July 5th’s New York Times story from Memphis, Lady Liberty Trades In Some Trappings, proves once again that the Goddess of Liberty is an eternal hostage to manipulators wanting to twist Her message to support discrimination and tyranny.
I am so tired of bigots using patriotism, Lady Liberty, and the flag to push messages of racism, sexism, homophobia, and creedism. To those of us who love Liberty as the ancient goddess She is, such theocratic warpings of Her image are nothing less than blasphemy.
Oh. I forgot. The dominant religion in America always considers itself privileged to blaspheme every other religion, while even the mildest criticism of its own dogma is denounced as “war” against the poor, victimized, multi-billion dollar industry called Christianity.
Never mind.
(The above is a letter to the Times I just sent and do not expect to see printed.)
Onward Christian Soldiers and Howard Zinn on patriotism:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/12726
Of course, the bible-belt has always been pretty tacky, so a statue of Lady Liberty carrying a gold cross there isn’t a big surprize. Not that my stomach didn’t sink and turn, but I’m not surprized. When we lived in Britany a few years ago evidence of Christian zealots was everywhere. They’d topped ancient megalithes with crosses centuries before and they’re still visible today. My blood pressure went up at the sight of them. I was reminded of how a dog often tries to shit on the highest point to prove it has been there.
I can’t decide which I like more, this article about the new 72 foot ChristianLiberty (which reads almost like something from the Onion or Landover Baptist) or “Fundies Gone Wild” from Pandagon, which shows the un-Libety-burka-butcher’s-apron photo accompanied by ome very interesting comments. These super size it blasphemers also un-scratched off one of the (no graven images) Ten Commandments. Note: TN loses more babies in the first year than 46 other states, is hot on the war on sex toys, and has a graduation rate of 48.5 percent.