manticore.ca

Well I can honestly say I did not see that one coming. Yesterday the state officials punted Miss Prejeans fate up to Donald Trump, owner of the Miss America pageant and effectively Miss Prejeans boss.

In my opinion Donald Trump would have punted it to a focus group and come out with a result that would have pleased no one, and yet could be spun for the desired party or parties.

So what happened, he actually backed her to the hilt and approved of what she said, based on her feelings about the matter, now that may have sounded wishy washy and given a few more days to let the old dust settle, I may reappraise what my opinion is.

The twitter traffic is of course being prolific on the matter, yet a consensus has yet to be agreed upon, and the head witch hunter, one Perez Hilton fresh off providing more documentation on stunning American Women doing risqué photography shoots, has yet to weigh in on the Donalds decision.

Perhaps the focus on Miss Prejeans life can now be directed elseware, and let the woman get on with her life and career. In probability, this is most likely minute fourteen of Perez Hiltons fifteen minutes and if he wants to accend to the next level, the attacks on Miss Prejean have to come to an end, less he finds himself under seige for being a bitter loser, his own life can be just as effectively disected under the media glare, and being he was the first to throw stones to borrow a biblical saying, I doubt many people would show any kind of compassion.

For Donald Trump, you surprised me regarding your decision, good, I like those kind of surprises and I am sorry to have prejudged your response and an unintended slight on your character.

So for now the pageant officials have punted the future of Miss Prejean over to Donald Trump, who most likely has a team of PR people working on a solution for her disposition. I can’t imagine that Mr Trump will back her to the hilt, so it’s only a matter of coming up with a response that frankly will please no one.

While everyone really is going to focus on the soap opera aspects of the pageant, I thought I would step back and think about what ansewer I would have given, which in hindsight is a bit unfair, as Miss Prejean had this one come out of left field.

You can be sure that future pageant’s will have their stable of entrants ready and armed with a canned response thats been vetted by focus groups, to satisfy all concerned depending on the spin. In a way, Miss Prejean was probably the first and last contestant to actually say what her thoughts were on the matter.

So the question has been asked, all the lights and cameras are on me and ……….

I am not my grand parents generation or my parents generation, I did not grow up under the same conditions that they did or have to accept the same social or cultural mores that they accepted as every day knowledge or wisdom or belief.

I believe that everyone should be able to marry or live common law, with all the rights and respect given with the gender of their choice, that man and woman have enjoyed to date. Be this a civil ceremony or a faith based marriage in the denomination of the participants choice.

There now, you have my canned ansewer.

Just like I did not grow up in previous generations, so will I not grow up in future generations, all I can do is to raise children with the expectation that the last generation wall, will fall and they can marry whom ever they please and that right and wrong will be no longer be married to superstition and the shackles of the past.

For all that however, I am disapointed in the reaction to Miss Prejean’s comments. Freedom of speech has been mentioned, and since no government has thought to quell her comments, no first amendment violation has occured.

Yet, culturally we have quelled freedom of speech in a way that Orwell could not imagine. While Miss Prejean has stood by her comments, and has had the conviction of her beliefs not to change her stance or moderate her comments for spin purposes, we as a culture have sent a memo stating that these are “your” views, get with the program or watch the media shock and awe discecting your life in HD.

I am not gay, but as a smoker I do have experience with being on the wrong side of a political line, when some politician at the stroke of a pen makes me culturally unclean and subject to the fines and penalties therein.

Normally I would not compare the two situations, one is a choice and the other is the way you are, and yet both situations are comparable when you view it in a legal context.

The present holds that only a man and a woman can be married, with the culture of the future being groomed to expect that this will be changed or modified to allow gay marriage. The problem lies with expecting people to live with a simple majority, that the folks currently opposed to gay marriage will simply go , oh it’s the law now, i’l just go quietly into the night and not bother anyone any more.

As a smoker, all I can say is that the current smoking legislation is becoming more and more draconian and in more places because the anti-smoking movement is dieing out or being elected out.

A fair number of us are fully expecting, not hoping or wishing, but expecting. That the future holds bars and restaurants with smoking sections again, and those annoying people with the fake coughs will be relegated to the warrens and under the rocks they used to enhabit.

On a scale of one to ten, smoking does not even rate on the same radar that same sex marriage does, in terms of importance to peoples lives. However, just what exactly do you think is going to happen, should same sex marriage laws pass by just a simple majority ?

I would hope that the reader is not naive enough to believe that opponents will simply disapear into the night. This will cause a political shift in earth quake terms, those not opposed to same sex marriage and their intentions to strike down such legislation will be deposed and newer voices that will strike down such laws will be elected.

As the anti-smoking groups are finding out, politicians are not your friends. With the most liberal state in the union, California rejecting proposition 8, and San Fransisco not even returning a decent vote despite being the gay Capital of the union, the votes are not on your side in a political fight and won’t be for some time to come.

And that is the tradgedy with the reaction to Miss Prejeans comments, you won’t truly know who is on your side, for fear of being publically castigated.