Undoing The Damage: Mr. C's Wild Ride

Reaping The Whirlwind...

2011-05-02T19:15:00.009-04:00

I won't lie to you: I cannot even begin to feign sorrow over the death of Osama Bin Laden.

I can't even muster up crocodile tears to shed for this very personification of death and evil.

I must say that-Osama Bin Laden aside--I am probably more close to being anti-Death Penalty than I have ever been (that subject is one of the few of which I can say I am a fence-sitter...but, not so much any more...but that is another subject, of course).

But we all know that this "man" perverted the Islamic faith--the vast, vast majority of whose adherents are peaceful, loving people (just like Christianity)--and twisted it to justify killing human beings about whom all he knew was that they happened to be walking on American soil--a soil that he hated with all his black, black heart.

And the "sin" for which they paid with their lives?? They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. This evil "man" hated with a passion that no one with even the slightest bit of true humanity in them could even begin to understand.

When I think of all the broken families, all the children whose moms and/or dads never came home to them, and the mothers & fathers who had to endure the unspeakable agony of having to bury (whatever was left of) their children, and the many heroes of Sept. 11, 2001 who were hurt or killed doing what they were trained to do--SAVE LIVES--I just cannot find it in myself to wish this situation had turned out differently. We can only hope that God takes mercy on his eternal soul.

While I can't take real joy in anyone's death, I CAN (and do) take comfort knowing that justice may sometimes be slow-in-coming, but that those who live by the sword cannot escape that same sword forever, and that just as 2 + 2 ALWAYS EQUALS 4, it will ALWAYS be a whirlwind you reap when you spend so much of your life & your energy sowing the wind.

D.A.D.T.? R.I.P.! :-)

2010-12-18T16:21:00.001-05:00

As Jarrell pointed out to us in his post, following similar action earlier this week in the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate today cleared the way for a final up-or-down vote on the repeal of the military policy of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (DADT) by voting 63 to 33 in favor of cloture (that's political-speak for stopping the debate on a specific subject, in this case DADT).

All Democratic senators voted for cloture except for one, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia (who now holds the seat of Senator Robert Byrd who died earlier this year), who did not vote. Voting "YEA" with the 55 Democratic senators, were 6 Republican senators (Susan Collins & Olympia Snowe both of Maine, Mark Kirk of Illinois--who holds President Obama's former seat, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, George Voinovich of Ohio, and Scott Brown of Massachusetts--this is Senator Ted Kennedy's former seat. A fact that is particularly satisfying for me--being a longtime Kennedy fan), and the 2 independent senators, Bernie Sanders of Vermont & Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

I found a few quotes from some of the senators who voted today:

As Barry Goldwater [former conservative Arizona Republican Senator and 1964 US Presidential candidate] said, 'You don't have to be straight to shoot straight.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada

I don't care who you love, if you love this country enough to risk your life for it, you shouldn't have to hide who you are. You ought to be able to serve.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon.

I can't think of something more egregious to our fabric, to our military... If you care about national security, if you care about military readiness, you will vote against this corrosive policy.
Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's former Senate seat)

And from President Obama (who will hopefully be signing the repeal very soon):

By ending 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' no longer will our nation be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans forced to leave the military, despite years of exemplary performance, because they happen to be gay, [a]nd no longer will many thousands more be asked to live a lie in order to serve the country they love.

Compare these statements with comments from two of the opponents of ending the 17-year-old injustice of DADT:

I was shocked at how well this [DADT] has worked for a long period of time. We have a saying in Oklahoma, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.' Well, this isn't broke, it's working very well.
Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma

And Arizona Senator John McCain, DADT's one-man cheer-leading squad????

He made it very short-but-not-so-sweet:

Today's a very sad day.

Yeah, a sad day for homophobia, and fear, and ignorance and official government sanctioning of lies & deception (at least for the military personnel charged with keeping our country safe).

While he wasn't a Senator or citizen of the U.S., and while he lived in the 18th century as an Irish author, Oliver Goldsmith, I think, had some good advice for Senator McCain and his political blood brothers:

Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter.

Ten Most Fattening Foods Of Summer

2010-08-07T16:59:00.001-04:00

1. High-Fat Meats on the Barbecue

The bad news: barbecue can sabotage your waistline. A 20 ounce T-bone can weigh in at 1,540 calories and 124 g fat; an average cheeseburger has about 750 calories and 45 grams of fat; and pork or beef ribs? They come from the fattiest part of the animal. The good news: You can go lean with cuts like pork tenderloin, skinless chicken breast, and lean ground beef.

2. Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Hot dogs and sausages are favorite summer treats for many of us, but you might want to save them for baseball games. It’s not just about fat or calories (after all, you can choose lower fat varieties) but hot dogs, bratwursts, sausages and most dogs are high in sodium. A typical hot dog has 280 calories, 15 grams of fat, and 1,250 mg of sodium, while a 6-ounce kielbasa has 330 calories, 24 grams of fat, and 1,590 mg sodium.

3. Mayonnaise-Based Salads

A small half-cup portion of typical potato salad has 180 calories and 12 grams of fat; the same amount of coleslaw has about 150 calories and 8 grams of fat. To cut calories, try making your salads with light mayonnaise; or mix mayo with low-fat yogurt, light sour cream, or chicken stock. Or why not try a German-style potato salad, using more vinegar than oil? Then toss lots of veggies into any salad to increase the fiber and nutrients.

4. Frozen Concoctions

Sweet, fruity alcoholic drinks (the kind often served with an umbrella) may go down easy, but the calories add up in a hurry. A piña colada can range from 245-490 calories, a daiquiri from 300-800 calories, and a Long Island iced tea can set you back 520 calories or more -- with much of it from sugar. Instead of high calorie drinks, try wine, a wine spritzer, or a mixed drink with seltzer and a splash of 100% fruit juice.

5. Satisfying Thirst Quenchers

Staying hydrated is essential in summer, but those cold drinks can wreak havoc with your waistline. Be careful what you choose -- if you're drinking 12-ounce containers of sweet tea, sweetened soda, energy drinks, juice drinks, or beer, you're probably taking in about 150 calories a pop. Smoothies, milkshakes and cold coffee concoctions can go much higher. Keep liquids in check and drink water or light versions of your favorite quenchers.

6. Refreshing Frozen Treats

A cup of soft-serve ice cream can have 380 calories and 22 grams of fat. Make it a Dairy Queen chocolate chip cookie dough blizzard and the calories soar to 720, with 28 grams of fat! You don’t need to give up frozen treats, just pass on the giant portions or high fat toppings. Look for frozen desserts like sherbet, fudge bars, fruit bars, or other treats under 150 calories per serving or fruit desserts like strawberry shortcake.

7. Frighteningly Fattening Fair Food

Fairs, carnivals, and boardwalks serve up some of the most fattening deep-fried diet disasters. From fried cheesecake (around 500 calories), fried macaroni and cheese (610 calories) to gigantic turkey legs (1,136 calories and 54 g fat), most eat-while-you-walk foods will give you calorie overload. Skip the fried foods and choose cotton candy, caramel apples, or a simple grilled meat or share your treat with a friend.

8. Salad Toppers

Salads can be the perfect summer dinner: light, refreshing, and a perfect way to get your produce and lean protein. If you top your salad with high-calorie items, it can go from lean to fattening in a hurry. High-calorie dressings, fried chicken strips, bacon, cheese, and croutons are among the biggest offenders. Instead, top your greens with grilled chicken, strips of lean meat, or eggs, then pile on the veggies and top with a light dressing.

9. Mindless Munching on Snacks

A handful of any kind of snack won't do much harm, but eat too much and it can sabotage your diet. Each ounce of potato chips or cheese puffs is roughly 160 calories and 10 grams of fat. Cheese nachos will set you back 692 calories (plus 38 g fat and 1,632 mg sodium); and a 10-cup box of movie theater popcorn has 550 calories, 31 g fat, and 972 mg sodium. Try snacking on fruits, veggies with light dip, or small portions of fat-free popcorn.

