Ken Dobson's Queer Ruminations from Thailand
Search this site
  • Life in Thailand
  • Queer Issues in Thailand
  • Queer Christian Issues
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Stories

Choices

7/6/2020

4 Comments

 
Picture
It’s been a tough month for a displaced, white, old boy like me, but I’ve gotten to the bottom of a few things in my own mind.

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books and proprietor of the Harry Potter empire, has chosen sides in the gender battles of the worldwide culture war.  Her voice has power.  She has chosen to use it to advocate “harmful and disproven beliefs about what it means to be a transgender person,” said a joint statement by major fan websites as they distanced themselves from her.  Throughout the past month she has repeatedly shown she disagrees with the simple declaration that “trans women are women.”  She has chosen to reject developing gender understanding by standing firm on the simplistic binary principle.  “Choose to do whatever you want,” she implies, “but males born male stay male.”  In order to defend her own sexual experiences she has chosen to dismiss contrary testimony.  In her view there are two positions: hers and the wrong one.  Yes, J.K. Rowling, as you had Dumbledore so wisely say, “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

Donald Trump stoked the culture war backfire he is fueling with the Mount Rushmore monuments as his backdrop on July 3.  Without a trace of embarrassment he stood on ground stolen from the Lakota Sioux to whom it had been promised in perpetuity and brazenly praised the “settlement of the West” as one of America’s shining accomplishments while his supporters derided a group of Sioux protesters, yelling at them to “go home!”  With no solid gains in any key indicator of presidential success he is counting on cultural division to re-energize his political fortune.  His rallying cry this month is for people to choose which side they’re on.  The choice is between “far-left fascism” and “me” (who was being portrayed as a “far right fascist” until his disastrous leadership of the response to the COVID-19 epidemic eclipsed all his other faults).  He is looking increasingly desperate as he fails to get the economy moving by “opening the country for business” against all medical advice as the USA adds some 3 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 132 thousand deaths (with 401 thousand for the rest of the world put together).  This disregard for human life is duplicated in Trump’s plans to keep children in cages along the border, to wipe out affordable health care, to withdraw from climate research organizations, and his refusal to denounce white supremacist terrorism and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.  Trump has chosen to limit his vision to “what’s good for me.”  
​
George Floyd died on May 25, in full public view, so horribly that a mass movement was begun that has now come into focus as a campaign to reduce the militarization of local law enforcement, to reform the relationship of police to the people being policed, and to equalize the prosecution of justice.  The presenting issue is the obvious differences between the way Black men and boys are targeted and treated by the police as opposed to how White men and boys are handled by the police.  It makes no sense that the USA leads the world in incarcerations, and that Black males are vastly disproportionately prosecuted with sentences many times heavier for Black convicts than for White persons convicted of the same crimes.  Systemic racism is beyond reasonable doubt.  It is time for America to choose a better system. 
4 Comments
David L Wells
7/6/2020 05:25:54 pm

Very well written and TRUE of course. Unfortunately, her in the U.S. people either already see all of this clearly OR they will NEVER see or accept any of it. I am completely confused by how so many Americans remain so closed in their choice without any ability to objectify anything. OR, is this a part of HUMANITY???? I am truly saddened.
On a personal note, Peter has practiced social distancing, warn a mask, carried around sanitizer, and two weeks ago caught Covid-19 (why can't the idiot Trump catch it). As a very healthy and fit 34 year old, Peter suffered greatly and I was afraid he might not make it. After 8 day fever (and constantly changing with new symptoms) I was about to insist that he be admitted to a hospital (almost all were full in Houston). Then, his fever broke and symptoms began to decrease. This is day 3 without fever and it looks like he has beat the virus (it probably would have kills me). If I never believed in PRAYER, I do now after praying for Peter. I am also so proud of him.

Blessings to you and the wise people of Thailand,
David

Reply
Kenneth Dobson
7/6/2020 06:32:57 pm

I am so sorry Peter had this, and that the USA is in such leaderless and desperate shape. Blessings to you.

Reply
Bruce P. Grether link
7/6/2020 08:17:09 pm

Thanks for your eloquence and clarity here, Ken. Someone who still seems murkier to me in her recent statements is JK Rowling, and though I know she is considered a great storyteller by her fans, perhaps she's not quite so good at expressing herself as an actual person now? All that aside, the deeper theme of what I view as the collapse of the Imperial USA is in the forefront of many minds all around the world, though not everyone sees it in such terms. The recent Black Lives Matter protests have made me aware that systematic racism is totally tied in with the climate crisis. The current threat to humanity and planet via radical climate change and environmental collapse does not primarily date to the Industrial Revolution, as I once imagined. Clearly it stems from the start of European (and later American) colonialism, when (mostly) white men began to view both resources and people as economic commodities. The fallout is with us today, and my hope is that lacking clear leadership, We the People may be waking up to realize that leaders cannot save us, rather they are the ones we must save ourselves from. Either People will wise and become proactive enough to take back the USA from those who have stolen it, or we will not, which will allow the global disaster to continue. I do not predict the future, but these multiple crises overlapping are a genuine chance for our species to wake up--enough. History shows that if 3.5% or so of the People "get it," that is enough. So who knows? Thanks again, Ken!

Reply
Kim
7/14/2020 11:57:08 pm

Ah yes blame the white man by the self loathing white man. Complete ignorance of the process of globalisation which began with many peoples the Chinese and Arabs and many more. If only the British had not gone and built roads and bridges and started the Indian railway the world's greated employer and life blood of the nation. You are laughable Bruce P. Grether according to you we should have remained in our caves and huts. You may rage like the Unibomber at civilization but unlike him you still love to live comfortably in it. You can always decide to try it yourself hypocrite.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson posts his weekly reflections on this blog. 

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Copyright © 2023 Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson