Portland playwright Charles Deemer with an open letter to the peace movement.

Some of you are cultural relativists and believe that the Taliban’s treatment of women, to list one example, is “a cultural phenomenon” about which we should not make value judgments. But I believe a war of historic proportions is going on here. Some historians are calling this “the 12th century against the 18th century” in terms of the contrasting views of humanity in conflict; I tend to think of it as a war between two perversions, the perversion of extreme materialism against the perversion of extreme spiritualism.

So a choice must be made. As the old labor song goes (which I’ve sung with you many times in another context), “Which side are you on?” It’s time to write new verses to that cherished old tune.

I know which side I’m on; I like my perversions to have some basis in reality.