NORMAN — Editor, The Transcript:
In October, the Norman City Council passed a routine proclamation recognizing Bullying Awareness Month to help combat a serious social problem. Amazingly, there was a dissenting vote. The Councilmember during the remarks section said that bullying is part of the gay agenda. Excuse me; where does that come from?
The gay agenda is equal rights, no more and no less. Otherwise known as the American agenda, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The anti-gay cabal says gays seek superior rights; they say that because oppression has no reason except the grasping for power or fear.
Seek to deny rights. No, Sir. I served 30 years in the Army defending that and will stop any suppression of freedom with my body. Even theirs.
As my teacher, Elva Paige Lewis, told me in 7th grade history: Your rights end where my nose begins. There are no unlimited rights and certainly not anything that denies that of others.
Besides trying to wrap themselves in the American flag, they pervert the words of the Prince of Peace. I believe what the founder of my faith said: Let the children come to me and do not hinder them for of such is the kingdom of God. The command to love others is the core of his teaching. He loved children who were third class citizens in his time. He almost certainly had one chance to scold a gay man and didn’t do it. One could only imagine what he would do to those he saw bullying his own precious little ones.
In politics and in religion, you need to ask: Who benefits? Who profits? Someone has an agenda; they want something. Slavery was part of the culture but no one cited The Bible until abolitionists started challenging it. Homophobia was part of American culture, but no one cited the good book until people started challenging hatred of gays and people saw power to be had. An Us and a Them could be created and used for political purposes and ends.
In The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, there is a sign once posted in a white neighborhood warning parents not to leave their children unattended, lest black pedophiles kidnap and harm them. Historically, the crime never changes, only the target so yet another group can be the “Them.” In Oklahoma, during Prohibition, this same group tried to prohibit the use of wine during Catholic sacred liturgy. It wasn’t about alcoholism and the corruption of society. The priest only drank a little; the laity nothing. It was about fear, hate and power, just as it is today.
This is xenophobia, fear of the stranger. But the fear truly is the lack of confidence in self. For no one sees things are they are, we all see things as we are. The reminder that they might be wrong — the stranger, the gay — must be killed.
I was talking to a man about bullying. I noted that while 30 percent of teen suicides are gay kids, that still meant 70 percent were straight and I cared about the seven as much as the three. The man said that he was willing to see the seven die if that meant three less gay kids alive. I was so shocked that I could only say: May God have mercy on your soul.
It is the duty of adults to protect children. Let no cheap political scam divert us from that.
HENRY ROBERSON
Norman
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