A Confederate Yankee

bill mayersBy Bill Mayers

(March 2014) Rep. Michelle Bachmann is right about one thing: the country is awash in intolerance and bigotry, but her attempt to portray herself and her like-minded cronies as victims of said intolerance is more than a bit disingenuous.

Ms. Bachmann claims that her religious rights and those of her supporters are seriously impeded by challenges to their stands on gay rights, compulsory prayer in public schools and religious displays (such as nativity scenes) on public property. She and her supporters seem particularly troubled by reactions to their hostile statements directed at gays and suggestions that a business person denying service to a gay person is unconscionable.

These folks insist it’s perfectly within their rights to post signs on the entrance to their places of business that read “no gays allowed.”

I’m of an age where I can remember such signs, and it was ugly. Those signs read “No blacks allowed.” And, as often as not, back in the day the word “blacks” was replaced with one that began with the letter “N.” You know the word I mean … and yes, it was ugly.

Unconscionable? Yes, and worse. I spent quite a bit of my youth on and near Fort Sill, Okla. (I was born there), and the nearby community of Lawton. I saw the signs. I witnessed the experiences of decorated war heroes denied entrance to public spaces and private businesses because of their skin color. A man who’d earned three Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars, among other decorations for valor, was told “we don’t serve your kind.”

And that was the mildest of indignities experienced by valorous men. The Bible was quoted as justification … there are passages of scripture that appear to justify slavery and its accompanying dehumanization.

Ms. Bachmann now complains that there are those of us who consider “no gays allowed” to be just as repugnant. That we are denying her and her cronies their  Constitutionally guaranteed rights to practice their religion. I wonder what religion it is that regards such behaviors on the part of its adherents right and proper? I suspect I’ll be waiting for the answer to that question for quite some time to come.

I wonder what passage of scripture negates the passages that begins “judge not” or which passage precludes the Golden Rule. Or, in the case of those who feel justified in taking concrete steps to dehumanize others “because they violate God’s will,” what about the one that begins “Vengeance is mine?”

American society is in a serious state of upheaval, much of it based on racism, sexism and a misguided nostalgia for the past. Some Americans want, they say, to “get back to normal” or “where we were” before this or before that. Here’s a news flash: ain’t gonna happen. Ya can’t turn back the clock, un-bake a cake, un-fry a chicken.

The idea that the only certainties in life are death and taxes is incomplete. Change will occur, no matter how desperately we wish it otherwise. Not all the changes will be for the better. Our choices in the matter are to make the best of it, work together and work it out, or get pig-headed and dig in our heels, desperately hoping to hold back the tsunami of progress, both good and bad, until we’re swept under and drowned.

One would suggest to Rep. Bachmann that dissembling, obstructing, complaining and telling little white lies – and big black lies, too, simply is the most unproductive and foolish way to go.

And, believe it or not, I think Ms. Bachmann is capable of better … and so are her right-wing cronies.

William D. “Bill” Mayers RT, RN, of Sullivan is a retired senior U.S. Army Corpsman. A certified healthcare professional since 1964, he holds two professional licenses, including that of Registered Professional Nurse licensed in New York, Alaska, Virginia and Louisiana. He has four children, two stepchildren, two grandchildren and is an avid analyst of current events.

By martha

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