"I'm Not a
Bad Guy, I Just Vote for Them"
More
Rationalizations from the Right Wing
The Diva's Exchange with John Doe, and a Request for Advice
March 13, 2001
"
You want freedom?
Who the
hell doesn't?
But you
will never in a
million
years convince me
that the
kind of freedom you
value is
the same as mine."
- The Diva to John Doe
Dear Resistance Fighters:
My "Open Letter to Charlton
Heston" has garnered me the attention of the leader of a rightwing
site that has much in common with The Free Republic.
The following is an e-mail
exchange we have been having.
I would like your input on
whether or I should send my final reply to this man, or let it alone.
Be aware that there is strong
language. Please do not read on if you
find such language offensive, okay?
Here goes:
-----------
FROM HIM TO ME:
-----------
From: "John Doe"
To:
<webmistress@gorewon2000.net>
Subject: Guns & such
Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 17:54:28
-0500
Yo, girlie.
Read your letter to Heston. Are you pro-gun control? My best friend's
wife was an almost-victim of a carjacking.
She shot his cracker ass (the carjaker was white) with her .38, it was
in the news.
We right-wing propagandists are
always speaking for you people, and guns & such are one of our big
issues. (Read my article on
"xxxx" [deleted to maintain the sender's anonymity.]).
Just wondrin. Your site looks good, by the way (okay,
okay, I'm trying to be "mean-spirited" but it's difficult on weekends).
John 'racist / sexist / bigot /
homophobe' (or whatever it is you people call us) Doe
"xxxx" Website deleted
to maintain sender's anonymity]
-----------
FROM ME TO HIM:
-----------
Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 18:14:54
-0800 (PST)
From: The Diva of BBBR
<dearkandb@yahoo.com>
Reply-to: thediva@coup2k.com
Subject: Re: Guns & such
To: "John Doe"
Dear "John":
My best friend was shot to
death. She was gay. Another proud homophobe like yourself, who didn't
care for gay folk, did this to her, then stuffed her body into a car, set the
car on fire, and left.
Yes, I am pro-gun control.
Thanks for your warm and
wonderful letter.
-Tammy
"The Diva"
coup2k.com
-----------
FROM HIM TO ME:
-----------
From: "John Doe"
To: <thediva@coup2k.com>
Subject: Re: Guns & such
Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 03:05:15
-0500
Sorry for two things (understand
I'm not joking here) Sorry your friend
was murdered. That Fucker who did it
should die. Period.
And, I'm sorry you thought I was
being serious on the 'homophobe' part.
I've been a conservative activist for about 8 years now, which, you may
or may not know, means that BY DEFAULT I've been called a
'racist/sexist/bigoted/homophobe many many many times. I'm neither.
You deserve at least a paragraph
or two, so, if you care, I'll tell you:
Part of the resistance to my original style of conservative activism was
my open manifestation of tolerance to gays.
Indeed, I've gone on record
(radio interviews) that my opposition to discrimination against people for
"who they love" is as serious as my opposition to discrimination
against people for "what their skin tone/color is". I tell you now, it's going to be one of
those things that will be a shame to conservatism 50 years from now. Hell, for me, it is now. Oh, and by the way, I'm straight, just so
you don't think I'm some Log Cabin Repub.
It's just that I can't bring myself to hate, or even really feel
'different' ,about somebody who lovestheir children and keeps a clean house and
works hard and is a credit to their neighborhood and etc. etc. etc. because
that person is gay. We rightwingers
will pay for our stupidity in that respect in the same way that (and you may
not agree here) leftists have paid for cozying up to commies during the cold
war.
So, you may never, ever, assert
that I'm a homophobe and expect to have credibility (not that our emails are a
'public debate', but you get my
point). Hell, I lost a position on a
campaign because of my statements about a gay (Christian and conservative, by
the way) friend of mine. It was obvious
that he and his partner were better parents than the white-trash mom and her
useless boyfriend. Some homophobe I am,
actually advocating such things.
Because of what you went though,
as indicated in your email, I certainly can't muster the spirit for a
'counter-attack'. But my activist
friend, I'll say this plainly: If good
people (as your friend no doubt was) would get trained in the use of firearms
and liscened to carry a small pistol, maybe, just maybe, your friend would have
shot those sick sons-of-bitches who did what they did. I damn sure know if I was there I would
have.
And finally:
You can take issue with my
discimination against, and intolerance of,leftists. It's there for everyone to see.
I hate modern liberals. (Yes,
Hate - the 'H' word so forbidden in conservative circles). I hate racists and caught hell for saying
publicly that I would not hire-or rent to-a shaven headed man with a swastika
tattoo and combat boots. I hate stupid
lame-ass male chauvanist sexists, and, God help me, I HATE a left wing,
taxing-me-to-death, politically-correct-thoughtpolicing,
RosieO'Donnell-watching, Birkenstock-wearing, know-it-all babyboomer or
anti-capitalist college age dork leftist.
I'm trying to make enough money so my girls can go to college and be
over-achiever women, trying to do this and still spend time with them and
instill values (not the Newt-cheats-on-his-wife and Clinton/Monica crap) and a
sense that in America women can be ANYTHING they want. I need the freedom (culturally and
financially) to navigate the youth of my little girls so they grow up to be
woman who demand and receive Respect,
and you people (okay, maybe not you Personally, but you leftists, collectively
speaking) are getting in my motherfucking way.
