Letters to the Editor
Ben Sen
Published Letters: 539 Editor's Choice: 97
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The Harbingers of Culture
[Read the article: The gay voter's guide to the GOP]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A "Gay Republican" seems like a contradiction in terms, given the current debate, but as long as status, class, and money matter the rest of us are going to have to put up with it. In catering to the reactionary element that currently controls the party, the Republican candidates at least have a safe haven in the "privacy" issue.
The poor deluded folks who don't know enough to kick government and religion out of their bedroom don't know they have that right--and as Ron Paul says--it is in the Constitution. The pity is that not more of the candidates have the courage to face off against the ignorance that is turning their party into a laughing stock. But that's what makes them politicians, and bloggers writers.
The real battle is not on the front pages, or even in the churches and temples. The battle is in homes like that of Mr. Keyne's and Cheney's. Do you know anybody who doesn't have a gay relative who isn't either out or still in? How often are they the harbingers of culture, (it was true in my family) and in some cases even sanity in families where disorder rules? Even Cheney had to back down in the face of family loyalty, and Keynes made himself into a fool over it.
No, it's not always the case, but as gay relationships are legitimized in one way or another, and the culture evolves, it is even more likely rather than less that all will sit at the table rather than the few who don't know any better. If becoming more human is the purpose of religion, the retrograds will ultimately be eased out of the pulpet.
It may still take awhile for the mob to get what is at stake, but it's incredible to think of the progress that has been made in the last fourty years--with the window opening wider every day.
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Vote For Elizabeth Foley in Michigan
[Read the article: The GOP gets gaudy in Michigan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My family homesteaded a town in Southern MIchigan six generations ago, lived for three generations in Detroit where my grandfather started a labor union, and then homesteaded again thirty years ago in the lake country about fifty miles South of the UP.
I know this state. If there is a classic urban/rural split anywhere in the country it is Michigan. The Republicans will tell you the unions destroyed the state, and the Dems will tell you it was the car companies going for the quick, big buck with whatever burns oil and lets the mob play bumper-cars. The kids I knew who went into the executive positions at the car companies weren't the brightest, but were high on the ambition side. Obviously, they were playing hockey the day the lesson plan covered Japan.
My father used to say living in Detroit was like living in Rome--except he saw the empire rise to the golden age and fall in one generation. What killed the city, and ultimately led to the current stalemate in the state was rascism. Pure and simple. The professors can do their calculations about the manufacturing exodus until their fingers fall off, but that doesn't change the fact that the riots signaled the beginning of the end--and now the state is even more polorized than before.
Few will say the word rascism--the last being someone running for office. My mother now lives in a hilly wooded enclave of Dems from labor towns like Flint surrounded by a sea of Republican cherry farmers and wealthy out-of-stateers drawn by the beauty, low prices, and civility of Michiganders. At the age of 85, she argues with her Republican friends about Bush. In the election in 2000, she received one write in vote for president, and in the election in 2004 she received two.
The family is preparing for a landslide in 2008 and look forward to visiting her in the White House for Thanksgiving that year. I know she will do something to stop the war even if none of the current candidates will.
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Turning Your Back On America
[Read the article: Divine politics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Obviously, the reviewer has an agenda the author doesn't. In a discussion that often lacks context, it sounds like that's what the book provides.
How did arguably the most intellectually advanced culture in Europe commit what could very well be history's most "evil" act?
It is a question that no culture can let go unasked by each and every generation and individual. If America is the land of anything today, it is a "hubris" that can lead to the same kind of destruction--a covert imperialism that sees "God" more as a means to greater riches than anything else, regardless of the faith or denomination. All you have to do is watch a little late night TV evangelizing to see how the seed is spread.
The fact that so many Americans are ignorant of the most basic arguements of the 19th and 20th century--that religious texts are most humanely understood symbolically rather than literally--needs to be addressed in whatever forum is available.
Since the failed cultural revolution of the 60's, the mainstream has taken a nose dive toward the past that remains unabated. In '08 it may well take another leap backward if those folks who supposedly "know better" don't get off their cynical, know-it-all asses and vote for another future.
I'm not angry at those victimized and exploited by the reactionary clergy, often holding on to decency by the skin of their teeth, as I am by those more established in the culture who have turned their back on the common good in order to control oil prices, and build fences on the border.