My Love Affair with America

He was the Mayor. He told me we were the envy of the town. Other couples envied us because we had everything. He had a great job, we went on grand vacations, we had the largest house in the neighborhood, and the biggest pool in the county. We owned the most land and had the most people working for us. We threw wild dinner parties, weekend retreats, and jetted to Paris for dinner at our leisure. We went to church every Sunday and paid our tithes. We believed we were blessed because we worked so hard and because we were good Christian people. He told me he heard people talk about us all over town, how they wished they could be like him and me.

            I believed everything he said. I saw their smiling, accepting faces when we drove through town. When we went to dinner, they went out of their way to fulfill our every whim. He took care of them, he told me. They were like our family. He made sure they had good lives, and when trouble came their way, he helped them get back on their feet again.

            But all of the children looked sad. They tried to smile, but it was apparent they were forcing themselves to appear happy. Their bodies fidgeted, and their eyes darted all over when he leaned to talk to them. He gave them dollars, which made their parents very happy. They all looked so sad.

            Years later, I learned he had molested the children whose parents he had paid.

            This is my love affair with America.

                                                                                                                   The End.

This story was inspired by the Jefferson Airplane song "Somebody to Love," specifically the first line: 

When the truth is found to be lies/And all the joy within you dies.

Copyright 2012 Eileen M. Sembrot

Religion, Youth and Sexuality

      In response to the article on www.writing.com titled Religion and Politics by SoCalScribe, I recalled a church service I attended a few months ago. My partner and I sometimes go to an African Methodist church in rural South Carolina. While I practice Yoga (spiritually) and Buddhism, my partner is a born-again Christian. Neither of us, however, are against freedom of action that doesn't harm any living being. Whatever makes your world turn, we're glad you've found happiness.

    We love the pastor at the church, and his message always makes me feel as if he had followed me around all week, observed those things that caused me the most worry or pain, and then spoke about them in the service to make me feel better. However, one week, a guest lecturer was invited to speak at our church. It was a woman in the process of becoming a Methodist minister.

     She was about 50-years-old and quite sure of her place at the pulpit. While much of what she said was important for the youth in the church to hear, her sermon left me cold and angry. She told the congregation how wrong homosexuality is--how unnatural, how un-God-like, and how wrong having intimate, sexual feelings for someone of the same sex was in God's eyes.

     She reminded me of George W. Bush when he claimed that God spoke to him and told him to go to war against the poorest nation in the world in 2001.

     How did this woman have any idea of what's wrong in God's eyes? Although I certainly don't pretend or delude myself into believing that I know what God most wants in our behavior, I do know rationally that by telling kids homosexuality is bad "in God's eyes," the message is about as hateful as telling them that the God who created them, who made them "wrong," hates them for His mistake.

     Don't American people, in general, have enough self-loathing to handle what with the propaganda the government tells us about how stupid we are and that we are unable to make decisions based on our own good as the advertisers hypnotize us into believing that if we don't have that body, hair, car, relationship, education, job, income, clothing, we're useless shit?

     I don't know about you, but I think we need to uplift the self-esteem of those of us raised in a schizophrenic culture such as that of the U.S. So, rather than telling kids that their natural instinctual tendencies are sins, maybe we can put our arms around them and tell them if they are in love with someone of their own sex, how happy we are that they've found joy in an unjust and judgmental world.

     And next time, I won't let my own timidity to stand up to the powers-that-be stop me from approaching an "almost-minister" and suggesting that she start spreading a message of love and acceptance, rather than hate and rejection.

Copyright@Eileen M. Sembrot 2020

Political Posturing and Cultural Conditioning

                    YouTube Video by Anonymous- The Reality of America (v3.0)

Political Posturing and Cultural Conditioning

“I don’t like your politics,” proclaimed Floyd Corkins before shooting a security guard at the Family Research Council facility in the Washington D.C. area on August 16, 2012.[1]

Sound familiar? Both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations pronounced this statement to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Iran. In Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, both administrations have already killed countless human beings—some labeled ‘suspected’ militants, but most, non-militant men, women and children—and destroyed the countries’ civil societies and physical infrastructures, as well as murdered two national leaders. And if hyped-rhetoric from the Obama court is any indicator, the drones should begin bombing the men, women, children, teachers, ‘suspected’ militants, homes, schools, religious centers, police stations, and water and electricity suppliers in Syria and Iran any day now, especially if Israel can convince Obama of its delusional doomsday scenario.

Considering the jury is still out over the nature versus nurture debate, it’s wisest to acknowledge each factor’s contribution. In the meantime, however, if our general state of society offers any clues to the mystery, it’s evident that nurture and environment play a significant role in people’s thoughts and behaviors, with the Corkins’ shooting as just one example.  

Additionally, the U.S. presidential administrations generally kill people and destroy nations considered by the U.S., respectively, as “others” and undemocratic, nearly always ensuring manifest justification. Paralleling such irrationality, Corkins is a gay rights’ activist, and this particular center houses a rightwing Christian lobbying association. However, Corkins’ political message didn’t end with the gay/Christian dichotomy.

As one hand held the gun, Corkins’ other hand held a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich—the Chick-fil-A corporation, it turns out, donates millions of dollars to anti-gay organizations each year. The outspoken president of Chick-fil-A preaches that homosexuality is a slap to God’s face.

Thus, the shooter’s message not only reflected his hostility towards a political faction that portrays gays and lesbians as heathens doomed for Dante’s hell, but it also highlighted how corporate financial contributions can overtly influence the political debate and subsequent policy decisions.

If you’re wondering whether Chick-fil-A financially supports either U.S. presidential candidate, unfortunately, we, the citizens, aren’t entitled to this information, thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision on Citizens United.

2012 copyright © Eileen M. Sembrot – All rights reserved.

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[1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2189373/I-dont-like-politics-Words-Chick-fil-A-carrying-shooter-opened-Family-Research-Council.html. Viewed on 08/29/12