Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Communication Failure


Yesterday Roseanne Barr had Noam Chomsky on her show. For those of you who are unfamiliar with him, Dr. Chomsky is an MIT Professor Emeritus of linguistics, but is perhaps better known as being an incredible political philosopher. Listening to Noam is like listening to an all you can eat buffet. Like the buffet, there comes a point where you want more of the delicious food, but you can't possibly take another bite. He's that good.

During his talk with Roseanne, Noam made reference to communication failure. I have come to believe, through emails with Roseanne, that her and I have both suffered a communication failure. Roseanne suffered a communication failure when she made critical comments about the LGBTQ community and I suffered a communication failure when I did not consider the larger context of her comments.

Since bringing up my beef with Roseanne, I have received many emails that support Roseanne's position. Many people do believe that the Queer community is too self-centered and only concerned about the issues that directly impact the LGBTQ community. While I may not personally agree with this, I am Queer enough to admit that this is a valid paradigm. Having admitted this much, perhaps I owe Roseanne an apology. Speaking of apologies, Roseanne has profusely apologized for her remarks. She has made amends for her communication failure, even posting ways she should have stated her comments. Enough said. Roseanne, I accept your apology and I extend an apology for you for not giving you the opportunity to apologize or explain yourself.

So there you have it. Never let is be said that this Queer is too good for an apology. Just don't get used to it.










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