Sunday, May 27, 2007

Politics, Religion, Corruption…Oh My!

So, Jerry Falwell was buried on Tuesday and all the pundits are talking about how the Religious Right has lost its strong-hold on our political leaders. On a message board that I belong to there is a raging debate on whether queer people should celebrate his passing or not. On political blogs such as The Huffington Post there are posts that celebrate his death as well as posts that call for the LGBT community to forgive Falwell.

I suppose I fall in the middle, I just can't bring myself to celebrate his death but I am far from forgiving him. I like to believe that what separates me from people like him is that I know what it means to be humane while they have lost their humanity. But hey, if people want to dance on his grave I totally get it and wish them well.

What I really don't get are the queer people out there who think that somehow the hateful rhetoric that Falwell (and others of his ilk) spewed has made our fight easier. I agree that people like him helped to galvanize the queer community like nothing else had since Stonewall, however, I believe queers had made a lot of progress between 1969-79 that was virtually halted when Ronald Reagan (no, he is not a god!) was elected and Mr. Falwell played a large part in that. How many of the 980,000 people in North America living with HIV/AIDS in the early 80's died because our President couldn't even utter the word AIDS? Sadly, we'll never know, just as we'll never know how many families could've been saved had the supposed leader of the free-world stood up for them.

On the political side, (as if the above paragraphs aren't political, huh?) 'Spin' is still the in thing in DC and both sides of the aisle are taking it to new heights! Hillary can't seem to answer a straight-forward question; I've not seen bob and weave moves like hers since "The Thrilla in Manila."

It seems that NBC has sent The Haitian from Heroes to make Alberto Gonzales forget that he chose to keep his lips glued to Bush's ass instead of doing the job he was hired to do. The DOJ is supposed to enforce the law and to ensure impartial administration of justice for all Americans, not help the White House figure out ways to circumvent those laws.

I understand that politics and corruption go hand-in-hand; I've known that since I was 8-9 years old and my mother was a volunteer for Frank Rizzo during his campaign for Mayor of Philadelphia. Back then people used to at least feign outrage when politicians were caught breaking the laws they were hired to protect/enforce. Not anymore, these days it seems we are more interested in making sure that Paris Hilton is punished for her crimes than punishing the known liars and thieves that masquerade as our voices in DC. How sad is that?