10. Finger-Licking Fried Chicken

A bucket of fried chicken is an easy way to feed a crowd, but it can wreak havoc on your waistline (and arteries), especially when you eat more than one. So forgo fried and toss boneless, skinless chicken breasts on the grill. A 3.5 oz. skinned chicken breast has only 167 calories and 7 grams of fat, compared to a KFC fried chicken breast with 360 calories and 21 g fat. Add flavor with marinades, spice rubs, or top it with fresh salsa.

Source: www.WebMD.com

There's A New World Coming

2010-05-22T17:02:00.004-04:00

New World Coming
Sung by "Mama" Cass Elliott

There's a New World Coming
And it's just around the bend
There's a new world coming
This one's coming to an end

There's a new voice calling
You can hear it if you try
And it's growing stronger
With each day that passes by

There's a brand new morning
Rising clear and sweet and free
There's a new day dawning
That belongs to you and me

Yes a new world's coming
The one we've had visions of
Coming in peace, coming in joy, coming in love.

Florida Coalition for a Competitive Workforce

2010-03-27T03:56:00.000-04:00

Florida Coalition for a Competitive Workforce

Yes We Can Redux

2010-03-25T17:51:00.004-04:00

So, on the floor of the US House of Representatives in debating the health care bill (which, as you know was just passed by Congress & signed by the President), Minority-Leader-In-Perpetuity, John Boehner took to the floor of the people's House & seemed to simply delight in reminding the American public that the GOP is still the Party of No.

Now, that reminder has been set to music. The video below may seem familiar to a lot of people, but--with a little inventive editing--someone created a new version of Will-I-Am's awesome musical tribute to our President, and I hope it gets played on every computer in every household in the Land of the Free:

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

2010-03-08T08:38:00.002-05:00

Below is a beautiful time-lapse video of the night sky from somewhere in Hawaii, accompanied by an equally-as-beautiful sound track. The video is about a minute long, but you get to see so much in that one minute!

The creator of the video is a person named "Charles" from a website called Vimeo, which describes itself as a respectful community of creative people who are passionate about sharing the videos they make.

If you watch the video, you should really do so in the full-screen mode (and in HD, if your computer is capable), which allows you to see so many details. I, for one, was surprised to see SO MANY STARS in the night sky! Living in suburbia with so much man-made illumination at night, it's easy to miss the sublime beauty of a clear night sky.

It also helped to remind me of the beauty God has placed all around us, if we only take the time to see it...REALLY see it.

Enjoy...

The White Mountain (extended) from charles on Vimeo.

Show Me What I'm Looking For

2010-01-03T06:47:00.013-05:00

Show Me What I'm Looking For
by Carolina Liar

Wait, I’m wrong.
Should have done better than this.
Please, I’ll be strong.
I’m finding it hard to resist.
So show me what I’m looking for.

CHORUS
Save me, I’m lost
Oh Lord, I’ve been waiting for you.
I’ll pay any cost.
Save me from being confused.
Show me what I’m looking for,
Show me what I’m looking for…oh, Lord.

Don’t let go.
I’ve wanted this far too long.
Mistakes become regrets.
I’ve learned to love abuse.
Please show me what I’m looking for.

CHORUS
Save me, I’m lost.
Oh Lord, I’ve been waiting for you.
I’ll pay any cost.
Save me from being confused.
Show me what I’m looking for.
Show me what I’m looking for…oh, Lord.

Show me what I’m looking for.
Show me what I’m looking for.
Show me what I’m looking for.

CHORUS
Save me, I’m lost.
Oh lord, I’ve been waiting for you.
I’ll pay any cost.
Just save me from being confused.
Wait, I’m wrong.
I can’t do better than this.
I’ll pay any cost.
Save me from being confused.
Show me what I’m looking for.
Show me what I’m looking for.
Show me what I’m looking for.
Show me what I’m looking for…oh, Lord.

Happy 2010...Every Single Day Of It!

2010-01-01T08:01:00.007-05:00

"I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's."
Henry Moore, British sculptor

When I was a little kid, I remembered being simply terrified of the thought of death and dying. I can remember fearing what came after this earthly life; not necessarily because--at that time--my life on terra firma was all that wonderful or full of things & people I'd really miss. No, I feared death for the same reason most humans fear anything or anyone: because I didn't know anything about it. As a matter of fact, the first time I became intimately familiar with death was when my father died two weeks after his 69th birthday, on July 20, 1995, when I was 32 years old. He had died of complications of untreated hypertension (well, untreated until it was too late & his heart & kidneys had basically been destroyed). I will always remember seeing him lying in his coffin, with an artificial peace painted onto his face. The last years of my father's life were anything but peaceful, and anything but golden for him, or for his family.

Up 'til then, somehow God had spared me of such an intimate knowledge of that thing that seemed to have always frightened me. Looking back at my early childhood, for a good long while, I think I became obsessed with the thought of death, and wondering what sort of horrible fate awaited me "on the other side"...if there WAS an "other side". I guess my life experiences at that point were not the happiest, so I automatically assumed that whatever came after life would be at least as unappealing.

As I grew older, and as I learned about God and faith, and those famous streets of Heaven paved with gold, I (very slowly) came to understand that--trite as it may sound--death is simply part of the famous "Circle of Life", and that all who are born must--one way or another--face the end the of the world. To this primordial rule, there are no exceptions or exemptions, and no higher authority from whom we can seek a reprieve. We are all born to die, whether we are prince (or princess) or pauper; whether we are greatly loved or thoroughly despised. In the end, there is always an end. Always.

If you've read this far, you could not be faulted for thinking that the subject about which I am writing is such a downer, especially for a post meant to welcome in the Baby New Year, but I hope you will be able to see the method to my madness.

With the death of my father, came a realization for me that in pondering & fearing whatever awaits us all on the other side of the thin veil of this life, I was allowing my own life here to slip past me. I was concentrating on that one leaf on that one tree & missing the big, beautiful forest that surrounds us all. In devoting so much of my own time & energy trying to find a way to somehow prepare myself for the end of all things, I was leaving so much undone & unseen in the here-and-now. In that way, my father & I were exactly alike: in not seeking treatment for his illness until it was just too late, he didn't take care of his life; and I didn't take the time to enjoy & appreciate the time I have in each moment of life that was gifted to me--giving away time I can never again retrieve to fear instead.

Like most people, I am quite familiar with that old saw, "Take life one day at a time". Until recently, though, when my world was shaken so ferociously by the end of my 13-year relationship, I don't think I really understood the true meaning behind those words.

Now, as I learn to live my life alone (for a while anyway), I am almost forced to "get it". While I have noticed some marked improvements, the truth is that my new reality is still difficult for me to adjust to. I don't have the luxury any longer of planning my life years, months, or even weeks in advance. I HAVE to take my life "one day at a time"--sometimes an hour at a time.

Even in this new uncertainty in my life, and even in the midst of a heartache that still feels too sadly fresh sometimes, I am beginning to see the glimmer of a redemptive purpose to all I have thus far survived. I've begun to notice the quiet miracle of each sunrise. I've quite literally stopped to smell the roses. I've begun looking up again toward the heavens at night & trying to count a sky full of stars. These, and and all the other "small things"--commonplace to so many of us--are the REAL stuff of life, yet most of us--admittedly by necessity sometimes--are just too busy not taking it "one day at a time" to really take note of all that quietly comprises our lives...and we do so at our own peril.

In none of it, are we given a promise or a guarantee that what we have & whom we love will be ours tomorrow...we're not even promised a tomorrow. If I never understood that before, I do now.

So, though I loathe all those yearly resolutions I have never before been quite able to honor past the the initial week or two, as we begin the first day of the second decade of the 21st century, I hope to learn to have my eyes opened even more to the blessings--great & small--that abound in my not-so-unique life.

In being intentionally & even stubbornly cognizant of all the gifts in my life, I am now aware that the path I must tread to emotional & spiritual wellness is not one that I can even face one day at a time, but one small step at a time.

No (Fox) News Is Good News!

2009-12-26T17:22:00.002-05:00

I've been seeing a commercial recently from the cable provider where I live (in central Florida), Bright House, explaining that Bright House and the Fox Network have still not negotiated a new contract, which is set to expire on December 31st. The Bright House commercial states the cable company wants Fox to keep its programming on the air while they continue to negotiate, even if they haven't reached an agreement by the end of this year. According to Bright House, nothing would stop Fox from continuing to provide access to their networks while negotiations are still being conducted. Bright House doesn't ask their customers to call Fox & ask them to keep their programming, whether they meet the deadline or not, but they suggest awfully hard.

