O.K. this is a tough one to both elucidate and write about. For me that is. Here goes. Yesterday I was talking to a gentleman I've known for close to thirty years. We chat briefly perhaps three times a year and I thought I had a handle on his opinions, politics etc. Well I was wrong.
Surprisingly to me his position regarding Councillor Murray Martin's words from his council seat was that not only should Murray have freedom of speech but that many citizens/voters clearly share them as shown graphically every four years when he gets re-elected. Secondly two people much closer to me, one a relative and one a friend have advised me that they strongly feel that the public backlash against Murray's opinions on the gay community as well as the 2SLGBTQ is wrong. Well!
Here's where I stand. I disagree with Murray Martin on many things and over at least a couple of decades my opinion has formed that he is bigoted, dogmatic and disrespectful to those he views as different from him and supposedly the norm. Accurate or not Murray is entitled to his opinion even when he is wrong and especially when to my knowledge he has never advocated for violence or physical harm to those he disapproves of. Yes I understand that his disapproval whether as an individual or as an elected official can be harmful to some people.
What I am being told is that like minded people to Murray in regards to the 2SLGBTQ community really don't like the issue being in their faces whether rainbow crosswalks or politicians constantly jumping on the bandwagon and lecturing or hectoring them about being out of date, out of step, anachronistic etc. They also don't like the media and politicians across Canada leaping on the issue and calling Murray homophobic plus a lot of other names. I'm not saying that he isn't homophobic but I guess what I am saying is that for gosh sakes campaign against him between now and October 24/22 (municipal election). Also feel free to either publicly or privately disagree with his opinions but maybe, just maybe I am coming around to feel that the media, politicians and the public hammering him in writing is too much and unnecessary. I also am beginning to wonder if there is a real backlash against political correctness in all its' forms including embracing the 2SLGBTQ community to the point of promoting their visibility and orientation. I'm not certain on this last point but it is something to think about.
No comments:
Post a Comment