On Being Trans, #2

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I wrote an essay called On Being Trans and posted it on July 23, 2023, not quite three years ago.  I’m writing this now because the politics of sexual identity has exploded out of control.

My first response is simple: the political issue of sexual identity is a Republican wedge issue, and wedge issues by definition are meant to distract from serious issues, like war and peace, the size of our National Debt, income and wealth inequality, etc.  Another reason this issue is not so important is the number of folks it affects.

President Pete Buttigieg

Only if you have a subscription to The Atlantic

First, some housekeeping.  You may call him Mayor Pete, you may call him Secretary Buttigieg, I will call him Pete, because I can.

Can Pete be elected president?  I say, unequivocally, yes.

Not one of my liberal friends agrees with me. They argue, “if a woman can’t be elected president, why do you imagine a gay man can be elected president?”  They cite the presidential election losses of Secretary Hillary Clinton and Vice President Kamala Harris, as proof that a woman can’t be elected president in today’s America. My response to that tired argument is: a) Hillary led Trump in the polls from the very start of the campaign all the way until Election Day, b) Hillary won three million more votes than Trump, and c) while Trump held twice daily rallies in the last weeks of the campaign, Hillary hosted fund raisers.  Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory! 

On Being Trans

Miss Netherlands, a trans woman

How long did it take Dick Cheney, vice president under George W Bush and a real “conservative” Republican, to change his thinking about gay rights when his own daughter came out?  What do you think?  A minute?  20 seconds?  Somewhere between 5% and 10% of us are not straight.  That is, 20 million of us are not straight.  Which means that most extended families have a gay member or two.  And when that person came out, the family got behind him or her.  Without blinking an eye.  The person who didn’t was probably ostracized by the rest of the family.  The huge number of families with gay members explains why gay rights is no longer an issue among presidents, senators, House members, and even most SCOTUS justices.

Those Memphis Blues Again

His name is Tyre Nichols.  Was Tyre Nichols.  Five Memphis cops murdered a black man.  Again.  Another.  Again.  The cops are being charged with second degree murder.  I guess that’s progress, of sorts.

 

In the year of our Lord 2022, last year, in the USA, cops killed 1176 civilians, up from a record 1055 in 2021.  While cops killed more white men than black men, black men were three times more likely to end up in the morgue (as there are many more white men than black men).

 

In the Memphis incident, the five cops were black.  As if black cops can’t be racist against their own race.

 

Whoopi and the Jews

I have a Jewish friend whose writings I have published on my blog before.  Here he is again.

Whoopi Goldberg and the Jews

Less than two weeks ago, Whoopi claimed on her TV show The View that the Holocaust was not racist ("it was one group of white people against another group of white people; it was a case of man's inhumanity to man").  It got her into a heap of trouble.  Here is my perspective.

Reparations

The first thing that may come to mind when you hear the word “reparations,” “is this an idea whose time has come?”  “No” gets you back to your can of beer and your TV remote, while “Yes” is a much heavier lift.

The next thing that will likely pop into your mind is the obvious question, “should we pay reparations? Yes or No?”  Once again, a “No” is an easy way to dodge the hazards of this question.

This post is NOT about whether we should pay reparations; this post is about the difficulties involved in answering Yes to the question.  Be clear, the fact that a Yes demands thoughtful time and energy is NOT an argument against Reparations.

Drugs

The inspiration for this piece was an idealistic young man who was collecting donations for an organization called Law Enforcement Against Drugs, or L.E.A.D. for short.  (Let me say right now that the goals of L.E.A.D. are 1000% admirable, prevent youngsters and teens from being trapped by drugs).  Now, I admit I like to argue, and I am not above pontificating, so I approached this young man, and I began thus: laws against drugs are a cure that is worse than the disease.  We tried Prohibition and it didn’t work, so we repealed it.  Laws against drugs discriminates against minorities, because the drug of choice of middle- and upper-class white America is alcohol.

But here are a bunch of old arguments against the criminalization of drug use.

Whose America Is It, Anyway?

We Americans need to get a grip.

Many white Americans identify with the Pilgrims, with Jamestown settlers, with our Founding Fathers.  But most white Americans are descendants of much more recent immigrants.  Most white Americans' ancestors did NOT arrive on these shores via Plymouth Rock, most white Americans’ ancestors did NOT fight in our Revolutionary War, most white Americans’ ancestors arrived here in the last 150 years.  But even these children of immigrants choose to identify with Puritans rather than later immigrants.  Many white Americans would like to ignore the black experience, even though the first generation of blacks arrived here well before their European ancestors.  Many white Americans would like to ignore the indigenous experience, even though they populated the Americas for 10,000 years before the first Europeans set foot on these shores.