...And He Should Know
Who Names Their Male-Child 'Trent'? What Is That?
(Screencapture: The Little
Congressional Representative Trent Franks (R - AZ), last seen in September of 2009 calling President Obama an "Enemy Of Humanity", said yesterday that African-Americans were even worse off today, than under conditions of slavery, which existed from the mid-17th Century in America (and continued under the guise of segregation and discrimination from then until... well, they're pretty much still around to one degree or another, aren't they Trent?)
Trent is a Birther (though his open support of the Oily Taitz Project depends upon his audience), and at a minimum, a supporter of Xtian Thug points of view; abortion and freedom of religion seem to be all he really cares about.
I guess the denizens of Northwestern Arizona he represents face mandatory abortion procedures from their diabolical Liberal overlords -- who have also apparently also denied religion, and E-meters, from their cruelly oppressed population.
Trent was the premiere signator on a May, 2009 letter (which went out on his official Congressional letterhead) attacking a French nonprofit organization for its criticism of Scientology, on the grounds of 'freedom of religion'. Also signing the letter were fellow Republicans Frank Wolf (R-VA), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Dianne Watson (D-CA), Bob Inglis (R-SC), Dan Burton (R-IN), and Xenu (R - Hubbard).
Obligatory Leavening Cute Animal Photo Inserted In Blog Rant
(via ICanHazCheeseburger)
The nonprofit, which tracks cult and sectarian pseudo-religions in France, was involved in their courts in a lawsuit against the famed creation of a failed science-fiction writer, for fraud. The trial ended with a conviction of the organization's leaders in October, 2009, which has been appealed (aber natürlich).
Yesterday, in an interview with a conservative Blog, Ol' Trent said that
It seems like humanity is very gifted at hiding from something that's obviously true. I mean in this country we had slavery for God knows how long... And we should look back on that with criticism... And yet today, half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted. Far more black children, far more of the African-American community is being devastated by the policies of today, than were being devastated by the policies of slavery.
Uh-huh.
The only comment I can offer is, it's plain, in looking at a photograph of the man, that Franks suffered from a congenital, facial disfigurement from birth, for which he would have had to undergo a number of reconstructive surgical procedures.
Exaggeration To Make A Point: Segregated Drinking Fountain, 1931
Knowing what children can say and do, Franks' childhood couldn't have been an easy time -- and no matter how gifted his surgeons, the act of having a conversation with someone else, walking into a store; going to a party; or (the unthinkable) going out on a date were all tests of endurance and courage to overcome learned feelings of embarrassment and shame.
You'd think Trent could draw the most positive inferences from those experiences -- that it would provide him with a greater store of empathy and understanding; particularly about being stigmatized, singled out as 'different', and discriminated against simply because of how you appear.
That isn't the same experience as People Of Color have had in American society; as Franz Fanon would point out, even with a disfigurement, Franks is still White. He's still automatically part of the dominant social and political structure, and Franks understands this on a subconscious level.
But, and perhaps I'm just too fookin' stupid to breathe, I believe his own experience should be enough to allow him to make a connection on a human level with several hundred years' experience and history of slavery and discrimination... which is on a completely different level of things than some religious argument over abortion.
It's why people shouldn't say that the practice of terminating a pregnancy is like the Holocaust -- which was a specific set of acts in human history, as the history and experience of African-Americans is, here. It's a false analogy. There's just no equating those historical events with something else. It could be argued that Franks' doing so is fairly typical for a Caucasian male (who hasn't experienced slavery, poverty, or pregnancy), and I'd agree.
We can't solve four hundred years of race relations in America in a single day, or with a single act. But by the grace of whatever supreme power makes this Rat-Maze run, we might do it one act of human kindness at a time, day after day; until the generations who have had it all the other way are dust in the ground.
You'd think Franks might have had just a glimpse of that, somehow. But he didn't; and that makes him a continuing part of the problem, not of a solution.
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