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The Death of an Illusion

We are witnessing the death of an illusion.
It is not a pretty sight, nor a quick end.

For most of our American history, we have pretended
that this is a White, Protestant, male country, a new
Jerusalem to replace the Old Jerusalem, a promised land.

For a long while, only white males voted, and held office.
The long list of our presidents has no women, no Blacks,
no Native Americans, no Asians; just Protestant males
until John Kennedy became our first Catholic president.
That did not happen until the myth of Protestant supremacy
became as foolish as the myth of Catholic domination.

Only Barack Obama is non-White, and he is not
female, or non-Christian, although his crime--not being
White has caused imbeciles to suggest that he is
not really Christian, or not really American.
The illusion is hard to let go of.

The Tea Party is the hard edge of our illusion,
ugly in its thrashing about as the illusion dies.

Women finally gained the right to vote less than
a hundred years ago.  Every step of their participation
in our political process has been hard-gained.
Religions institutions--many of them:  right wing Protestants,
Catholics, Muslims, Mormons, Orthodox Christians
and Jews--still try to maintain a second-class status
for women:  Sit over there!  Stay home!  Obey men!
Make babies!  Accept lower wages!  Don't even
think about becoming priests, or presidents!

The illusion will die a slow and deserved death.
It will scratch and claw and clutch its old privileges.
Idiots will believe that Barack Obama is a foreigner,
or a Muslim, or a cactus.  Archbishops will send out
DVDs to urge the faithful not to change anything.
Muslims will be told they are not really Americans,
and immigrants will be told they don't belong here
with the rest of us who came here as immigrants.

It is an ugly time.  It is a time for human decency
and common sense to assert itself.  It is time to let
the illusion die, and to look at the real problems:
a change in the economic system, in global climate,
in inequity, in joblessness, the need for a real educational
system, and a calm recognition that we live on
a very small globe, and not in a private paradise,
chosen by God just for us and our Hummers.

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