I read in the online version of the local newspaper, The Orlando Sentinel that Fox claims that Bright House isn't negotiating at all; they're having Time Warner Cable negotiate for them (Bright House bought out Time Warner here in Central Florida a few years back), which I don't get, but (as the kids say nowadays), "Whatever..."

Anyway I just had to point out that, as a Bright House customer, I don't know & am not even slightly interested in what the hitch is in their negotiations or non-negotiations, but I would personally be ECSTATIC if I didn't have to see any Faux News programming on my cable menu at all. I hate even scrolling past their name when I'm trying to find something to watch on TV. As you can imagine, even if Faux News is lost to us here in central Florida, I can honestly say that--on my part--there will not be any love lost!

The only thing that I'd miss even a little would be Family Guy and American Dad, but I know that sometimes we must be willing to sacrifice things that are quasi-important (see the shows listed above) for things that are more important (less Faux in my life).

So, this year, I have an EXTRA reason to look forward to 2010! :-)

You Gotta Love How Dolly Loves The Gays

2009-12-24T08:06:00.003-05:00

I'm sure that it's probably not surprising to hear that Dolly Parton supports equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, but it just warmed every last cockle in my big ol' queer heart to see that she feels a kinship with us homosexuals because, like us, Dolly knows how it feels to not be accepted in the "mainstream"--whatever the [bleep] that is.

In my humble opinion, Dolly & God have at least one thing in common: they both (using Dolly's words now) love everybody for who they are. Now that's what I call true Christianity!

Speaking of which, in the article linked above, Dolly gives her opinion on mega-church pastor Joel Osteen's contention that "homosexuality is not God's best," and she does it in her always-loving way.

You'd be absolutely correct to note that, physically speaking, Dolly is loaded up with plastic and silicone topped off with some great fake hair (I'm pretty sure she'd be the first to admit it), but that big ol' country heart of hers? As they might say down south, it's as genuine & as big as all get-out...even bigger than her tallest wig & her world-famous bosom! :-)

Love For Sale

2009-12-09T06:46:00.002-05:00

Well, not really love, but the right to celebrate that love with a legally-binding civil contract called "marriage".

If you haven't already heard about it, a heterosexual woman from New York named Jamie Frevele, who claims she doesn't have any intention on using her right to marry is actually "selling" her right to marry on Ebay!

I know it sounds odd, but what she actually plans on doing with the money from the highest bidder is to donate it to a LGBT rights group. I personally think it's pretty ingenious! It attracts attention to New York state's failure to provide equal marriage rights to same-gender couples AND it raises money for a good cause!

Who knows how long Ebay will allow this particular auction to go on before it pulls the plug, but here's a screenshot the "item" for "sale" as of 6:40 am, Eastern (US) Time (the high bid at this time is $307):

Click on the pic to enlarge it

I also love Jamie's description of the "item", part of which reads:

I'm an unmarried heterosexual woman, and since I probably won't be using my right to get married, I would like to give it away. I would like to sell it to the highest bidder and donate the proceeds to an organization that supports LGBT rights since the government designed to protect all of us is picking and choosing based on what they think is icky, weird, or unkown to them.

Bid now, and you can have my super wonderful privilege and legal ability to get married as many times as you want in a classy place like the one pictured. You don't have to know the person, you don't have to like them, you don't have to think through your decision to get married or anything - you can just do it! Because you can! Come on, it's cool to get married, and think of the pictures you'll have to show people of this person that they will definitely think is so wrong for you and probably is! But heavens to BETSY, do NOT marry someone of the same gender because that would be a mockery of the institution of marriage.

And if it doesn't work out, just get divorced. Half the cool people who get married do that anyway.

I will write you up a fancy, wonderful, articulate proclamation handing over my right to get married. I have no official documentation because this is something I was born with since I was born heterosexual. Unfortunately, this is only a symbolic gesture. However, since I'm picky and difficult, it's probably something that, if a physical object, would have been considered pristine and shiny after some dusting. Your bid, on the other hand, is real, and the donation you make to an organization that supports those who have been treated as second-class citizens will be well worth it.

The Right Is Wrong

2009-12-08T06:35:00.003-05:00

Political columnist, and mostly-conservative columnist, Andrew Sullivan, who writes for The Atlantic Monthly recently wrote an article, he titled Leaving The Right writes why he thinks the party is over for American conservatives, and why he felt moved to make such a public break with his political blood brothers (and sisters). Sullivan's column in The Atlantic Monthly follows a few days after Charles Johnson, another mostly-conservative blogger who runs Little Green Footballs explained that The The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff. I won’t be going over the cliff with them.

This certainly has been a long time in coming, but I am glad to see that some American conservatives (the REAL ones, not the neo-con type) are beginning to--as Dear Abby used to say--wake up & smell the coffee...but, I guess in this case, the smell is more akin to the fetid stench of a morally-poisonous, parasite-laden brew of faux ideology concocted by cynical, selfish, fear-driven-money-loving opportunists out to serve their own special interests by leeching off a valid political belief system (that I nearly always disagree with, but which I can respect because I know that--like me--they believe what they believe because they love their country, and want to make it better. These TRUE conservatives and I want the best for our country...we just disagree on how to do it).

I know it may be hard to believe this--being as how I am as far away from "conservative" as Sarah Palin is from sanity--but I really do hope more true conservatives begin to smell the rot coming from the slow-but-sure death of their no-longer Grand Old Party, and get the fire in their collective political gut to not only stand up and say, "Enough is enough," but to fight to take back what was theirs.

I am a (mostly) proud Democrat & progressive, but I am--first and foremost--a (mostly) proud American, and it is my country (& even the world) that would reap the benefits of a strong (at least) two-party system. A civil political discourse amongst people who may not hold the same point of view can only make this country stronger.

With those who run today's American Right, it's impossible to have a real discussion of the issues of the day when they're not even interested in talking or compromising. Believing that they honestly know what's best for everyone else, bound-for-"glory", they proudly wear their blinders, cavalierly ignoring the will of all but the truest of believers, forcing their neo-con mirage of Utopia onto the rest of us--for our own good, of course! (<----Sarcasm)

And for this, I am truly thankful...

2009-11-28T08:41:00.001-05:00

Though I don't consider myself "elderly" (most days, anyway ;-), when I read this article on one of my favorite websites, Everyday Health, I thought about my own current situation--still trying to cope with the loss of my long-term relationship--and how much worse it all might have been had I not had my two loving beagles (Bela--named after the actor, Bela Lugosi--and Isis, the goddess) with me as I face a much different world than the one I had expected.

If anyone who reads this has ever had the blessing of being a pet owner, then you probably know well what I mean when I say that, in my beautiful 4-legged family members, I find so much more than companionship, I truly find unconditional love. It doesn't matter how long I'm gone away (10 minutes or 10 hours) but when I come back home, my beagles are jumping for joy and wagging their cute little tails off, so happy to see me that they wear themselves out & have to take one of their patented beagle naps!

On this first Thanksgiving without any of my human family, in the midst of trying to adjust to the not-so-sweet life of singlehood, I did as I have always done & took stock of all the blessings that I (still) have in my life, and (as usual) amongst the greatest of these blessings were those of the canine variety. :-)

Priceless: Gay Rights Activists Take Over Christian Right Hate-Fest in DC

2009-11-18T07:21:00.004-05:00

I am known to frequent a website called Alternet.org.

Alternet was established in 1998 in part (to quote their website) to confront the failures of corporate media, as well as the vitriol and disinformation of right wing media, especially "hate talk" media. AlterNet is a two-time winner of the "Webby Award" for Best Web Magazine, among others, and it pulls no punches as regards their raison d'être. Again, quoting their website, Alternet believes that media must have a higher purpose beyond the essential goal of keeping people informed. We insist on playing an active role in helping our community funnel its energy into change; an important & necessary mission when you consider that people like Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh & Glen Beck are blaring out their fear-mongering, Us-vs-Them hate talk nearly 24 hours a day.

