Whew!

 WHEW!

Having read the latest from our State Representative Dunwell, the only response really available is WHEW!  A truly amazing effort to justify the quest for racial purity and the true American spirit.  The Representative, in attempting to justify our current legislature and its ongoing efforts of enforcing purity in our institutions of higher learning and government administration whether city, county, or state, uses words and concepts of which he has no understanding. His educational background has none of the attributes he and others are so apparently desirous of achieving - - by getting rid of them.

The truly amazing quality of his latest opinion piece in the Newton Daily News justifying our legislature's actions is the concern with our "higher education" in Iowa as it experiences "skyrocketing costs, declining intellectual diversity, and the encroachment of identity politics".

Let's begin with the last "the encroachment of identity politics".  Clearly identity politics, assuming the Representative knows what it is, is not what the Representative objects to.  He is objecting to other people's "identity politics".  He is objecting to any politics not identical to his own.  These include ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, denomination, gender, sexual orientation, social background, and political affiliation to name but some.  

Then we have "intellectual diversity".  How one can say, with a straight face, that by getting rid of diversity, one can achieve it really can only come from a person who is just repeating words he has heard others say or is being misleading purposefully?  But this is, in fact, what Dunwell and his cohorts in the legislature do not want - - "intellectual diversity".  It really frightens them that our colleges are there to educate and to hopefully produce people that may not have the same beliefs they have and are able to question our everyday assumptions. The purpose of our educational establishment is not simply to train people to go work for corporate America. Also, our legislators don't want any "historical distortion" like what our history really is and how we got here, since this, apparently, would be an "ideological agenda". Some of our history is not so great; admitting it might actually have some benefit.

So rather than the use of euphemisms and nonsense to explain and justify their behavior as our legislators, let's just call it what it is: bigotry.  The war against the other will not be successful no matter how hard they try but to continue to try they will.  There was an article recently that what little gain in Iowa's population has occurred in recent years, 94% of it is from international immigration.  This does not please them - - these people coming here are different from us - - this is not good.

It is really not a healthy situation when the people who are in control of our government are so afraid of the other that they will go to any length to exclude them.  The idea how an institution such as a university has a diversity and equity office can give our legislatures such discomfort is seriously discomforting in itself.  The people in charge of our state government are afraid of the other and fear is not a healthy attribute to have when they are in charge and make the laws that affect us all.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo

 

Middlesex

 MIDDLESEX

Jeffrey Eugenides

Books for Bigots

I normally wait until finishing a book before commenting on its value to a Bigot; on whether supporting Bigotry or vilifying it as unworthy.  In the case of Middlesex though, I am forced to smile at a Bigot attempting to read the novel.  I realize it is an act of fiction to even suggest a bigot reading a novel, especially this particular novel; but I suppose it could occur under the most unusual of circumstances.

First, the first person narrator is a hermaphrodite - hence the title.  This would be the first concern of any Bigot, to think that there is such a thing as a person with both sexual attributes.  But the concern would be alleviated in some fashion by the understanding that this hermaphroditism was caused by the grievous sin of brother and sister marrying and having a child.

The unfortunate biology did not appear until the third generation; but even so as it was caused by sin and since sin of the father is visited on the children for unnumbered generations, it was bound to occur.  Ergo, most satisfying to any true Bigot.

Desdemona and Lefty, of Greek origin, living in Turkey and the subject to probable death by Turks who were reclaiming land in Turkey seized by the Greeks. joined relatives in Detroit.  Since they were now adults but without consensual or nonconsensual sexual comfort decided, they had each other and would make due.  One would need a smidgen of knowledge about the animosity between the Greeks and the Turks which has been in existence long before there was a Greece or Turkey with periods of mass slaughter on both sides occurring over the centuries..  It is one of those things that in the Balkan area of the world seems to be rather prevalent - - if you are not one of us, we are going to kill you - - if given a chance.

So we have immigrants at the heart of the story, we have incest, and beyond that Lefty is assisting Zizmo running liquor from Canada during prohibition.  I am assuming that although illegal, it does not cause as much anguish in the mind of the normal Bigot as what previously occurred, i.e. bigamy.  Booze is an iffy subject for bigots (and can go either way), but since sex is not involved, we can give it a pass as something which many Bigots, although non-approving, usually don't consign the participants to the infernal regions.

We are not even halfway in the novel and able to make a judgement on the appropriateness of MIDDLESEX for the usual Bigot.  Now you say, why do you think you are such an expert on what Bigots would read or not read.  Well, I am surrounded by them and know them well.  I do understand that most Bigots don't read, let alone read novels, especially current ones; and this particular novel would be no exception to that general rule.  So why bother, you say?

I bother for the reason that if a Bigot were to read this book, they (and I use that pronoun purposefully) might say to themselves, "I am not a Bigot and I will prove it by reading a book".  The mere idea that one is a Bigot and maybe, just maybe, recognizes  it, seems to me a good thing. In general, as a general rule, having one less Bigot in the world is always an improvement.  Whether or not reading Middlesex would cause one to give up Bigotry might be a rather slim possibility, but it should  be a positive if it were to occur,  I would think.  To realize that there are people in the world, not like you, but who spend their lives much as you do, with the same concerns, problems, and anxieties whether a hermaphrodite or not, would hopefully,  have a positive effect. 

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo