Sunday, October 7, 2012

Pasquino the Protester -- a Sunday Sermon



Before you read the following rant (IF you read the following rant!), click here to see where I'm coming from.

I know a number of quite reasonable people who like and will probably vote for Mitt Romney in November, who believe that Obama is a good man but a terrible leader and that Romney's personal business acumen will enable him to lead the entire country to financial prosperity. Some of these reasonable people are close family members, and I've learned over the years to not go there.

That being said, I can say whatever I like here, knowing full well that many of these people and family members come and read what I write, feel angry, feel hurt, feel horrified or like they need to pray to Jesus for my damned soul, and that's all right with me, too. Today I read about Paul Broun, a Republican Congressman from Georgia (my home state) who claims that evolution and the Big Bang theory are lies straight from the pit of Hell. Congressman Broun is also an M.D. (holy shit!) who despite his medical and scientific training, believes that the earth is actually only around 9,000 years old and was created in six days by God and that said scientific training are all lies said to keep him and other folk like him from understanding that they need a savior. Congressman Broun is a member of the House Science Committee.

Holy shit, is what I say, no pun intended. And I know that some of my relatives and a few of my friends are reading this right this very instant, shaking their heads at my negative, unpatriotic, heretical soul, and while there's a teensy tinesy part of me that feels hurt by that, there's a much bigger part that has decided being connected by blood gives me no more commonality with some than the filtered water that comes out of our respective faucets in the various states we call home.

And if you're wondering where this rant is going, I just feel compelled to say that a vote for Romney is not just a vote for a billionaire to transfer his acute business acumen on a macro scale. It's a vote to confirm that the Bible and religion, of whatever ilk, trump reason and centuries of beautiful and breath-taking labor by human beings to move forward. It's a vote for a man whose base includes Congressman Broun, whose base, I'd venture to say, is dominated by people like Congressman Broun and others of his ilk, including the asinine Congressman Akin who parsed out the differences between legitimate and forcible rape. It's a group of people who believe that anyone other than Jesus Christ is a false prophet, that a woman's constitutional right to determine what happens to her body is akin to baby-killing, that men and women who love one another and want the same rights and privileges as everyone else are abominations, that women who apply for food stamps to feed their families while working three jobs are lazy-assed moochers and not working hard enough, that President Obama is a half-black, half-white man not born in this country who favors Muslim terrorists and who is bent on overtaking the country and turning it into some kind of Stalin-like dictatorship. It's a vote to use torture on our enemies in the name of liberty and even, peace. And even if you strip away all of my own hysteria, it's a vote for a pretentious, condescending man who bullied his peers as a young man and continues to do so as he campaigns and debates, a  lying billionaire whose character was evidently shaped by forced Mormon modesty and obscene amounts of privilege.

I completely understand why someone of a moderate bent sees appeal in a successful businessman like Mitt Romney, particularly when we're still mired in a financial quagmire. But I really don't believe that the office of the President is just about business. If it is, we're fucking lost and might as well appoint General Electric as president. You know those people who denounce those who honestly call out what is shameful in America (I've got them on my Facebook page, in my high school class, in my family), who scream U S A! the loudest and the shrillest? I think they're all scared shitless by progress, to tell you the truth, scared to move forward in a world that is rapidly changing in ways that we can't even begin to understand. Whether they're in my family, from my high school, my college dorm or my neighborhood, I just can't stand by them right now and walk that moderate path. I just can't.

16 comments:

  1. You can stand by them, but you can come sit by me. ;-) (pats seat next to her).

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  2. Correction: You Can'T stand by them ...

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  3. And therein lies the rub: a vote for Romney/Ryan is a vote for all of the hateful, fearful notions that change and progress and open-mindedness will be the end of us. I'm with you. And unfortunately, a lot of my relatives are with yours. That said, I do believe in my heart that Obama will prevail in this election and that four years from now we will be speaking of these things again. In the meantime, we will continue to do our best to promote love and light, healing and openness.

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  4. I can't understand any person WHO WOULD VOTE REPUBLICAN! Racist, bigots, disrespect women & the latest about African Americans being uneducated..beside Romney wanting to KILL Big Bird the first Education most children are exposed to...Then bring into mind Monsanto who is slowly killing our food supply...Our water supply has been ruined with FLUORIDE (POISON) since the 40's...Big Pharmaceuticals pushing the drugs like they are Halloween Candy ...All I see is a CAVE MAN MENTALITY OF CONTROL that JUST WON'T GO AWAY...everyday I shed tears that in 2012 some people have not moved forward in thinking!!! In My bible...God does not want a part of the REPUBLICAN PARTY !!!

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  5. You are amazing and I wish you were my next-door neighbor in my godforsaken Republican neighborhood where I know I am seen as an unfortunate suburban misfit. I will send this to my children and they will shake their heads and think, "oh-my-God-how-can-there-be-another-mother-out-there-as-outspoken-and-fiercely-liberal-as-ours?!" And I will try to explain that you, Elizabeth, have nailed it right on. What you have written is exactly what I believe. (And my wonderful children believe this too, thank goodness). It is sharp and beautiful and true. Thank you for your magnificent writing - it is my lifeline here in Romneyland, IL.

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  6. I am glad there is you. You nailed it. Thank you.

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  7. Just don't understand it...I thought I was alone in my feelings. But, I resonated with every sentence that you wrote. I know that at this moment many people are offering prayers for my deliverance from the snare "of the world, as I see it." I'm sure that they think that they can get jesus to change my mind and provide for my conversion. But a moderate bent is often a symptom of mediocrity and mediocrity breeds indifference...the status of much of world's stance in time. Absolutely, you said it all, and as it should be said.

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  8. Yeah. And me? I've got your back. Love you.

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  9. Yep, yep and yep. Once again you manage in your erudite, articulate, straight to the point way to say exactly what I wanted to say.

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  10. Seems that the Republicans are almost like the Taliban, just in another country!

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    1. Exactly...exactly! Thank you for saying it. The far right in any religion is dangerous indeed when insanity is backed by god itself.

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  11. How fascinating to read about Mr. Broun twice in five minutes!

    Here's the sermon from the minister of the [UU] church I attended outside of Atlanta for several years. I love his sermons so much, I continued to read them in RSS after moving across country. :) http://anthonyuu.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/science-and-spirit-bang-we-have-a-universe/

    And there you have it, one of many reasons I'm more at home in WA state than in GA...

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  12. Well said, all of it. I am Canadian and watch US politics with great interest. It is frightening to think anybody would support Romney and you have, in just a few paragraphs, somehow managed to sum up all the thoughts that have been floating around in my head as I observe this approaching election. You know you are always welcome up here, should you decide to move northward! (And don't forget about the "cheap drugs!") :)

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  13. It's a mystery to me why anyone would vote for Romney. I just don't get it. I guess I just don't want the same kind of world they do.

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