Unpublished letter submitted to the Toronto Star

LRe: The real war on Christmas, Editorial, December 23, 2018.

The Star’s editorial would portray the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities as a war on the fundamental freedoms of capitalist democracy.  It implies that the celebration of Christmas with its nauseatingly excessive commercialization and excess is just all part of expressing religious traditions. If only it were that simple.

It would be good to remind them that religious persecution is the basis of most geopolitical hostility in the world today and has been ongoing since the beginning of time with periods of slaughter by Christians, Muslims and non-believers like the Chinese government that pale in comparison to what is occurring now. Their holier-than-thou editorial posture glosses over the previous history of egregious murder, rape, disease, sexual impropriety and brutality including slavery carried out by Christianity. Has the Star forgotten the vicious massive tragedies of the indigenous peoples of North and South America – all in the service of a Catholic god. The barbarity carried out by religion goes on today across the globe by all religions. Saudi Arabia beheads people in the streets for religious offences.

The imperialist Judeo-Christian message that faith is harmless and people just want to practice their religion in peace as an act of religious devotion is nothing more than simplistic piety.

Religion has always been heavily tied up with adversarial politics, economics and exclusion with each of the major religions claiming their faith as the one true belief and rejecting anyone who is a non-believer. Most countries orient their policies based on religion, including the west despite assertions to the contrary. Religion is a co-conspirator of capitalism and patriarchy and has taken a leading role throughout history in asserting that males are

superior and the wealthy are god’s children because they are smart enough to be rich. If only religion was non-political it would be bearable but it is the constant tunnel-vision moralizing of people of faith that is so intolerable. This is not religion, it is latent vigilantism.

Its not about eliminating one religion – its about eliminating all religion. Belief has been intentionally manipulated by men to do their bidding since time immemorial justifying their patriarchal universe. It has validated the subordination and degradation of women of all faiths. The wearing of the niqab is is a religious symbol of subordination to Mohammed and through him to all men. What we really need is for all religions to be replaced by a single humanitarian global belief that focuses on the quality of life of people around the world rather than mystical figures. That’s a religion that everyone can support without fear of persecution.

Unpublished letter submitted to the Toronto Star

Re: Violent 2018 sparks concern over what’s next, Headline, January 2, 2019.

What’s next – more violence of course. We know no other way in modern capitalist society and we fail to address the root causes of the problem – not gangs but the shutting down the arms industry. It is a massive, hugely profitable and powerful series of corporations that have some very serious political allies like the NRA in the United States. They dictate policy on guns and support the archaic 2^nd Amendment rights of Americans who have one of the most violent societies in the world. They sell to both sides making the world a polluted wasteland of weapons. If government’s really represented the people they would have gone to the source of the problem and banned all guns and made the manufacturing or the possession of guns a criminal offense punishable by life in prison without parole. The only exceptions would be production for a small military and police forces for public safety. As the gun ban settled in the need for military and police forces to have weapons would be reduced. Imagine for just a moment what could be done to poverty if the trillions of dollars currently spent on military and police expenditures around the world could be spent instead on debt reduction, social programs and poverty elimination. Economic problems would be solved. It’s all a matter of priorities. “The market” doesn’t always determine the correct priorities – that is a capitalist myth.  Governments would be shutting down the rich arm’s industry to stop all wars and  all violence. Long guns, short guns, machine guns or cannons – they are all weapons that kill people and animals. There is no justification for them and no other suse for them. Hunters are a dinosaur group that kill what few defenceless wild animals we have left under the auspices of “sport.” There is no sport in baiting traps and shooting animals in the wild with a high-powered rifle from five hundred yards away to mount its head on a wall in your den to satisfy men’s macho egos. The few wild animals that are left must be protected. Weapons are a patriarchal holdover that we must rid ourselves of if  we want to survive and evolve. It is also the right thing and the only thing to do.