Multicultural Pandering in Rogers Park, Chicago

LGBT Cawfee Talk with Don Gordon
Come pull up a chair and have some coffee with Don to discuss your concerns and ideas for the 49th Ward. Don is interested in supporting the LGBT community!
Date: Monday, March 20, 2007
Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Address: Ennui Café - 6981 North Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60626

(For those of you may not know, "LGBT" stands for "Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered." Or transsexual, I forget. Either way, one of the T's is excluded, and that seems rather un-PC.)

49th Ward aldermanic candidate Don Gordon will eagerly pander to this special interest group tonight, as noted above. So then, why is this a problem?

Let me preface this post with a reminder that I am now supporting Don Gordon in his bid against incumbent alderman Joe Moore. Gordon is not unique; just about every politician panders to different groups. This is a criticism of Don Gordon, but more than a criticism of Gordon, this posting is meant as a look at multiculturalism and political correctness.

I am strongly opposed to multiculturalism, but I am equally as strongly in favor of diversity. To put it simply, I favor the concept of the "melting pot" over the concept of the "tossed salad."

“A multicultural society is one that is inherently prone to conflict, not harmony. This is why we see a huge growth in government bureaucracies dedicated to resolving disputes along racial and cultural lines. These disputes can never be resolved permanently because the bureaucrats deny one of the major causes: race. This is why there is so much talk of the "multicultural" rather than the more precise "multiracial." Ever more changes and legislation are introduced to make the host society ever more congenial to racial minorities. This only creates more demands, and encourages the non-shooting war against whites, their civilization, and even the idea of the West.” Full article...

Substitute “sexual” for “racial” in the above and you get the same results.

Let's continue.

Prior to the election in February, candidate Gordon stated that, if elected, there would be “zero tolerance for homophobia.” That is a scary prospect, especially if he means it literally.

If he means it literally, enforcement of Zero Tolerance of homophobia would necessitate mind reading Thought and Speech Police. If he means it just-sorta-kinda, it would only need a Speech Police Squad sans mind readers.

Think about (no pun intended). “Zero Tolerance” is absolute. No exceptions would be allowed. Anybody suspected of homophobia would have to be investigated. If enough evidence of homophobia were discovered, prosecution would be required. If the defendant were found guilty, the required punishment would have to be dispensed, whether it is a fine or imprisonment.

But what, exactly, would the defendant be investigated or prosecuted or jailed for? What is “homophobia?”

It has roots in two words. “Homo,” which means “same,” and “phobia,” which means “fear.”

SYLLABICATION: pho·bi·a
PRONUNCIATION: fb-
NOUN: 1. A persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous. 2. A strong fear, dislike, or aversion.
ETYMOLOGY: From –phobia

Taken literally, then, a “zero tolerance” policy that would make it, one must presume, illegal to have an “irrational fear” of gay people.

I have an irrational fear of clowns, which is coulrophobia. I admit that this is not fair to clowns, but I cannot help it. Nevertheless, I would not attack a clown or scream epithets at a clown. I would not deny him housing or a job. Many other people are afraid of clowns, too.

Should there be “zero tolerance” of coulrophobia? I don’t think so. Maybe Don Gordon does. If he does not, well, that is hardly fair is it? Why does the LGBT crowd deserve more protection than the Ringling Brothers crowd does?

It is always a problem when a candidate panders to any special interest group. Yes, the LBGT community (which I will henceforth refer to as "gay" because it's just easier to type) is a special interest group. This does not include each and every gay person any more than Jesse Jackson speaks for each and every Black person.

There are gay people who are afraid of straight people. “Heterophobia” is no more fair than homophobia. Will Don Gordon call for a zero tolerance of heterophobia? Will I be able to file a complaint the next time a gay person derisively calls me a “breeder?”

There are organized groups of gay persons who actively lobby politicians and legislative bodies for the purpose of achieving laws or considerations specifically for their group. That is the definition of a special interest group as simply as it can be put.

Which brings us back to Don Gordon's gay "cawfee" talk tonight. There is nothing wrong, per se, with speaking to a group of gays, Blacks, Italians, Swedes, bowlers, or any other "group." But Mr. Gordon will sip java with these folks tonight "to discuss [their] concerns and ideas for the 49th Ward."

I'm just asking: Do gay people have different ideas for fixing curbs and potholes? Does the "LGBT community" require special sidewalks, differently colored traffic signals, and its own tax code? While we're at it, what exactly is the "LGBT community?" Is there a gay method to reduce gang crime? Would the gays in our community have a better plan than heterosexuals for maintaining or improving the lakefront? Do clowns?

For that matter, what is the Straight community? May I call the Straight community the "MFSW" ("Male, Female, Single, Wedded") community? No? Okay, I won't. You're right, it is silly. About as silly as "LGBT" is.

I know Mr. Gordon is just trying to be "inclusive." But having an event that is advertised specifically to a particular group is automatically exclusive. You simply cannot have an event for midgets without excluding tall people. You cannot have a Black Congressional Caucus without excluding non-Blacks. You cannot have an event targeted specifically to straight people without excluding gay people, or vice versa. And so on.

Not all straight people love pornography, they don’t all “swing,” they’re not all sex-crazed fiends. The same is true of gay people. But if “zero tolerance” becomes the literal policy of a Don Gordon administration, would it be verboten to oppose the kind of thing that can be seen in the video below:

WARNING: This video includes extremely offensive images from the 2006 Dallas “Gay Pride” Parade. To watch 2006 Dallas “Gay Pride” video, click HERE.

Note that under a zero tolerance policy, it would be a violation to refer to the above video as offensive!

I am not trying to imply that the video depicts the typical gay person. But if that were happening on Morse Avenue, Don Gordon’s zero tolerance policy would prohibit you from even making a complaint about it.

And do not even get me started on NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association. To protest that abomination would surely be labeled “homophobic,” and therefore forbidden, under a homophobia zero tolerance policy.

By the way, the word “homophobia” cannot be found on Don Gordon’s web site in a Google search.

There is not enough time for me to write as much as I would like to about this, and you probably do not want to read any more than you already have. I hope that I have raised some serious questions here, with an injection of humor, and sparked a few conversations about this. This kind of thing needs to be talked about. Perhaps over cawfee?

Suggested future Don Gordon cawfee talks:

Clowns Cawfee Talk with Don Gordon
Come pull up a chair and have some coffee with Don to discuss your concerns and ideas for the 49th Ward. Don is interested in supporting the Clowns community!

Celibate Gardeners Cawfee Talk with Don Gordon
Come pull up a chair and have some coffee with Don to discuss your concerns and ideas for the 49th Ward. Don is interested in supporting the Celibate Gardeners community!

RELATED:

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Asks judge to throw out lawsuit against NAMBLA for 10-year-old's murder

A multicultural society is one that is inherently prone to conflict, not harmony.

What we call "political correctness" actually dates back to the Soviet Union of the 1920s (politicheskaya pravil'nost' in Russian), and was the extension of political control to education, psychiatry, ethics, and behavior. Full article...

Does anyone know the origins of Political Correctness? Who originally developed it and what was its purpose?