There’s an article in last Sunday’s Washington Post Magazine that is a perfect example of my new and developing worldview. If you don’t want to go read it, here’s a summary. Two deaf women, both of whom graduated from Gallaudet and are severely hearing impaired were had a child through in-vitro fertilization. The child turned out to be deaf, and that was fine with the parents. The article chronicles the birth of their second child, and their attempts to ensure the child would also be deaf. Now, I’m not quite sure how I feel about that, but I’m glad they have the right to do it, and why not, let’s just add in the fact that they’re a lesbian couple and are able to have kids.
This is a pretty extreme example of what I’ve been thinking about almost daily since September. There is a place for everyone. If you’re a gay deaf woman, there’s a community that will accept and appreciate you. That community is probably not in the Bible belt, but it exists. On the opposite spectrum, if you’re a homophobic Christian fundamentalist, there are places in this world where you’ll feel right at home. Those places probably don’t include San Francisco, or America’s liberal arts colleges. But they do exist. I’ve visited.
I’m pretty much OK with whatever people want to believe, as long as they don’t try to inflict it on others either physically or morally. I’m on a crusade of acceptance. You want to be a tatooed sailor, fine. You want to live in a cave with the bats and throw crap at the walls? Fine with me, as long as you keep it in the cave, and don’t start throwing it at me. I start to have problems when, and this is a word with a lot of baggage, zealots show up. I notice the “true believers” a lot more now. Whether they’re the Pro-Unix/Anti-Microsoft folks, the religious freaks who think that anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their way of thinking should be wiped off the face of the earth, or even those in government who think that they’re God’s instrument to impose religious tenets as law – they’re all zealots, and I have a hard time listening to anyone who falls in that camp for very long.
If you can’t understand others’ opinions. If you aren’t open to the idea that maybe what you believe might not be as set in stone as you think it is. If you have the urge to hurt others just because they look, act, think, live differently than yourself. You just might be a zealot, and you may just need therapy.
Again, this is a work in progress, meant for revision. So, if you don’t agree with me, bring it on.