OK, maybe that is not a fair statement. But when I read articles like this I kind of roll my eyes.
God help me, I should be more patient and understanding.
In between psychic readings and running a shop that sells everything a witch needs to get started, Cabot is mailing letters to civic leaders across Massachusetts warning them of the legal perils of portraying witches as grisly old hags.Posters hung on government property of witches as haggard women on broomsticks or as green-faced outcasts with an evil glint in their eye could lead to defamation lawsuits by witches protesting what they see as violations of their civil rights.
When I think of civil rights, I think of segregated schools, rest rooms, and forcing people to sit on the back of the bus. In current times, I think of forcing people to go against their religion by supplying birth control in Catholic owned businesses.
But Halloween images of witches? In all honesty, I would be somewhat appalled by stereotypical images of a certain ethnicity plastered everywhere. On the other hand, as a Catholic, heck, I'm used to it. All I have to do is turn on Law and Order. We're all used to it.
Seriously, it never occured to me to stereotype real live Wiccans. My day is just way to busy.
Wicca is not a religion, rather a role playing game for stunted adolescents. It is time we, as a society, stopped pretending otherwise.
As such, I do not advocate punishing them, at least not yet. Instead they should be locked in psychiatric wards until they are no longer a menace to themselves and others.
Only you can get away with saying that. ;)
No, anyone can, and everyone should. The key is to look them in the eye when you say it.
Back in college I would every so often have to go into some office where a very serious administrator would say, "some people are saying that you are saying things that might be construed as sexist."
"That's right."
"That they might be construed as sexist."
"Yes, because I am sexist. Is there a point to this meeting?"
"Oh, uh, um, well, I just wanted to clarify, um, I guess..."
When I wrote for the "conservative" paper (actually full of Right Liberal (neo-con, pseudo-con) Protties), I generally found that every person who had a tale of woe over political correctness was a wimp and a coward.
Now, it might be a residual Stalinist urge to start battle by bayonetting the impure within one's own ranks, but I honestly think that those of us on the real right have very little to gain from alliances with whining prigs like Bill Donahue. We need to offend with pride and let the offences roll off our backs.