An Englishman in New England

M is from the Midwest, and one of the things I find fascinating about her and her people is their ability to cut through the bullshit with an amazing economy of words.

Usually my bullshit. She usually cuts through my bullshit with an amazing economy of words.

I picture her in my mind as a towering authoritarian figure to whom I am meekly presenting a thesis, timdly laying out pages of carefully-prepared graphs and statistics on the desk. I conclude my presentation and stand there expectantly awaiting a response, before gaping in horror as this burly figure takes an arm the size of a tree trunk and dismissively sweeps the offending scraps of paper into oblivion.

But this time around, she wasn't slicing through my waffling rhetoric - we were discussing the current furor over homosexuality in the news, and she said (in an amazing economy of words) something that cut through the bullshit.

"Regardless of your stance on the topic, in 40 years time, we will look back on this as the civil rights movement of our generation."

That was it. In less than 25 words, she basically resolved an argument that people are furiously writing books about. For me at least. She made me realize that the only reason one could be in opposition of Equality is if they fear it, and the loss of priviledge it demands. *speaking of which. . .*

So I guess the question people on both sides should be asking themselves is this: Given the inevitability of equal rights, what would you like to tell your children you fought for in 40 years' time?

People are people.