Make One Mistake ...

As the entire galaxy knows, I’ve been a Flyer fan for forty-plus years. I watched Kate Smith sing “God Bless America” live at their home games during the Stanley Cup playoffs. I thought it was hilarious that this woman, this unblemished model of manners and conservative ideals, was a good luck charm for the Broad Street Bullies. By then she was an icon, a legend lauded—even decorated—for her work raising funds to aid the US war effort during WWII. She was up there on the pedestal with motherhood and apple pie, representing America in all her fine, upstanding, life-liberty-and-justice-for-all glory. Up until the last time the team made the playoffs, she was posthumously present at home games, belting out a duet with current anthem singer, Lauren Hart, that always brought down the house.

And now, she’s gone. Her video archived, her reputation besmirched, her statue removed from outside the arena. All because some unknown someone wormed their way as far back as 1931 to discredit her. Yup, eighty-nine years ago, Miss Kate Smith recorded a song that has either offended or might offend someone in 2019. And now her legacy means nothing. Her good deeds, her sterling reputation, her place in Flyers history—poof! Null and void, nixed, erased, eradicated, negated, meaningless.

I’m not saying it would be okay for the same song to be recorded today. It probably wouldn’t. (I say ‘probably’ because many of the lyrics recorded these days are offensive to the point of obscene, and I’m fairly open-minded.)We’re supposedly more enlightened in 2019 than we were in 1931, though, honestly, I’m not so sure. If we can’t keep a little perspective when considering our history, then we haven’t progressed much at all. If the Flyers organization can’t stand by their icon for the good things she accomplished but will delete her on the mewl of a mistake that no one at the time would even have called a mistake, then we’re all screwed. We all deserve—or will deserve—banishment from the annals of mankind because every one of us at some time in our lives either did or will do something ignorant as judged by another’s set of rules.

Can we please focus on the offences being perpetrated today? Can we please acknowledge that yes, historic wrongs must be righted, yet all things must also be put into correct context? Can we please forgive and move on without destroying a legacy of good works? Can we please respect the families of those we decry as sinners of the worst sort simply because of something they did in a time when it was okay to do it? Even if it’s not okay now, forgiveness is the first step to reconciling the races. You don’t move forward by erasing the past. You accept it and pledge not to repeat it.

A lot of other Flyer fans are so outraged they say they’re not fans anymore. They’ll be cheering for Boston or Washington or Pittsburgh next season. Since these folks were obviously looking for a reason to switch team allegiance, it seems they found it.

As for me ... I shall retire to Bedlam.

Head Hunting

There may be a worse place to live than America under Donald Trump. When I heard that extremist goons in Bangladesh had taken the heads—literally—of a few “secular bloggers”, I stepped back to evaluate just how dangerous my world could become if this stuff gets out of hand.

I mean, any more out of hand.

Truth be told, I could probably lose my head in some countries just for being a woman with an opinion. Make no mistake, gentlemen—all women have opinions. Just because those opinions are not expressed does not mean they’re the same as yours or that they don’t exist. My good fortune (so far) is to live in a country where my opinion is worth exactly what I’m paid for expressing it. If someone is threatened by what I think, they might want to ask themselves why.

Of course it means something to me. It’s my opinion, after all. If you happen to share it, great. If you don’t, great. You’re entitled. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I guess the scary part is when enough of a shared opinion becomes an action or a movement. When fear of someone else’s opinion becomes the driving force behind a governing body—be it in politics, religion or big business— freedom of expression is the first thing to go.

And here I am, an opinionated woman with a secular blog.

Well, I’m in it now, so my hesitation to “like” a particular F***book page has been rendered duly redundant. Let’s hear it for “Republican Jesus”, a satirical site that is taken too seriously by some but not by me; it’s one of those pages where the first post gets a smile, the third gets a giggle and the sixth earns a full-on LOL. I don’t check in every day—I truly do suck at social media; how does anyone else keep up and still have a life?—but when I do, I’m guaranteed a laugh at the expense of the GOP. US politics have degenerated into something truly frightening, a satire of its former self and, I suspect, the furthest thing from what the Founding Fathers intended when they drafted the Constitution. On the other hand, it’s democracy in action, a concept that people have died and continue dying to defend. And whether, in the end, it’s Madam President or Trump the Chump in the White House, the expectation for the office will be impossible. People don’t want to solve their own problems. They want the government to solve their problems, and while I agree that everyone should be educated and earn a living wage, I disagree that it’s government’s job to resolve social issues by law. Rules can be put in place, but rules are only management tactics meant to staunch the bleeding. You can’t legislate tolerance or compassion or forgiveness or respect. Those things begin with the individual, at a grassroots level in schools and neighbourhoods and communities. Those in power are accountable for spinning the propaganda that serves their own ends; however, are we not accountable for choosing what we believe and how we behave?

I know, easy for me to say in my cushy First World environment where freedom of speech meets women’s (sort of) equality. As stated above, it’s only my opinion. If someone wants my head for it, oh well.

I just hope they take it on the first swing.