Cultural Appropriation

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION

I've heard it asked, what is cultural appropriation? Greg Gutfeld, on The Five, on the Fox News Network, once asked if taking something from someone else's culture shouldn't be taken as a compliment?

Well it might be if one doesn't acknowledge where it comes from, or worse, makes fun of the cultural source. That's why black face is forbidden.

One form of cultural appropriation that I thought of that happily hasn't happened yet, at least so far, is the appropriation of yarmulkes. Yarmulkes are Jewish skull caps, worn on the top back of one's head to show reverence to God, usually in a temple, though Orthodox Jews wear some form of them all the time. This artifact is very holy to Jews and my cultural appropriation fear is that one day, some American stylist will desecrate it by making a fancy one by putting a cross and an American flag on it and call it an "American Yarmulke".

Another form of cultural appropriation would be the constant attempts to turn Christian culture into American Culture, insisting that America is a "Christian country". I'm sorry, but as a non-Christian American, I disagree. Still, Christmas is legally an American holiday and more than one person has insisted that I should celebrate it.

That's why we have a First Amendment that forbids Christian prayers in our public schools, the Decalogue on public buildings, and many other forms of Christian appropriation.

One form of Christian appropriation the surprised and really angers me is that Cross in a public park, part of an honor for World War One veterans, which the Supreme Court allowed!

Even before and the Nazis invaded and after they left, the very Christian Catholic country of Poland was not too happy with its Jewish population. That's why many Jews, like my grandfather, left and came to America, where he was free to be a Jew or any religion he wanted. When WW! came, he served and is "honored" by this memorial with the cross on it, which is like putting a Polish flag on his headstone!

The Right To Life Question

RIGHT TO LIFE?

Right to life is one of those modern questions of good versus good. Sure, I want to save a life, but can I go into somebody else’s body to do it?

Let’s say you can. That goes beyond forcing a woman to bare a child for nine months.

About now, and a lot of other times, the local authorities beg people to donate blood. Why beg? If this is to save lives, it should be mandatory, at least once a year. As I once said in a letter to Anne Landers, it’s easy. Just answer a few questions, give a drop to sample, roll up your sleeve as the technician sticks a needle in your arm, then play couch potato and lay on a comfy couch and watch a movie or the ball game for an hour.

I should know. At one time in my life, I didn’t know what else I could give to justify my existence, so I gave enough blood to become a member of the New York/New Jersey Red Cross Five Gallon Club.

Then there’s the freshly dead. They can offer so much to the living, just by giving body parts they obviously don’t need anymore, but under the law today, medical authorities have to beg you to sign a donor card while you’re alive or beg your newly grieving family afterward and hope they care more about the living than your dead body.

Again, why should authorities have to ask? Shouldn’t anybody needing a heart or liver to survive count for more than the wholeness of your dead body?!?!

Finally, it is possible to donate certain body parts while living like a kidney or a lobe of your liver. Shouldn’t we mandate this at least once in your life? Of course, it wouldn’t be easy, but if we can mandate that a woman bear her child for nine months, we should be able to mandate that you lie senseless on an operating table for an hour of your life.

Why Haven't I Killed Myself?

A few months ago, I wrote this to my psychiatrist, Dr. Lauer, and to my then psychotherapist, Dr. Holden. I don't remember their response, but I'll pass it on as soon as I ask them again.

Dear Dr Lauer,

This is for you too, but please pass this on to Dr Holden. When will he be listed here so I don't need you as a go between? It's amazing the things you think of at 5:30 AM. I'm up this early because of back pain caused by falling off my kitchen stool and an ongoing invasion of fruit flies. For the pain, I'm taking 400 mg of Advil PM or Ibuprofen every six to twelve hours. For the fruit flies, I just cleaned my place some more and I'll have an exterminator Friday.  Being this time of night, I had one of those thoughts like, my life has been so terrible, why haven't I drowned myself in booze, pills or some other form of self-medicating? The problem, as I see it, is that I still have hope, but is that hope really rational? As I look back at my life, I graduated high school in 1975, and then it took me TEN YEARS to get a degree in ENGLISH LITERATURE!!!!I I then spent the next thirty years trying to start a career that never really happened, despite some occasional fits and starts.

One of the best things that happened to me in this time was that, in 1994, I had a nervous collapse consisting of a massive case of chronic depression, which eventually got me into something called the Skylight Center, a club house for people with mental disabilities, which got me into Special Tees, which worked, for a while.  Also, I got a great new psychotherapist, Ms. Christine Murphy, who diagnosed me as autistic. I had a great time with her for about twenty- five years. What a shame she couldn't last. I'm now sixty- two. I'm still looking to start a career when most people my age are looking to retire. I'm still as financially dependent on my mother as any child, even now, six years after her passing. So, is my hope completely irrational? Wouldn't be more sensible to dive into a bottle of booze or pills and somehow kill myself?