American Heathen®

RJ likes to say that when it comes to religion, hypocrisy reveals the lie.  But hypocrisy does more than expose the lie.  Hypocrisy also shows the raw, pompous, self-righteous disgust that people have when it comes to other beliefs; religious or otherwise.

Take, for instance, the little podunk community of Sidney in upstate New York.  Apparently one of the Town Idiots (an honest description of the people involved than their preferred nickname of “town fathers”) got his Jesus Underoos all in a stained bunch because a group of Muslims decided to use some of the land they have for a cemetery.  The Town Idiot in question, who goes by the name of Bob McCarthy (that should be a “red” flag right there), apparently thinks that the mere presence of an Islamic center complete with a private cemetery is a crime in and of itself.  Not only that, but he wants the town to SUE ALL THIRTY Muslims there AND dig up the cemetery… because it is, in his own words, “a liability”.

Bear two things in mind when contemplating this…

First, this person declares that the mere presence of the Islamic cemetery, described as being “no bigger than a Manhattan studio apartment”, to be illegal… and then he says he doesn’t know WHAT the law exactly says in that regard.  Well actually, there is no law in Sidney, or in that state, regarding the use of private cemeteries on private land.

Sooooooo… it’s illegal even though there’s no law making it such?

Second, the Town Idiots of Sidney actually APPROVED the creation of the private cemetery in December of 2005!  In fact, the approval is a matter of public record.

Folks, I’ve lived in small towns for most of my life.  I might even say that I have been cursed to live in small towns.  And one of the things that I really find disgusting in small-town mentalities is when they trip over themselves to justify their own personal dislikes of other people or other things.  They obviously can’t come out and openly SAY that it’s because they don’t like something or someone, so they have to invent some kind of threat, some kind of reason for them to warrant their personal disgust and bigotry.  And it doesn’t matter what it is… race, belief, ethnicity, social income, political affiliation… we’ve seen that kind of disgust time and time again.

And the real problem comes when that person gets even the smallest amount of social or political power, and then they believe it to be a license to practice that disgust over the things that they don’t like.  It really brings out the worst in humanity.

You see folks, hypocrisy doesn’t just reveal the lie… it reveals the revulsion and the bile and the disgust.  It reveals the sickening arrogance people have other others.  It is the proclamation that THEY are right and everyone else is WRONG.  And no matter how many times they try to rationalize it and dress it up and perfume it, it still has a putrid stench that will never go away.

You know, when we refer to the GOP as the Christian Nationalist Party, we’re not kidding.  And finally someone else noticed.

This video is from MockTheDummy and he shows the GOP and the Tea Party for what they really are.  In this particular scene, The Dummy brings in the party’s strongest assets… so-called “Feminists”.

Enjoy.

Oh, and never mind the puppet… he’s just a reactionary figure outside of the movement.

It’s a small world after all…  Walt Disney had a vision that started with a mouse and he embraced the diversity of human beings, the beauty of nature, and the spirit of adventure and dreaming.  Although his vision has grown into a billions-of-dollars corporation, the utopian ideal, the magic behind the Disney mega-bucks corporation still lives.

My wife and I recently visited Orlando, Florida, home to four of Disney’s theme parks.  It was my first visit, my wife’s third.  When I was a small child I had visited Disney in Anaheim, California.  I was too young then to really remember the experience.  But, my recent visit at the tender age of forty-nine has provided me with some of the most vivid and, dare I say, lasting memories I could never have imagined.

Like all vacations, the idea is to slip away from life’s hustle and bustle, let your hair down and have fun.  Although it’s a bit nerve-racking and counterintuitive to shell out big dollars for the opportunity to “relax”, once the event is set into motion, things seem to gel and soon the idea of spending some quality time with Mickey doesn’t seem all that bad.  Anyway…

My wife and I decided to drive to Disney Orlando from Oklahoma.  We took our 2009 Honda Goldwing.  We have Harley’s mind you, but at our age, our asses just can’t take the beating.  The Goldwing afforded us at least some semblance of comfort for the twenty-eight hundred mile round trip.  We planned two and a half days for the ride out and two days back.  We planned on visiting four theme parks -  the Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom.  My wife had lots of Marriott points amassed from her business trips, enough to give us seven free nights at Marriott hotels for the vacation.  We chose a Marriott within ten miles of the park.  To get to and from the parks, the hotel offered shuttle service.  Total cost was fourteen dollars for two people, round trip.  Not bad considering it would have cost us the same to park the Honda at Disney. And, of course, by the time we had completed the trip out, our asses really didn’t want to feel the Honda’s seat anymore than they had to.

So, we bought tickets for the 9:15am shuttle on our first day.  Now, for the sake of time and space, I’ll get right to the point.  It is a small world after all.  Indeed it is.  My wife and I aren’t into putting on a facade when we travel.  We don’t expect to be treated like royalty.  In fact, we go out of our way to socialize with pretty much anyone, regardless of their social or economic standing.  It’s not beneath us to help the help, so to speak.  So, when I met our shuttle driver, one of three we had over our stay, I struck up a conversation.  And, it was this conversation, and the myriad of people I met at Disney, that prompted this commentary.

His name is Bobby.  Well, his real name is Russian but I can’t remember how it’s spelled.  Anyhow, that isn’t what is important.  Bobby served as a “special soldier” (as he put it in broken english) in the Russian military.  He was from Uzbekistan.  Bobby was a super nice guy.  Husky, built solid, and proud, Bobby told me that he was on the run.  Yes, on the run.  Working in the United States as a driver, working hard, and trying to find his place in the American dream.  He spoke of the horrors of his war-torn home following the fall of the Soviet Union, how things had not changed much from the socialist, communist ways of the past.  He fled to America 17 years ago, hoping to eventually bring some of the family he left behind to America.  He loves America.  He loves freedom.  And I found his story compelling.  Why?  Because, at one time I was indoctrinated with the idea that he was my enemy.  I was a Marine when I was young, and I was told in no uncertain terms that this man was my enemy.  Now, thirty years later, I’m having a wonderful, meaningful, conversation with a man who, under other circumstances, I would have killed or been killed by.  And, over what?  Political ideology? Bobby and I talked and became fast friends.  I gave him my number and asked him to stay in touch.  It is a small world after all.

But, the world got smaller and smaller as our vacation continued.  So small, in fact, that the perceived divisions that act to tear the fabric of humanity apart everyday, dissolved into the background, nothing more than a din of light hiss and easily ignored.  My wife and I met Chinese, Japanese, German, Moroccan, Italian, Russian… the list of cultures is practically mind numbing. And, every one of these people had only one agenda… To communicate and understand. And, while we traveled the globe through the virtual reality of Disney and courtesy of our many cultural guides, one thing kept nagging at the back of my cranium.  If this is the way humanity is supposed to work, how do we manage to fuck it up so bad?

I was touched by my vacation experience. I’ve never been a world traveler, but I’m inclined to give it a try now.  While I will never be one to espouse a utopian ideal (an impossibility), I can say that I am moved enough to strive harder for reason in humanity.  We live on a planet that is so small, and so insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe, that I can only wonder why we are so ignorant of one another.  Walt Disney saw this I think.  He saw how unbelievably insignificant we are in the universe, but how significant we are to each other here on Earth. And, in the end, we all bear the same burdens of life and death… no different, no better, no worse.  Humanity is one if humanity sees humanity.  As corny as it may sound, and as much as I hate the song for its ridiculous hooks… It is a small world after all.  Maybe if we realized it, we’d open our hearts to each other. Walt Disney always said, “If you can dream it, you can do it”.  Do we dare to dream?