Saturday Rant

Note: In an effort to bring more organization to The Grind, I am going to attempt the following: I will write a Friday Football column, a Saturday Rant dealing with politics, and a Sunday Refelections dealing with life in general. The rest of the week my writing time will be spent working on a book I am tentatively calling A Love Supreme, which I will post in chapter format as they are finished. As always, thanks for reading and feel free to leave any and all comments, either on here, on facebook, or via email.


Saturday Rant-Strange Bedfellows, Turning Water Into Wine, and Stimulate This

Strange Bedfellows

So a Mormon, a Black dude, a Mexican, and a White guy walk into a gay bar. Who stays and who leaves in disgust when they see gays and lesbians holding hands, enjoying each others company, and even, gasp, showing public displays of affection? If the exit polls in California regarding the recent Prop 8 vote are any indicator, the White guy, and maybe the Mexican hang out, but the Black dude and the Mormon are high tailing it out of there.

Apparently the saying that politics makes for strange bedfellows has found a new source of verification, as attested to by the alliance between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Bigots, and Black folks who apparently adhere to the notion of civil rights for me but not for thee. I’m wondering if in all the celebration of the first Black president being elected, the 70% of Blacks that are reported to have voted in favor of Prop 8 and therefore against the rights of gays and lesbians to partake in the secular and civil right of marriage felt any ambivalence.

Shame on everyone who voted against this measure, and likewise to those in Arizona who voted to overwhelmingly pass Prop 102 which now makes an amendment to the state constitution prohibiting gay marriage. Perhaps if President-elect Obama had come out strongly in favor of gay marriage the result may have been different, but his soft stance in favor of civil unions is only a step better than the famous Clinton sell-out of don’t ask don’t tell.

Someone’s religious beliefs are their right, as is my contempt for most organized religion, as is someone’s sexual preference. Nobody is asking for tax exempt churches to recognize something that goes against its values, however un-Christian those values may be. But this is a civil rights issue plain and simple, and I for one am sick and tired of the bigots and small-minded people getting their way because they shout the loudest and hang the most signs on street corners.

Turning Water Into Wine

I have been, and remain a passionate and unabashed supporter of our new president-elect, Barack Obama. I have very high expectations for what his presidency can achieve and for the leadership style I expect him to execute. But let’s not get carried away with some of the rhetoric, as I am seeing in the last few days. He is a man, a mere mortal, who although exceptional as an individual is still just one individual. What ails our nation will require much more than one person, it will require forward thinking progressive Americans to come together on a number of issues in order to get this country and our society back on the right track.

Obama cannot wave a magic wand and turn water into wine, nor can he alone save the economy, provide everyone with a good paying, feel good job, or convince those who run college football to junk the stupid BCS system in favor of a playoff tournament.

While I recognize and appreciate the historic nature of this election, especially for Black folks, and while I have very high expectations myself, nonetheless I think we need to simmer down a bit. The age of miracles was a couple thousand years ago, allegedly, and I think we need to settle for some common sense policies that will get our economy going in the right direction, end the pointless wars in Asia, and strive for social justice, both at home and abroad.

Stimulate This

Already we are seeing the Congress clamoring for another stimulus program. Apparently the 850 billion recently approved, which included 150 billion in pork, isn’t enough to do the job. Now we need to bail out the auto industry, and any other industry that might take a hit during a recession, and maybe even cut some more checks so everyone can have a jolly Christmas.
Not that I couldn’t use a few extra bucks in my checking account right about now, but c’mon people, has anyone seen the national bank balance lately? We are 10 trillion dollars in the whole, and that’s not even counting the off the books money we owe for the boondoggle in Iraq that our president and punk Congress got us into and have so far refused to extricate ourselves from.

And what happened to the notion of free market capitalism that this nation was built on? Capitalism means taking risks, and it also means there will be winners and losers. The government can’t step in every time and bail out the losers, especially when we don’t have the money to do so.

If we are going to stimulate the economy with government spending, then it needs to be spent on long term projects that will benefit the nation as a whole and create jobs, similar to FDR’s New Deal policies. Investing in an entire range of green technologies and industries might be the way to go if we are to get a good return on our investment. But simply giving money to banks so they can horde it, or bailing out industries that have made poor market decisions, or individuals who have done likewise when taking out home loans is not good policy, nor is it likely to produce positive results.

Until next Saturday when the rant returns, I welcome any and all comments as always. There are sure to be a myriad of new and interesting items to discuss that will come up this week, and if not I’ve got a notebook full of old ideas to get into that I haven’t had the time to address.

Your faithful correspondent.