excommunication

earlier this year, after the washington state legislature passed, and our brave governor gregoire signed the marriage equality act into law, a movement to gather signatures for a referendum in order to overturn this law quickly.  among the ardent supporters of repealing civil marriage equality was our very own catholic archbishop sartain (recently appointed by the vatican to get those heathen feminist nuns in line).  the archbishop drew up a missive to the parishioners of the seattle diocese asking that all parishes join in the effort to collect signatures for this anti-civil same-sex marriage referendum. i was raised in the church. i served as an alter boy for many years.  i have incredibly comforting moments of traditions and ritual, some i continue to this day.  and while, long ago i began questioning the dogma, i held onto the social justice ideals of those who truly exemplified the idea and modeled the purported teachings of the man known as jesus.

but i lost faith.

i lost faith in a faith that supported the status quo.

i lost faith in a faith that claim righteousness while basking in riches while many died of starvation.

i lost faith in a faith that denied my mother a place at the communion table because of my parents divorce, only to find that the priest who so denied my mother left the priesthood and married a divorced woman.

i lost faith in a faith that called (and continues to call) me and every other gay person "intrinsically disordered."

i got pissed off.  so much so, that i decided to write his excellency a letter.  and over the course of two weeks i drafted mr. archbishop a letter detailing my disillusionment with the church. 

it was cathartic.  

and much to my surprise, he actually wrote back.  i have no faith that my letter will affect the institution of the church. but, after all these years, and all the emotional pain suffered because the church taught me to despise myself - it certainly felt great to get a lot of this shit off of my chest.

A colleague posted this “HERE IS ALL I WANT” below on Facebook. And, after thinking about it for a while, and pondering its simpleminded message, I thought I’d post my response.

OBAMA:  Why gone?  Because you were in a coma when Bush and the GOP congress cut taxes on the wealthy and drove up our deficit?  Or, because you forgot that the GWB-Cheney regime led us into a war, costing us TRILLIONS of dollars – of course, which was also added to our debt?  Or, maybe you forgot that GWB led us into the greatest recession since the Great Depression?  Maybe you weren’t paying attention when Bush signed Medicare Part D that gave Big Pharma a TRILLION DOLLARS by preventing Medicare from being able to negotiate pharmaceutical prices for Medicare recipients (just like the VA and Medicaid is allowed?) Or, maybe you just want Obama gone because you’re a racist?

BORDERS:  You want the borders closed?  Unless you’re an indigenous North American, you have no room to talk because YOU ARE NOT NATIVE.  You or your ancestors either came here by choice, and displaced the natives; or, your ancestors were brought here in chains.  Simply put, if you are Italian, Hungarian, Chinese, or some other ethnic minority, people complained about you coming here.  If you are Catholic, people denied you jobs and didn’t trust you.  If you are black, many of those who brought your ancestors here wanted to send them away when they couldn’t “own” them anymore.  And, those that stayed risked being lynched or facing other horrible hardships.  Such as it is, EVERYONE, at one time or another, was THE UNWELCOMED OTHER. 

LANGUAGE:  This is a fairly common theme heard from the uneducated right-of-center.  But, the fact of the matter is that yes, first generation immigrants from non-English speaking countries who do not speak English as a second language will probably never master English.  However, studies show that 95% of 2^nd generation immigrants will have a mastery of English surpassing their parents’ native language (http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2013/02/immigration-and-language), and 3^rd generation immigrants will most likely not speak their grandparents’ native language at all. (I am a testament to that). English will always be the dominant language.  But, as a nation which has opened its doors to the oppressed around the world try to be a little patient with people learning English.  For crying out loud, it’s one of the hardest languages to learn for a non-native speaker!  I mean, look at it!  Tough, bough, laugh, daft, to, too, two, its, it’s, and there’s (not theirs) more:

               We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,

But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,

Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,

Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,

Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,

And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,

Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and there would be those,

Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,

And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,

But though we say mother, we never say methren.

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,

But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

 So our English, I think you will agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see.

Author Unknown.

CULTURE:  Well, whoever wrote U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights is a knucklehead.  These documents don’t create our culture.  They inform our legal system.  Our culture is evolving.  It is informed by everyone who has ever brought a little piece of their ancestry to this country.  And, it has to evolve.  If it didn’t, where would you stop it?  Before the emancipation?  Before suffrage?  Before the civil rights movement?  During WWII when we rounded up innocent Americans of Japanese heritage and forced them into internment camps?  During the McCarthy witch hunts?   (Personally, I think I might stop it prior to corporate America taking over our government and flattening out middle class wages, and creating a culture where we think that the president of our state’s largest public university deserves a salary close to a million dollars, or CEOs deserve 400 times what the average worker makes.  Now, these are cultural changes I could get behind!  But, please, stop blaming the poor Mexican immigrant – legal or otherwise – who’s picking the apples and lettuce you buy in the grocery store, or cleaning your house.  THEY AREN’T TAKING A JOB YOU’RE DYING FOR!)

DRUG FREE:  You want drug screening for recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, but aren’t railing for drug screening for the $500 Billion a year the fossil fuel industry gets in subsidies each year? (http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/11/07/2908361/rich-countries-fossil-fuel-subsidies/)  And, what about the freebies members of Congress get?  Or, the handouts that AIG got, and then gave those hefty bonuses and lavish trips.  STOP BLAMING POOR PEOPLE!  Jesus Christ!  People watch too much freakin’ Faux News!   But, yes. There are people who exploit social benefits.  There are people who can work and yet receive disability.  There are tax cheats.  There is Medicare fraud.  There are also corporate execs who screw consumers, such as in the pharmaceutical industry where Americans are being raped over the cost of drugs, relative to other countries: (http://healthcareforamericanow.org/2013/04/08/pharma-711-billion-profits-price-gouging-seniors/)  (http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/q22013/doctors-slam-big-pharma-for-price-gouging-cancer-patients/)  Again, stop being stupid and blaming poor people!  Yes.  We can police Welfare, and Medicare better.  But, we are doing NOTHING about policing the blatantly disgusting screwing of America by the likes of Martin Shkreli, the slime ball who bought a drug company and immediately raised the price of an anti-parasitic medication from $13.50 to $750 a PILL!  Really?  You’re blaming people collecting $250 a month in food stamps over this guy who should be drawn and quartered??  Fuck.

NO FREEBIES:  Simply read the above.   And, yes.  We can be a generous country when we want.  But, truth be told, non-citizens ARE NOT SUCKING US DRY.  Your angst is misdirected.  For example, Boeing received millions in tax credits and still sent jobs out of state.  What loyalty!  And yeah, Boeing CEO Mr. McNerney made $23.5 Million in 2014.  I’m sure he was worth it.  Yet, Boeing workers lost their pension program.  I’m sure he also got a bonus for this legerdemain.  But, really, it’s no different in any industry.  Take healthcare.  At a local non-profit hospital, well loved by the community, the average nurse saw a 2% raise this past year, with a most generous $100 bonus, while the executives received HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS in bonuses.  Oh, and did I mention that this hospital is non-profit?  This is America today. And, sadly, the majority of GOP-voting, Trump or Carson following, uneducated, head in the sand, FAUX News automatons will continue to blame the poor person, or the immigrant, or the gay person, or the Muslim, or the working woman.

Oh, and, by the way, Reagan, the patron saint of the Holy Right, tripled the national debt and raised taxes three times.  He also sold arms to Iran.  (This was after the Iranians took our people hostage.)  Lots of people were apparently in a coma then, too.