Living in the Good Old Days?

Let me see if I have this correct.

We want to put a man on the moon.

There is a subversive lurking around every corner.

A nuclear strike is imminent.

Sex is reserved for married, white, heterosexuals couples -- and then only for the purposes of making babies.

Men must protect women, and women may have opinions only when men give those opinions to them.

Women and minorities are second class citizens.

The bigger the corporations, the better they -- and America -- are. And workers owe their very existence to the benificence of their employers.

Protesters are dirty, drug-addled hippies who have never held a job in their lives and are unpatriotic.

The war we are in is to help a foreign country.

Yep, that pretty well sums it up . . . if it were 1955! Given that this is the GOP's current train of thought, I have to ask.  What freaking century are you living in?

If they think they can win an election with retrograde thinking and scare tactics -- oh wait, they might just be able to pull that off because some Americans will buy any old song and dance.

Sorry, but this shit is giving me flashbacks.

In The Name of Love

For some time now, I have considered writing about the so-called Christian Right, but felt I couldn’t mount adequate arguments to counter their ignorance and stupidity. Quite obviously, I cannot view these people with an objective eye. Their intolerance and hatred of anything or anyone different leads me to believe that they are neither Christian nor right.

Then, a friend sent me a link to a website that said all that I have been thinking – and said it far better than I ever could. The site, http://www.soulforce.org/, addresses Christianity, the Bible, science, and more as they apply to the LGBT community (although the information presented could be used to argue for women’s issues, racial issues, even religious issues and more).

Written by a pastor, who also happens to be gay, the articles present straightforward, unemotional cases for inclusion of all in God’s grace. He makes one important point that really stuck with me. The Bible is a book about God’s love, not a book about human sexuality. So, why then are those self-professed evangelical Christians so fixated on S-E-X? And, how can they profess to follow the tenets of a book about love, yet spew such hate toward fellow human beings?

I may be a Sunday School drop-out, but I seem to remember something about being made in God’s image. Who’s to say what that image is? White, Protestant, heterosexual male is not the only mold that God created. To say that it is, quite simply, is ignorant of history, biology, and religion. If you believe in any parts of the Bible, then you have to believe and accept that ALL human beings were created in God’s image, whether they are genetically wired to be straight, LGBT, African-American, developmentally disabled, whatever.

I’m not particularly interested in religion of any type. I have seen more devout and spiritual people among non-Christians than among the church-going types I have known all my life. That does not mean that I cannot appreciate and accept the beliefs of those individuals. What I will never accept are those who take one Bible verse, then twist and corrupt it to support their own fears and prejudices. That is what the Roman Emperor Constantine did to create the Bible we have today. That is what today’s Christian Right is doing to gain control and impose a state religion upon this country.

And, by the way, this country was NOT founded on Christian principles, but on personal freedom and religious tolerance. Read your history books, folks! If the earliest settlers had wanted the strictures of a state religion, they would have stayed in England. Nor do we have God-given rights as Americans. Last time I looked, America isn’t even mentioned in God’s Word. What we do have are Constitutionally-guaranteed rights – but that’s another discussion.

I strongly recommend checking out http://www.soulforce.org/. If you are a religious person, you will come away with a clearer understanding and deeper appreciation of what your Bible actually says. If you’re not, you will find the support you need for responding to those who base false claims on the Biblical text. Plus you will have the smug satisfaction of saying, “Told you so.”

Contrary to what we are led to believe, all of the world’s major religions share one primary theme – that we love each other. We need a lot more love and a lot less divisiveness in this world. Because, as a great man once said, “All you need is love.”

Chrysler, Detroit and the Marlboro Man

I don’t watch the Super Bowl – unless it’s the Steelers. I will, however, pull myself away from my reading long enough to watch the commercials. While the majority never fails to disappoint, there are a select few that actually accomplish their goals of selling a product or creating an image. The rest are just exercises in creative futility.

Commercials, I learned long ago, reflect and define our popular culture. In my childhood, it was hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet – the product was right there in every slogan, every shot. Today, the story hides the product. Can you remember what product was being sold when the little boy peed in the pool? Neither can I, but I’ll bet it wasn’t pool chemicals. Cute commercial but a total waste of advertising dollars if you don’t know the product.

Those of us old enough to remember the Marlboro Man understand. That iconic image embodied America in the 50s and 60s. Rough, rugged, handsome and heroic. Every man wanted to be him; every woman wanted to be with him. Forget the fact that he was selling a product that would kill you; we loved the Marlboro Man, and by extension, we loved Marlboro cigarettes.

Today’s advertising makes no attempt to bond the product with the consumer. These ads, in their feeble attempts at story-telling, are as shallow as the culture they represent. Do we really want to party with sexy M&Ms or zip line the canyons of NYC with Jerry Seinfeld (the king of shallow, self-absorbed behavior)? No, but we would still love to ride the range with the Marlboro Man, an icon that hasn’t been seen on television in 40 years.

That ability to create a connection cuts to the heart of Chrysler’s “Half-Time in America” ad, making it the real Super Bowl winner. That mini-movie (it was a two-minute spot) brought people to tears, brought people to their feet cheering. And it left other auto makers asking, “Why didn’t we think of that?”.

As a company, Chrysler epitomizes what has gone wrong in America over the last few years. Broke, down and out, on the verge of losing everything. However, the once-struggling car maker has clawed its way back. Yeah, yeah I know, they got a government bail-out – one that was paid back AHEAD of schedule – but that’s another discussion.

As Chrysler experiences its renaissance, it is determined to bring Detroit with it. During last year’s Super Bowl, we met the real Motor City to the riff of Eminem’s Lose Yourself. Gritty, broken, rusted Detroit. But there were glimmers of hope in art, dance, and sport. This year, Chrysler gave us a new Detroit. Still hurting, but coming back strong, refreshed, and shining.

And damn if they didn’t get an American icon to tell us about it. Clint Eastwood -- the actor whose characters have been as iconic as the original Marlboro Man. Clint Eastwood – the traditional conservative Republican. Without being political, he told us that if Detroit and Chrysler can do it, then by God, the rest of America can too.

And who are you going to believe? Some politician? Or the Marlboro Man?

Right now, I’m ready to buy a Chrysler and drive it to Detroit for a vacation, drink Bud Light and eat Doritos and Twinkies while watching The Voice. (Guess which spots were a hit for me.)

You say, but there wasn’t a Twinkies commercial during the Super Bowl.

I remembered the Twinkies; forgot the product.

I rest my case.