Anyway, apparently a senior write for Alternet, Joshua Holland, writes in this recent Alternet article about a group of conservative Christian ministers who came to Washington DC recently to protest the expansion of the federal Hate Crimes law recently passed in Congress & signed by President Obama to include sexual orientation & gender identity. In his article, Holland references a Washington Post column by Dana Milbank about the happenings at this protest. Believe it or not, not only were they there to protest the law, they wanted to stand their & spew their lies & hate to prove the point that just by speaking the ugly things they believe they could be arrested. These people have always contended that allowing people like me to be protected from hate crimes meant that people like them could no longer freely speak their minds about the "threat" people like me represent to decent upstanding Americans (like them, supposedly), and to society in general.

So sure of their belief that they would now be legally muzzled if they dare speak out against the homosexual threat that they came to the nation's capital in hopes of being arrested, so as to claim that--as a representative of the "Christian Anti-Defamation Commission"--"we'd have standing to challenge the law."

But sadly (for them), not one person was arrested. They stood there on their Godly soap box speaking their alleged minds, and the few police officers that were there let them practice their freedom of speech unencumbered, of course. As Holland wrote, To run afoul of the new law, you need to "plan or prepare for an act of physical violence" or "incite an imminent act of physical violence." The same stipulations apply if you're speaking about people of color, disabled persons, or virtually any other group of Americans...including people of faith.

For me, the best part of this story is that the man the conservative Christian ministers hired to set up audio equipment for their little get-together had taken the money they paid him for his work at the event & donated to gay rights activists. The AV guy also waited until after the ministers were done & then--before taking it all down--he allowed the gay activists to use the same podium & the same sound system to practice their right to free speech, too!

After one of the ministers asked the AV guy if they were paying for the time "the homosexuals" were using (which they weren't, of course), he turned to one of the gay activists & asked "You guys gonna help us pay for the microphones?"

Holland writes that The gay activist smiled. "God," he said, "works in mysterious ways."

Amen, brother! :-)

Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

2009-11-12T06:55:00.000-05:00

The D.C. Catholic Archdiocese has threatened to stop helping thousands of the needy in the nation's capital if the District's City Council approves a pending bill which states that marriage between 2 people in the District of Columbia shall not be denied or limited on the basis of gender, and which also ensure[s] that no minister of any religious society who is authorized to celebrate marriages shall be required to celebrate any marriage...or solemnization of a same-sex marriage.

Though the Catholic Church in general is not usually known as a great supporter of GLBTQI equality, apparently this Archdiocese on this issue, has chosen to demonstrate their obvious displeasure with this bill by revealing a predilection toward being particularly punitive: castigating not just same-sex-loving people & our "enablers", but anyone & everyone in need under their religious purview.

According to the Washington Post article referenced above, Advocates for same-sex couples said they could not immediately think of other places where a same-sex marriage law had set off a break with a major faith-based provider of social services.

The article, however, goes on to say that [t]he church's influence seems limited, with one of the 13 council members stating that the Church was being "somewhat childish", and another council member saying that he would rather end the city's relationship with the church than give in to its demands. Good for them!

After the loss in Maine, a victory for equal marriage rights in the nation's capital would be particularly encouraging, of course.

As for the Catholic Church in DC, apparently the answer to the famous question, "What Would Jesus Do?", is to hold "the least of these" as hostages to their beloved dogma.

I guess that the world (outside the Catholic Church, anyway) has gotten it wrong all this time: sometimes the baby must be thrown out with the bath water...for the baby's own good, of course! (Please note the sarcasm dripping from that last sentence) :-/

Michelle on Sesame Street!

2009-11-11T07:28:00.002-05:00

Though I am nearly as old as our President, I have loved Sesame Street since I was a little kid (I don't think I know ANYONE who didn't watch Sesame Street growing up), and--of course--I think that Michelle Obama is the most impressive, awesome First Lady certainly in my lifetime.

So, if you put Michelle on Sesame Street talking about eating healthy & planting your own garden, you get very close to awesomeness overload...but it's well worth it!

As you'll see, Michelle not only loves vegetables, but they love her, too! :-)

The only thing I think that would have made this clip any better is if she & Big Bird did the fist bump! ;-)

What Do You Think I Fought For On Omaha Beach?

2009-10-22T06:34:00.004-04:00

Meet 86-year-old Philip Spooner. He lives in Maine & is a veteran of World War II, and has 4 children. He gave testimony earlier this year at a hearing regarding marriage equality for same-sex couples in his home state. His words are sometimes difficult to hear & understand, but still, he speaks so clearly & eloquently on why it's wrong to deny to equality to all citizens. As Mr. Spooner explains, equality for ALL of his children & ALL Americans is why he put his life on the line for this great country all those years ago. Please give Mr. Spooner a listen...

17,167

2009-10-17T07:25:00.008-04:00

I am 17,167 days old.

Don't worry about doing the math; I'm 47 years old today. I am not sure what a 47 year old is supposed feel or act like, but I would wager that most people my age act considerably more maturely than I do...of course, I'm pretty sure that's always been true, no matter what age the calendar says I am. :-)

This will probably NOT surprise anyone who knows me, but on this minimally-auspicious occasion, my mind (such as it is) started rambling (I could tell it was rambling because the rusty gears in my head made such a loud clunking noise). I got to thinking about famous (or at least semi- to partially-famous) people in history that I've outlived now that I've reached this quasi-milestone. Through the magical series of tubes we call the Internets, I was able to find a list of some people of some interest to some other people who weren't fortunate enough to make it to the age of 47.

The following people (listed alphabetically) died at age 46:

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, American silent film actor
Ted Cassidy, American actor and voice actor, best known for playing the part of "Lurch" on the TV series, "The Addams Family"
Pierre Curie, French physicist and husband of Madam Curie
Perry Ellis, American fashion designer
John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
T.E. Lawrence, British military officer and author
H.P. Lovecraft, American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction
Carmen Miranda, 50's Brazilian samba singer and actress
George Orwell, British novelist and journalist, author of the book, "1948"
Paul I of Russia, Emperor of Russia (1796-1801)
Howard Rollins, American actor (starred in the film,"Ragtime" & the TV Series, "In the Heat of the Night")
André René Roussimoff, Professional Wrestler, best known as "André The Giant"
Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright, poet and author

I found the foregoing relatively interesting, and--though 20 years ago, I saw things a bit differently--now that I've made it, 47 doesn't really sound old at all.

Still...I think it might behoove me to start thinking about my age in terms of dog years...which means I'm not even 7 years old yet! ;-)

The Beauty of Beyoncé

2009-10-05T18:51:00.006-04:00

Musically-speaking, I cannot get enough of Beyoncé Knowles. She has such an amazing voice, but from what I've seen, her voice cannot rival her beautiful, amazing heart. As a non-music critic, but a fan of all kinds of music, I feel it safe to say that if our Ms. Knowles is not a musical superstar, she is certainly on the cusp of being so.

I mention this because I am sure that anyone who follows music at all knows what happened at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) recently. 19-year-old Taylor Swift beat out 28-year-old Beyoncé for Best Female Video for Taylor's video for her song You Belong With Me. Beyoncé's video for her song,Single Lady (Put A Ring On It), is as awesome as you would expect one her videos to be, but--alas--she lost fairly & squarely to Taylor Swift, and, as they say, to the winner goes the spoils...except that Taylor's spoils were spoiled by Kanye West, who took it upon himself to walk up on stage & take the microphone from the winner of the award & proceeded to talk about how wonderful Beyoncé's video is. In one aspect, I agree with Kanye: Beyoncé is a huge talent, but the rest of it was embarrassing, not just for Taylor, but for Kanye, who acted like a child--or, worse yet--like those screamers at this summer's town hall meetings about Health Care.

Kanye West had nothing at all to do with this award (it's certainly not like he was nominated for anything in this category), but he felt that his thoughts on the subject were more important than what the actual winner of the award had to say.

I may be oversimplifying things, but that's how I see what happened.

The story had a happy ending though when Beyoncé invariably won an award & recalled how wonderful it was when she had won her first VMA, and asked Taylor Swift to come out & speak so she could REALLY enjoy her moment in the spotlight. Beyoncé gave up her own time, so this new young artist could fully experience the thrill of earning such a prestigious award.

