"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Saturday 2 July 2011

Toronto Star July 2 2011

Two  stories ...contradictory

A Toronto Councillor tweets the word "hot" a lot. The Mayor says it's inappropriate. The Councillor should apologize.  The Councillor says, yes he should and does. But still tweets the word "hot" a lot.

Where does it say   the Mayor of a municipality  has authority to  act as  arbiter of language? Why would any Mayor imagine being elected automatically endows  that level of judgment?

Incredibly, some  do.

The Councillor  is described in the Star  story as "flirtatious". He is  said to be sixty- three years old. What kind of word is that to describe a tweeting  sixty-three year old.?

Presumably something about his personality, revealed by vocabulary, was  audible  during his campaign for office. Could it  have been  part of his appeal ?

Where does the Mayor get off admonishing a councillor on suitable language?

Concurrently the  saga was being  waged  about whether or not the Mayor should participate in the ten day celebration of homosexuality in Toronto

He doesn't want to.

Those who want him to, say  if he doesn't ,people will say he is homophobic, even if he is not.

Some will say that . A former Mayor of Toronto, John Sewell , in the seventies, appeared on a platform of speakers arguing for gay rights. Some  said he was  homosexual because he supported gay rights. He wasn't. They said it anyway . He was a one-term Mayor

He also  had the audacity to suggest  the Toronto police were accountable to the community. That was the real reason for his single term in office.

A former Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau made a statement:

"The State has no business in the bedrooms of the nation "...or words to that effect. Laws proclaiming homosexuality a crime, were being changed. 

It was  said  Trudeau was homosexual. He wasn't either. Didn't stop them from saying it.

So they may say the current Toronto Mayor is homophobic. Some  may think that's  fine.

Whether he is or he isn't ...is that not also O.K. Does he not have a right to be wrong?

While  talking about one person's right to be a flaming drag queen, should  we not include a person's right to be the  heterosexual opposite. ...however  that might  express itself..... I can't think of a way right now.....  except maybe a Speedo swim suit!!!!!

Or... here's an original  idea.... maybe we should just consider the subject an entirely private matter...not suitable for public debate.

And while we're at it ....let's not any of us presume to dictate  what vocabulary one  might use to express him or herself . It is very much tied up in a person's personality.

If the State has no business in the bedroom, it surely  has no business in the psyche either.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I believe that Mayor Ford has every right not to attend any of the pride events if he does not want to. Just because previous mayors did should not make it an obligation for all. This is one argument that has been cited as a reason for why he should. Nonsense!
I agree that no mayor - or councillor - has the right to dictate the words used by others, period. We have had a few of those who would try in public office in this town. I wonder what it is about being elected politically that seems to give the right to laud it over others in all aspects of life, not just seeing to public business matters.