Redemption Song

Over at her always fascinating blog Smilin’ Buddha Cabaret, Marnie Louise Froberg reflects at some length on the recent Glenn Beck rally, the nature of privilege, racism and the related.

A small sample:

The Glenn Beck thing. He seems to be a real put upon dude. Not only is he a POC, poor, living in a 3rd world country, female, of a minority faith, homeless, non-English speaking,  having a history of oppression, dealt with colonialism, physically challenged, mentally challenged,  living in an impoverished area of the country, lacking access to education, speaking with an accent unusual for TV personalities, an immigrant, without documentation, a refugee, homosexual, trans-gendered, elderly, of compromised health status, living in a alternative family arrangement, illiterate, without a voice heard in his culture of birth,  a victim of torture, living with a mental illness, a victim of systemic discrimination,suffering from the effects of living through a war, a target for genocide, ….c’mon I’m really trying to get at what this fellow’s issue is all about.

She then proceeds to unravel the whole thing in a long and somewhat meandering post. Along the way she demonstrates why I think she is becoming one of the most important Buddhist bloggers in the English language…

Worth a read. No doubt.