Rising Above Mediocrity
by Benjamin Geiger

We here in America, and particularly here in Florida, have a history of politicians saying very stupid things to very stupid audiences. However, the recent comments made by representative Katherine Harris (R-FL) truly take the cake:

“If you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin,” Harris told interviewers from the Florida Baptist Witness, the weekly journal of the Florida Baptist State Convention.

…

Harris told the journalists “we have to have the faithful in government” because that is God’s will. Separating religion and politics is “so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers,” she said.

“And if we are the ones not actively involved in electing those godly men and women,” then “we’re going to have a nation of secular laws. That’s not what our Founding Fathers intended, and that certainly isn’t what God intended.”

There is a specific term for a system of government in which religion determines which laws are passed: “theocracy”. Harris is overtly promoting the overthrow of the system set up by the Founding Fathers that she pretends to revere and its replacement by a purely theological system, akin to that which the Taliban founded in Afghanistan. And for the record, it is clear that the Founding Fathers never intended for the government to be controlled by religion, let alone the sort of fundamentalist zealots that we find in the church today. (There were very few Christians among them; the majority were Deist. Even the Christians among them realized that allowing the church to control the government would only lead to suffering; why else would they take such great pains to make the right to free exercise of religion—any religion, or even no religion—explicit?) Or maybe she never paid attention in her history classes, when they taught that even heavily religious areas have rejected the idea of ruling by divine right? “God has chosen me to rule” has not been a valid rationale in the United States since its inception, and in most of the world since time immemorial; “this practice is wrong because God says so” has joined that sentiment in the trashpile of rejected excuses for a power grab in sane people the world over.

I have no issue with religious people holding office. It’s only when their religious beliefs begin to control my life that I am offended. Harris is encouraging voters to elect people who will ignore the grand history of religious tolerance we have enjoyed here in the United States and replace it with control by the church elite.

To those of you who are cheering Harris on, answer me this: What would be your reaction if an Islamic candidate proposed that only those faithful to Allah should hold public office? What would you do if they publicly announced support for a law requiring that all women wear burqas when outside their home? It’s easy to overlook the onset of theocracy when it’s your religion that’s creating it. Take a step back and realize just how evil this is.

Dad actually had a good idea today (OMGWTF?).

One of the biggest reasons I don’t get out and socialize is because most socializing requires alcohol, and I have to drive. While I could simply go and not drink, I’m far too inhibited to actually start conversations in that case, so I don’t see the point of even going.

However, Dad had an idea: Perhaps I could learn to be a bartender.

Perhaps I’m not thinking clearly, but it seems like a genuine good idea. As a bartender, I would be around people, without having to drink (in fact, I would be required to not drink, as I understand it), and people would actually start conversations with me instead of forcing me to approach them. What’s better, I’d get paid for it.

I’m not sure what the requirements are in Florida. For starters, I’d need to actually learn how to mix various drinks; knowing how to do a job tends to help when you apply for it. Also, I might need a license; I need to verify this. There are various bartending schools that claim to prepare anyone to be a bartender, but the tuition is steep: $400 or more for a typical week-long course. I have it on good (independent) authority that I’d earn it back in a week… but I don’t know yet if I even want to be a bartender.

Until I’ve seen a typical bartender’s typical day, I’ll have a hard time determining whether bartending is right for me. I’d hate to pay that kind of money to get a job I hate…

And you can’t deny that.

(Note: this entry is being written under the influence of a great deal of whisky and emo.)

So, a couple of days ago, Bonnie emailed me asking if I wanted to visit MOSI. As we had been planning to go for some time, I readily agreed. Frankly, I was looking forward to it.

I drove there today (it’s about 75 miles from my house, in Tampa) and we met up. As soon as we stepped inside, into the welcome center, we sat down and she started giving me the Friends Speech: I’m just not in love with you, but I hope we can be friends, blah blah fucking blah. I don’t remember much of what happened after that; I literally didn’t move for about ten or fifteen minutes, as I was still trying to come to terms with what I was hearing. She left early on.

Eventually I walked back to my car, by myself, and drove home.

I don’t really know how to feel. The usual suspects are all there—pain, anger, sadness—but, if I had to describe what I feel right now… it’d be emptiness. There’s a gaping hole. I really don’t feel anything very strongly. (That’s only partially due to the whisky.)

I still don’t know what to think, either. It came as quite a shock—I thought things were going fine—but in retrospect, I think I understand how she behaved at some points. She never seemed as ‘into’ anything we did as I was, and most of the times we went out, we went out with her friends and I felt like a fifth wheel.

In my more assholish moments, I’ve wondered whether she was merely keeping me around as an academic tutor, and now that she doesn’t need my help, she lets me go… though I doubt that. My guess is that she was in the same situation I was: lonely, desperate, searching for someone who would look past the physical attributes to see what’s inside, trying to find someone willing to accept us for who we were instead of who society wanted us to be. The difference is that I genuinely wanted to be with her. In a sense, I still do.

Despite this, I don’t think I could trust her enough to go back. She broke my heart already, and even if she did come back, I couldn’t imagine myself putting myself in that position again. I’m willing to be friends, and we’ll see what happens.