[In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. --L.]
- On Values and Faith
- This being an election year (can it be? I've barely recovered from the last election), I've begun to hear familiar murmurings from conservatives about how the GOP will appeal to "values voters" to win back control of Congress.
As it happens, I'm a values voter: I deeply value autonomy and consent. I deeply value reproductive freedom. I deeply value equality and justice for people who are female and/or queer and/or trans and/or of color and/or disabled and/or poor and/or fat and/or in any other way marginalized. I deeply value marriage equality. I deeply value stem cell research. I deeply value the separation of church and state. I deeply value science being taught in schools. I deeply value universal healthcare. I deeply value a robust social safety net.
I value lots of other things, too, but those seem to be the ones which make me not a "values voter." Not as far as the GOP is concerned.
Despite their reflexive and compulsive intoning of the word "values" during every election year, as if it's a magical incantation that can be uttered only by those who understand its complex truth, it doesn't really mean anything, in and of itself. It's an ethically neutral word. Everyone has values. What matters is not that you have values, but what values you have. Joseph Stalin valued killing people. Jeffrey Dahmer valued eating people. George Bush valued torturing people. I value not killing people, not eating them, and not torturing them. See? Everyone has values.
[...] There are plenty of people who have faith in a god(s) and faith in humankind. But there are a lot of people who only have faith in a god, because their religion tells them humans aren't worth having faith in.
Those tend to be the people who want to legislate morality, because they don't trust people to make good decisions, because they don't even trust themselves. And those are the people who are most often called the "values voters" and to whose religious beliefs the word "faith" has come to refer.
It's a terrible thing that the people who have the least faith in their fellow humans have commandeered the term, because, on this earth, humans are the only ones who can feed the hungry, clothe the poor, provide healthcare to the sick, guarantee equality and freedom.
- Family Feud politics
- It isn't pretty. Or moral. But what did you expect from a game in which there's no such thing as the right answer?
- A Personal Change?
- I know you think that’s a good soundbite, Rupert, and I applaud your deft shifting of the blame onto women–we just don’t have the willpower!–but it’s not quuuuuiiiitttteee that simple. Here’s why: even when feminists want something–and want it really, really badly–overturning the status quo requires a hell of a lot more effort on the part of women than complacently maintaining the status quo requires from men. This has been true for every single “women’s issue” from suffrage to equal pay to reproductive rights. It’s not a question of women’s not wanting it; it’s a question of wanting it AND overcoming all the cultural and bureaucratic hurdles, and doing that in addition to tackling the many, many other pressing issues facing women–like reproductive rights and pay equity–which might seem like a more important investment of our time and effort.
- All Hail the King!
- “All The King’s Men” is the story of Peggielene Bartels, a Washington-area secretary who was recently crowned Nana Amuah Afenyi VI, hereditary tribal king of Otuam, Ghana, after the death of her uncle, the previous king.
There’s so much awesomeness in this woman and her story, I’m not even going to try to summarize, but I promise, it’ll make you stand up and cheer.
The Link(s): Wed, Mar 17th, 9am by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.