BLACK XMAS, GAY MARRIAGE, & HATE MAIL

“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is a part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.”
-- Hermann Hesse 1877-1962: “Demian” (1919)

BLACK XMAS

How sadly fitting a metaphor for the financial maelstrom about to consume us. A Wal-Mart (“Lowest Wages, Always”) employee on Long Island was crushed to death by a stampede of desperate shoppers. This only the most vicious example of the fights and injuries that broke out at Wal-Marts nationwide. It was reported there were more shoppers than shopping bags.

Across the world, however, there were consumers with bags. Having purchased a brand new Yamaha outboard motor and state of the art inflatable dinghy, they pulled up to a slum dock in Mumbai, shed their hunters orange windbreakers, and, showing off their young physiques in matching t-shirts and blue jeans, proceeded to unload their custom loaded individual backpacks. When a harbor master asked about the contents of their bags, they said, “We don’t want any attention, don’t bother us.”

Those of you who might wonder about my twisted tales need only look at the cruel expressions of human nature around us. How else to account for the kinds of evil that cloak themselves in guerrilla ideological justifications and first world nationalistic righteousness. When a religious fanatic murders a woman and child, or an unmanned high-tech drone missile wipes out an innocent wedding party, I call it evil. What the ultra committed muhajadeen and western right wing patriot have in common is the amoral capacity to use that cold, cognitive element that makes us “The Highest Animal,” to overcome the empathetic impulse. Simply put, they carefully rationalize the folly of maintaining a moral conscience, thus walling off any internalized opposition, innocent or otherwise, to those who might reject their apocalyptic worldview (See Dick Cheney’s 1% doctrine).

Meanwhile, our fellow citizens dying of thirst can take heart, the Space Shuttlers finally got the urine-to-water conversion machine working. Perhaps one day we’ll see a trans-Atlantic pipeline that ships America’s converted urine to sub-Saharan Africa. We could set up tributaries via the urinal outlets at sports bars. Bud-lite would be discounted for those who voluntarily ingest diuretics, thus partaking in that most noble, and altruistic, act (the piss is a communal discharge): sacrificing their pee on behalf of our dying brethren. Now if they can get that shit-to-donuts contraption working we’re in business.

GAY MARRIAGE and RACE

Let’s talk about race and homophobia. Why the inordinately high percentage of blacks that voted against Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage in California? In my long experience teaching at the college level, I’ve found African American students to be the most stridently homophobic of all minorities. Rather than explain why, I thought I might include this excerpt from Charles M. Blow’s editorial in today's “New York Times”:

(1) Blacks are much more likely to attend church, according to a Gallup report, and black women are much more likely to attend church than black men. Anyone who has ever been to a black church can attest to the disparity in the pews. And black women’s church attendance may be increasing. According to a report issued this spring by Child Trends, a nonprofit research center, weekly church attendance among black 12th graders rose 26 percent, while attendance for white 12th graders remained virtually flat. In 2006, those black teenagers were nearly 50 percent more likely to attend church once a week than their white counterparts. And it is probably safe to assume that many of them were going to church with their mothers since Child Trends reported that around the time that they were born, nearly 70 percent of all black children were born to single mothers.

(2) This high rate of church attendance by blacks informs a very conservative moral view. While blacks vote overwhelmingly Democratic, an analysis of three years of national data from Gallup polls reveals that their views on moral issues are virtually indistinguishable from those of Republicans. Let’s just call them Afropublicrats.

(3) Marriage can be a sore subject for black women in general. According to 2007 Census Bureau data, black women are the least likely of all women to be married and the most likely to be divorced. Women who can’t find a man to marry might not be thrilled about the idea of men marrying each other.

HATE MAIL

On Monday, March 31st, 2003 a photo of Sophia and myself appeared in The Ann Arbor News. Standing under a poster saying “Drop Bush, Not Bombs,” the caption read, “Ann Arbor resident Randy Tessier, left, strums his guitar to accompany antiwar songs as Sophia H. of Ann Arbor sings along with protesters on Main street in downtown Ann Arbor Sunday night.”

