[Vision2020] Re: Liberalism and Diversity on the Palouse

[Joan Opyr]

Thanks to Steve Wells for his clippings from Credenda Agenda's Magistralis 
column.  I've read Greg's work before, and yet this representative sampling 
still has the power to astonish and dismay.

It's remarkable to me that such a harsh critic of pluralism would waste both 
his time and ours with self-pitying complaints about the liberals of Moscow 
rejecting his world view.  On what grounds (or, if you prefer, by what 
standard) do the intolerant demand tolerance?  Or those without pity, mercy? 
  Too bad that you're a lawyer and not a doctor, Greg.  I can't think of a 
legal equivalent for physician heal thyself.  Perhaps attorney get a clue?

I'm not a man.  I'm not a Christian.  I'm not a heterosexual.  In the 
theocratic America envisioned by Greg, I'd clearly be spoiled for choice.  
Behind door number one, disenfranchisement and feminine submission.  Behind 
door number two, forced conformity to Greg's version of Christianity.  As 
for door number three, well, Greg will just pull a lever and I'll fall 
through a hole in the floor.  (In the middle ages, these holes were called 
oubliettes, from the French word meaning "to forget."  There was often an 
iron spike embedded in the floor, which skewered the victim on his or her 
way down.  You have to hand it to those feudal patriarchs so admired by the 
Credenda Agenda crowd -- they knew a thing or two about phallic symbolism.)

Here's the grand irony of liberalism: despite what I can only describe as 
his crackpot looneyism, there is nevertheless room for Greg in my vision of 
Moscow.  Because I actually believe in diversity, pluralism, and freedom of 
thought, speech and religion, I'm willing to share the Palouse with a man 
who says that God wants me dead.  It doesn't matter that I think Greg is a 
danger and a menace, a sloppy thinker and a theological tin-pot, I recognize 
his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and I insist on 
his continued freedom to say and believe anything he likes.  But my 
definition of tolerance does not include standing idly by while he and his 
ilk pile up the rocks and round up the dissenters.  It does not include 
eating popcorn and watching "Survivor" while would-be theocrats turn this 
country into the Iranian States of America.  I will not try to silence them, 
but I will criticize, I will keep tabs, and I will fight, fight, fight.

So let's get one thing clear: the definition of tolerance is not letting 
people walk all over you.  That's the definition of doormat.

Welcome,

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment

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