National Marriage Week and World Marriage Day
"the dogma speaks loudly within you and that's of concern"
Photo by madison detwiler on Unsplash
I remain unclear as to the reason for its title, but David Talbot's tale is primarily of late 20th century San Francisco. While displaying occasional signs of a true history, his book overflows with romanticized takes on what Ian Dury called "sex, drugs, and rock and roll." In his fond reminiscences, Talbot is oblivious to the abuse of minors that would have been taking place!
Like an acting out adolescent, Talbot somehow twists anything negative as the fault of those who came before him. In this case, he repeatedly faults Catholics who controlled the city before his perceived golden age.
Getting L____ and Getting Stoned
At 65 years of age, I am slightly too young to have truly been part of the 1960s. When I started college, my fellow students were jealous of older siblings who lived through campus protests!
About 20 years ago, I expressed the following to a friend seven years older:
You guys really think you contributed to the world by getting l____ and getting stoned!
"What's your point?" was his quizzical (and less than fully serious) reply.
"Season of the Witch" was written by someone who could have easily uttered my friend's answer! It celebrates extreme cluelessness!
Using Big Words
This would always be one side of Joe Alioto: Manichean, implacable, brutal in his opposition (p. 145).
I suspect the author used "Manichean" to suggest Alioto was black and white in his thinking. He should have just said that, instead of making reference to a confusing system of thought with which Saint Augustine struggled before his conversion!
No Sense of Responsibility for Children
When Moscone and Milk died [shot to death by Dan White], they were both nearly broke. Milk was deeply in debt, and Moscone had only a few hundred dollars in his savings account. They left nothing for their families and friends (pp. 332, 333).
Diane Feinstein
By far the most celebrated person in Talbot's work is Diane Feinstein. Long before she became one of the most reliable votes in the U.S. Senate against innocent human life and the traditional family, Feinstein served as mayor of San Francisco:
Fenstein, who was raised Jewish, also gained insight into the Catholic core of San Francisco politics by going to high school at the exclusive Convent of the Sacred Heart.... [which] imbued in Feinstein a lifelong respect for Catholic ritual and order....But when the young woman saw some of the church's deeper reactionary principles on unvarnished display during a trip to Spain, she decided she could never convert (p. 340).
Long after Talbot's book was published, was U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein displaying a soft-spoken, elitist, anti Catholic bigotry?
when you read your speeches the conclusion one draws is that the dogma speaks loudly within you and that's of concern (9/26/20)
In fairness to Feinstein, ignorant bigotry has long been on display from Nancy Pelosi, a fellow San Franciscan who identifies as Catholic!
Conclusion
I would not want to be eulogized like the last sentence of this book:
They had tilted with God, and sometimes they had won (p. 406).
What hubris!
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About the Author
Joe Tevington is a proudly orthodox Catholic, a husband since 1986, a dad to two married adult children, a grandpa to two, and a civil service retiree. He is a sign language fluent certified rehabilitation counselor with graduate degrees in deafness rehabilitation, religious studies/moral theology, & Christian counseling psychology, as well as a catechetical diploma and certificates in benefits planning and Catholic social ministry. He deeply appreciates Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of the transmission of human life, as well as how they are to inform us in our apostolates and ministries.
On much lighter notes, he fancies himself to be the foremost authority on his native Brooklyn, when it comes to architecture, geography, history, Italian food, Saturday Night Fever, stick ball, stoop ball, or wiffle ball.
