Common Sense

Ken Grandlund stopped by and dropped a comment in my blog. I haven't read him in a while so went and had a look.

It is apparent to me that I'm the McDonald's of blogging. It isn't substantive. It isn't even good for you. Yet, somehow, it's rather satisfying. Ken is in that other realm. He should be writing books, not blog posts. Easily 4 star.

He has a nice piece on tolerance up. He concludes with:

True tolerance is essential for the progression of society. Tolerance for that which shows the most creative, most ingenious, most inspirational, and most reasonable aspects of humanity should be nurtured and shared, to further to abilities of humanity, to allow us to succeed together as a species.

I say the same thing, but I word it like:

How dare these god damn freak Christians tell me who I can and cannot love? Who is going to be the next target of their hatred? The world will go to hell in a big hurry if we allow extremists on any side to dictate political policy.

I think I even asked if lobotomies were okay yesterday..

There is a reason why my tone is the way it is.. I took a quick stab at explaining that on Ken's blog... what I wrote:

My problem is that I write when I'm angry. For example, after I read what Ottman wrote there [anti-gay propaganda], my first impulse was to go off. I could go and collect a mountain of statistics, documented studies on sexuality, and wrap it all around a nice angry STFU rant.

I do that routinely on my blog.

I have to disagree with Gun-Toting liberal as well. Clearly, we are not making progress towards tolerance as a nation. Just last week, the governor of the state I live in suggested that there are other states that might be more accommodating to me, and perhaps I should leave.

That from the governor of the state of Texas.

In years past, I really didn't think much about the ignorance of people like Ottman. They simply were not a part of my life and could not affect me. Now they do. The 11 state constitutional amendments passed last election, deprived many the right to marry the person of their choice. I am in the same boat. It infuriates me.

They look at me as if I am less than human, simply for being gay. They judge as if they understand a concept that is clearly foreign to them. They make up bogus statistics to reinforce their contention that society has a right to regulate what two consenting adults do in their own home.

That was the essence of Lawrence vs. Texas last summer. That is why Scalia came unglued when the SC struck down sodomy laws.

It is not only the gay issue. It is the war issue, and fiscal issues, and just about every side of politics you can imagine.

I've steadily let go of my ability to calmly state an opinion and write 2000 words of thoughtful material for a blog post. In many respects, that bothers me because I realize that shrill is not persuasive.

But - in the long run, I don't care. Perhaps sometime down the road I could write an analysis without coming unglued, but right now ranting works.

Truly, you have to be part of a group that is thought of as less than human to understand real rage. White heterosexual America has no idea what it's like.

Anyway, if you want to read some thoughtful ideas, have a look at Ken's blog. I'm adding it to my links..