From This week's David Mixner Blog

Chill, Gibbs, Chill
By David Mixner
Copyright By David Mixner
Aug 11 2010
http://www.davidmixner.com/2010/08/chill-gibbs-chill.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DavidMixnerCom+%28DavidMixner.com%29



White-house As always is the case in the days of the Internet, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has issued an apology for his rant against liberals almost before workers can discuss it at the famous water cooler. That is how fast things move today. Sensationalized statements, quick apologies and then lets move on. No more need to discuss it.

Not so fast.

As a person who literally who wrote, worked and contributed until it hurt for President Obama in his campaign, I was stunned by the Press Secretary's tirade on so many levels. This kind of language has not been even used against his most vehement right wing opposition. After all, a major weakness in this administration has been its repeated attempts, despite having 58 votes in the Senate, to appease Republicans. Why suddenly this tirade against so many people who believed deeply in the President who dared us to dream again and believe we could create change.?

The reason is that it is not sudden nor unique. When an outburst like this episode occurs, it has been my experience it is not an isolated voice in the wilderness. My very educated guess after all these years in politics is that Gibbs' sentiments are exactly what have been privately repeated among Obama staff within the White House: That the problem is not differences in policies, great disappointment with the President or desire to get more done while we had while margins in both Houses of Congress. Instead it is those damn liberals no one can please - no matter what you do, they still bitch. It is those people who cling to the fringe of the left who have caused the President all his problems.

First of all, lets be extremely clear. Public Option was not a fringe issue. The desire for human rights and freedom for the American LGBT community is clearly rooted in the Constitution of the United States. Wanting our young not to die in useless foreign wars doesn't appear to me to be radical. Not wanting 14% of America's children to go to bed hungry at night seems like a reasonable expectation. And yes, waking up in the morning and knowing you have the dignity of a job is essential for the soul of America.

These issues are not fringe, not left and not unreasonable. President Obama promised us if we believed again he would take us there. Maybe it is time in the White House and in the Obama administration to seriously examine their behavior, let some people go and try and start anew.

Gibbs was not the only one thinking this way and that is exactly what is worrisome.



The "Advocate" on Exporting Hate
By David Mixner
Copyright By David Mixner
Aug 13 2010
http://www.davidmixner.com/2010/08/the-advocate-on-exporting-hate.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DavidMixnerCom+%28DavidMixner.com%29


Jeff Sharlett has written Dangerous Liaisons, a very important piece for Advocate.com, which is about the crisis for the LGBT communities in mostly third world countries. Seems as though our religious zealots who are losing the struggle to stop marriage equality here at home are seeking to feel powerful by exporting their hate to places like Central America and Africa. With few resources to combat this deadly import the LGBT communities are paying a heavy price.....often a deadly one.

Sharlett focuses mainly on Africa but the Pentecostal right wing has made major inroads into Central America. The Costa Rican Supreme Court just recently had to stop a ballot initiative in that progressive country. Those LGBT communities around the world with resources must do everything in our power to help defeat the right wing nuts overseas. For us in the United States, it is imperative that our State Department continue to take the lead in opposing these oppressive measures.

Here we are fighting for marriage equality but in many countries they are fighting to stay alive and out of jail. Advocate.com reports:

Death sentences in Nigeria. Prison terms in Malawi. Violent, homophobic rhetoric spewed by dictators in Zimbabwe and Gambia. Perhaps nowhere on earth are gays persecuted more than in Africa—ground zero for a culture war waged by U.S. religious and political leaders.

Sharlett interviews American missionaries Tommy and Teresa Harris getting ready to fly out of Uganda to return home to "get more money." When he interviewed them he asked about the drive to make it the death penalty for homosexuals. They weren't for death but listen to what they have to say:

"What do you make of this Anti-Homosexuality Bill?” I asked. It was one of the hottest debates in the country, and a rare occasion when Uganda made international news. Said to be inspired by Americans, the bill would make homosexuality a crime punishable by death or life in prison. But Tommy heard only the word “homosexuality.”

“I do not believe in homosexuality!” he said, rearing up with indignation as if I’d just put a hand on his knee. “Absolutely not!” He crossed his arms over his burly chest.

“Of course,” I said, “of course.”

Teresa rubbed his shoulder. “Shh,” she said. “I don’t think that’s what he meant.” I explained that I was interested in their view of the death penalty for homosexuality. Tommy shook his head. Tough one.

The cringe-inducing exchange with the Harris couple escalates:

“Well, I’m totally against killing them. Because some of them can be saved, and changed. But the thing is, you can’t force them to stop. It’s been tried! But it don’t work.” He shook his head over the problem on all sides—the homosexuals, themselves, and his Ugandan friends, so on fire for the gospel that they’d gone too far in an anti gay crusade. That’s how it is with Ugandans, he explained. They’re a bighearted people, but they get ahead of themselves sometimes. That’s where Americans could help.

“What they need,” Tommy proposed, “is a special place, like, for people doing homosexual things to learn different. A camp, like.”

“Keep them all in one place?” I asked.

“Yes. I think that’s what we have to try,” he said. “Because the thing is, the Bible says we can’t kill them. And we can’t put them in prison because that’d be like putting a normal fella in a whorehouse!” Teresa chuckled with her husband. A camp in which to concentrate the offenders—that was the compassionate solution.

Sharlett's article is an important one and I strongly urge you to go to Advocate.com's site and read it in it entirety.