I’m so sorry! Overwhelmed by the quantity of your cutting and pasting, I failed to realize that your cuts and pastes do not reflect your views. They probably don’t even reflect the tendency of your views — that must be why so many of your cuts and pastes are about the scary Russkies. Of course, what you say doesn’t reflect your views, either (as in your worry about the political correctness of Mr LL). What does reflect your views, I wonder?

“I don’t expect a good gay parade in Latvia until the violence-prone, homophobic Russians reform or leave (I’m not worried about the arguing Latvians)…”

Does this reflect your views? I guess it does — in fact, it may as well be your answer to everything and anything. “I don’t expect __ in Latvia until the violence-prone Russians…”

Your “beacon of liberty” has already illumined the way for homophobia in Latvia — LPP, in the ruling coalition and the party of our homophobic Minister for Integration (!), has looked to the US for inspiration. Ledyaev has dined with Dubya, and dines at the Latvian version of the National Prayer Breakfast. The Latvian Constitution was amended to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. This “family amendment” is cited by the Cardinal as grounds for a battle with what the Archbishop calls the spetsnaz of liberal secularism.

Much of the homophobia in Latvia is quite Latvian, Ambersun — only six of the “hundred wise heads” heads in our Parliament voted against that amendment. The debates on that and other issues, like the gay pride events, have been heavily spiced with hideously bigoted remarks by Latvian politicians, some of whom happen to be ultra-nationalists as well. The Cardinal even participated in a contest organized by Aivars Garda, “Latvia Without Homosexualism,” lest God smite our Sodom. In case you don’t know, Garda has a habit of doing things like printing Russian-language newspapers (to be inserted into neighboring colonists’ mailboxes) about ridding one’s house of human cockroaches.

“You see the handfull of violent Latvians but I fear the the mob-full, country-full of violent Russians – for myself – and the Jews.”

Hmm.

Your fear seems to blind you to whatever Latvians do, and I’m not talking only about the little handfuls of extremists. Extremism in Latvia is actually rather weak, and probably more pronounced among Russians than Latvians (i.e., Barkashovists, etc.).

What matters a lot more is bigotry in the mainstream — on both sides. Latvians love to wail about the poisons of the Russian-language press, which is indeed poisonous — but I suggest that you pay attention to what seeps into the national discourse on the Latvian side. Listen to Dobelis and Tabūns, among others, sometime.

I don’t have a “bad Latvian/good homosexual, good Jew categorization,” sorry (heh, for one thing, it’d be a bit difficult to oppose Latvians to homosexuals, considering that most homosexuals in Latvia are Latvian!). Extreme nationalism, however, usually comes in a package — it is often laced with homophobia and anti-Semitism. Not a few of the remarks by Grūtūps could be made by the Far Right in any Eastern European country. It would be silly to pretend that Latvian nationalists get some sort of exemption because of the constantly reiterated horrible sufferings of the Latvian people. It would also be silly to pretend that Russophobia is not a problem, or that it can be excused because of “what the Russians did to us” (which is anyhow a perversion of history), or because some Russians are yucky radicals and chauvinists.

P.S. Mark Ames is a Californian, not a Russian.

P.P.S. The latest from His Excellency the Cardinal can be found here –

http://blogentreaspas.blogspot.com/2008/05/latvia-cardinal-gay-pride-marches-in.html

Stop riding this issue with me. It should be obvious, even to you if you were “paying attention” to ALL the issues, that Mr L L and I have many political differences. Some of his comments would be vulgar and offensive even if he had Tourette Syndrome. Since you don’t know what I think, please stop thinking that I am thinking that “the only thing that is wrong with Mr L L is the lack of political correctness. ” When I wrote that “[t]his forum requires a certain amount of politically correct restraint,” I was attempting to encourage some self-restraint and self-censure by ALL the bigots, misogynists, racists, homophobes, “Lettophobes,” equal-opportunity-offenders obliviously posting their favorite prejudices rather than checking their worst bigotry-baggage at the LOL door. No one is without baggage and some have too much. That there is still a festering “bruce” (sore) between “some Latvians” and “some Jews” should be addressed constructively and Mr L L’s comment revealed some personal “bruce” without explanation. Ask him what he meant.

