Mary-Contrary

Character Counts

A head’s up for all you folks who have been looking for something to celebrate. Something that will bring us all together, and give us a warm tickly feeling in our hearts that can only be associated with…irony. The President of the United States of America has proclaimed the week of October 21-27 to be National Character Counts Week.

We, the American People, are to commemorate this occasion with “appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs”. I don’t know about you, but I love an occasion to celebrate. I am always looking for more, in fact, and I am just so excited to have this opportunity. The question, of course, is in what way we should celebrate this momentous occasion? Looking though the wording of the document to get some ideas, I came across the following passages:

The character of America’s founders was exemplified in their willingness to risk death in resisting tyranny and securing liberty and independence.Our Nation’s character continues to define how we respond to those who threaten America’s core principles of liberty, justice, and equality.

Similarly, parents should teach their children by word and deed to understand and live out the moral values that we hold, such as honesty, accepting responsibility for our actions, and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

So, I’m kind of torn. There’s a lot of stuff in there about fighting and killing and how that’s a good example of moral character, but that doesn’t really work for me. I like the part about resisting tyranny, though. That whole bit about liberty and justice and honesty gets me where it counts. It sort of sounds like a challenge, doesn’t it? Almost as if the President just said “Look to your Forefathers, America. Look to the Constitution, and the principles enshrined therein. Take a good look around and figure out what kind of example we should be setting.” Almost as if President Bush looked me dead in the eye and said “Bring it on”. Continue reading

Let’s Talk About Pornography

 

Pornography is the quail inside the duck inside the turkey at Christmas dinner. The hidden secret lurking inside all our hard drives, waiting for its moment of private delight to shine out. We see it everywhere, but continue to strive to deny its influence. We don’t like to talk about it; not what we as individuals really see in it or why as a culture it’s still there under our mattress after centuries of effort to eradicate it. Enough denial, already. I’ve seen it, you’ve seen it…let’s drag it out on the carpet and really explore why we keep it around.

Pornography has existed ever since people started drawing. We drew pictures on the cave walls of voluptuous women with no heads to give us a sense of connection to the mysteries of life (or perhaps as R. Dale Guthrie suggests, as simple pornographic doodles) . We worshipped snake goddesses with their bare breasts and their transformative power twined around their wrists. We had sacred prostitutes in the temples who would lay you for a donation, and explicit scenarios painted out on Greek urns. This is nothing new. Shouldn’t we be grown up enough to talk about it by now?

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