A good friend raised some valid points when I asked her of her opinion of my Douche of the Day (DOTD) feature. She said that, although she liked the sentiment of the pieces, she found the title sexist and "trite" (my quotes). Hmm. Interesting. They were solid points and I have contemplated changing the name. However, I can't help using it. Sometimes, it just so appropriate, as it is in today's case: The DOTD is David Caton (with Honorable Mention going to Loews Home Improvement Centers).
Like most people, I have never hear of David Caton. That changed when I read an article in Saturday's (12/17/11) NY Times written by Samuel G. Freedman. From the article I found out that Mr. Caton was the founder and sole employee of a fundamentalist group known as the Florida Family Foundation. Whenever I see the word Family used together with Foundation, I become immediately suspect. When you throw the name Florida in with the others, I am convinced that this is a fanatic who would do everything within HIS power to impose HIS version of Family and Values on everyone else. And you know what? That's EXACTLY what he does.
First, we need a little background on Mr. Caton. As described in The NY Times article: he is "an accountant turned rock-club owner, the author of a book about his pornography addiction, Mr. Caton has become a born-again Christian". Well, SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE! That's about as shocking to me as meeting a gay man at a Lady Gaga concert!! The article goes on to report that Caton's first foray into imposing his vision on the people of Florida was by attacking a student group at Largo High School in Florida. The student group was formed by the school's principal in the mid-90's to address the harassment of gay students and was called the Gay Straight Alliance. It involved both gay and straight students discussing issues that concerned them both. It was successful and unnoticed until the Florida Family Foundation, i.e. David Caton, got wind of it. The school's principal began receiving post cards from the Foundation, many with the same strange message claiming the Alliance was a "government-funded witch hunt". WTF?! Word spread of Caton's message and the local school board called for a meeting to address the ensuing turmoil created by Caton's vitriolic message. 400 hundred people attended the meeting with emotions running so high that one person actually compared the gay students to murderers!! Another WTF?! What was working so well among the students themselves, to spread tolerance and harmony, was now polluted by the narrow minded vision of just one man.
And this was just the beginning. Now, Caton, single-handedly spreading his mission of intolerance and bigotry, has struck again. And this time, it's even bigger and badder! In a separate news story that you may be aware of, The Learning Channel has premiered a reality show featuring the lives of five Muslim-American families in Dearborn, Michigan. It's called All-American Muslims and attempts to portray Muslim's as they would any other so-called immigrant group, i.e. as AMERICANS who try to fit in while attempting to hold on to some of their own culture, as well. Mr. Caton and his Florida Family Foundation has taken upon himself (itself?) to attack the show "as a front for an Islamic takeover of American" (NY Times). On his website, Mr Caton has said this: "All-American Muslims is hiding the Islamic agenda's clear and present to danger to American liberties and traditional values" (from the NY Times). By spreading his message of fear and loathing so effectively he has actually managed to scare one of the show's major advertisers, Loews Home Improvement Centers (for which they received their Honorable Mention), into pulling their advertising from the show, saying, in a sense, it was "too hot to handle". WTG?! #3.
One man can only wield that much authority when he has a lot of support. Unfortunately and sadly, he does. There are enough people who share his narrow-minded vision of Christianity to keep this creep in business. Why do I call Caton a creep? Because he spreads a message of hate and intolerance and has the balls to call himself a Christian! He knows about as much of the true Christ message as I do of Quantum Mechanics!! Look, I have been critical of the Muslim community for not being as vocal and proactive about condemning terrorism as they should be. I have even questioned the roots of Islam for seeming to promote acts of violence. But I have always done so in an effort to understand Islam more fully and to challenge Muslims to come forward and be part of a new American. In this program, that's exactly what seems to be happening. And this narrow-minded "moralist" thinks this is a bad thing? Bad enough to stop it? All I can say in response is another WTF?! How can we allow this to happen?
There is another issue to discuss here. That is the whole issue of so-called Traditional Family Values. On another posting a friend of differing opinion called me to task for my supposed opposition of Traditional Family Values. Well, I don't have an issue with them. My issues lies with the people who DEFINE them, people like David Caton. My family is full of good value and rich tradition. We are Sicilian. My wife's family is full of good value and rich tradition. They are Hungarian. We love to SHARE the similarities and the DIFFERENCES between our two families and our two cultures. What may be traditional and valued in my family my not be exactly like those of my wife's. And, you know what, it's simple, it doesn't need to be! We need to CELEBRATE and share our differences, not fear and loath them. Quite frankly, it's not very Christlike to fear and loath!
So, take YOUR Family Values, Mr. David Caton, and stick 'em where they belong - in YOUR family and keep them FAR away from mine. And congratulations, you are today's DOTD.
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