Thursday, August 09, 2001

Ugly Is...

I am working my way up to a simmer...

Why do so many people have an inherent need to destroy and dissemble every view point that is not their own?

I have been a member of a community group for nearly three years that is somewhat grass-roots.

And they have just sent out their latest newsletter with an article lambasting (word?) another local organization for supporting the Boy Scouts - or in actuality, permitting the Scouts to meet.

Supporting the Scouts is discrimination.

Tearing the Scouts out by the root is apparently not.

A witch hunt is a witch hunt. Even if it is a bunch of frustrated members of a minority group performing the task.

Ugly is.

More on this later...



~10:50pm

I'm starting to think more about all of it - and sometimes it makes my head hurt.

1) The operators of the community center make a space available to those who pay for their time - there are rules, I am sure - still, the BSA are welcome, the GLBT (gay-lesbian-bi-trans) group is welcome.

2) The GLBT group I belong to is attacking the community center for making the space available to the BSA. The BSA doesn't protest the GLBT group using the space. The GLBT group is not going to stop using the space and find a new home. They suddenly want the community center to eject the BSA (both have been there for a number of years).

3) The BSA believes a certain thing. The GLBT believes a certain thing. They don't believe the same thing. GLBT is encouraging a public pressure on the community center.

4) Does anybody get to win?

I don't like hate/exclusion/archery or its propagation. I spent my time in the Navy and don't understand the hooplah about Gays in the military. I don't get what the BSA thinks its ban on gays accomplishes. If they're there, they're there. Some of the young scouts are about the age where they will just be coming aware of their sexual yen.

I am just curious what others think, too. My initial reaction to the letter was, "My GLBT group is a bunch of Plugs."

However, what others have said to me today resonates on a different plane than I was thinking on - so I am stepping back and thinking about it...

I guess the pressure thing is what it is - it works, it fails, it frustrates.



~ 08.12.01

I believe in a way I am glad that someone is choosing this battle -

But it took me off guard to find that a group I have identified with very well, and seen eye-to-eye with on so many issues is the group raising the battle cry.

And I find myself suddenly feeling outside the group.

My people. My tribe.

I think that writing this out has helped me see it is that really from which my initial reaction comes.