge post at Huffpo, as heartfelt celeb activist statements are eminently snarkable. But it actually seems to represent a sincere effort to bridge divides, understand others, and get away from labeling everyone a homophobe who doesn’t like the way a handful of judges are reordering society … to include some gays who feel like they are being dragged into a banzai charge they don’t agree with, up a hill they don’t particularly care about or intend to hold. All of those links worth the read. Now here’s the snark:
This is a message for my brothers and sisters who have fought so long and so hard for gay rights and liberty. We have spent a long time climbing up this mountain, looking at the impossible, changing a thousand year-old paradigm. We have asked for the right to love the human of our choice, and to be protected equally under the laws of this great country. The road at times has been so bloody, and so horrible, and so disheartening. From being blamed for 9/11 and Katrina, to hateful crimes committed against us, we are battle weary.
Gay people do have a tough road in life. I am very sympathetic to that and have known people who have had to deal with it, including violence. Their road has often been bloody, horrible and disheartening. But “From being blamed for 9/11 and Katrina …” is a tad overly dramatic. Don’t forget Iraq and the “God hates fags” crowd, as long as you’re shouldering the burden of religious extremists’ ridiculous statements.
Here’s a clue. Other extremists … a lot of whom may well be gay marriage advocates … also blamed straight white right-wing American male imperialist warmongers, and Americans in general, for 9/11. It’s the “why they hate us” argument leveled against people who have sought to extend and protect American freedoms and interests in the world. George Bush, meanwhile, was blamed for an act of God that was exacerbated by the neglect of multiple presidential administrations and largely Democratic Louisiana corruption and lackadaisical ineffectiveness, not to mention the historic decision of 18th-century French colonists to live in a coastal swamp. None of it made any sense. The people who level blame like that are idiots. In fact, it could even be a common grievance for all of us to embrace … we aren’t so different after all, sooner or later we all get accused of being responsible for other people’s crimes, for natural disasters. Of all the claims of gay victimhood, blame for 9/11 and Katrina has to go near the bottom of the list.
Meanwhile, how about a shout out to those who are doing the most and giving the most to defend American freedoms, including the freedom to live openly as a gay person under the protection of law in this country, from George Bush to the average hapless grunt on the line fighting al-Qaida in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. You know, ones who are fighting and dying to prevent the “Allah hates fags” crowd from prevailing. Yeah, I know, there’s that Clinton-era “don’t ask don’t tell” thing. American military … bad. It’s a difficult problem. Where’s a legislating judge when you need one?
OK, I’m done. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Eid and Happy Festivus, etc. Happy Nothing to all devout atheists. A big Happy Whatever to my agnostic brothers and sisters out there. A big Kumbayah to everyone, can’t we all just get along?
This holiday spirit thing is infectious. One other thing, though. Hate to quibble, but I suspect the paradigm … with some cultural exceptions … is more than one thousand years old. Unless there are some cave paintings or paleolithic burials I don’t know about.
Hot Air parses the politics.
Topics: America, GWOT, God, ancient mysteries, celeb, other
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:44 am Comments (0) on Tuesday, December 23, 2008
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