Monday, January 21, 2008

An Old Feminist Speaks Out

OK. So it is Martin Luther King day - at least the day we celebrate it. And I have been thinking about discrimination, racisim, sexism, religious persecution. You know, all that fun stuff. Man's inhumanity to man. And I've come to the sad conclusion that nothing much has changed. Oh, sure, there is a thin veneer of civility among the more urban areas. Not so much in the Red States, though, and even here in My Blue Heaven, New York City, there is enough discrimination that I fear we will never really change.

I've heard a party girl insist that the Bible claims homosexuals are "an abomination against the Lord" and should die. Having Googled the passage I think she referred to, I wanted to point out to the former Jehovah's witness turned serial fucker, that "sodomites and adulterers" might well include others - such as herself. Since the term "sodomy" has a lot of people puzzled (hello, it's not just knocking on the back door, folks, if you do the on-your-knees worshipping the lollipop bit, you're just as guilty. Then there is adultery. How many of our staunch family value proslyetizers fall into that category? Hey.,RUUUUUUUUDY!.

Beyond that I have watched African American's insult Hispanics. Men insult women. Folks of various religious persuasion diss another. I can't tell you how many "Accept Jesus or die" chain letters I've gotten on my office email system. What's up with that? We have a "discrimination and sensitivity" committee that doesn't put a stop to anything. At all. Not sexual harrassment, not job harrassment, not religious, sexual, racial. Nada. nothing.

As a woman who was raised int he 1960-1970 feminist heyday, I haven't seen much change. Women have gotten better jobs. They make some more money (but still not on a par with men), but even when they are running for the highest office in the land they are treated like a little housewife who's too big for her britches. So, she stood by her man when he went astray? Can we say Christian forgiveness? So she got a little teary on the campaign trail. I'd opt for teary over that sulfur smell I'm getting from some of those Red candidates. She's got a mind and she's used it, and for that she's pilloried as cold, sterile, or the unfortunate "B" word. Hell, the way things stand, a Queen "B" might be the only thing standing between this country and third world status. At least she's not trying to impress anyone with the size of her balls!