That's right. I said it.
They called Native Americans savages and beasts and conducted a genocide against them. They called the Jews vermin and exterminated them. They call the blacks niggers, Mexicans wetbacks and women bitches and cunts and enslaved, discriminate against, and marginalize them.
We progressives flinch at such words. We don't use them because we don't condone or feel the malice that informs them. Even those whose beliefs are represented by words like these hide their use, speaking vile epithets in whispers, or among like-minded friends, but never, never in public where their spoken words might let the veneer slip for a moment and reveal damning truths about themselves.
But today, let's call things for what they are.
Turns out Yes on One wasn't about marriage at all. It wasn't about the proper role of church and state. Or any other high-minded ideal. It was about faggots. About f**king queers. About gay-boys. And god-damned lesbians. It was about the hatred.
And so I'm going to use these words today, drink their poison, feel their serrated edges cut my skin, and revel in the delicious honesty, the marvelous clarity of this moment.
Ever wonder what "don't ask don't tell" is really hiding? Not the gays--they can come out or not as they see fit. Many do, and are forced out of a military that was better served before they left. No, DADT hides the hatred, obscures the persecution of an entire class of people honorably serving a country that would deny them, to this day, the full range of rights and freedoms that other Americans naturally enjoy.
I'm not even gay you know. I celebrated NY-23. Felt bad, but not really surprised by VA and NJ Gov. But Maine 1 just kicked me in the gut somehow. I feel sucker-punched. Betrayed. Angry.
Don't tell me time is on our side. I know that. I just thought Maine might turn out to be better than this right now.
Guess not. And I am sick about it.