A
mere few years ago, when Dallas Erickson mounted his “Not In My Bathroom” campaign
to fight a Missoula ordinance to ban discrimination based on sexual
orientation, I agreed with him. There are certain kinds of people I would not
want to be alone in a public bathroom with my kid. Dallas, who has worn his
sexual insecurities on his sleeve for as many years as I’ve
associated the city “Dallas” with the name, “Erickson”, was top on that list
and that hasn’t changed. Not that the Flat World Right has a corner on the
“insecurities” market. But in my experience, most Lefties, if they suffer, don’t
do so in such a public manner. That’s what our superficial labellings
boil down to when you get to the burnt scrum at the bottom of the
political pot, which is where we are now. The Left, for all its many, many
faults, is not an ideological haven for open perverts and misanthropes. The
Right, on the other hand, is.
If I
were doing the boiling, I’d say the gist of the matter as to whether we want our grandkids to remember us as “Righties” or “Lefties”,
is enclosed within the following two recent news items:
On
May 29th, in a letter to the Ravalli Republic, Mr. Erickson wrote
that “Ravalli County is made of a great number of people who call
themselves Christian Conservatives. As such we feel that abortion is even more
evil than the holocaust because we consider it the taking of a human life.
Scientists are in virtual consensus that life begins at conception and unlike
their vocal stand on “man caused global warming” they are silent as thousands
of babies are killed.”[i]
Never mind, for the moment, that “Science” is in no such virtual
consensus that life begins at conception, while it is in virtual consensus on the question of “man
caused global warming”. Just let Dallas’ jabbering be for the moment, because he make his own point, which is also mine.
To point, Item Two: Five days before Dallas' local dogmato-screed, on May 24, 227 Republicans (and
four Democrats) in the U.S. House of Representatives voted for an amendment
that would prevent the Department of Defense from addressing climate change. In
justifying this example of jaw-dropping hubris, the author of the bill, Rep.
David McKinley (R-WV) posited the rhetorical question that should be on
everyone’s lips these days.“Why should Congress” he opined, “divert funds from
the mission of our military…to support a political ideology.”[ii] To rephrase this in geo-political terms, 231 of the most powerful people currently on the face of our dear Earth found this statement to be without screaming inconsistencies, and voted to divert funds for Rep. McKinley's (and Dallas") more perfect political ideology.
I
don’t think I could say it any better than Mr. Erickson or Rep. McKinley. What can be more disturbing than a “Christian Conservative” or any other
confused person sharing one-on-one bathroom time with any of my kids? How about enough self-righteous, dogmatically
blinded voters agreeing with the likes of such an open homophile like Erickson in this time of our own extremity, to the point of allowing these flatworlders who have no intention of dealing in any meaningful way with Humankind’s survival to occupy positions
of vast power where they debate that very subject? Change begins at home, remember, and if we Bitterrooters put up with Dallas' screeds without consistently condemning them then we are complicit. If you don't believe this, just remember three words. Family Planning Clinic. Extinct in our community today because too many of us are simply not paying enough attention to the fascists in our midsts. And I do mean fascists. Remember: Dallas made $100,000 (gross--and I do mean "gross") as Walmart's frontman in shoving their corporate agenda up ours just before the international corporate bank heist that tanked our economy and temporarily made their super-sized mega-store a moot point and also sent the likes of Swiss-owned insurance vice presidents, Rep. Nancy Ballance (R-Victor), up from Southern California to be one of our moral den mothers. (Let us pray...).
Many Righties, such as Erickson and Harris Himes (remember him?) actually want our world to go to hell. They believe in this outcome, and they and theirs say so every day. Let that reality stare you in the face for a bit and then know that our grandkids, whether we self-identify on either the Right or the Left, will rightfully damn us, each and every one, for allowing this collective insult of reason to have gone on for so long.
Many Righties, such as Erickson and Harris Himes (remember him?) actually want our world to go to hell. They believe in this outcome, and they and theirs say so every day. Let that reality stare you in the face for a bit and then know that our grandkids, whether we self-identify on either the Right or the Left, will rightfully damn us, each and every one, for allowing this collective insult of reason to have gone on for so long.
How about we get busy and start effectively counteracting this utter nonsense?
