Friday, November 11, 2016

In sickness and in health, racism still sucks.

In 2012 I had a nasty case of Colitis. After 2 days of misery I was compelled to head to the Emergency Dept. of the local hospital (Banner Thunderbird) where I was treated by a professional, friendly and mostly polite staff who treated me with respect and granted me as much human dignity as they could. (with someone having bloody diarrhea every 30 or so minutes it couldn't have been easy or pleasant, even though I made it to the toilet on my own every time.) But what I want to focus on is this: the woman who did my x-rays was of middle-eastern descent and did her job while wearing a Muslim head-scarf. I did not berate her for following her religious dogma, or tell her she was a terrorist, or yell at her and tell her to get out of "my" country. You see, even though I do not personally agree with the dictates of Islam, and I believe it is a restrictive, misogynistic religion, I am an American. A USA-Ian if you prefer. I was brought up to believe in the Constitution of the United States, and I was taught that A person's religion does not matter so long as it does not interfere with the performance of their duties at their job or influence adversely how they interact with other Americans. (USA-Ians if you prefer.) This woman clearly did not worry that I was not a Muslim. She did not care. She did her job efficiently and with a friendly demeanor. I thanked her for doing a good job, and she nodded back at me and went about her business. So, here's a lesson for those of you who think "Now that Trump's won we can get rid of all this "political correctness" and say what we think about these *people* : No, you can't. You can hate all you want and nobody will stop you. But if you act on your hate and indulge in verbal or physical abuse, you will be stopped. If not by police, by me. I'm old and not the man I used to be, but I will stand between you and them and defy you to scream at me. I'm an old Wolf but I am still a Wolf and I will not stand by while you act like a sniveling coward. You may have some vestige of the courage of your convictions but you have no real courage, or you would do as I do and walk without fear in the world, and nod to all in passing, without allowing your fear to chase you into anger at someone merely for what religion they follow or how they dress or who were their ancestors. Grow up. Grow some spine, and remember, if you cannot be welcoming to all, you can at least be tolerant of all.

Saturday, November 5, 2016

V for Vendetta

 V for Vendetta is a political thriller in which a mystery man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask fights to overturn a totalitarian religio-fascist government. The action culminates, not in the destruction of the Monarch that Guy Fawkes wanted  but in the destruction of the houses of Parliament, the overturning of the Sutler government and lots of mayhem. Oh, and V dies in the end.
Well, this is November 5th, 2016. In 3 days the United States will elect a new President.
Regardless of who is elected it will be a major turning point in the course of American history.
I'm going to lay aside partisanship for a moment, and pretend that I do not endorse either candidate.

Guy Fawkes Day.

Today is the 5th of November, the day in which the English celebrate Guy Fawkes day, and have Bonfire Night. In modern times it's really Bonfire Night which everyone gets worked up about. They have parties, and bonfires and fireworks, and there is much merrymaking. If you're interested in learning more about Guy Fawkes and why they have a holiday in his name, I recommend wikipedia's entries for Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes Night