Redneck hate mongers

Letter to my Extreme Right Wing Republican, Redneck, Fundamentalist, Mindless Buddy.  Who says I ain't tolerant?  P.S. Centrist Republican is OK with me.

Before we become overly excited about Chick-Fil-A and their anti-gay stance, one should reflect on the fact that the military has been a great refuge for gays over the expanse of human history. As an Army officer, some of the men under your personal command were no doubt gay. They probably served the country well. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender are an undeniable fact of life. I take the Wall Street Journal. Several weeks ago, after astronaut Sally Rides sexual orientation was made public, several CEOs of major corporations joined in the fun and also "came out." They are everywhere!

All of my children are straight and I am as pleased as punch about this fact. None-the-less, you and I have no idea how the cards were shuffled for the genes of our grandchildren.  However, I have a few gays in my extended family and the family is for the most part fond of them.  I, in-fact, am fond of the gays in my extended family.  A gay friend of mine in high school turned out to be a very valuable member of society. His accomplishments far exceed mine. LGBTs add value to the dynamics of our little world in a number of ways. I haven't completely jumped on the gay bandwagon, but I think of gays much the same as many people think of insurance salesmen.  "Insurance peddlers can be annoying, except that is, for my own insurance salesman. My insurance salesman is A OK."  I am pleased to count some LGBTs as friends.

Here is a fairly serious thought from Gore Vidal, who as you know, passed on to his final reward today. I wonder how wide the gates of heaven swung to admit this highly entertaining individual. He has reportedly said the following. I didn't check it out on Snopes.com. This is copied out of Wikipedia and not directly from the pages of one of his books or essays.  Some people might think it blasphemous. 

"We are all bisexual to begin with. That is a fact of our condition. And we are all responsive to sexual stimuli from our own as well as from the opposite sex. Certain societies at certain times, usually in the interest of maintaining the baby supply, have discouraged homosexuality. Other societies, particularly militaristic ones, have exalted it. But regardless of tribal taboos, homosexuality is a constant fact of the human condition and it is not a sickness, not a sin, not a crime ... despite the best efforts of our puritan tribe to make it all three. Homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality. Notice I use the word 'natural,' not normal."^[37]

I tend to agree with Gore Vidal.

Several days ago you referred me to Romans, Chapter 1. True, I agree with you; the Episcopalians tend not to give too much credence to that particular chapter. Now that I think of Romans, chapter 1., I wonder if the apostle Paul was not just a wee bit more homophobic than the Lord who seemed to show a great deal of tolerance for all kinds of personalities and human frailties in the four gospels. Perhaps the Good Lord does not care for those who participate in the LGBT life style as much as He likes those of us who are straight, but I doubt also that the Lord cares for his favorite book to be used as an instrument of hate.

Why does sitting on a church pew in a fundamentalist church for a few hours a month give you ,or anyone else, an overwhelming desire to treat our fellow human beings with bigotry and hate?  Maybe these attitudes are due to the hard board seats.  Maybe this mindlessness can be attributed to attending to many church potlucks.  These feelings of self-righteousness could not possibly be attributed to large blocks of time spent under the steeple, because I know very few fundamentalists who spend any more time in church than they do on their ATVs or in front of the television set. 

I would be very interested in your personal thoughts on many of today's subjects and a little less interested in all of the political blather copied from questionable sources and distributed like so much confetti, mindlessly to everyone who is packed into the email address books. The blather seems to come from all directions and I would like to weed it out. I am especially tired of the racial hatred that seems to abound around the Obama presidency. I may not vote for him in the upcoming election, but he does hold the office of President. Solid political discussion is welcome, but blind hate is discouraged. I see an overabundance of these "hate emails" because I have an excessive number of redneck friends and acquaintances.  (I admit I like some occasional light porn, nothing too objectionable mind you:) I have never received light porn from you and would find it refreshing. Just enough to remind me of the good old days is quite all right. I feel the light porn is far less injurious to our psyches than all of the hate I see dispensed on a daily basis. I can't tell you how many emails from various people go straight to the trash bin without opening them because I already know what they contain. The blather of each individual tends to take on a personality that is remarkably similar, email to email. The emails give me the impression that all of us are assigned a fairly strict role on the stage of life that we are not allowed to deviate from. Bill sends type Z-32 emails on a regular basis and Jim sends type K-22 emails and rarely do any other types of emails make it into the mix. Most of my redneck friends are stuck on auto pilot.

Nothing personal, but it is time that we all start thinking for ourselves a little more. Its time we stop running blindly with the crowd. I assume your degree from Stanford puts you at an intellectual advantage. If you have made it this far through my rant, I thank you.  Here's hoping for a little more praying and a little less loathing.