An Elegy for Uncle Thomas

                                          "But 'tis a common proof,
                                           That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
                                           Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
                                           But when he once attains the upmost round.
                                           He then unto the ladder turns his back,
                                           Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
                                           By which he did ascend."
                                                                          Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 1

     America, it seems, is filled with such examples, one of the more prominent being Clarence Thomas, arguably the least qualified Justice to occupy a seat on the United States Supreme Court in the last century or two.        
     Thomas, who was born into a dysfunctional family in a small town in Georgia, had once considered becoming a Roman Catholic priest, but left the seminary when he was offended by a fellow student's remarks about Martin Luther King's assassination. He attended Holy Cross College instead, where he became active in political and social causes, including civil rights, and where he helped establish a Black Student Union. He admits his great admiration of Malcolm X in those days, for the Black Muslim's philosophy of "self reliance."
     He received a JD degree from Yale University Law School, and after spending several years as a lawyer for Monsanto Corporation converted to Republicanism and moved to Washington. In 1982 he was appointed to the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by President Reagan, a man who couldn't have cared less about race relations unless there was political gold to be mined in them.
     Although Thomas had never served a single minute as a judge, Reagan's successor, George H.W. Bush, nominated him to the U.S. Court of Appeals, and within three years nominated him to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. That's right, George H.W. Bush of Willie Horton attack ad fame. The Supreme Court nomination was understandably controversial, and received Senate approval by a very narrow margin: 52-48. I recall thinking at the time that the appointment was both a bigot's insult to the memory of Thurgood Marshall and a WASP's insult to African-Americans generally --- placing, as it did, a marginally qualified black man in a position in which he'd be certain to make a fool of himself. It was neither more nor less than a WASPish one-finger salute to the entire concept of affirmative action.

     Nor did Thomas decline to participate in the travesty. Indeed, he has played his role to perfection  since. Not only did the former EEOC Chair reject the entire concept of affirmative action; he became a rubber stamp for judicial wild man Antonin Scalia. In turning his back upon his heritage he even traded in his African-American wife of 13 years for a busty Caucasian with better political connections. His upward mobility is reminiscent of the examples given in Vance Packard's The Status Seekers, of people elevating themselves in the religious pecking order, from the storefront to the Anglican cathedral, as their social positions improve.

     One wonders what kind of distorted logic will distinguish Clarence Thomas' anticipated vote against same-sex marriage. Will he fall back on the Catholicism at which he thumbed his nose when he divorced and remarried? Or will he question the doctrine of marriage as a basic right as articulated in Loving v. Virginia --- the very doctrine that has allowed him to marry a Caucasian woman and stay  out of prison in his home state?

     It will be interesting to see just how far from the ladder he has turned his back.

I invite you to join me in calling out the rampant bullshit that passes for "news from a Christian perspective" on the American Family Association's OneNewsNow website. What can one say of this particular gem except, "read it and weep" -- for the future of America.

In truth, what the American Family Association (AFA) disseminates should called "news from an extreme right-wing ignoramus' perspective, since little of it has anything to do with any intelligent person's definition of Christianity. On the contrary, most of its trash has nothing to do with religion at all, but rather with restating and re-restating the Tea Party line simplistically enough for the average fundamentalist troglodyte to understand.

The AFA doesn't welcome in their "comments" section any writer who points out illogical statements (or, for that matter, in just plain old fashioned nonsense) in their articles. Indeed, they maintain a pack of "amen sayers," birthers, radical anti-choicers, and such who are allowed to post any kind of supporting bullshit they like as often as they like. Then, of course, there are their so-called "experts and columnists: fools like David Barton,  homophobes like Peter LaBarbera, and attorneys of dubious ability, such as Matt Staver and Matt Barber.

But it is to the comments section that I direct your attention. It has been said that there is nothing more frightening than ignorance in action. So, for a good scare you ought to visit the AFA and see how the unthinking think. Just Google onenewsnow sit back and enjoy as good a horror show as any Alfred Hitchcock ever screened. And then, if you're still not scared, just remember that these morons vote.