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Either/Or

Some hero from North Carolina, on a flight from Chicago to Albuquerque, walked several rows forward and ripped a hijab from a Muslim woman's face and screamed at her that this was America!  And so it is.

I talked recently, with some guys who fumed that Barack Obama wanted to endanger good, decent, god-fearing, sexually identifiable women by allowing rotten, criminal, deviants to dress up like women and attack little girls in toilets.

Sometimes it difficult to have sensible conversations.  I suppose that this is America, today.

Either/Or.  Neither/Nor.  Man/Woman.  Male/Female.  Up/Down.  Left/Right.  Right/Wrong.  Good/Bad.

Our heads like nice, clear choices.  Is an acorn a tree, or is it not?  Is an egg a chicken, or is it not?  Is a fertilized ovum a Democrat or a Republican?  Should a fetus be counted in the census?  Is a woman with small breasts beautiful of is she not?  (We own that one to Donald Trump:  not a 10, for sure.  Maybe a 4.)

Are we a Christian nation?  Then what are Muslims doing here?  Or atheists?  Or Sikhs?  Or people who play golf on Sunday morning, instead of singing slow hymns?

Where, exactly, is the line between being male and female?  Can you measure something with a caliper or a cup?  How big does a man's breast have to be before he is required to wear a bathing suit with a top?  How small does something have to be before he can be denied a license to marry a woman?  Or to get a license to marry a real man?

Oh, good god!  It is difficult to live in a world with continuums.  With nuances.

All this time, we have lived with continuums, and we have constructed either/ors.  Males here.  Females there.  White skin here.  Black skin there.  Brown skin with the Black skin.  Tan skin with the White skin.  Muscles with the men.  Brains with the men, too.  Curves with the women.  Brainless with the women, too.  Take off the hijab!  This is America!

I am trying very hard not to construct another either/or to explain how this happens.

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