In that one act of kindness, Beyoncé proved that not only does she have a beautiful voice, but a beautiful heart, too! As far as I'm concerned, that makes her not only a winner in music & video, but, far more importantly, a winner in life.

On Faith

2009-10-04T07:44:00.000-04:00

When I look back on my faith walk thus far, I can remember so much that very nearly destroyed me. I remember feeling so alone sometimes, and so worthless. My experience in Christianity has not been easy & I've had so many reasons & so many chances to just give up & get out, but--somehow--I couldn't.

I still struggle every day to "keep the faith" when there are still so many out there who are so sure that I am not "one of them" & that I cannot share their God with them unless I change everything about myself that they don't like.

I have thought through all these years about how much easier it probably would have been had God made me heterosexual, or had I left their little club once it became evident that there was no place for me in Christianity, or had I never even known about God in the first place. Like any of us humans, I would have preferred a much easier life (faith-wise) than the one I have actually lived, but (as the old saying goes) you have to play the cards that life deals you.

I'm sure that I could have "played my hand" better than I did, but I now know that everything happens for a reason, even if we don't know that reason is right now. In the midst of the hurricane, it's hard to think about the light of the sunny day that always comes afterward.

So, while it would be tempting to wish I could wipe away all those memories & all those tears, and while I have not always felt this way, I can now honestly tell you that--as heavy as my burden has been, and as lonely as I have felt in my life--I wouldn't change a thing. Not one. It was part of God's plan for my life, and I can even say now that I am even thankful for how things have turned out in my faith walk.

I'm not saying that my life has been any harder than anyone else's; we all have our own trials & our own burdens. As Olivia Newton-John sang in Grease: Guess mine is not the first heart broken; my eyes are not the first to cry.... When I look back & see all I've endured & when I remember nearly every hurt "the Church" has caused me, I see now how it's all gone to making me more sure of my faith, and more steely in my resolve that I am a child of God, albeit an imperfect, still-hurting child of God. I have had what has felt like many baptisms of fire since my baptism in the water all those years ago, and I know that it is those fires through which God has brought me that allows me to understand that faith is never easy, and true faith can never be taken away; if it is lost, it has been given away.

In so many ways, I have earned my deep faith, but I know that faith is not like a trophy: you don't find it & then place it up on a shelf. Faith is something that becomes a living part of your being & it is something to which you must tend every day, and it is that thing inside the truest part of you that motivates you to keep on going even when you don't feel like you can.

Had the events of my life gone at all differently, and had my walk been a little less rocky, and had I collected any fewer scars on my heart, who knows where I'd be right now? There's no telling, and really, no sense in dwelling on what might have been.

But I can tell you that the freedom I feel today comes from that faith that I just couldn't seem to shake, forged by fire, and earned through a river of tears & a world of pain. Though they toiled mightily to do so, not even the most self-righteous Christian soldiers, Bibles clutched in their hands & raised to the Heavens as the preferred weapons of choice, hearts & eyes filled with the lust of spiritual war-without-end could take my faith or my God from me.

I am not naive in this: they stand constantly at the ready to fight on & on & on, and I know they will always try, but I also know that they will always fail.

Girl Power!

2009-10-03T12:41:00.003-04:00

Females just don't tickle my fancy (romantically-speaking).

Coming from a gay man, that may not sound all that surprising, I know.

Truth is, though, that I really do love women. I always tell my friends that I actually love women in every way but one. I'm sure if you think about it, you'll get my meaning! ;-)

Anyway, I saw a commercial today for Dove (you know, the company that makes soap, etc.), but it wasn't trying to sell any specific kind of soap or any new product. It was explaining about Dove's commitment to helping ensure that today's girls become tomorrow's strong, independent women by trying to help re-define beauty, and helping girls understand how unique & how powerful they can be.

Though "living" in the closet was a horrible, devastating experience that I would never wish on ANYONE, I personally never knew a time in my life (even during those darkest of days) when I wondered if I might actually be heterosexual. I have always been attracted to the male of the species, and I never had fake dates with females to try to throw people off my track. I like to think that, somewhere in the back of my mind, I not only didn't want to make some kind of show for "the world", I also didn't want to lead on a girl who might have thought I was interested in her. It was bad enough involving myself in my lie of a life, much less dragging someone else into it.

So, while it's true that I have never had and could never have romantic feelings for women, I have always admired them, and found them (at least the ones that have crossed my life's path) to be strong people (not necessarily physically, but emotionally & spiritually) and fiercely loyal friends. I can genuinely tell you without hesitation and without a single doubt that my life is so much fuller & happier today because of the women in my life who have stood by me and who have reached out to help lift me up every time I've fallen. I can't help but respect, admire, and even love females...in the most honorable sense of all those words.

Watching the Dove commercial today, I was reminded that strong, confident women start out as young, impressionable girls, and that all of us (gay, straight, bi, asexual, pansexual...however you identify yourself) owe it to these girls to do our parts to make sure they know that they are just as valued, just as important & just as capable as boys. No doubt there are differences between boys & girls, that's just how life is, but I personally don't want to do to anyone else what I did to myself & begin a life concentrating on all the things you can't do or can't be. Girls AND boys need to know that they only limitations to their success in life is how big they can dream & how hard they're willing to work for what they want.

Getting back to my main point for this post, Dove explains on its website that:

The Dove Self-Esteem Fund was developed to help free the next generation from self-limiting beauty stereotypes. Committed to reaching 5 million young women by the end of 2010, we invite you to play a role in supporting and promoting a wider definition of beauty.

Until Dec. 15, 2009, if you buy any Dove product, you can visit Dove's website, enter the UPC from the package, and Dove will donate $1 to your choice of either the Girl Scouts, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, or Girls Inc., up to a maximum of half a million dollars! Dove does ask your name & address & they are limiting the donation to 1 per household, but it's a great way to support some great causes, and help start creating strong, powerful women who know their own value.

As the great Pink song goes, Respect is just a minimum, come on girl, and get you some...

A Change For The Better

2009-09-30T19:41:00.010-04:00

Sorry for the blurry chart (not sure how that happened) but if you click on the chart, you will get see it much clearer. Got some of blood test results a couple of days ago & was impressed by my Total Cholesterol, Triglycerides, HDL and my HbA1C (which was lower last time, but which is till under the ADA's recommendations).

On advice of my doctor, I've been taking Trilipix and Crestor, and--together with more exercise & watching what I eat (most of the time) it seems I have made some headway in living healthier. I was so proud of these numbers, I had to post them.

Just like me, isn't it?

Not Only Does She Know Why The Caged Bird Sings...

2009-09-28T05:57:00.006-04:00

No commentary needed at all for this piece of wisdom from the magnificent Maya Angelou:

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

The End of The Beginning?

2009-09-23T20:15:00.002-04:00

Nate Silver, the guru-in-chief at my favorite political prognostication website, 538.com has posted an article regarding the slowly-but-surely withering impact that equal marriage rights (a.k.a. "gay marriage") is having on the so-called "Values Voters".

At the most recent "Value Voters' Summit" held at the nation's capital, former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee, beat out Mitt & Sarah & Newt & (to quote the Gilligan's Island song) "the rest" in a straw poll. (As an aside, not that they'd want me there, but had I been in attendance, I would have SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO voted for Sarah Palin!! I really, really, really want her to be the GOP presidential candidate in 2012!! ;-) If for nothing else, I am a HUGE Tina Fey fan, and I cannot get enough of her Sarah imitation. They so look like they were separated at birth!! (No offense to Tina!)

Anyway, Nate points out in his article that when these "values voters" were asked about what social issues matter most to them, "gay marriage" (a.k.a. equal marriage rights) fell from its previous spot in 1st place all the way down to #3, beaten out by abortion & "Religious liberty".

Nate also notes that it's not that "values voters" have given up the ghost where the "gay marriage" fight is concerned, but it just doesn't cause the fire in as many bellies as it used to. I suppose the GOP used the issue so often through the years & really delivered nothing substantive since DOMA during Clinton's term, that they may have just slowly begun moving on.

