I originally posted this as a comment on Dan's What would you do? entry to the Speak Out California weblog.

Now that even the redefined center is thinking that maybe blaming homosexuals for everything is silly, they need a new scapegoat -- and immigrants were America's first widespread scapegoat.

Add in the hype (which may not be supported by facts) about outsourcing and the perennial fear (which may be supported by facts this time) that the next generation is too lazy to work, and it's the perfect irrationally divisive issue...just in time for 2006.

"We are particularly offended by the suggestion that the opposite of the religious right is the voice of atheism," said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism. "We are appalled when 'people of faith' is used in such a way that it excludes us, as well as most Jews, Catholics and Muslims. What could be more bigoted than to claim that you have a monopoly on God and that anyone who disagrees with you is not a person of faith?"

For years I've seen most of my peers, and much of the progressive community in general, eschew and even disdain not only organized religion but also anything we can learn from religious institutions -- almost entirely as a backlash against the bigotry and intolerance of the religious right.

Mark Hosler from Negativland was speaking here at Yahoo! today, and I come away inspired. I think there's one quote that sums it up for me; he said, regarding copyright, "...we go on creating art as if the world IS the way we want it to be."

And it got me thinking...that's where the best art seems to come from, from a sense that the results will speak for themselves regardless of whether they "make sense" to a more conventional view of the world. This is the art that leads -- perhaps in spite of itself -- towards evolution.