A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post on two prominent Alabama ministers who died a sudden and tragic death. This post sparked a great deal of emotion and debate in my hometown to the point where it was being e-mailed all over the city,my inbox was being flooded with e-mails, my phone was ringing off the hook, and a reporter from The Montgomery Advertiser even contacted me. When I sat down to write that post I had no idea that it would receive such a huge reaction, after all nothing I said wasn't already common knowledge, but like every situation in life there is always something to learn and this would not be an exception. What I learned is that it's not always expedient to tell the truth.
After wrestling with how my post would affect the family of one of the slain ministers and fearing for my family's personal safety I decided to take it down and for that reason only. It was never my intention to cause the family any more pain and I personally couldn't live with knowing I may have contributed to their suffering. However, I stand by every word of what I wrote and I don't apologize for anything that has taken place.
I came to the conclusion after a long discussion with respected friends and clergy that the problem wasn't that the sexuality of one of the ministers in question was indeed fact, the problem was that I was bold enough to write it and force people to deal with the truth and their own homophobia. You see not everyone can handle the truth, it's one thing to know in the back of your mind or suspect that someone might be gay, but when it's verbalized is when it becomes real and all hell begins to break loose!
Can you imagine what this world would be like if we respected the differences in every human being instead of ostracising, bashing, and spiritually abusing them ? There would be no down low because men wouldn't feel the need to hide who they are or enter into sham relationships. The rates of suicide for gay and lesbian teens would drop dramatically and not another child would have to fear being rejected and kicked out of his home because of his orientation.
My little hometown has a lot of work to do when it comes to embracing the differences in people, everything there is still black and white. Blacks on the west side of town and whites on the east side. Gays in the closet and for the few brave enough to come out they're scorned. It sounds like somebody in Montgomery decided that liberalism and progress was a bad thing. I'm just glad I had the courage to leave .
For those of you who requested a follow up on the initial post that sparked all of this controversy click on the two links below. As always truth prevails.
Police Arrest Suspect in Boswell Murder
Aldridge Autopsy Report(pdf)
What is deemed acceptable that our differences are worthy to be respected? These "differences" causes more harm than good if left unhandled and other civilizations before us know this for fact.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how you blame society for the down low. I'm not persuaded that anyone told any man what they can do behind closed doors when they do their sexual dirt. If you ask me, frankly, the down low starts when a man, internally and instinctly know what they're doing is wrong from the beginning, which is why they hide.
Lastly, the suicide rate amongst homosexuals are alarming, yet you want to give them children to adopt. Don't you think adopted kids have enough trauma to deal with? I mean, after a child go through the break-up of their own biological family, what person in their right mind want to see kids live through seeing their "gay daddy" suffer from HIV/AIDS, death and suicide on top of it.
My humble recommendation, like Shirley Caesar said in the 90's, "There is no since in living like we living. We have to turn back to God."
You're so ignorant and misguided...but what's new
ReplyDeleteOh Great Wizard, I humbly ask you show me the way...
ReplyDeleteYet again, let me shine some information to the misguided Captain. One bit of advise to you, Captain, is to make sure to read everything before jumping to conclusions and spewing out incorrect information in rebuttal. Words are important. Otherwise you'll look like a fool.
ReplyDeleteAs to blaming society for the downlow issue, I don't think I ever remember reading where Darian was putting all of the downlow blame on society. But society is "partially" to blame is the context I think he has written in. True as human we are responsible for our actions. The human psyche is a peculiar thing. When you have a society that ostracizes you, belittles you, calls you all sorts of horrible things because of who you are and your difference, a person will go to great lengths to disguise their true selves, sometimes at the expense of others. A lot of people want to feel included and that psychological need will make us do a lot of crazy things. Remember in the 50s/60s how some black who passed for white would claim that they were white or darker skinned people using skin lightening cream and relaxing their hair to make them seem less black. Even in today's time, a lot of young kids rob, kill or hurt others to feed into that hyper masculine mentality so prevalent in rap music today. It doesn't make what they are doing right but society plays a role in it from allowing that type of music to be played around youngsters and a lack of parental guidance at home. Although the kids have committed the crimes, it is society who has also failed them
Secondly, the suicide rate is highest among LGBT TEENS, not LGBT adults. And last I checked, out of the 50 states, plus Puerto Rico, teenagers are not allowed to adopt whether gay or straight.
Please get your facts together before spewing incorrect nonsense. It's OK to create and have opposition to an issue, but it's another thing to build opposition on falsehoods and misguided truth. Kinda sounds like what Bush did on the war with Iraq. Are you sure you don't work for Dub-ya?
-Omar Miguel
Omar, yet again you incorrectly interpreted my comment.
ReplyDeleteCaptain, please explain "what" was misinterpreted rather than just stating such.
ReplyDelete