Also, whatever disagreements I may have with the "values voters", I know that they can read polls as well as anyone else. With more & more people in general learning more & more about equal marriage rights & with the population as a whole just being more comfortable with those of us in the sexual minority, and the obvious fact that the up-and-coming younger generation of Americans completely unchained from the fears & lies of the past, it seems to me that even these "values voters" are slowly coming to see the light. I think they know that, for the most part, they've gotten about as much political & legal mileage out of this clunker as they're gonna get.

Please don't get me (or Nate's article) wrong: The battle for GLBTQI equality is not over by a long shot & there is still some fight left in a good portion of these "values voters", but it seems that some on the right feel like they've got "bigger fish to fry" as they say!

I think that the words spoken by Winston Churchill nearly 7 decades ago may best describe this situation: Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

One can only hope...and pray!

Let Nothing Hold You Back...Not Even Yourself

2009-09-16T18:54:00.003-04:00

Found this quote today by the writer Denis Waitley, and it really spoke to me, so I share it with you:

"It's not what you are that holds you back, it's what you think you're not."

Harvey Milk Day

2009-09-04T07:15:00.000-04:00

Harvey Milk was the very first openly-gay person to be elected to office in the state of California, when he was elected as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. A year later, Harvey & the mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone, were both assassinated by former city supervisor, Dan White, who served five years of a seven year sentence & was then paroled (yes, White was sentenced to seven years for killing 2 high-ranking city officials). About a year and a half after being released from prison, White subsequently committed suicide.

I mention this because the LGBTQI rights group, Equality California (EQCA) is asking not just Californians, but anyone interested in fairness & equality for all Californians (and all Americans), to sign a petition asking California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the bill (SB 572) that has passed the state's legislature creating a statewide Harvey Milk Day, in commemoration of Harvey's early, critical work to help advance the rights of LBGTQI people.

Apparently Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill once before & has signaled that he will veto this bill also, which is why EQCA needs help in getting the word out to the governor that he should sign this bill honoring a true pioneer in the on-going struggle for equality (see the link to the petition above).

You may remember that President Obama honored Harvey Milk last month with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Harvey's nephew Stuart Milk accepted the medal on Harvey's behalf.

So, if you are of a mind, I hope you will take 2 minutes & sign the petition. I live in Florida, but I signed it. You can even put in your own comments when you sign the petition, but--of course, if you do--I hope you will write from your heart & speak as eloquently as you can as to why Harvey Milk deserves this honor.

Dustin Lance Black, who won a Best Screenwriter Oscar for the movie, Milk, testified in May of this year at a state senate committee, explaining why Harvey Milk deserves this honor & how Harvey Milk--as an open, proud gay man--helped bring hope to so many people not just while he was alive, but years after Harvey had died.

It is obvious in this video that Dustin speaks from the heart, and explains how a man he never met and never knew personally helped to save his life...and the lives of countless other LGBTQI people who found inspiration & strength in Harvey Milk's story.

You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...

2009-08-29T17:29:00.004-04:00

If you've been seeing & hearing those things that I have these past few days from the many friends who obviously loved Ted Kennedy, you have to have noticed that not all of them were his political allies & they didn't necessarily share his political point of view. People like Pat Buchanan, Orrin Hatch, John McCain, George Bush (the younger and the elder) all spoke of a man with whom they had many political differences, but whom they cared for personally.

So many times since his death, I've heard about how--even in the last months of his life--he wanted to be there & wanted to help take care of his friends, even as his own health failed and as he needed assistance himself. Til the end, it seems, Senator Kennedy still believed that it wasn't all about him...it was about those people who needed him & who loved him & who gave his life purpose. He was the youngest of his siblings who, through misfortune & unspeakable loss, grew to become the patriarch not simply of the family with whom he shared blood lines, but of a political family throughout the entire country with whom he shared common values.

One of the many stories I heard from one of his friends was about the time a reporter had asked Senator Kennedy how, with his near-aristocratic station in life, he spent so much time speaking about & seeking to help those much less privileged than he, and he asked the reporter, "Haven't you ever read the Bible?". The Kennedys never wanted for anything, thanks to his father, Joe Kennedy's financial prowess, but it was Rose Kennedy who instilled in all her children the idea that"to whom much is given, much is required". That early life lesson combined with the loss of his two older brothers who had sought public service through elected office--and both of whom gave their lives in the process--impressed upon Teddy the unique responsibility that was his as the last Kennedy brother. I cannot begin to imagine what a heavy burden that was for Teddy Kennedy.

I know that he was not a perfect man, and he was known for his raucous personal life & his own personal foibles & mistakes, but Teddy Kennedy believed in redemption, and he worked tirelessly--especially in the last half of his life--to earn it. Senator Kennedy fought valiantly to give voice to those--as Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia recently described them--"those whose needs exceed their political clout." He didn't win every fight & he still left this world with an unfinished agenda, but he was never petty or small about it. Teddy Kennedy kept the faith & fought on & stood for his values relentlessly & regardless of the prevailing political winds because he believed so deeply in what he wanted to do & what he wanted his country to be.

Franklin Roosevelt, before he was President, in nominating the former governor of New York, Alfred Smith, at the 1924 Democratic Party Convention, called him "The Happy Warrior" for his work at ending racial violence, and I think the same appellation would befit the former senior Senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, except that Senator Kennedy never saw his work as a war...he saw it as a work of the heart, where there need not be any more casualties.

Senator Edward "Teddy" Moore Kennedy lived a good, long, satisfying life, and in the end, when the time came for him to leave this world, he was surrounded by a large, loving family in the home he loved, and by a country whose greatness was due--at least in part--to his personal dedication to help lift the lives of "the least of these." He was given the gift of years that his brothers never had, and--in my humble opinion--he used them well, and he inspired so many of his fellow citizens to demand more, not just of their government, but of themselves.

In hearing all these tributes to this true American legend, I was reminded of a verse in the Bible I learned back in Sunday School, from Proverbs 27:19:

As water reflects a face,
so a man's heart reflects the man.

In my mind, as life was finally leaving Teddy's body, I just know that his heart was the last part of his physical being to stop...but in every one of us inspired by this great man, his heart & his ideals & the dream about which he always spoke & for which he gave his last full measure will live on long after the temporal shell crumbles away.

After all, isn't the dream supposed to outlast the dreamer?

America's Senator

2009-08-26T19:10:00.003-04:00

I was in tears this morning when I heard about Senator Kennedy.

He became Senator in 1962—the year I was born.

Ted Kennedy is a big reason why I became a Democrat in the first place.

I feel a little sad for all the people in this world who will never get to see or know him as a larger-than-life contemporary figure in American politics & society. The kids coming up now will only know him as one of many historical figures that helped changed the world.

While I was thinking about all Senator Kennedy achieved in his life--not for himself, but for the country & world that he loved so much--and what still remains undone & what he said recently had become the passion of his life: national health care for every American, I couldn't help but think of the words that President Lincoln spoke in Gettysburg during the American Civil War. If I may be so bold as to paraphrase the President's words:

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what he did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which the senior Senator from Commonwealth of Massachusetts has thus far so nobly advanced.

Considering his tireless work on behalf of just about every underdog under the sun, Senator Kennedy deserves the honor of having a great health care bill named after him, and we who will benefit from it & who will hopefully be a healthier, more robust nation because of it deserve it, too.

I have never stepped a foot in Massachusetts, but, in my heart, Senator Kennedy has ALWAYS been MY Senator, and I will miss him & his fearlessness & his undying dedication to making the American dream real for ALL of us.

God bless you, Senator Kennedy!

My prayers are with his wife, Victoria, and all his loving family...and with our country.

Brad For Mayor!

2009-08-15T07:09:00.002-04:00

I've had an on-going crush on Brad Pitt ever since I saw him shirtless in the movie, Thelma & Louise. I know his character was sort of a low-brow, thieving cowboy gigolo who had no problem using his nearly-perfect body as a means to get whatever he wanted & demonstrated no compunction whatsoever in taking advantage of a woman who was in desperate straits, but, with that sweet Southern twang in his voice, that spectacular smile & the aforementioned shirtlessness, I couldn't help but forget all the bad stuff whilst admiring his Adonis-y abs! :-)

Now, I've gone & completely forgotten what I was posting about in the first place...

