Breaking Boundaries

There aren't many times in your life, when you sit down in a movie theater, and you know something is changing. Such is the case with me today, when I went to see Brokeback Mountain. I saw people sitting in a crowded theater on a Sunday afternoon, watching something that could make them very uncomfortable, and not blinking an eye.

Before it gets over-hyped, or over-backlashed, let me just say that it is a very well made movie that shows America something it has rarely seen. A realistic portrayal of two men in love and the devastation that society's mores have on them.

Whether you are on the left or the right, it really doesn't matter. These two characters show what repression and hatred can do to two human beings. What self-loathing and denial produce. You see that the burden of society's expectations is often crushing.

The ex-gays look at this movie and see it as something else altogether. They see two married men who should have remained faithful to their wives. I see two men who should have remained faithful only to each other, never having married any women. Lies destroy the wives and children as well as the husband and father. Not to mention the man on the outside.

I hope America embraces this film, sees it for what it really is. Not a political statement, but the story of hopes and dreams thwarted and lives denuded. I hope even folks in the red states will go see it, and not just in the big cities. Anyone who has ever felt the pain of loss or loneliness will find it speaks to their hearts.

Holiday Cheer

As we begin another December, let us try and remember what this special season of the year really means. Strings of street lights, even stop lights, blink a bright red and green, as the shoppers rush home with their treasures. Hear the snow crunch, see...

The Christianists are screaming that stores shouldn't say Happy Holidays, because that takes the Christ out of Christmas. Well folks, their customer base consists of a lot more than just Christians. There are other religions, including paganism, that celebrate holidays this time of year. It is like these folks have no shame, everyone must bow down so that we can make this a Christian nation.

Then the Christianists got mad because people started calling them holiday trees not Christmas trees. Considering the fact that the idea of cutting down a tree and decorating it every December started long before Christianity was invented, I don't think they have much of an argument there either.

Now the Christianists are positing the idea that the US of A was founded as a Christian nation, and that all the founding fathers agreed on that. Well, if you look back at the history of the founding of this nation, especially at the drafting of the Constitution, you will see that the Christainists back then wanted to put more God in, but the secularists were able to keep God out (mostly). So the secularists won one way back in the 18th century, and now the Christiano-fascists are trying to fight this battle anew.

I fear for this land of ours when I see how emboldened the right-wingers are in their makeover of our country. Alito is probably the biggest thing they have accomplished that cannot be overturned by a right-thinking government (that we can elect next November). I hope America is waking up to all that is going on around them, before we end up being a theocracy along the lines of Iran and (formerly) Afghanistan. God help us if that happens.