Birth Control

This letter to the editor was written before the issues of sexual orientation became secondary to the pertinent issues of the time. It provides illuminating insight into how power and control can be wielded by some over those personifying an impressionable, unquestioning willingness to blindly follow.

Peace Be With You,
Mort

Imagine the perfect world. Admittedly the concept of perfection may differ depending on your individual point of view but in spite of the obvious cultural, ethical and browbeater issues I believe there are certain basics we can all agree upon. Empathy, that Christian biggie-- Forgiveness of Sins—honoring (whatever’s worthy)--, paying taxes, increasing quality of life and so on and so forth.
As a means of fast tracking to the perfect world I’d like to propose a review of the religious right’s view on homosexual marriage and the practicality of birth control. In the not so long distant past Human newborns suffered mortality rates comparable to the many species of wildlife that produce in bulk ensuring the continuation of their species. In the Human world, mastery, in the guise of religion, decreed that the only sanctifiable union was that between a heterosexual couple…in other words one physically capable of mass human production. A self aggrandizing way of producing cheap labor as well as guaranteeing the perpetration of the species and while not a control tactic I condone certainly an understandable notion.
As with so much other conceptualization that has gone the way of the dinosaur the need for mass mini human production is an antiquated one. It has joined the ranks of the ribbon typewriter, corded phones, 8-tracks and clean air. Why then are so many clinging to the old ways? Twenty-first century large families are more of an economic hindrance than help, and viable areas available for food production shrink daily.
People have gleefully glommed onto cell phones, faithfully spend thousands for new computers every 3-4 years, upgrade and update any and every electronic necessity with almost maniacal zeal. Unconcernedly they’ve expunged time honored concepts—longevity, reliability, not wasting, pride and loyalty—in favor of instant gratification. This predilection then begs the question…why the continued negative attitude toward homosexuals? If nothing else here is a golden opportunity to put low cost birth control into the mainstream!
This is, of course, not to say that many homosexuals don’t want families. They do. Many adopt children that would otherwise languish in the adoption/foster system while a much lesser amount actually experience the birthing process. Overall a highly equitable way of lessening the burden on our beleaguered planet.
Just imagine a world where ones sexual orientation weren’t the issue. Just imagine if all those people who, through fear, entered into doomed heterosexual coupling, producing progeny destined for the psychiatrists couch—if not worse—hadn’t felt so pressured. Just imagine a calmer, happier less violent home world. Just imagine the possibilities.

Puritannical Resurrections

I read this Editorial in The Underground Sentinel, a newspaper published in the Northeastern United States during the early years of the 21st Century. I leave you to read it and come to your own conclusions.
It's all nothing more than a matter of choice,
Euroswydd

Choice seems to be the hot potato of our culture these days. Now choice to me has always been a fairly straightforward proposition. When I’ve needed to express an opinion or decide on one idea or another I’ve researched all the information available then chosen that which I’ve found to be the most efficacious. In retrospect some of my choices have turned out to be less than inspired but never in my wildest nightmare has it ever occurred to me—until recently that is--that my government would presume to monitor, judge then squelch the expression of those choices.
The other day I was at a red light, patiently (yeh right) awaiting the green. A bumper sticker on the car ahead proclaimed that “choosy mothers choose life”. So, one asks oneself--is this woman Pro Choice or Pro Life? I tend to think Pro Life but the sticker isn’t really clear. She does seem to be advocating the concept of choice, the supposition being that any mother worthy of that position would choose life. So…if she is such an advocate of choice then what’s the problem? Pro Choice doesn’t advocate abortion, it advocates a principle at the very crux of why people came to this country before it was a country. Freedom of choice. Those who subscribe to the Pro Life agenda might want to consider that they are going against the very principles put forth by our founding fathers.
On the positive side of choice squelching I foresee an expanding of the Federal coffers in the future. This won’t come from taxes but from the cost of procurring the licenses that will be necessary to obtain before being able transcribe words onto T-shirts. Without this type of licensing more and more T-shirt wearers can expect to be arrested for what their chests reveal about their true choice of beliefs. To date there have been many such arrests and a continuation could lead to, among other things, overcrowding in the jails. Clearly those making the T-shirts will have to be monitored.
Choosing to face the realities of the world can be daunting. I’m the first to admit to a sometimes overwhelming desire to emulate the ostrich and “stick my head in the sand”. Wouldn’t it be easier—I sometimes tell myself—to not buck the tide, just go along with the flow, let whoever wants to put all that effort in do it and let them have their way.
Then it occurs to me that if I allow myself to become a bit of complacent ooze on my chair I’ll have joined the ranks of the undistinguished, irrevocably giving into the tyrannical depravity of repression. How many World Wars have been fought to keep just such an eventuality from occurring?