Hopewit

  I frequently listen to John Oliver on This Week Tonight . He  primarily  tackles hypocrisies in American life … with an Englishman’s flair for language but with a bit more vulgarity than seems necessary. Nevertheless, he’s a personality under whose influence I voluntarily place myself occasionally. And given that, I am aware that I’m opening myself to having my values subtly shaped by the choices made by the writers of This Week Tonight. I think we all (except for Jordan Peterson who is smarter than everyone else on all subjects) tend to “hitch our wagons to stars” whose modeling takes the place of independent, painful thinking. So tightly can people harness themselves to a human idol that no amount of evidence, no information can shake loose the traces. Donald Trump: need I say more? Well, OK, Tommy Douglas, Muhammed Ali, John Wayne, Martin Luther King, Lady Gaga, Menno Simons, Jordan Peterson , Billy Graham … I will be forever wary of a speaker on a dais shouting o...

  Gay Pride Parades were suspended during pandemic days , as were most sporting, entertainment, patriotic, religious festivities. But the news purveyors told us that they were back in June. Not that it mattered one way or the other if you weren’t living in an urban area with enough people—gay and Cis—to mount such an event or, conversely, to complain about the disruption to traffic or the assault on decorum. I think I get the need for a pride display, for saying in an in-your-face way that “this is who I am and whether you like it or not, I’m not apologizing for it.” Considering centuries of outright and open abuse of non-cis persons—queers—the acceptance as whole-and-equal human beings has been a monumental struggle for which the building and maintaining of a support community has been vital. We don’t have Straight Pride Parades for a very simple reason; straight peoples are not facing the threat of persecution or discriminationon account of their sexual orientation and/or gende...