Bruce Springsteen vs. North Carolina
Bruce Springsteen, the multi-millionaire, every-man-poet and rock star refuses to play North Carolina. What is Springsteen’s motive? Because bigotry is apparently alive and well in the state. You can always tell a real every-man-poet by his flannel shirts and blue jeans—even if they were custom made instead of being bought at Sears or the local thrift store. It’s the look that matters. An affected Okie accent reinforces the illusion. Write a verse or two about how your daddy was a workingman and the empathic portrait is complete. Now all you need is a cause. Hmm? Where’s a good cause when you need one? How about men dressed like women trying to take a leak with your ten year old daughter in the Kmart bathroom? Yeah. That’s a good one.
You’d almost think it was 1955 when listening to the media. “I mean, how backwards can people be?” That seems to be the question on the lips of leftists and their media cronies as various localities comes to grip with that all-important question of who goes to the bathroom where. But, some folks always need a cause. So, if they can’t find one, they’ll sure as hell manufacture one.
Think of them as enabler/activists. They’re really more like ambulance chasers—always on the lookout for an easy-money lawsuit—rather than Martin Luther King. But hey, the news is so diffused nowadays that good stories, the kind you can really sink your teeth into are hard to come by. And, causes that enable heroic stances are few and far between. So you’d better take what you can get.
When all else fails, there’s always some closed-minded Christian refusing to serve Gay-folk, baked goods. The problem is that this tale of confectionary bias, like segregated restrooms, is a near complete fiction, manufactured by activists to make an example of Christians, and Christians alone. Not Muslims or Jews or Hindus, many of whom hold similar views. In some cases, views that are far more hateful and bigoted. No, it’s solely Christians, because they are numerous enough to hold real political power.
Here’s the story as it’s told by the media: A Gay couple wander into a bakery and try to buy a cheese Danish or have a wedding catered. The store owner takes one look and says “We don’t serve your kind in here.” In response, the Gay-folk in question stagger out of the bakery, dazed with bigotry. This leaves them with only one choice, find an attorney and file a lawsuit, a very, very costly lawsuit. So no one ever again has to suffer as they suffered. Sure, it would have been much cheaper to go to the bakery around the corner and avoid a lawsuit altogether, thereby saving yourself tens of thousands of dollars, but sometimes you’ve got to take a stand.
The media are immediately alerted, and, as if on cue, they flood in like vultures on road kill. Sensing blood they begin asking other Christian businessmen and women whether they hate Gay people, too, making the story just that much bigger. Shove a microphone in Mr. and Mrs. Christian’s face and watch them squirm like worms on a hook. That is, after all, the purpose. It’s about as real as watching Spencer Tracy and Fredric March in “Inherit the Wind.” It may be damned good drama, but it’s mostly bullshit. In fact, it’s really just propaganda. Not too many people are looking close enough for it to mater, though.
The real truth is far more troubling. People are consciously being targeted because of their faith and their politics. Christians stand as a significant voting bloc—wielding real power—and that’s the issue. No Gay person is denied immediate service or baked goods, any more than a Kosher Jewish restaurant that refuses to cater a non-kosher wedding would be guilty of bigotry. Should they be compelled, by force, to comply without regard for their religious beliefs? Such institutions exist as a unique expression of their faith. Not as a hate filled symbol of denial, which is how the media and many activists treat them. Should a Mormon, a Jehovah Witness, a Seventh Day Adventist, a Muslim or even an atheist be asked to perform a service that is inconsistent with the tenants of their faith? More importantly, what would their likely response be? Probably, the same as the Christian baker or candlestick maker.
Let’s face it, it’s not as though people have only one option. No, these cases are set-ups, intended to make a particular enemy the target of costly litigation. Thereby, sending the appropriate message “Do as we say or you’ll be punished. We’ll take your business, your livelihood, even your freedom if you don’t submit.” That, is what these lawsuits are about. Power. Pure and simple. The media are just happy to get a good story that they can milk for ratings and advertising revenue. If they can help to punish ideological enemies in the process, better still.
It should be remembered, that the businesses that denied African Americans service in the 1950s South, were compelled by the government to deny them service, because segregation was the law of the land. They had no choice but to comply. The Northern states, by comparison, thrived economically with greater freedom for all by limiting government’s power and influence. Northern businesses found out soon enough that it was lucrative to serve everyone and the racial barriers fell one after the other, as the result.
