Ok before my tirade let me just say I have quite a few awesome loving amazing Catholic friends (some practicing , some not) .
Isn't that always a lovely way to start- like saying - I don't want to make you mad/hurt your feelings, BUT...
Pope ... still-a-dick... err I mean Benedict XVI (see my playful banter pun of wordage there?) has made some really awesome steps to move into this new modern era. I understand that it's hard to live down the youthful indiscretions that haunt us doggedly as adults. Little things that shape your character and live in the corners of regret; in the recess of your mind. Things like lying, youthful shoplifting, or say, in the case of Pope Benedict (formerly know as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) being a member of the HITLER YOUTH. This is a widely know fact and one that has been dismissed as "oh, you know in those days they practically made everyone join."
Well here's a charming little quote from the Bishop that had once been excommunicated but has now been REINSTATED by the Pope himself along with 3 others. :
"There was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies."
Here is is explaining those words on Swiss t.v. LAST WEEK . I'm somewhat speechless. how is it that there are STILL asstwats out there like this denying the Holocaust. I went to high school in the deep, deep deep south. SouthWest Georgia, which is entirely agricultural, literally no industry. There were a number of people like this where I grew up, I was gay , Jewish and punk rock and was confronted on all sides by bigots. I remember vividly the moment I made up my mind to drop out of high school (I had already been accepted to college). I was in an AP economics class, which really was never about economic more about world events due to the teacher, when another student said "Well I don't believe in the Holocaust, you know how them Jews are, they're all good with numbers and shit."
I got up and said "I think I'm to go."
My teacher asked "are you coming back ?" jokingly
"I don't think so, no." I said calmly.
And I never did. It was just the final straw of a long road that included a sexual assault, a violent gay bashing and numerous other abuses at the hands of students, their parents and even the faculty and staff. This was small town America in the mid nineties. This is how they viewed the "other".
Denver really believed the words when he said "Well I don't believe in the Holocaust, you know how them Jews are, they're all good with numbers and shit." Those were the facts as he was taught. Jews ate gold, murdered babies , killed christ, and were good with numbers.
-well he certainly never saw my Math scores or he'd no that's bullshit, though other stereotypes are very much true, for example: I have terrible allergies, I make a kick-ass borscht, and I have a really big dick.
I've tried to be glib about these things but it makes me sad deeply sad.
We can never escape our pasts. Sticks and Stones can break your bones, but words...
Words have erased cultures, caused genocide, incited world wars, words have seduced and betrayed, the written word I'd argue is the most dangerous weapon ever created. Words can soothe, words can heal, words can create change and hope... Such a powerful thing we all hold in our bodies, and we use it so indelicately.
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