I Started to Leave a Comment

Then I poured one more cup of de-caf, and here I sit thinking about what WA said so well.

I've said before that for me it's not just an exercise in liberalism, it's personal. I will never understand the people who can meet my younger son and think "fag". He is one of the kindest, most loving people I have known (not just because he's mine). He will probably be the one to care for my girls if I don't stay around long enough to see them grown. I'd trust him with their lives in an instant and I'm glad I live in California, not one of the states who would consider him unfit.

I will never understand the people who see my great-granddaughters and say "nigger". And yes, they've heard it a time or two. I will never understand the hatred in the cold, shrunken hearts of the bigots for three of my grandchildren whose mom was born in Manila. They're all great kids. Why can't people look at kids and just see kids? I don't know. I do know it's passed from generation to generation ( look at Fred Phelps and his "church"). Maybe they need someone "beneath" them to feel superior. They are twisted.

The fanatics who say they hate the sin but love the sinner lie. It's all hatred. The tribe that shows up at the funerals, the talk radio morons, the homophobes here who talk about the love of God in one breath and use hate-filled language with the next are all cut from the same cloth. They are vile and, if there is indeed a God, they are damned.

"Some of my best friends are" (fill in the blank with any word you choose) is one of the most bigoted sentences in the language. It's always followed by "but" and the word "but" reveals the white sheet under the business suit or perky little dress and perfect makeup.

Anyone who denies another person his/her full rights as a citizen because of race, religion, or gender (and that includes all variations of the word - I won't try to list them all) is a bigot. There are no excuses; no good reasons for their actions - they're bigots no matter how reasonable they sound.

They may never beat a person and leave him to die on a fence. They may never murder a transsexual in Alameda County, CA or drag a man to his death in Texas. They won't show up at the funerals of our kids who, no matter what we think of this illegal, insane war, acted in good faith as my older son is doing. They may never bomb a clinic or murder a doctor, for that matter. They may be appalled by the outward, extreme manifestations of bigotry and insist that "we're not like that".

Sorry, folks - you are like that. By your views and your votes (or your apathy), you create a climate where the most extreme flourish. By your tacit acceptance, you are encouraging evil.

Ready for the bad news? You're next. The Reconstructionists and their followers have an agenda that should frighten us all. They're not interested in peaceful co-existence with the Catholics, the Jews, my Methodists (Shrub - you listening?) or anyone else who doesn't toe their line completely. They believe in a theocracy run by them. Women will be consigned to church, children, kitchen - just what the Nazis believed. They will control every aspect of our lives (which of course will be cut short by execution if we displease them). It won't be just me or WA they come after; it will be everyone except them and it will be a reign of terror.

I refuse to believe that it's already too late but we need to wake up and begin taking them seriously for our own sake and for the sake of the generations to follow.

Ann