jerry falwell and you
May. 15th, 2007 02:49 pmI have two incomplete drafts of an entry i've tried to write all day about reparations for centuries of unpaid labor and ethnic cleansing upon which American wealth was built. It's a messy subject that defies encapsulation, but ultimately the ethics of it demands i address this, especially since so many even today perform crucial tasks every day without compensation equal to their contribution to the economy.
But my brain is too scattered for this today, and it's even more scattered now after learning that Jerry Falwell has passed. I'm not sad about this, but i agree with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
griffen that there is some cause for sorrow, since now there is no chance that he will repent of the harm he has caused and work to reconcile it with the faith he professed, or even to acknowledge us queer, pagan, or feminst folk as children of the same deity. This would have been greatly helpful for the communities he caused deliberate harm for his own profit and prestige. He became a tangible symbol of the trauma many of us felt as we were expelled from families, homes, and jobs, or shouted at in the hallways of our schools or beaten up in the allyways of our neighborhoods, his hateful words providing the soundtrack by which this abuse was carried out. Now he is gone, and his legacy in many quarters will be rejoicing at his death.
But my brain is too scattered for this today, and it's even more scattered now after learning that Jerry Falwell has passed. I'm not sad about this, but i agree with
griffen that there is some cause for sorrow, since now there is no chance that he will repent of the harm he has caused and work to reconcile it with the faith he professed, or even to acknowledge us queer, pagan, or feminst folk as children of the same deity. This would have been greatly helpful for the communities he caused deliberate harm for his own profit and prestige. He became a tangible symbol of the trauma many of us felt as we were expelled from families, homes, and jobs, or shouted at in the hallways of our schools or beaten up in the allyways of our neighborhoods, his hateful words providing the soundtrack by which this abuse was carried out. Now he is gone, and his legacy in many quarters will be rejoicing at his death.
