Things that are better not left unsaid

At first I thought that I was over thinking it.   Then I thought I was investing to much energy in it.    Now I'm on the precipice of discovery, looking into the light of day.

Its not often that I have less levity in my general thought process.  Outwardly, I a fairly serious person....in thought, not so much.   I have an urge "reign it in" as much as possible.

In recent weeks, a lot of interesting, landmark and somewhat tragic things have occurred in terms of equality in the United States.   As I keep reading blogs and articles, I find several schools of thought.   One of these that there are far more important things going on than these civil issues, things such as joblessness, homelessness, wars, etc....  Another school of thought is the "YAY for civil rights side".   In this school of thought, unfortunately there is a lot of division that doesn't even have to be expressed in school of thought number one.  I will touch more on this later.    The third school of thought is where the bigots in the audience become incredibly pissed because I just said bigot (clue one that you are, IN FACT, a bigot).

Why the serious note you ask?   Its really quite simple.   Its been on my mind.  Really, it is just THAT simple.

Some of the recent headlines have been Paula Deen's racism, the undefense of DOMA, the proverbial nose being thumbed at Prop 8 supporters and the changes in the Voter's Right Act.   Obviously, these are just the tip of the iceberg..but they are in the forefront right now.   The question is...where do we go from here.

I am a gay man.  I have many friends in the LGBT community.  I have many ethnic, non-white friends.   I listen to their opinions as I'm contemplating an issue.   It gives deeper meaning by getting a bit a view from a life I haven't lived.  I'll never be a single, black mother.   I'll never be a female-to-male latino.   As my boyfriend is white, I will not experience being in a mixed relationship.   For me, these things have a common thread.  Its not that I can't or won't experience them...its that they are outside my scope, outside my frame of reference.

Then comes the next part of my reasoning.  To be offended that anyone used the word "niggar", do I have to be black?   As a white man, can I be annoyed, pissed, threatened, etc...that another black person is using this word in the same demeaning way a white person might use it?  The same thing applies to the word "fag".   Do I, as a gay man get a free pass to use hateful language, even if that language is used in a "playful" way?   Are these simply double-standards or is it a group of people taking power out of a word used to oppress them, strip them of their rights and cement them into a seat-without-a-view?

I read in another blog by a black, southern man that Paula Deen's foreray into the miasma of race relations is marked by her disrespect for the roots of southern cooking.  In this, black slaves had a whole sub culture that was built into and around southern cooking.   Its an interesting outlook.  It becomes more than just the choice of a word or the ideal antebellum wedding.  It becomes a pervasive view of those who hold a southern white woman in high esteem who is hocking southern cooking and the accompanying recipes as something her mother taught her and who's mother taught her...   All the while, it has to eventually go back to some plantation where a house slave was cooking up the same dish for possibly the first time in a far away place in the minds of those of us who decry racism.

Lets step for a bit into time to the Civil Rights era.   People fought hard and many died on the way to gain equal freedoms with the Voting Rights Act.  Many of the people who were there are still alive and are incredulous at backwards momentum.   I have read and reread as much as I can on the parts that were axed.   I am in full disagreement with allowing any state to make changes to voting structure without prior approval.   This is a protection, not just for black Americans, but also for anyone who has a dissenting view from the majority of a particular district, whether they be Conservative or Liberal.   As for the whole identification required aspect, I'm not opposed to this.   We can debate the idea of a "poll tax" until we are blue in the face.   Most states have laws on the books that require all adults to have photo identification on them at all times, so why would something as important as voting have anything less?   That said, a state id should be free.   I also feel that the only id's that should be allowed are driver's license, state id or a passport.   Note, all of those forms of id have a photo on them.  Allowing gun licenses, especially expired gun licenses, while denying student id's is a slap in the face of democracy and an obvious nod to the racism of yesteryear.  

On the subject of gay rights, I hear a variety of ever-so-lovely sentiments.   My black friends believe its a Civil Rights issue.   Meanwhile, I hear that many black people feel that it's in no way the same thing and a slap in their faces.   Okay, let's be clear...they are called Civil Rights because everyone is supposed to have them.  We aren't supposed to be voting on Civil Rights.  We shouldn't have had to vote on the rights of black men and women to be considered human.   We shouldn't have had to enter into public debate as to whether woman could become infertile if they thought too much as an excuse to deny them rights as human beings and citizens of the United States.   Likewise, claiming mental illness and the accompanying derision to deny men and women of the LGBT community equal treatment under the Constitution is just as vulgar.

The same train of thought that brought us slavery and discrimination hundreds of years ago, a hundred years ago, sixty years ago, one year ago, yesterday...... its still present.   Unfortunately, most of it is rooted in antiquated systems of belief that have their foundations in religion.   When mixed couples wanted to marry, they were told it was an offense to god.  When women wanted to leave the home to pursue careers, they were told that god intended for them to stay continually pregnant and raise good Christian soldiers.   Honestly, people with this type of mental acuity could use a "Betty Crocker" cookbook to justify their most malignant viewpoints.

As we move forward, its getting better...but as the recent Voting Rights Act reversal shows us, we can never rest on our laurels.   This is especially true when we still have Representatives being shut down in their state Senates by the invocation of "God's Law".