This is easily, by far, the most insightful and the most powerful piece I have read about Maher.
A late fiance of mine used to enjoy watching his show with me in the time period 2002-2008, but I was always troubled by maybe 15% of his material. I always said, "...well, who can you agree with more than 85% of the time?"
Then she died, and I watched, by myself, Maher's film "Religulus" and found his interrogating of several different religious faiths to be arrogant and disrespectful. I am a Unitarian/Universalist, which is about as freewheeling as the nominally-Christian churches get--and I am not defending the excesses preached by many churches--but to scoff at someone's faith, the observance of which gives them some comfort during their brief stay on earth, is impossible for me to justify. My fiance was a Roman Catholic who had left the church due to the scandals about pedophile priests and her feelings about how her church treated women.
Not only that, but I related to the facts in this article on personal level. I spent time at Cornell as an engineering student, 1959-63, during the time that the Vietnam war was heating up. I dated, and married, a student from Ithaca College. It was not commonplace for students to date between the two institutions as we did, so I hardly think that women attended IC in order to meet Cornell students.
From your narrative, it is quite believable that the guy you ran into, was Maher. But there were lots of cocky, arrogant students around like him.
I can't say much about the drug scene in Ithaca. In those years, alcoholism was the more serious issue. In fact, I lent my motor scooter to a friend the night that he blew the whistle on the first collegiate drug bust conducted by the FBI in the United States, which was at Cornell around 1962, give or take. It was in all the papers. He brought my motor scooter back, later that night, unharmed.
This is easily, by far, the most insightful and the most powerful piece I have read about Maher.
A late fiance of mine used to enjoy watching his show with me in the time period 2002-2008, but I was always troubled by maybe 15% of his material. I always said, "...well, who can you agree with more than 85% of the time?"
Then she died, and I watched, by myself, Maher's film "Religulus" and found his interrogating of several different religious faiths to be arrogant and disrespectful. I am a Unitarian/Universalist, which is about as freewheeling as the nominally-Christian churches get--and I am not defending the excesses preached by many churches--but to scoff at someone's faith, the observance of which gives them some comfort during their brief stay on earth, is impossible for me to justify. My fiance was a Roman Catholic who had left the church due to the scandals about pedophile priests and her feelings about how her church treated women.
Not only that, but I related to the facts in this article on personal level. I spent time at Cornell as an engineering student, 1959-63, during the time that the Vietnam war was heating up. I dated, and married, a student from Ithaca College. It was not commonplace for students to date between the two institutions as we did, so I hardly think that women attended IC in order to meet Cornell students.
From your narrative, it is quite believable that the guy you ran into, was Maher. But there were lots of cocky, arrogant students around like him.
I can't say much about the drug scene in Ithaca. In those years, alcoholism was the more serious issue. In fact, I lent my motor scooter to a friend the night that he blew the whistle on the first collegiate drug bust conducted by the FBI in the United States, which was at Cornell around 1962, give or take. It was in all the papers. He brought my motor scooter back, later that night, unharmed.
Thanks, Bill. I appreciate your kind words more than I can say.