(I
wrote this a few years ago aimed at the Christian Right in America; most of it
could apply equally to the mullahs of Iran, or of Saudi Arabia, or any
"fundamentalist" religion.)
I've been
volunteering at my son's school all day and just got home a little bit ago, and
since I wanted to post this here anyway, I'm doing so tonight.
Now,
here's my rant. I first posted it on several Yahoo lists I'm a member of, and
nothing in particular I can think of provoked it, more like an endless stream
of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object:
One of the
things that bothers me most about the Religious Right is what they and their
neuro-psychotic culture has done to women, both their own and those in the rest
of society hit by the blood splatter from the Religious Right's vicious attacks
on women. I ran across a song earlier today I've not heard in years, Helen
Reddy's "I Am Woman", which is every bit as much of an inspirational
song of liberation for all as is "We Are the Champions", the anthemn
of the gays rights movement. I'm neither female nor gay, but if an injury to
one is an injury to all, which I believe, then liberation for any of us is
liberation for every one of us.
Sometimes
when I encounter the Religious Right’s misogyny in a way that hits me directly
in the face, such the screaming-out-loud body language of a wife psychicly if
not physically abused by a husband exercising his divine right to keep his
spouse in her place or use her as he sees fit, which he is encouraged, even
charged, to do by the Religious Right, I just want to gather up all the little
canine fuckers who mark their territory with this drek, whether they be dogs or
bitches, and enact a bloody vengeance against them for what they are doing not
only directly to their victims, but to collateral damage such as me, my son and
his generation as well, and all the other women in this country, all of whom
are the Religious Right's victims even if all they do is witness what the
Religious Right does to its direct victims.
However,
my arms would grow tired and my hands would get pretty cramped from either
holding down the machine guns trigger or swinging the machete, then there's the
fact that mass murder is kind of evil, besides which I only have to read one
single news story from Iraq to remind myself of all the wonderful results that
kind of violence can bring. Maybe God/Allah/Holy One or Mother Nature or The
Tao or The Force or Brahman will engineer a highly lethal virus which only
attacks those of zealous religious and other ideological bent as an
evolutionary defense against its own destruction. Then again, thinking of all
the wonderful things humanity as a whole has done for the planet, maybe
religious/ideological enthusiasm IS its defense against us.
The two
cultures historically which have been the best for women were those of the
Celts and of the Iroquoian nations such as the Mohawk, Seneca, Erie, Huron,
etc., and especially the Cherokee, at least prior to the spread of Christianity
and other acculturation after the Chickamauga Wars concluded in 1794. In
Ireland, women remained on a more or less equal status with men in spite of the
Christianization of the island until the English Pope allowed Henry II to
impose the Holy Mother Church of Rome's will on the unwilling.
To me, a
woman isn't just something to fuck. I've not even comfortable thinking of women
as anything but equal. Maybe that's why I realize that the women clinging to
the privileges of the pedestal and the submission which it requires are
betraying their own freedom as well as that of other women every bit as much as
the bastards who have been rolling back our civil rights and liberties in the
name of defending freedom and the cowards who have acquiesed in that through
direct cooperation or unprotesting silent observation. And have you ever seen a
pedestal? There's more room in every jail or prison cell I've ever seen, even
with a person in each bunk and another in a cot on the floor than there is atop
one of those.
The
Religious Right doesn't get that, never will, and still hasn't gotten over that
fact even after well over two hundred years since the first major completely
secular government in the history of the world was established. The women of
today suffering directly or indirectly and some even participating in their
subjugation by the Religious Right are taking hits the Religious Right is too
chicken to make against its true foes--the Founding Fathers.
America is
about Ten Amendments--NOT Ten Commandments.
2 comments:
Thank you for this comment, i agree with you wholeheartedly and wish many more people were as outspoken as you. I'm afraid the right wing christian movement is gaining a foothold that needs to be trampled and fast.
Thnaks, Anonymous, I appreciate your comments.
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