I am concerned with the open and growing sore between many Latvians and many Russians. I found Mark Ames’s (?) article “Burn Baltics Burn” in “All About Latvia” (look in the archives) disgusting but informative about the raw hatred of some against Latvians (Balts). There are many issues of misunderstanding and hatred that need to be addressed.

You still haven’t answered me why you, as a Latvian who lived under Soviet occupation and as a Jew who fled to Israel because of Soviet persecution, would “understand” the “Soviet nostalgia” displayed at the May 9 “Victory Day Celebration” in Riga?

I posted that article to generate discussion and not as a reflection of my own personal beliefs. You always manage to rush to judgment, especially when the target can be another Latvian. How sad. In a way, that’s what I got out of the article, actually, this lack of a fundamental belief in one’s own people. While many Russians in Latvia join hands in togetherness and blindly follow “the Russian leader” and happily sing off-key hallelujah praise to their glorious past in oblivious disregard of the ugliness of the past or the performance, Latvian-excoriating Latvians “pluck the feathers off each other’s backs” until once-beautiful, soaring birds finally become evidently ugly – and gawkily earth-bound.

The profound difference between you and me about our “Latvietiba” is that I extend the benefit of the doubt to Latvians and give them probably at least three strikes before they are out, if then. I don’t assume the worst because I like my people in general and look for the best in them, which is there. I expect to have profound differences with individual Latvians, and do. Unlike you and Alvis Hermanis, I expect to see shocking imperfection in all of humanity, not just in Latvians. It’s a huge world of intolerance out there. The Russian world in Latvia is even bigger, darker, and less tolerant than the Latvian world in Latvia. I daresay it’s the Russian historic intolerance, and unwavering homophobia that in fact leads the way for Latvian intolerance, and overwhelms in number and vigor. But I digress. When I see homophobia in Latvia, I don’t immediately think this reflects the Latviesu tautas bloody killer instinct, especially against Jews in particular. Your statement about your friend Alvis Hermanis commenting “[t]hat watching the anti-gay protestors helped him see that – yes, Latvians could indeed enthusiastically slaughter Jews” would be funny if it weren’t so awful and absurd. You see the handfull of violent Latvians but I fear the the mob-full, country-full of violent Russians – for myself – and the Jews. I don’t want to deny any Latvian those “aha” moments in his eternal quest to catch any one Latvian at his dastardly worst, but it just seems a shame to limit the “aha” euphoria to only Latvians in a world of ugly and evil people. I invite you and Alvis Hermanis to take a vacation to San Fancisco, you appear to have forgotten how imperfect “enlightened” freedom really is, and talk to some life-long homosexual activists and listen to some hair-raising stories of past and present homophobia in the mecca of gay-activism – in the home of the long-evolved-and-never-darkness-occupied free – with our equal rights inspired policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

I don’t want to carry on about homophobia in Latvia since I’m more concerned about homophobia in the beacon of liberty where I live, and which illuminates the way to the future. I’ll have to deal with Latvia when I get there. I’ve been to the gay parades in SF for a long time and it hasn’t been a big party from the beginning. I don’t expect a good gay parade in Latvia until the violence-prone, homophobic Russians reform or leave (I’m not worried about the arguing Latvians); Vanags finds Jesus and recognizes mother Mary; and the Old, new, Russian, Catholic believers practice what they preach.

I can’t conclude without a mention of the layers of intolerance that I hope you won’t find shocking and disillusioning in your bad Latvian/good homosexual, good Jew categorization: Not all homosexuals like each other. Many gay men don’t like lesbians and vice versa. Now I’m telling you more than you want to know unless you’re gay. Also, not all Jews like each other and are not in political lock-step in their support of Israel and hatred of Palestinians. Some Jews here in Berkeley on KPFA peoples’ radio even are accused of hating themselves as Jews by others Jews who actually hate them because they don’t hate Palestinians. Now I’m probably telling you more than you want to know about Jews. Certainly not all Latvians deserve your support, but then neither do all homosexuals and all Jews. Some homosexuals and some Jews even deserve our Latvian wrath, individually and collectively. I hope this is not telling you more than is helpful in your role as sentry against the impending onslaught of violent, bad Latvians.