Thursday, January 29, 2009

Irony for the Antiquarian

I must note, for a snicker or two, that it seems in the general parlance of symbolic shorthand that the Staff of Asclepius (the doctor-son of Apollo and patron of medicine) seems to have mostly been replaced by the Rod of Hermes (patron of, among other things, merchants and thieves).

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Reinforcing the Monastic Walls

The Los Angeles Times reports that a panel of the California 4th District of Appeal has ruled that a Lutheran high school has the right to expel students for being gay. Apparently, it is not a business (despite accepting money to perform a service) and therefore does not have to obey civil rights laws. This sets a lovely precedent for religious schools setting up a monastic culture in which students, sent by their parents, have parts of their humanity repressed in an environment that teaches not about the world, but about a world based on the ideals of the people running the school. They will be taught that such and such a lifestyle is wrong and to be shunned. You know, sort of like terrorists, Nazis, Kim Jong Il, and so forth.

If I'm being alarmist it is because I am alarmed.

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Dream Fulfilled? Not quite...



...and I'm not sure I WANT it all to be fulfilled.

Yea, in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s national holiday as well as the upcoming inauguration of this country's first black* president I am taking a moment to examine Dr. King's dream as stated in his speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. It seems that pundits, pastors and politicians are saying that Obama is the fulfillment of Dr. King's dream. I do not believe that this is so, and upon reading the speech again — I have not really done so since middle school — I find that there are a few points that I am not entirely comfortable with wandering about in the generally uplifting and inspiring speech.

This country has changed much for the better since 1963, when racial segregation was law, lynchings were commonplace, and the majority of white people seemed to think this was just fine. This was the atmosphere in which Dr. King gave his speech, and he gave it partially in his role as a Baptist minister. This explains, perhaps, why he chose to argue the way he did.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"


My version of the dream has the creed changed to "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are equal." I do not wish for creationism to be promoted.

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."

This has, for the most part, come to pass. Racism lingers, but there is no longer a legal divide, and the generations since 1963 seem to be increasingly race-neutral. For a person used to gender neutral language, though, it is left to wonder why it is the sons and not the daughters, or simply the children.

"I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice."


Mississippi is still contested territory for the forces of tolerance and those that would oppose them. It is better than it was then, but it has a very long way to go.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

One can argue that this has come to pass with Obama's election, but it seems to me that too many people are still judged by the color of their skin. Not large public-view things, of course, and not usually things in which a legal action may take place, but stealthily and in personal situations.

"And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Aye, he didn't acknowledge all genders, creeds and religions, as I would have done. I wonder if this was simply the shortsightedness of the era, or perhaps a limit to King's dream. I do not know enough about the man to consider what might be his view on the Equal Rights Amendment, but I am saddened by the fact that this amendment is still not law. I also wonder what he might think of the diversity of religion in America now, and in fact what he thought of the diversity of religion in the world then.

Dr. King's dream was a worthy and lofty goal for 1963, but we can do better in 2009. We can have a dream in which all people, of any race, of any religion, of any gender or no gender at all, of any creed, of any sexuality, can be treated as equals under laws that are fair in a society that values all of its constituents.


* Barack Obama is of mixed ethnicity. His mother, Ann Dunham, was an Irish-American from Kansas. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was a black African from Kenya. He seems to strongly take after his father's features. I don't mean to say that this precludes him from being "black", I just find it interesting.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

I call Bullshit.

This is why I don't watch prime time TV.

I happened to be in the same room as tonight's episode of CBS' "The Mentalist", which, from what I can tell, is a permutation of the police/investigation genre with a snarky asshat as the main character. Said asshat uses a combination of Sherlockian observation and pop psychology and apparently always gets his criminal.

This episode (whose title was "Red Rum") had one of those plots that network writers grab out of their trash bin five minutes before the deadline...you know, the ones that take a minority, religion, or obscure subject and represent it as exactly what they think their midwestern, white, Christian family audience believes it is. This time they did it with Wicca.

The rough plot is this: Football player found dead with a small amount of evidence that suggests an occult connection. Police interview the parents, who immediately bring up "that witch", and point the investigators to a "witch" who apparently lives in the neighborhood and has accused said football player of killing her cat. The title character and his unprofessional, uninformed partners go to this house and find a pentacle on the door-step as well as a goat decoration by the door. It is explained to the audience that this is a mark of devil-worship. As no one answers the door bell, the investigators go question the football coach and search the locker room. They find, in the deceased's locker, a shirt with blood on it. They go to try the "witch's" house again, and break in with the assurance that a search warrant is "on the way". The owner is in residence, and welcomes them in. When asked about not answering the door, she says that she would have been at a disadvantage that way. She proceeds to explain that she did lay a curse on the football player in revenge for him killing her cat. She knew of the football player's death before the police did because she had her apprentices (of whom she is "High Priestess")looking for herbs in those woods that day, and she didn't tell the police because she believes that he'll just return to the earth, and there is no helping him now. She also says that he was an evil man. She liberally uses the word "cowen". Eventually it falls out that the football player's younger brother is an apprentice of the "witch's", and the police break into the "witch's" house in time to interrupt a cleansing ritual involving blood and lots of Latin chanting for effect. They bring in the "witch" and the brother, who was the object of the cleansing ritual. The witch curses one of the investigators (who is made fun of for the rest of the show for being superstitious), but then tells them about the brother and how he came to her willingly, curious, and is happy with her brand of witchcraft. For his part, the brother says he feels safe with the witch. This leads the main character to leap to the conclusion that the father is abusive and killed his son, and he's right.

No further mention of the cat.

This "witch" did lots of things that practitioners of Wicca (of whom she claims to be one) don't, including cursing on a whim, not reporting discovery of a corpse (that's really just stupid), invoking her Goddess as protection from police interrogators, claiming that she is the only witch in Los Angeles, conducting her rite in Latin using her blood-covered (supposed) athame like a wand...et cetera. There is one sequence, as they break in on the cleansing ceremony, which is shot in such a way as to suggest that the brother is going to be ritually sacrificed. Gardinerian? A little maybe, but I think it's more laziness on the part of the writers. Laziness and irresponsibility in promoting a damaging stereotype.

The "witch" character is, of course, damaged goods (because no one sane comes to Wicca), having never known her father and seen her mother murdered. She's a college drop-out and has been jailed fro petty theft before. Of course. The actress (Azura Skye)plays her creepy as all get-out, of course.

My favorite quote: "Why would you feel safe at a witch's house? If your father is abusing you."

*sigh*