Oh yeah, as you may or may not know, in real life, Brad Pitt--besides being a great actor (in my humble, biased opinion) is a loving father & life partner of the beautiful Angelina Jolie) has made a mission out of helping rebuild the areas hardest-hit by Hurricane Katrina through their organization, the Make It Right Foundation.

Brad, who--as you can probably imagine--is a pretty popular guy in New Orleans these days, was interviewed recently on the "Today" show & was asked the possibility of running for mayor of NOLA. In response he said, "I don't have a chance. I'm running on the gay marriage, no religion, legalization and taxation of marijuana platform."

As you can imagine, I'm so with him on the equal marriage rights (as a matter of fact, I simply adore Brad & Angelina for publicly announcing that until same-gender couples can be legally wed, they will not enter into legal matrimony themselves...now, THAT'S what I call "walking the walk"!!), and (though I have never smoked anything in my life), and though I would never encourage anyone to smoke anything (even tobacco), I think I'd be OK with legalizing and HEAVILY taxing marijuana. I'm even OK with the "no religion" part, because I've personally learned to separate "Religion" from faith (two different creatures all together, in my book), which is what I hope he is talking about when he speaks about his (probably fictitious) campaign platform. As Jay Bakker says, "Religion Kills"; for me, faith sustains life (at least it has sustained mine).

All I want to know is where I get one of those "Brad Pitt for Mayor" t-shirts???

Happy 48th Birthday, Mr. President!

2009-08-04T13:06:00.003-04:00

I know you're supposed to get gifts on your birthday, but I want to thank you for giving your fellow citizens the gift of Hope, and for reminding us that we don't have to wait for someone else to make this a better world. Just like Dorothy with her ruby slippers in Oz, we've always had the power...we just needed to believe it first!

:-)

"...Something Sick...About Break[ing] Into People's Bedrooms & Claim That God Sent You."

2009-08-02T07:57:00.005-04:00

I had referenced Rev. Al Sharpton on one of my recent posts, and I included a link to his stance & work in overturning California's Proposition 8, which included a portion of a speech he had given at an Atlanta church. Below I have included a link to the entire article from the website for the newspaper, Southern Voice, which describes itself as the South's "most respected and most read gay and lesbian newspaper."

Below the link you'll find parts of Rev. Sharpton's speech earlier this year at Atlanta's Tabernacle Baptist Church. I know that he is a pretty controversial figure for a lot of people & I know that he probably has as many detractors as fans, but I really do love the way Sharpton can turn a phrase & how he can fire up the faithful!

Most of all, though, I love how fearless he is in speaking up for GLBTQI people & how willing he is to take this particular good fight to the fearmongers who--to paraphrase the line from the movie Saved!--delight in using the Bible as a weapon against our community.

Sharpton decries churches pushing Prop. 8

It amazes me when I looked at California and saw churches that had nothing to say about police brutality, nothing to say when a young black boy was shot while he was wearing police handcuffs, nothing to say when the they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being delegated into poverty, yet they were organizing and mobilizing to stop consenting adults from choosing their life partners. There is something immoral and sick about using all of that power to not end brutality and poverty, but to break into people’s bedrooms and claim that God sent you.

I am tired of seeing ministers who will preach homophobia by day, and then after they’re preaching, when the lights are off they go cruising for trade.

We know you’re not preaching the Bible, because if you were preaching the Bible we would have heard from you. We would have heard from you when people were starving in California, when they deregulated the economy and crashed Wall Street you had nothing to say. When [alleged Ponzi schemer Bernie] Madoff made off with the money, you had nothing to say. When Bush took us to war chasing weapons of mass destruction that weren’t there you had nothing to say. … But all of a sudden when Proposition 8 came out you had so much to say, but since you stepped in the rain, we gonna step in the rain with you.

The First Day of the Rest of My Life

2009-08-01T10:57:00.005-04:00

We (me & my 2 beagles) finally moved into my our place, and all I have left to do now is to change an apartment full of boxes & bags & general stuff & junk into an actual living space. I'm sure it's easier said than done, but it's gotta be done, and I really can't expect much help from my pups in the way of lifting & carrying...but they are EXCELLENT at being cute & loving & loyal. What more could a girl want?!?!? ;-)

Anyway, I found a quote today that kinda lifted my spirits this morning & I wanted to share it. Maybe it will give someone else a needed lift, too (I hope so, anyway). It's a line from Anne Lamott, an American author probably best known for her book, Bird by Bird, her book on writing, and Operating Instructions, about her first year as a single mother, as well as various novels.

"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up."

Presidential Medal of Honor Recipients for 2009

2009-07-30T16:03:00.006-04:00

The White House announced today the names of the 16 individuals being awarded the highest honor that can be bestowed by a U.S. President upon a civilian, The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the first time President Obama has bestowed the award.

Some of the names included in the list of 2009 recipients are the Lion of the U.S. Senate, Edward Kennedy (who was elected the year I was born!); tennis star & equality icon, Billie Jean King; SCLC President & civil rights legend, Rev. Joseph Lowery; international human rights (including GLBTQI rights) activist, Bishop Desmond Tutu; and openly-gay former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk!

I know that there will be plenty of people who see this as simply “throwing the gays a bone” (no pun intended whatsoever), but, in my humble opinion, I think it says a lot that, in his first chance to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he has chosen so many gay (or gay-friendly) public figures. I also think that these folks are long, long overdue for such a prestigious honor!

The awards will be distributed at the White House on August 12.

Discrimination Just Doesn't Pay Like It Used To, I Guess!

2009-07-30T10:47:00.002-04:00

Exxon Mobil profits plunge 66%?

All I can say is that it couldn’t happen to a more deserving company!

According to the Human Rights Campaign:

Exxon Mobil is the only U.S. employer that has ever rescinded both a non-discrimination policy covering sexual orientation and domestic partner benefits, and is the only Fortune 10 company that does not have a non-discrimination policy covering sexual orientation.

I, for one, would rather run out of gas completely than spend one red cent at Exxon Mobil!

A "...radical welcome..." for heterosexuals, too!

2009-07-25T12:14:00.001-04:00

I read this on USA Today's website. It's an article titled, Straight believers find a home in gay churches, synagogues, which--I must admit--is news to me, especially considering that I've wondered for so long just exactly where or if someone like me will ever find a physical place in this world where I can feel welcome again alongside my brothers & sisters in Christ. It never crossed my mind that some heterosexual people of faith might feel more comfortable worshiping with a mostly GLBTQI congregation.

Funny the stuff you never think about when you're busy with own issues. Sometimes we get a bad case of tunnel vision, but this article today helped me to see the bigger picture: that most of us--regardless of our respective situations--just want to feel like we belong, especially where matters of faith are concerned.

While reading the article, I happened upon the quote below from the heterosexual female rabbi of a mostly GLBTQI congregation. As soon as I read it, I instinctively said out loud, "Amen, Sister!":

Everyone who comes here, no matter their sexual or gender identity, religious affiliation or knowledge, everyone is welcomed with open arms. You'd hope that would happen in all religious communities, but the truth is it's not an easy thing to put into practice.

He's Got The Whole World In His Hands...

2009-07-19T12:57:00.004-04:00

The video below is not new. I've seen it before a few times, and I'm sure so have many others. I just happened upon it today, and it started me thinking (I know. I know. You may want to sit down for this.).

I'll bet you that there are probably as many people out there who have a great dislike of Reverend Al Sharpton (or, at least a dislike of what he stands for) as there are who dislike Reverend Pat Robertson &/or what he stands for. Now, if any of you have ever ready anything I've ever written here, or elsewhere in the worldwide web, you can probably guess where I stand on the Rev. Al vs. Rev. Pat question. This post, however, is not about which of these men courageously & publicly supports GLBTQI people & our human & civil rights & which of them delights in whipping up unfounded fears & manufacturing outright lies to fight tooth-and-nail against people who seek only to love whom their hearts direct.

Truth is that--their respective personalities, faults & manifold detractors notwithstanding--these two men (combined) have a pretty significant following, and most of those people will follow these men where they think God is leading them, and--on global warming, at least--both Al & Pat feel that God is calling on them to fight this good fight together as true brothers-in-arms.

