| February
27, 2004
Toilet Wars
By Steven J.
Ybarra JD/HispanicVista.com
I guess it is time
to set the tone for the upcoming
election. It is clear to me that
there will be a new low in how we are all
going to be bombarded by both the left
and the right.
Say, by the way,
have you noticed that there can be
Conservative Democrats, Moderate
Democrats and Liberal Democrats but that
there are only Conservative Republicans
and Moderate Republicans? I wonder
how A. Lincoln would have felt about
that. Anyway, I digress.
This year “Bush
the lesser” has fired his first
right-wing shot over the bow of the
Democrats with an attack on Gay Marriage.
(For those of you that don’t know
nautical maneuvers this means Bush has
declared war (See “Master and
Commander”). Several weeks ago
I predicted this, but did you pay
attention? NO! In fact most people
thought that this was a non-issue for the
fall. Oh ye of little faith!
Here is the question
of the day - How low will the race go?
I predict that we
will have Toilet Wars.
You see we are
already down lower than the gutter.
It is sewer time. The right-wing
fascists lacking any real issues must
make them up. The reality is that
Social Security is now in serious trouble
(see Greenspan); the economy is in
serious trouble (see Greenspan); the war
is costing a lot of money we don’t
have (see Greenspan); and the
debt-to-income ratio is a complete
disaster (see Greenspan). But, do
not worry; according to Bush all we have
to do is to cut taxes and continue to
deficit spend until we get ourselves so
far in debt that we will look like
Argentina.
OK, so here is the
deal of the day. The Republicans,
lacking a real answer to these problems,
will begin to focus like Mel Gibson.
They will focus on only three sentences
in the New Testament about how it is an
abomination to lie down with men/men and
make this the focus of the campaign.
As you probably know, a demagogue is
defined in Webster's as a leader
championing the cause of the common
people in ancient times. It is
pretty clear that “Bush the lesser”
has decided that he is going to be the
Calvin of his day (not the cartoon cat) -
you know the old white guy who decided
that the Christian god was a real hateful
guy.
Face it. What
is so “sacred” about men and
women being the only ones to get married
(especially with the current divorce
rate)? I am at a loss to figure
this one out. One of the talk shows
said we have to preserve the fundamental
Judeo-Christian traditions of marriage!
OK, I get it. Let’s have four
wives per guy. That was, after all, the
fundamental tradition for three thousand
years. If it was good enough for
Isaiah, I say it is good enough for you
and me! My wife, a devote Catholic,
of course, adamantly disagrees with that
fundamental tradition of old.
As I mentioned a few
articles ago, I am not opposed to anybody
getting married (it makes for better
annulment and divorce cases, that’s
for sure). On the positive side of
life, shouldn’t all people be able
to make wills, buy houses, and adopt kids
(that were left at the hospital by some
Christian teen mom whose parents couldn’t
or wouldn’t take care of her and her
child)?
Many say the issue
of domestic partners is supposed to solve
the marriage problem for gays and
lesbians who want legal protections.
But, isn’t there a constitutional
right of privacy and a right to freedom
of religion? I saw it in the
document with my own eyes. To me
this means that the Government/Church
shouldn’t be looking into my bedroom
or my private life to see what I am
doing.
This year I found
out something that was really disturbing
to me. When “Bush the lesser”
declared that the war in Iraq was over,
it meant three things:
1)
No more medals for anyone who did a
heroic act (e.g., Congressional Medal of
Honor).
2)
No more combat pay.
3)
No more combat medals (i.e., injuries can’t
be counted as combat injuries).
Here is what this
all comes down to. The other day I
read a story about a young Latina in Iraq
who was surrounded by a mob after an RPG
(rocket propelled grenade) took out one
of the trucks in her convoy. She
dragged one of her buddies out to a safe
area. And then under fire went back
in and assisted in saving eight other
men. What does she get out this
action? She gets nothing, no combat
medals, no honorable mentions, and no
ticker tape parades - nothing!
Mind you, I am
opposed to this war as I am opposed to
all war. Unlike “Bush the
lesser” with his questionable
National Guard record, I spent a lot of
time in the streets demonstrating against
the Vietnam War and have the scars and
the witnesses to testify to my presence.
But, to have our kids risking their lives
doing acts which would qualify them for
combat pay and combat benefits, and not
get that stuff, is outrageous!
So get ready kids
the fascists are coming to take still
more away. They will also try to
make it sound like we are the problem not
them.
I got an answer for
the Constitutional amendment issue.
Hey Bush, when we have an Equal Rights
Amendment (ERA), health care for
children, free prescription drugs for
AIDS patients and old folks, housing for
the homeless, all our people are back to
work, and our children are home from Iraq
and Afghanistan, then, maybe, just maybe,
we can talk about the problem of cops in
our bedrooms again.
In the meantime, I
got a message from George Moscone and
Harvey Milk for Gavin Newsome, Mayor of
San Francisco. Well Done!
___________________________________________
Steven Ybarra, JD, a
contributing columnist to
HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com),
is a retired civil rights attorney who
operates a consultant company in California.
He is a member of the Democratic National
Committee and a long time political
activist. Contact Steven at: sjybarra@aol.com
This article is
copyright by Steven J. Ybarra JD,
originally published in
www.Hispanicvista.com,
but permission is granted for reprint in
print, email,
blog, or web media
if this entire credit paragraph is
attached.
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