Friday, November 05, 2004

Getting Along

I am both a liberal and a Christian. I used to think I was a moderate but then I read a web site created by popular LA Talk radio scion Dennis Prager. Prager has a test to see if you are really a Liberal - I passed or failed or whatever you call it when you are labeled a liberal. So I am a liberal, not my designation but it is Prager's so I will go with it. I have a lot of respect for Talk Radio hosts. Talking for three or four hours in an effort to fire up hatred in your followers and anger in your detractors is hard work. Divisiveness sells. Divisiveness generates anger and anger drives ratings and ratings drive revenue. I am in the media business, I know.

KKLA is a Christian Radio station (99.5 FM in LA) which has a talk show host named Frank Pastore. Frank really likes to flame off against liberals. I found this editorial by Frank in today's LA Times. If memory serves, Frank thinks the LA Times is a liberal newspaper. If the LA Times is so liberal, why did they print Frank's editorial? Would Frank run an opinion piece from the Times? Is Frank an opportunist? Here is what Frank, a devout Christian, wrote about Liberals in the LA Times (you may need to use the free registration for this link):

The left must be defeated in the realm of ideas, just as it was on Tuesday at the ballot box. The left hates the ballot box and loves its courtrooms, which is why it hopes to continue to advance its agenda through the courts. This must end.

The left bewitches with its potions and elixirs, served daily in its strongholds of academe, Hollywood and old media. It vomits upon the morals, values and traditions we hold sacred: God, family and country. As we learned Tuesday, it is clear the left holds the majority of Americans, the majority of us, in contempt.

Frank is angry. He likes to make other people angry. Frank believes that God is on his side. I am starting to feel sorry for having made my first post such a nasty one now that I read what Frank has to say. I said some nasty things about Conservative Christians. To all conservative Christians, I am sorry for my tone and for the thoughtlessly speaking out in anger. Please forgive me. There are many things about which we disagree but I want to work with you. I don't think Frank wants to work with me. I am however willing to work with Frank.

5 Comments:

At November 6, 2004 at 10:58 AM, Blogger higgypiggy said...

guerilla dove,

i love your posts and i love your approach. i agree, we must all work on being with the people who hate us. i am a gay man who has been happily married (in the eyes of god and friends, if not in the eyes of W) to my husband for the past eight years. it's hard watching an agenda of hate against our love march forward. it's hard to believe that the lies and deceit of a man who is actively killing iraqi people under false pretense pales in comparison to the need to keep two people in love from formalizing that commitment legally. but it happens, it is happening.

i will agree with frank on one issue: most of my friends who are liberal are contemptuous of the conservative right. we like to label them: quacks, hillbillies, uneducated, unenlightened trogladites. i have yet to hear one of my friends actually listen to what they have to say. "gay marriage won't destroy the institution of marriage!" we scream and scream it, fists in our ears.

this approach isn't working. bush and kerry failed to get discourse going. they devolved into political platitudes: "he's a flip-flopper", "unfortunately, this president has failed you." they appealed to our basest instincts, our fear of those who think differently than we do, terrified of constructive debate. don't ask americans to articulate their fears clearly. just become the figurehead of those fears, and hope you have more fearful people behind you than they do. guess what, liberal folks? the way the issues are divided right now, they win.

getting out from behind our trivializations could be a way to start to help, it seems to me. what's going on behind all of this rhetoric? a good question to ask might be "will gay marriage destroy the institution of marriage?" to my mind, it at least evolves it significatnly. i can see why people are scared of that. i don't agree that the evolved version of marriage will be less in any way, but it will certainly be different. starting to admit that others have a valid opinion, even when it differs from our own, could be a good way to start to figure out how to come to some common ground.

i don't pretend to have the answers, is i guess what i'm saying. i have opinions, but those opinions are so tied to my education, to my own cultural experiences, to my social network...i don't pretend that they are absolutes. i don't agree with prejudice and i don't think we should pander to that. but let's face it, when frank says "the liberals are using the courts to promote their social agenda", he's indicting even the black civil rights movement; that's how those walls came tumbling down, too. we may have removed the barriers to some institituionalized forms of prejudice, but the prejudice remains.

guerilla dove, if there are folks in your parish who are interested in discourse, i am looking for a conservative pen pal. i am not interested in converting anyone; i'm just interested in hearing another opinioin, one that doesn't completely ape my own. feel free to hook me up if you can think of someone. you can email me on my blog, higgypiggy.

thanks for your thoughtful postings. namaste, and may your God bless you.

 
At November 6, 2004 at 1:18 PM, Blogger guerilla dove said...

HiggyPiggy,

Thanks so much for your input and encouragement. The best thing you can do is to let others know about "guerilla dove." At the end of the day it is not about being gay, straight, liberal conservative or Christian. At the end of the day we are all on the same team. Welcome aboard!

 
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