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| Congresswoman Marcia Fudge in 2018 (Wiki) |
I have been reluctant to discuss this issue precisely because of the political implications in its usage. And with respect to gender identification - because I am sympathetic to the very real issue of people with gender dysphoria. – a mental condition where people of one gender believe they are another, despite their physical anatomy. My sympathy for people with this condition was increased via an online lecture given by Rabbi Efrem Goldberg. Therein he described a devout 60ish male member of his Shul approaching him with this exact problem - asking him if he could somehow Halachically change his sex.
I am not interested in ‘torturing’ people like Rabbi Goldberg’s congregant with condemnations – religiously based or otherwise. I feel genuine sorrow for the mental anguish they must be going through - and likely have gone through for most of their lives. Especially since there is no Halachic option that would allow them to change their sex via either surgery or behavior (cross dressing). Neither of which is permitted by Halacha.
That being said, being sympathetic to their plight does not mean we abandon all common sense and morality. Which separates the sexes in places like locker rooms and bathrooms where each sex ands up in various states of undress right in from to each other. Being woke requires us to think in exactly that way - eliminating sex segregated locker rooms and bathrooms as discriminatory. Which to me is an outrage of immense proportion.
I received a notice from Chicago’s Bernard Horwich JCC (located in the Rogers Park neighborhood where the largest number of Orthodox Jews in Chicago live - and to which the JCC mostly caters to. They graciously try to accommodate all the religious requirements of their largely Orthodox – even Charedi - clientele.)
The notice said that they just terminated the employ of a transgender lifeguard who was anatomically male but identified as a woman. They did so respecting the Wokeism of our day - and the fact that life guards are a rare commodity these days.
Why was ‘she’ fired? Because when she changed in the woman’s locker room, she exposed ‘her’ male genitalia. To what must have been a shock to all the religious women changing their clothes there at the time.
This is where Wokeism has taken us. This incident is just the latest in a series of ridiculous woke responses by woke liberals who genuinely see gender discrimination as just another unfair barrier to an underserved minority. Even if catering to their minority status results in a perversion of morality like the one experienced by those Orthodox women at the JCC.
This is not the only example of the absurdity Wokesism has foisted upon American people. Not long ago I was forwarded a message sent to members of a Conservative synagogue that they would no longer be using the terms Bar and Bat Mitzvah. They will now be using the gender neutral term ‘B- Mitzvah’. I can’t think of two many things sillier that that. But that synagogue was dead serious.
Then there is the introduction of Wokeism into the classroom. The idea being to indoctrinate children as young as possible to the idea that one’s gender is totally irrelevant. That human beings have the right to choose how they will be identified, whether it be male, female, or non-binary (meaning they chose not to identify as either sex). And that we have no right to ask anyone whether they are male or female. If a human being born one sex chooses to identify as another sex and make themselves appear that way they have every right to do that and society must treat them accordingly
I’m sorry. This is sick. This is not having sympathy. This is pure unadulterated nonsense!
The other area where Wokeism is playing a detrimental role is getting Americans to recognize the role black people played in the creation of this great American experiment in democracy called the United States of America.
It’s not that they didn’t paly an important role. They surely did. Much of it against their will. Wokeism, however, requires us to trash America’s founding fathers as pure racists that used and mistreated black slaves to build up this country into what it is today – thus ignoring the very foundation of what this country is supposed to be all about – that all people are created equal. Which the founding fathers did not apply to slaves.
Some night retort, ‘Isn’t that true?’ ‘Weren’t black people used in this way and mistreated to boot?’ The answer is that in many cases they were treated horribly. But not in all cases. Be that as it may there is little doubt that the enslavement of black people was a very real part of American history until Lincoln abolished it. History that is largely ignored in the schools.
But to trash the founding fathers who enshrined principles of the equality into the the Declaration of Independence - principles that eventually ended slavery and allowed congress to enact civil rights legislation should not be placed in the dustbin of history either. Their attitude about racial inequality has to be seen in the context of the times when slavery was practiced historically by many civilized nations.
Why they didn’t realize how inhumane slavery was - is is a good question. They didn’t. But they otherwise conceived of a society where all men are considered equal. That it took a long time for that to be actually realized for all mankind does not mean the foundational idea they enshrined should be written out of history - an idea Wokesim seems to be promoting. And it certainly doesn’t mean trashing the people who enshrined it.
That the legitimate role of black people had in building this country has indeed been ignored in the historical record that is taught in schools from kindergarten through college. That definitely needs to be corrected. But Wokeism is not the way to do it. And it ought to be rejected by anyone that values this great democracy of ours.
My gut feeling is that this will all shake out for the better in the 2024 presidential election. I believe that the American people will reject Wokeism as a misguided attempt at equity that trashes traditional beliefs and attitudes. While at the same time realizing that there is work to be done in the realm of both racial and gender identification issues. Hopefully along the lines I expressed here.
I think Republicans might have this as a winning issue against Democrats in 2024. I realize that mainstream Democrats are not all ‘woke’. But they are definitely a lot that are more woke than Republicans who are not ‘woke’ at all. Republicans are fighting the hardest against woke ideology permeating society via the public school system that has begun adopting some of the more radical woke ideology and putting into textbooks.
This is where Governor Ron DiSantis will have an edge. A big one I think due to his crusade against such textbooks and school policies. Something I think the general public shares.
What about Trump? Recent polls say that he is still the favored candidate of the Republican base. I don’t think that will last. His popularity is fading. It won’t take that much to convince his MAGA supporters to switch their allegiance to someone whose policies will closely match Trump’s without all the considerable negative baggage Trump will bring to his campaign.
Meanwhile, I see no viable Democrat running against Biden in the primaries. Biden has all but made his re-election campaign official. In a contest between DiSantis and Biden – DiSantis wins, I think.
