Friday, March 2, 2012

MUCH ADO ABOUT SOMETHING

It the furor about the separation of church and state? Is it a "culture war" -- the culture war that's been going on for centuries?

What about contraception and the Catholic church? Is the furor about healthcare paying for it, or NOT paying for it? Or maybe it's still about gay stuff -- marriage, adopting kids? Or abortion -- yes, no -- probably it's still about who decides what for whom ...

All I really deeply know is what I inherited from my mother and her mother -- a lot Victorian rules and ideas about love, sex and morality that have globbed together and made me determined NOT to be an obsolescent, old-fashioned woman.

Hey, maybe it's still the age-old to-do about SEX ...


Okay, so, women kiss women, and yes, men kiss men.

The pictures are nice to look at.

No doubt about it, John Cullum kisses Em and Em kisses him back.

I'm posting pretty pictures to look at, to remind me what all this moralizing is probably about.


Has the contraception issue's been shelved? No.

Is healthcare/Obamacare loaded with infringements of the first amendment? Yes? No? Maybe?

Can you follow the attacks -- the up and down headlines -- the he said, she said quotes? Do you wonder, privately just between you and yourself, why this morality business is becoming a bigger and bigger issue?

Is this the real issue -- the issue of who is going to get elected in November? Or is the Number-One moral issue about who you kiss, who you love, who you have sex with, and the hundred repercussions of how all that private business affects you every day?

Everyone has a comment, an opinion --
it's wrong, it's right, gotta stop it, gotta do more, it's sinful, it's freedom, we need laws, don't need laws, it's up to God/Jesus/Jehovah/Allah.

I think we need this furor. It sort of pulls the window shade on the fact that we are not being governed by Congress, governed by men and women whom we elected to govern us, who are using the House of Reps as their political home-sweet-home playpen. This furor -- this SOMETHING that's going on -- is greying down the chaos, and distracting us from the civil war we're in.

Civil war? Yes.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Civil war - a fascinating (and I would say accurate) characterization of these issues.

Dede said...

All the pettiness and moralizing detract us from resolving the real issues. Loved your post!

Katherine Seward said...

Dear Emily, Hi! I've been a fan of yours since reading "Encore..."and am eagerly tracking down your plays to read as well as your novels. Yet I must ask if you'll write your own memoir(no offense to Mr. Teague's efforts)someday. In your own words.

Sincerely,
K. Seward

Anonymous said...

This subject is way above my head. Let me suffice to say I think the media plays a big part in this culture war, along with freedom of speech, and then all the wanna be's in Washington playing war politics with American lives at stake. It's a no win situation.
kam

Carola said...

These guys want to take us back to the 19th century. I can't believe it. It must lose them votes. Women will abandon the Republican party. I understand that Republican women in Michigan voted for Romney over Santorum.

Joan Tilton said...

In my humble opinion, our country is in moral decay and I challenge your readers to read and I mean really read Revelations in the best seller of all best sellers, the Bible! The Bible is very clear on so many issues and the path America is taking is wrong, wrong, wrong. Just my opinion.

Naomi said...

I think it's all a smoke screen to avoid talking about the real issues in America.

Kaye Francis said...

All the hate & personal attacks politics from all political parties distracts & takes time away from problem solving (issues) exactly as DeDe & Naomi commented above.
* * *
Hate & intolerance beget more hate & intolerance which then begets chaos. It riles people up to get them to the voting booth. Anger has been scientifically proved to motivate people to vote.
* * *
But here's the thing ....hate, intolerance & anger also has been scientifically PROVED to shut down the brains of individuals which is to shut down 'the ability to reason'. Without the ability 'to reason' ~ possible solutions to any question or issues can't be accomplished.
* * *
& then while all sides are in their throes of this what EM calls 'civil war' ~ the distractions of such leave other people, businesses, corporations, other political parties & even other nations to be able to quietly & sneakily do what they want around all this which probably is (& may not be)to the betterment of the United States of America.
* * *
And as far as GOD in all of this...I never knew & still don't think GOD ever had any political agenda of any kind. The GOD I know & was taught was a strictly spiritual source. And I say 'woe be to them' who would use GOD's name for any other purpose or any reason other than real honest goodness. You only have to look back on global/world history & see the outcomes of when folks tried to leverage God's name for their own nefarious purposes.
* * *
Ima real gramma from a real Midwest small city ~ Ima not 'extra hip' or 'extra smart'...Ima smart enough to know there is a whole lot about all these things Ima disliking & I shall NOT buy into all the hate & personal attacks & lose what ability to reason I have.
* * *
Ima @grammakaye on twitter.

Kaye Frances said...

oopsie my so very bad & I did try to proofread my own comment: change this part to

"... & even other nations to be able to quietly & sneakily do what they want around all this which probably isn't (IS NOT & may not be) to the betterment of the United States of America."

luvya Ima @grammakaye on twitter.