Sunday, January 18, 2004

You see, Mr. Calauor, unlike the more hospitable Eric Joven or the divine Dinah Baseleres, I’m not as receptive to “welcoming” people of twisted logic. Especially if they use God to justify their own weird perspectives on life. And this is MY blog, after all. Not yours. Perhaps you can create YOUR own blog and rant there as much as you want? I’m sure there will be some people in this world who would love to read what you have to say. Honestly speaking, I’m not interested at all in what you have to say, and I say this with the ultimate sincerity, even Christian charity. But before you go berserk and rain me down with curses of hell fire, just know I did not invite you to read my blog. You chose to click this URL for whatever perverted pleasure doing so gives you. So do not hector me on morality and what-not. As far as I know, you can always go away and pretend my “evil” writing did not upset your holy existence…



(This was the same guy who emailed me congratulations for winning the Palanca for the short story, and then in one sentence blasted me to Satan’s throne for not writing about… God.)



So shoo now, Sir, like a good stray cat. Go away. Shoo!



(Pant... pant...)



Nothing like a good roasting to start a week! Hehehe. And to think I just had a beautiful Sunday in church!



I would like to cleanse (exorcise!) the air of this weblog by posting a short and wonderful essay by Charles Osgood, which should all warn us about how the Hitlers of the world come about.

'REAL' MEN AND WOMEN

By Charles Osgood



Helene, a young friend of mine, has been assigned a theme in English composition class. She can take her choice: ‘What is a real man?’ or, if she wishes, ‘What is a real woman?’ Seems the instructor has some strong ideas on these subjects. Helene says she doesn’t know which choice to make. ‘I could go the women’s-lib route,’ she says, ‘but I don’t think he’d like that. I started in on that one once in class, and it didn’t go over too well.’ So, what is a real man and what is a real woman?



‘As opposed to what?’ I asked.



‘I don’t know, as opposed to unreal men and women, I suppose. Got any ideas?’



Yes, it just happens I do. Let’s start with the assumption that reality is that which is, as opposed to that which somebody would like, or something that is imagined or idealized. Let’s assume that all human beings who are alive, therefore, are real human beings, who can be divided into two categories: real men and real women. A man who exists is a real man. His reality is in no way lessened by his race, his nationality, political affiliation, financial status, religious persuasion, or personal proclivities. All men are real men. All women are real women.



The first thing you do if you want to destroy somebody is to rob him of his humanity. If you can persuade yourself that someone is a gook and therefore not a real person, you can kill him rather more easily, burn down his home, separate him from his family. If you can persuade yourself that someone is not really a person but a spade, a Wasp, a kike, a wop, a mick, a fag, a dike, and therefore not a real man or woman, you can more easily hate and hurt him.



People who go around making rules, setting standards that other people are supposed to meet in order to qualify as real, are real pains in the neck—and worse, they are real threats to the rest of us. They use their own definitions of real and unreal to filter out unpleasant facts. To them, things like crime, drugs, decay, pollution, slums, et cetera, are not the real country. In the same way, they can look at a man and say he is not a real man because he doesn’t give a hang about professional basketball and would rather chase butterflies than a baseball; or they can look at a woman and say she is not a real woman because she drives a cab or would rather change the world than change diapers.



To say that someone is not a real man or woman is to say that they are something less than, and therefore not entitled to the same consideration as, real people. Therefore, Helene, contained within the questions ‘What is a real man?’ and ‘What is a real woman?’ are the seeds of discrimination and of murders, big and little. Each of us has his own reality, and nobody has the right to limit or qualify that—not even English composition instructors.

So there.


[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich

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