The new scapegoat

If one has any knowledge and understanding of world history it is easy to look back and see certain patterns which have developed and played themselves out within the world's societies over and over again. One can gauge the maturity of a society in the way it copes with difficulties and how it goes about solving those difficulties. One of the patterns that has been displayed over and over again by the world's societies is the "blame game". Societies and nations who can't own up to the fact that the problems which exist within that society are of their own making must find a scapegoat, someone or something to blame for all their ills. This tendency to blame has displayed itself over and over again in societies such as ancient Babylon, Rome, Medieval Europe, and the Far East. History has repeated itself over and over again in events and atrocities such as the persecution of Jews and Christians by Rome, the enslaving of others by virtually every society on earth, the persecution and slavery of women by virtually every society on earth, The Crusades, The Burning Times, The Inquisition, The Salem Witch Trials, Red October, The Holocaust, The Cambodian Killing Fields, Genocide in Bosnia and countless other events in which individuals and groups of people have been blamed and persecuted for various ills in their societies.

Today in the United States we face a host of difficulties including skyrocketing health care costs, exploding fuel prices, poverty, racism, illegal immigration, joblessness, the bankruptcy of the Medicare and Social Security system, the war in Iraq, terrorism, a skyrocketing divorce rate, teen pregnancy, a failing public education system, record inflation... The list goes on and on and it's frightening. And once again our society is pointing fingers looking for something or someone to blame.

In the aftermath of World War I, Europe found itself in a very similar economic and social crisis and in this dark time, sometimes described as the Second Dark Ages, a leader arose promising Germany and virtually all of Europe, a new dawning of economic prosperity and peace. But first, in order to achieve such prosperity and peace, they had to rid themselves of the undesirables, the vermin of society, those who, in Adolf Hitler's opinion, sucked society dry and kept them from prosperity. At the top of his list of undesirables were the Jews, but this list didn't stop there. Among them were gypsies, Polish, Czechs, and Homosexuals. We know much today about the Holocaust and how over six million Jews were murdered by Hitler and his fascist Nazi regime, but little or nothing is mentioned about the thousands of homosexuals who were tortured, forced to endure medical experimentation upon them, and murdered in the very same atrocious manner as their Jewish counterparts. Why are they not mentioned? Why is this segment of Holocaust history virtually ignored? Could it be because as a society we still believe that perhaps they deserved it? Could it be that homosexuals are the last minority group that exists in which it is still socially acceptable to blame, to persecute, and upon who we now dump all of our society's ills?

On Monday evening, June 5, 2006, President George W. Bush will address this nation, not concerning the war in Iraq, not concerning the fuel crisis, not concerning skyrocketing health care costs, or any of the other serious ills that cripple this nation, but rather, the President will address us concerning the issue of gay marriage, and the Federal Marriage Amendment, which if passed, will be the first time the U.S. Constitution has ever been amended to intentionally discriminate against an individual or group of individuals. To me, this is a very frightening first step in the direction of outright criminalization of homosexuals as a group, and points to a very disturbing trend in our nation to point fingers and blame a group of individuals for all of our nation's ills. In an era when a number of Western nations in Europe and also Canada, homosexuality has not only been decriminalized, but in many nations gay marriage has been legalized, it is frightening to see my own nation return to the fascist fear mongering, blame, and outright hatred of Hitler's Nazi regime. This president is using homosexuals as a group to deflect the nation's attention from the real issues and thus deflect the blame from himself and the government, and he will use whatever means he has at his disposal to do so, even if it means the stripping of rights and freedoms from a group of individuals through the amending of the Constitution.

Reason number 63 why Steph and I plan to leave this country as soon as we are able.