Thursday, November 04, 2004

You Can't Look at the Sky Without Looking Right Through It

Oh, how depressing yesterday was. I honestly thought the war in Iraq was important to America, and because of that, they would vote for a fresh start with 'reality-based' policies.

I was so wrong. Apparently, the country feels the real terrorists are here, in the form of homosexuals and abortion-rights activists. I recently got an email from a relative, and he had this advice to give:

"America's increasing decadence is giving fuel to ignite the enemy. When we tolerate trash on TV, permit pornography via the internet, allow babies to be killed moments before birth and same sex couples being married, this inflames radical Islam. This makes reversing U.S. decadence an urgent priority. If our cultural rot continues unabated the great clash between Islam and the West will continue."

This was the most horrifying thing of all, that the right believes we have to 'reverse' progress in order to appease the unappeasable. I'm sorry, but wasn't it America who trained the muhajadeen to fight the Russians? Wasn't it the same America who gave weapons to Afghanistan to fight the Cold War, and then wondered how the hell Afghanistan got so many weapons? I'd say the true moral decadence lies in our propensity to preemptively invade a country that held no threat to us, and kill tens of thousands of their innocent civilians, and then to postulate false theories as to why we did so. If you ask me, 'cultural rot' is defined by the staunch inability to accept differences in other people, who happen to also be Americans, therefore born with the right to display such variety as they see fit. Doesn't the Bible say "Do unto others as you would have done to you?" Does that mean W wants our country to be invaded? Isn't one of the Ten Commandments "Thou shalt not judge?" So how is treating homosexuals like second class citizens not judging them? Shame on all of you. You judge, so I'm judging you. Shame.

The most perplexing aspect of this bogus election is the fact that the left is widely viewed as the godless. How is wanting to help your fellow citizens, fighting for the equality of the entire nation, respecting the environment, which God gave us as a gift - you only have to read a few lines in Genesis to figure that one out - and loving this country so much that you wholeheartedly disagree with where its stubborn leaders are taking it, how is all of that atheistic or agnostic in any way? This idea of 'if you're not with us, you're against us' is absurd. Who is 'us?' President Bush is a fundamentalist Christian. I happen to think his policies are ineffective and harmful to this country and to the world. Does that have anything to do with his religious beliefs? No. Because this country was built on the basis of separation of church and state. So I can disagree with Bush, and I can vote against him, but it does not mean I'm voting against God or his 'chosen leader.' The fact that this country is heading down the very dangerous road of leading through religion is absolutely frightening to me, and it should be to the rest of this country, which is filled with Jews and Muslims and Mormons and Catholics and Atheists and Buddhists and Taoists and Agnostics and Scientologists, and I'm sorry, but that's the way it's supposed to be.

President Bush and the GOP have divided this country, and they seem to like it that way. But Bush said in his victory speech that he wants to reach out to his dissenters, because he needs us. I hope what he means by 'reach out' is to work with us, despite and because of our differences, and not to force us to his will through some new bullshit Constitutional Amendments that are self-serving at best, crimes against humanity at worst.

President Bush says God talks to him. Yeah, He talks to me, too. But it has nothing to do with waging war and tax cuts for the extremely rich and how the gays are going to hell. And He has never mentioned the word 'crusade,' as Bush has twice when referring to the War on Terror. Usually we just talk about what the people in Iraq are praying for, and how it's the same as what I'm praying for: peace.

See how easy it is to put words into God's mouth?

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