[NEohioPAL]Lights out

[George Roth]

Dear All:

(Thank you for the forum, Fred.)

I feel a deep sadness regarding the election of this past Tuesday.  I try
not to be a bitter or angry person, but I am having a hard time hanging onto
my equilibrium after the re-election of our current commander-in-chief and
the passage of Issue 1.  The country has devolved into "us" and "them", and
this election has frightened me, because I now fear that the religious
fringe is not a fringe at all.  It is comprised of a huge number, possibly
even a majority of Americans.  It is a mainstream that eschews science in
favor of doctrine, marginalizes and demonizes those who do not ascribe to
their belief system, and seeks to recreate the country in their own image.
And it does this all with a sanctimonious smile and a deep faith in a God
that only they can know.

What makes me saddest is that the 51% will now rule for the 100%, and we can
look forward to a continuing ideological attack against the homosexual
"threat."  Africans, from the earliest moments of the European colonization
of the Americas, Jews in the 1930's of Nazi Germany, and now homosexuals in
21st century America - each of these groups has been the subject of
legislation that would designate them as less than fully deserving of the
rights of man.  Ohio's constitution will now treat gay people as something
akin to sub-human, and I hang my head in shame.

I am frightened by people who would legislate that fellow humans are to be
considered and treated as lesser beings, in their nature and in their
rights.  In the third presidential debate, Bob Schieffer asked President
Bush if he thought that homosexuality was a choice.  Bush waffled, saying
"You know, Bob, I don't know.  I just don't know."  It would seem to me that
it would require a sureness beyond "I don't know", beyond biblical
interpretation, to seek a constitutional amendment that formally relegates
gays and lesbians to the fate of second-class citizens.  Seeking an
amendment that causes such pain and harm to people who love and show
commitment equal to that of "normal" people should require some kind of
sureness, shouldn't it?  The purveyors of Issue 1 do not desire or seek
understanding of those who are different, and neither does our President.
What a sad state for America to have reached.

Meanwhile, we persevere.  I am proud to be a member of the artistic
community of Cleveland.  I have been blessed to meet and work with many fine
individuals, gay, straight and indeterminate, during my time here in
Cleveland.  Theater artists seek to understand behavior in the gray margins
of human existence - why people who may be dissimilar to ourselves choose to
live their lives as they do.   I value the inquisitive minds, the empathetic
souls, and the strong desire to make this world a better place that I see in
this community.

George Roth