Thursday, March 16, 2006

Now if only we could get Veronica Mars to take on the religious right

Jack Kenny recently wrote a piece for the Advocate asking where the community outrage was when his show was being attacked by the religious right--especially the very well organized AFA.

Some of the responses on the advocate.com website were interesting. Some less than fully informed.

I did my little bit, but in the end, it was like yelling into a hurricane. If that effort had been multiplied by a hundred, or a thousand... well, then.

In case you aren't aware, groups like the AFA don't fight fair. Their people will write multiple letters, and it has been revealed in the past that their computers will generate phone calls up the gazzoo to make it appear that they have an overwhelming groundswell of people behind them. And it's no secret that anti-gay organizations have way more bucks to spend on their campaigns than all the gay organizations put together.

Don't think for a minute that it will end when they've removed every gay image from the television screen either. The Oklahoma legislature just approved a measure to ban all gay material from libraries in the state.

When they've finished steamrolling over the gay community and their allies, do you think they're going to stop there? This isn't even about their homophobia. It's about them flexing their purported influence to control every aspect of your life. Once they've succeeded in ridding the world of those homosexuals, every non-WASP image will be steamrolled and disappear. They will create a mythical world that is 99.9% English speaking of English descent, where men have all the brains and women will be portrayed as happy homemakers whose only purpose in life is to serve and obey their husbands. Title IX? Fuhgettaboudit. The only girl's sports will be in sewing curtains and casserole cooking. The only minorities in your precious books and television and school's educational material will be caricatures along the lines of Stepinfetchit and Charlie Chan. And take a good hard look at what these people are doing to the environment. You thought their "intelligent design" or "creative design" replacing evolution was a hoot? You ain't seen nuthin' yet.

NPR had a news story today on how the government of China puts dissidents in mental hospitals because they figure anybody who doesn't fall in line with them given the consequences and risks must be crazy. America used to do that, too. And they will again, given half a chance.

The people behind these campaigns are devious --and shortsighted. Let them have their Sudentland, and they'll go for all of Europe, then the world. Funny thing, though; as the U.S. lags further and further behind other countries in our national health care, investment infrastructure and in education for all, and extension of suffrage and civil rights to every part of our society, other countries will leave us way behind in the dust. In their unquenchable quest for power, these people who today use the gay community as their scapegoat du jour will one day wake up to find that India or China or perhaps even the Saudis will be running the world --perhaps as or less benevolently than America did at the beginning of the 20th century.

So go ahead, and grumble about the need for an English only movement or offensive images and language in popular culture or how "they're taking 'our' jobs." Tell those uppity people they'll get their equality if they would just sit quietly in the corner. And try not to make a sound as you hide under the bed when the stormtroopers come, because as Pat Parker put it in her poetry, they will come.

And this little planet will probably end up a lifeless, dead rock floating in orbit.

I didn't mean to get so pissed off today. But maybe I should get little more pissed off a little more often. And maybe you should try it, too.

I wish I could tell you what it felt like to stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York and see a million people, as far as you can see, all marching for justice and equality and the right to be. It's one of the most empowering images I can think of (not to mention the rush it gives you!), and I'm glad to have it. And I'm glad that I get passionate and angry for the things that I believe in.

I meant to write something about last night's episode of Veronica Mars, which doesn't as yet have a certain berth on the new network replacing the UPN. But I think I'll write them, instead. It may be too late for the Book of Daniel, though I tried to do my part, but I'm gonna do what ever it takes to let the powers that be know that I want to see this show continue. Or there'll be consequences for them and their wallets.

You want to see the programs on television that you want to see? Read the books you want to read? Live and work where you please? Go wherever you choose to go --and be able to drink the water and breath the air when you get there? Better open your %$?@! mouths today. Tomorrow may be too late.




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