The following Tuesday I received two letters (transcribed as written) with no return address. My address (which is in the book) was handwritten on one envelope and typed on the other. The first contained a defaced version of the News photo with the following enclosure:

“Tessier --

As your strumming around Ann Arbor, which by the way “Shaky Jake” makes better noise then you do, remember who in hell gave the freedom to do so.

I don’t think you anti-Americans really give a damn any way, it’s your gutless type that GIs, sailors, Coast Guard etc. really detest, I am a Vietnam Vet and I hate you, loath you at the highest with bitter contempt, not one of you know what the hell your doing, nor do your type no what to do, men/women are fighting you and you spit on them, well I spit on you and have, watch your back ass-hole.

Did you make a date with the bitch next you in that photo in the paper? When Memorial day comes, stay off the street, when the 4th comes don’t go to any parades you ass-holes don’t belong, gutless fucking cowards, your scum are the minority and the cowards you are will try to weep the good out of an American victory, Hussein – his regime is FUCKING HISTORY !

I see that plastic guitar is made in Iraq, I bet by Hussein’s thugs.

-- Allen Harris”

Of course there is no such person. The second letter, shorter and typed, read:

“Tessier –

Which are you a Marxist, Communist, Liberal, Libertarian Socialist? Your not an American that is for damn sure, you are Anti-American spreading bias bull shit, and you clowns don’t even know what the hell your doing, nor do they know how to play a guitar, nice try ass hole!

There are thousands of men & women in Iraq fighting for you, and all you do is piss on them, I am a Vietnam veteran and I put you fuck heads in the same class as those in the 60s gutless cowards and are traitors pure and simple.

I say FUCK YOU! And GO AMERICA! And GO MR. BUSH! AND GO TROOPS!

-- Dick Jones”

Since my name’s in the book, it wasn’t difficult for Mr. Harris, or Jones, or whatever his name is, to send along his opinion. It’s a free country, why not?

Now fast forward to the blog I posted on November 3rd, 2008: “Endorsements and Embarrassments.” This was an unabridged version of a document published in “The Ann Arbor News” shortly after the election.

And so, 5 years later, I received this (typed) letter:

“After 8 years, America is better

Tessier,

Local observations, what has changed? America is safer, America is still free, has a Democracy, and Capitalism, still has free speech depending who you are, America’s problem! Caused by whom? Blame America first is the liberal-left’s idea of a problem.

Silence conservative speech is aproblem, conservative talk TV is aproblem, all those yard signs are a problem, the free market is a problem, supporting the troops is a problem, keeping terrorists out of America is a problem, not having huge taxes is a problem, having the great military is a problem.

Attacking the enemies of America is a problem, not giving illegal Mexicans full rights is a problem, not having faggot marriage legal world wide is a problem, not having a one party country is a problem, not spending enough is a problem.

Not having a huge government that makes Americans depend on them is a problem, not giving full rights to illegal immigrants is a problem, not being a third world country is a problem not having every court system fully liberal is a problem, God is a problem, the Ten Commandment is a problem, which Obama will change.

Having terrorists at GETMO is a problem, lets free them all, not having a socialist Markxist dictator is a problem, not blaming America enough is a problem, Bush’s anti-terrorism is a problem, supporting any victories of America is a problem, flag waving is a problem, having no fear of a free world is a problem, not hating Bush is a problem, not supporting Israel’s defeat is a problem, not supporting Iran is a problem.

Not supporting liberal-left agendas is a problem, not supporting Obama is a problem, supporting any conservative is a problem, not apologizing to the world for America is a problem, supporting patriotic themes is a problem, a liberal democracy is socialism/communistic and fully Marxist.

Not supporting this is a problem, not having a one world bank is a problem, shame on you if you don’t support all this, shame on you if you don’t support and accept this manifesto of destruction.

GOD BLESS AMERICA, GOD BLESS THE MILITARY”

Old bigots never die, they just keep buying new phone books.

Peace - Randy