HIGH GEAR Page 9

Is Cataclysm Around the Corner?

By REED O'BRIEN

There is a very worried man in our city. I truly feel for him in his anxiety for that anxiety is, if anything. grand. Grandiose. I would say. But he certainly doesn't think so. His anxiety so rattled him lately that he had his worries published in the Plain Dealer on the op-ed page I am referring to the article by James Csank about what he calls "secular humanism." He alleges that if abortion is continued to be allowed and gay liberation accepted. the cataclysm is around the corner.

His troubles are big indeed for he is fretful about the fate of our Civilization, the whole thing It's no consolation. of course. to point out that for something that some people say may never have existed and certainly cannot ever be fully described. civilization has died many deaths only to survive and will probably survive this demise too In fact, western civilization has repeatedly had its death proclaimed. Usually by its self-appointed defenders who seem not so much concerned with saving the patient as with having a good funeral Lots of weeping and carrying on Or so it seems They're content to leave it to the enemies of civilization to restore it Or so it seems I think if I were civilization and saw who was boasting of being my friend. I would want to die

But I am not a friend of this Civilization, so I am a threat to it i don't see myself as a threat to it

but I am told this repeatedly so maybe there is something to it. Actually I see myself rather as a friend of civilization. Like Gandhi once said. I think it's a fine idea. somebody should try it sometime. Try it, you'll like it, I always say.

I'm just not so impressed with civilization. whatever it is. because I haven't seem much of it Maybe if we had a little more of it. I'd be in there worrying with the best of them fretting away the loss of vague empyrean notions like respect for the unborn, the unnamed, and for all we know. ungrateful future generations. Ifl were a bit more privy to the Olympian vision that moves these anxious people maybe I too could see the liberation of the likes of Ravel, Colette. Michaelangelo. Tchaikovsky WH Auden. Jean Genet and Virginia Woolf as threats to the civilization they are customarily credited with helping to build. Because I guess. of my dull Vision locked in evil I have to say that I think the born have a right to life too and that the queers arent into being a threat to anyone

These pompous worriers are getting on my nerves. Who are they to identify their preferences as the whole of what is worthy? And just what. after all, is the connection between sexuality and history? I ve studied history and I can't find one Maybe if I hadn't studied it I could find one

Rome, that empire that people have a penchant for admiring.

The Gear

was at the height of its powers under the reign of a man said to be a husband to every woman and a wife to every man. I mean Julius Caesar, whom we're taught as kids to esteem, was definitely into some kinky numbers. He loved the army. Too well.

Then there were the Middle Ages, the so called "dark ages." Dark they may have been but they were also busy. People spent half their time praying and reaching for the spiritual heights and frequently getting there. The other half of their time they spent screwing, that era being one of the bawdiest In all our civilization's history. Hookers used to work the cathedrals during services. Sensuality and spirituality went right on side by Side Likely not the same people practiced both but we're talking about eras, epochs. eons The grand historical drama

The civilized worriers frequently also look up to those mad-cap Victorians as champIons of order and virtue These are the people who made pollution a way of life while they conjured all into their Industrial nightmare Upstanding staunch citizens these They also knew how to have a good

ume

US

Trouble was they didn't care who they had it with and consequently. the esteemed captains of industry and state dropped like flies in a syphilis epidemic It was a highly promiscious age and the Gay 90's were pretty gay indeed.

Really, it makes no sense to think in terms of the rise and fall of civilization. History is too varied and complex to be so glibly charted. And something as universal and omnifarious as human sexual practices cannot in any way be correlated with shifts in historical ages. Sexual liberation and human progress, however you see those, hardly seem related Rome was going down even when it was rising up.

Will Civilization go on? Who knows? I suppose we would have to identify it first to see what it is so we could tell if it's surviving or fading. But how do you define a thing so elaborate and diverse? Of course. life will go on one way or another-unless the fervent supporters of civilization first blow everything to bits (they commonly favor big bombs too). It'll go on as it has. the so called good with the so called bad, the lofty with the grubby They need each other actually.

The misdirected high mindedness of the grand worriers comes out all wrong. It's really quite low This preoccupation with the supposed, imminent fall of civilization should be identified for what it is plain old fear of change fear of the new and different It's egotistical It's not civilization that the worriers are worried about. It's themselves they're fearful for. It's not for civilization that they wan! to deny other people their humanity. It's just for themselves

Civilization again. whatever

Foundation

that is, has withstood a lot of depravity, likely it will withstand or perhaps even be strengthened by a bit of liberation. Civilization is not a gold plaited ikon occasionally tarnished and always to be shielded. If it is anything, civilization is like the forest with parts always dying while new life is growing in an intricately interrelated ecosphere constantly moving through time.

Will laws

(Continued from Page 2) valid will from the probate court, the judgement of the court that your will is valid is automatically revoked, and you must go through this process again. No person will be eligible to see your will at the probate court during your lifetime except for yourself. This law can be found in sections 2107 081 through 2107.085 of the Ohio Revised Code. This took effect January 1, 1979.

will

If you DO or DO NOT have a

Go through both of these procedures to doubly ensure your protection in your will. If you have a will, and decide to revoke it or modify it somehow and die before a new will can be drawn up, if you have had your lover or whoever declared your heir-at-law, that person will then be automatically protected anyway

Next month: Ohio new domestic violence remedies law and how it covers gay couples.

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