I just want to be left
alone. I want to have Bar-B-Q's with my
gun-carrying church-attending Gordon Liddy-listening-to
upper-middle-class-capitalist multi-racial friends and make fun of Oprah Winfrey
and mean jokes about Ted Kennedy. I
want an America where there are conservatives and liberals and the
conservatives don't have to feel like every-frickin-thing they hold dear isn't
under assault by Barbara Streisand and Alec Baldwin and Al Sharpton.
I'm sorry, very sorry, that Joe
McCarthy persecuted you people (leftists) 50 years ago. I seriously am. I'm sorry and embarrassed. But I'll be damned if I'm going to be
punished for the crime of making more money than somebody else, and I won't
take any crap because I use Judeo-Christian, Western capitalist civilzation as
my personal cultural paradigm.
"John Doe"
PS.
Out of respect for your friend,
out little debate will not be used on the Hate Mail, or any other section, of
my site or the "xxxx" [website address deleted to maintain sender's
anonymity] site. There are some things even I won't do for propaganda value.
-----------
MY RESPONSE (NOT YET SENT. SHOULD I SEND IT? Personally, I want to...)
-----------
Dear John:
I would never in a million years
be able to explain myself to someone who holds your beliefs, and I have found
to my everlasting relief
that I don't have to. But I will say this. "xxxx" [name deleted to maintain
victim's anonymity] did own a gun.
Several, in fact. She was a native
Texan. (I consider myself one, too,
since I lived there from my earliest childhood memories up until four years
ago.) This happened in Texas, where
damn near everybody who ISN'T a transplant has a gun in the house and knows how
to use it, and people still seem to keep getting murdered, oddly enough. (Another brilliant rightwing theory shot all
to hell by uncooperative reality...)
The "fucker" as you so
gently put it, broke into her house when she was sleeping, and shot her to
death in her bed. She never had a
chance. I have serious doubts that even
someone as obviously invulnerable and well-armed as you would have fared any
better in this situation, although you needn't worry about it, since you aren't
gay.
And in case you are interested,
the guy didn't even merit a life sentence, since he was
"provoked". It seems that
merely existing as an openly gay person (even sleeping in your bed) is
"fighting words" in some conservative parts of this great
nation. Mitigation, you understand...
It's not like he killed a PERSON or anything...
And the "fucker", as
you so gently put it, got his lovely ideas about the proper response to
homosexuality from listening to YOUR side of the political aisle wax
philosophical on the matter of sexual orientation. From YOUR hero President, Reagan, who found homosexuality so
abhorrent that he could not be bothered to utter the word "AIDS", let
alone intervene in a global health crisis, because it was "killing all the
right people." (What a proud
legacy he left, too. Tens of millions
infected worldwide -- most of them STRAIGHT... but black, too... so I guess
that balances it out, right?) ...From
YOUR cultural leaders, who screamed "GOD HATES FAGS" and insisted
that AIDS was a punishment from a certain much-vaunted God of Love, a God who
didn't care for being "mocked".
From YOUR party platform, which has never failed to make it plain that
gays are not entitled to full civil and human rights, and that YOUR Party
intends to see that they don't make any progress in that direction. I could go on, but do I really need to,
John? I'm sure you're as familiar with
the butcher's bill as I am.
Congratulations on the
rationalization thing, and for being enlightened enough to go out of your way
to let me know that YOU aren't gay -- God forbid! (No pun intended). But
whether or not you like it, you support a political movement that expends
considerable time, resources, and political capital, oppressing other human
beings. And based on what? "Adam and Eve, not Adam and
Steve?" Brilliant. You guys should sell T-Shirts. Really.
I know of some places in East Texas and Afghanistan where they would
sell like hotcakes.
You want freedom? Who the hell doesn't? But you will never in a million years
convince me that the kind of freedom you value is the same as mine. And you will never in a million years
convince me that any moral human being with any claim to decency would throw
their vote behind a party whose agenda is so blatantly and unapologetically
evil.
I'm not going to draw the Nazi
parallel. You know it as well as I
do. Gays may be the ones who have to
get their metaphorical asses kicked to make the trains YOU consider important
run on time (trains like low taxes, gutted social services and redistribution
of wealth upward to worthy folks like yourself), but the fact that you claim to
be enlightened on this subject is belied by your support for conservative
candidates -- and your desire to work for one who wouldn't have you on staff
because you weren't "pure" enough on the subject of gays. Why did you want to work for someone like
this in the first place? If you gave
even the teensiest bit of a shit, you wouldn't be voting bigoted monsters into
high public office, let alone trying to campaign for them, would you, John?
Fact is, you want to believe you
are a good person, because YOU would never personally take the initiative to
harm gays. Why should you? You don't have to. By your vote, you have put out a contract on their heads. You've hired hit-men. It's called the principle of
"agency," in case you want to look it up. You hired 'em, and you can't duck and run from responsibility for
what they do. You're holding the bag,
whether you are man enough to admit it or not.
And that bag has one of my dead
friends in it, so I say, go to hell.
They're expecting you.
-Tammy
"The Diva"
coup2k.com