It is remarkable how few people know this, but people tend to know what they find valuable, and if ignorance serves their purpose, it will thrive like a weed.
In the end, what we believe to be the truth, depends on who’s telling the story and how we choose to hear it. Regardless, the truth peeks through like a tiny green shoot maneuvering the cracks in the pavement, searching for light, taking root wherever it can. Pave it over and it will begin its journey again and again, and again.
Mark Magula
You’d almost think it was 1955 when listening to the media. “I mean, how backwards can people be?” That seems to be the question on the lips of leftists and their media cronies as various localities comes to grip with that all-important question of who goes to the bathroom where. But, some folks always need a cause. So, if they can’t find one, they’ll sure as hell manufacture one.
Think of them as enabler/activists. They’re really more like ambulance chasers—always on the lookout for an easy-money lawsuit—rather than Martin Luther King. But hey, the news is so diffused nowadays that good stories, the kind you can really sink your teeth into are hard to come by. And, causes that enable heroic stances are few and far between. So you’d better take what you can get.
When all else fails, there’s always some closed-minded Christian refusing to serve Gay-folk, baked goods. The problem is that this tale of confectionary bias, like segregated restrooms, is a near complete fiction, manufactured by activists to make an example of Christians, and Christians alone. Not Muslims or Jews or Hindus, many of whom hold similar views. In some cases, views that are far more hateful and bigoted. No, it’s solely Christians, because they are numerous enough to hold real political power.
Here’s the story as it’s told by the media: A Gay couple wander into a bakery and try to buy a cheese Danish or have a wedding catered. The store owner takes one look and says “We don’t serve your kind in here.” In response, the Gay-folk in question stagger out of the bakery, dazed with bigotry. This leaves them with only one choice, find an attorney and file a lawsuit, a very, very costly lawsuit. So no one ever again has to suffer as they suffered. Sure, it would have been much cheaper to go to the bakery around the corner and avoid a lawsuit altogether, thereby saving yourself tens of thousands of dollars, but sometimes you’ve got to take a stand.
The media are immediately alerted, and, as if on cue, they flood in like vultures on road kill. Sensing blood they begin asking other Christian businessmen and women whether they hate Gay people, too, making the story just that much bigger. Shove a microphone in Mr. and Mrs. Christian’s face and watch them squirm like worms on a hook. That is, after all, the purpose. It’s about as real as watching Spencer Tracy and Fredric March in “Inherit the Wind.” It may be damned good drama, but it’s mostly bullshit. In fact, it’s really just propaganda. Not too many people are looking close enough for it to mater, though.
The real truth is far more troubling. People are consciously being targeted because of their faith and their politics. Christians stand as a significant voting bloc—wielding real power—and that’s the issue. No Gay person is denied immediate service or baked goods, any more than a Kosher Jewish restaurant that refuses to cater a non-kosher wedding would be guilty of bigotry. Should they be compelled, by force, to comply without regard for their religious beliefs? Such institutions exist as a unique expression of their faith. Not as a hate filled symbol of denial, which is how the media and many activists treat them. Should a Mormon, a Jehovah Witness, a Seventh Day Adventist, a Muslim or even an atheist be asked to perform a service that is inconsistent with the tenants of their faith? More importantly, what would their likely response be? Probably, the same as the Christian baker or candlestick maker.
Let’s face it, it’s not as though people have only one option. No, these cases are set-ups, intended to make a particular enemy the target of costly litigation. Thereby, sending the appropriate message “Do as we say or you’ll be punished. We’ll take your business, your livelihood, even your freedom if you don’t submit.” That, is what these lawsuits are about. Power. Pure and simple. The media are just happy to get a good story that they can milk for ratings and advertising revenue. If they can help to punish ideological enemies in the process, better still.
It should be remembered, that the businesses that denied African Americans service in the 1950s South, were compelled by the government to deny them service, because segregation was the law of the land. They had no choice but to comply. The Northern states, by comparison, thrived economically with greater freedom for all by limiting government’s power and influence. Northern businesses found out soon enough that it was lucrative to serve everyone and the racial barriers fell one after the other, as the result.
It is remarkable how few people know this, but people tend to know what they find valuable, and if ignorance serves their purpose, it will thrive like a weed.
In the end, what we believe to be the truth, depends on who’s telling the story and how we choose to hear it. Regardless, the truth peeks through like a tiny green shoot maneuvering the cracks in the pavement, searching for light, taking root wherever it can. Pave it over and it will begin its journey again and again, and again.
Mark Magula