“It is a duty of a parent to always love their children.” These are not the words of Dr. Phil or Dr. Laura. They come from Dr. Stephen Harper in answer to a voter’s question of whether or not he would love his child if he or she turned out to be gay.
While I have never had the pleasure of being a father, I do vaguely recall my childhood, and I don’t remember ever feeling that my father loved me out of a sense of duty. Perhaps all these years I mistakenly thought that loving your child was as normal as breathing. Not a responsibility. But simply a human response.
A fine robot
Listening to a politician who is probably a fine father sounding like a fine robot made me wanna holler. I wanted to pick up a bullhorn on Thursday night.
Remember Roy Scheider in Jaws? It was the scene where he thought he saw a “great white.” The sheriff demanded that those kids get the heck out of what could have been shark-infested waters. He got on that bullhorn and bellowed at at the top of his authoritative lungs.
Now on that particular day, as the story goes, there is no toothy monster threatening the young’uns. The mayor of Amity responds to the incident by threatening to fire the sheriff. Imagine the chutzpah of this cop creating panic during the tourist season!
But on Thursday night, I wanted to go to the bullhorn and scream at my Conservative friends, “Will one of you please give Harper some human pills? With all the billions spent developing drugs that can kickstart selective parts of the brain, is there not a single chemical in some laboratory that can prevent Stephen Harper from offering stupid answers to stupid questions?”
In the early days of the campaign, a reporter asked the Tory leader if he loved his country. He gave the reporter an answer that was slightly longer than the Sermon on the Mount and not quite as inspiring.
If a person without need for human pills has been asked the same question he might offered one of the following three answers:
a) Son, if this is what some dough-brain taught you at journalism school, demand a refund.
b) Do I love my country? Do you love your right eye? Would you love it more if it could see you for the fool you are?
c) Is your question coming from your hubris or your editor?
Now back to the primary question posed in this column based on Mr. Harper’s weird response to a simple question.
Do you love your child because it is your duty to do so? Allow me to offer you the generosity of precision. In case you aren’t 100% clear on the meaning of the word duty, allow me to ladle on some Webster’s:
Main Entry: du.ty
Etymology: Middle English duete, from Anglo-French duete, from Old French deu due
1 : conduct due to parents and superiors : RESPECT
2 a : obligatory tasks, conduct, service, or functions that arise from one’s position (as in life or in a group) b (1) : assigned service or business (2) : active military service (3) : a period of being on duty
3 a : a moral or legal obligation b : the force of moral obligation
Do you love your child out of a sense of obligation? And if your child is a homosexual, is it some sort of moral or legal obligation that allows you to experience parental love?
Perhaps this isn’t the most important issue in the campaign. I am just a tad old fashioned, conservative.
I still have this notion that before I can vote for a man to lead me, I need to believe two things.
1) He is a good human being.
2) He is a human being.
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