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13 Nov 2008 07:41 am

The Dumbest Man Alive, Ctd

Sonny Bunch responds to my post on the artistic director of Sacramento’s Musical Theatre:

... this post feels awfully sympathetic toward some kind of blacklist. Isn’t one of the joys of America that we can work with people with whom we disagree politically? Or should we only associate with people whose political ideologies align with our own, and shun those who diagree with us?

I should clarify. I don't think anyone should lose their job, as Eckern has, over this. I despise the idea of blacklists of any kind.

My point is simply that this is not just a political disagreement. Imagine a white jazz musician sending money in the 1950s to support bans on miscegenation. That is his right. But how is an African-American supposed to play a set with such a person? It's not easy. 

This goes both ways, of course. Some of the generalizations by gays about Mormons have been prejudicial; and attacks on people of faith who are sincere about this are misplaced. We need to be able to live civilly with one another. We need to argue this on the basis of reason, not emotion. But when you have done that for twenty years, as I have, and realize that reason doesn't really matter to your opponents, what then? Try living with people who think of you as "intrinsically disordered" and want to have the constitution amended to ensure that that stigma is enforced every day. How would you feel? 

I think I'm not the only one who's had enough. Live and let live - under equal protection of the laws. Not that hard. And yet far too hard for some.

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