Reality to Earth . . . The summer of the superheroes just took an ugly turn.
I have very little problem with people who take sides in an issue, no matter how odd the issue might be. Taking a side in an issue means taking the time to stand up and be counted, and God knows we need every cerebral cortex out there firing on all cylinders to help steer this planet in the right direction.
That said, I think we could probably do with one or two less of the ones we have. Out in San Francisco there is a current movement to ban circumcision within the city which, in itself, is a legislative intrusion on an issue of choice made by a family . . . A very un-San Francisco item given the counter-culture history of a city which believes in the rights proffered by constitutional amendment . . . And that means all of them, including freedom of religion.
What started as a attempt to prevent circumcision by something called the "Intactivist" movement has gone from a complex civil issue to a monumentally ugly subject, as in Anti-Semitic ugly, as in . . . And I swear to you on my blessed keyboard as a fiction writer I didn't make this up . . . "Monster Mohel vs. Foreskin Man" ugly.
Look it up, ladies, gentlemen and kiddies. A comic book called "Foreskin Man" (!), in its second issue, depicts a bris as a religious ceremony taking place under the auspices of a vicious, blank-eyed psychopath with two yarmulke-wearing thugs at his beck and call. The father who insists upon it is considered strange and the mother doesn't survive the 'evil onslaught'. The child in all of this is taken by the good guys to be raised "Intactivist" as burning circumcision equipment forms the movement logo in the background.
Really, people? You're kidding me, right? This is, and always has been, a choice the parents make, whether it has to do with religious tradition or medical maintenance. This may also be the rare occasion you can put Jews, Muslims and Christians in the same room, have them point back through time to Abraham and say "Yeah . . . This we agree on." (Even if in Christian circles it's a medical option rather than a religious ceremony.)
If you have a problem with circumcision, and I can certainly understand having a problem with any form of elective surgical procedure, don't have it done to you and yours. There, OK? I solved things for you. I offered a simple, bottom line solution. The constitutional amendments apply to your choices just the same way they apply to mine.
Indulgence in blatant anti-religious propaganda, however, is where you not only lose me, it's where you put me and the "nipped before I knew where my bud was" subject of this rigmarole on the line against you. I have a son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and someday I'm probably going to have a grandson, to all of whom any form of Anti-Semitic garbage is or will be one hell of a personal issue. That makes it a personal issue to me, and I find the people on my side a lot better equipped for this kind of argument than the ones on yours; people who seem to literally and figuratively be unable to do anything but go for the groin.
Take your hate and go away. Go far away. Stay there.
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