Of course, this glaringly obvious fact was the reason that Repower America created this Public Service Announcement in the first place.

Seeing the ad again just reminds me of the actual good that can be done when we decide we love the world more than we hate each other.

Godspeed, Mr. Cronkite!

2009-07-18T07:34:00.007-04:00

"Newsman Walter Cronkite, who died at the age of 92, was so thoroughly and uniquely linked with the word 'trust' that it is tempting to say that the word should be buried with him. In the generation since he left the anchor desk at the CBS Evening News, there have been other public figures who inspire passion, devotion, confidence, intensity and personal identification. But trust, that milder but deeper sentiment — Cronkite owned it."

Dear God: Thanks For Nothing!

2009-07-09T18:53:00.005-04:00

Dear God,

As you know, when I was growing up, my family was probably the prototype of American poverty. My mother & father, my 2 brothers & 2 sisters and I had very little in the way “worldly possessions”. Throughout my childhood, we lived in quite a few houses, but we never had a home.

I know it’s become a trite phrase, Lord, but our family literally sometimes had no idea where our next meal was coming from. The Food Stamps that kept our family (mostly) fed rarely lasted the entire month (5 kids can eat a lot of food), and during the summer months--when school was out—the free school lunches we could count on for minimal nutrition simply dried up til the Fall.

For a lot of reasons, my father had a wandering spirit & he got easily bored, or ticked off at his boss or the landlord or the neighbor, etc., etc., and he picked up the 7 members of our family, put us in the rickety old car we had & we moved on to the next town. We never got to know the meaning of “roots” or “neighborhood”, and we never really had the chance to make friends. Looking back it seems like we were always on the move…always searching for a better life…and always failing to find it.

Now that I’m grown, I can look back & see how much we didn’t have, and I can see how frustrated & angry my father must have been in working so hard for the very little he had, and how much he must have hurt knowing that, without government assistance, he couldn’t properly take care of his family. I was angry at my father for so long—not because of the THINGS he couldn’t give us—but because of the time & attention he couldn’t seem to find for his kids. Working from dawn til dusk (sometimes 7 days a week) at a back-breaking job that he hated, he couldn’t find time to be an unskilled laborer AND a dad. I see that now. I understand how little he had left for the world—and for his family.

But, Lord, the pain I feel when I think about those days comes not from all the “stuff” we never had, or from the (many) meals we may have missed; it comes from the memories of a father who lived with his family, but whom none of us kids ever got to see much because he was too busy earning his minimum wage “living”; it comes from imagining how much he must have hurt knowing that, where his future was concerned, the die had already been cast, and that his lot in life would never improve because his hands had already become too calloused, his back too bent & painful & his spirit too broken. When he passed away a few years ago from the too-long-untreated effects of hypertension (of course, because he had no health insurance), I couldn’t help but feel grateful to You for ending his pain & for finally bringing him the peace he never had while he was here.

I am thankful to You still, Lord, for every minute of my life—even the darkest hours of my “life” in the closet—because it has all gone into making me the person I am still becoming. In Your plan, God, I know nothing happens without a reason & nothing goes to waste.

I truly believe that it is making me a better person, and it’s helping me to understand—TRULY understand—what really matters in life. I know that, if I had to, I could do without so much that I now have in my life.

As the life I’ve known these past 13 years is changing so drastically & so quickly, and, even as out of control as my life feels these days, I am reminded again that it’s not the material possessions that I hold dear & which I treasure; it’s the sublime, ethereal things like love & friendship & fellowship that put real life into my life, and that makes everything I must endure in it more-than-worth it.

I anticipate that a new life on my own will not always be easy—at least not in the beginning—and it will take some getting used to, but I know that, as always, You will provide what I need (even if not what I THINK I want! ;) ).

So, I honestly want to thank you, Heavenly Father, for all I never had, and for all I never had the chance to take for granted. In exchange for the dearth of physical things I cannot hold in my hands, You have given me a life-long appreciation for those things & those people I can always, always hold in my heart.

Even in the midst of the river of tears I have shed as I leave behind a life I had come to love, and as I cautiously head on to the next chapter in my life, I remain most thankful, dear God…and I know I am blessed.

I pray You will continue to lead me & protect me & always remind me what is REALLY important in this life.

Amen.

Happy 233rd, America!

2009-07-04T06:56:00.008-04:00

As a nation, we are still engaged in that most noble of pursuits: to truly make "self-evident" the fact that "all men [and women] are created equal" and that, as Americans & as children of God, we are all equally entitled to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".

I--for one--feel blessed to live in a country where so many of my fellow citizens understand that, for too many of us still working to claim our full birthright as citizens of the greatest country in history, these most noble of words are still just words. In spite of that fact, I take heart knowing that more & more of us are beginning to really understand the words of the American poet, Emma Lazarus, when she wrote, Until we are all free, we are none of us free.

From Schoolhouse Rock...

A or B???

2009-07-03T09:08:00.001-04:00

OK.

Confession time.

There are some things I enjoy that I am not proud of. Guilty pleasures of a sort, I guess you might call them. I don't usually discuss these little secrets because they may be seen by lots (and lots) of people as "low-brow", and, really, they're probably right. I have no defense, and (obviously, where these are concerned) no shame.

So, on with the confessions:

God please forgive me, but I actually enjoyed the old MTV show Jackass (and even the Jackass movies). While I'm spilling my guts, I might as well admit that I think Johnny Knoxville is kinda cute, which I am sure had at least a little do with why I always tuned in.

I was actually enthralled with The Anna Nicole Show...well, at least the first season when she was actually being herself (or whatever "herself" had become after her wild ride of a life). The second season was OBVIOUSLY at least partly staged & it seemed to me that Anna Nicole was working from a script. My guilty love affair with her show quickly ended when season 2 began, but I still love the show's theme song. Still can't get that stupid tune out of my head...Anna, Anna, Fabulous Anna, Anna Nicole. You're so outrageous...

One more piece of ugliness before I get to the point of this post: I laughed out loud MANY times at South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (I still don't know how the movie's producers got that past the MPAA censors). I didn't see it in the theater, but I rented the DVD so I could--to paraphrase Mother Bates from the movie Psycho--appease my ugly appetite for celluloid silliness in the privacy of my own home...afterwards, though, I did feel the need to shower...a couple of times! :-)

Anyway, I hope this rather long-winded preface will help you to understand (as much as possible) why I think this commercial for a new item on Hardee's menu too hilarious not to share.

I ask your forgiveness in advance for feeling the need to involve you in the inanity to follow:

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-21T15:33:00.005-04:00

To all the fathers (and/or father figures) in the world, whether they are still with us or not...

How many times can I break 'til I shatter?

2009-06-20T15:01:00.003-04:00

I've really liked this song for a while. It's not a spectacularly-professional type video, but I am posting it for the quality of the song.

In a way, I need a change
From this burnout scene
Another time, another town
Another everything
But it's always back to you

Stumble out, in the night
From the pouring rain
Made the block, sat and thought
There's more I need
It's always back to you

But I'm good without ya
Yeah, I'm good without you
Yeah, yeah, yeah

How many times can I break 'til I shatter?
Over the line can't define what I'm after
I always turn the car around
Give me a break let me make my own pattern
All that it takes is some time but I'm shattered
I always turn the car around

I had no idea that the night
Would take so damn long
Took it out, on the street
While the rain still falls
Push me back to you

But I'm good without ya
Yeah, I'm good without you
Yeah, yeah, yeah

How many times can I break 'til I shatter?
Over the line can't define what I'm after
I always turn the car around
Give me a break let me make my own pattern
All that it takes is some time but I'm shattered
I always turn the car around

Give it up, give it up, baby
Give it up, give it up, now
Now

How many times can I break 'til I shatter?
Over the line can't define what I'm after
I always turn the car around
All that I feel is the realness I'm faking
Taking my time but it's time that I'm wasting
Always turn the car around

How many times can I break 'til I shatter?
Over the line can't define what I'm after
I always turn the car around

Don't wanna turn that car around
I gotta turn this thing around

It's All About Me (NOT)!

2009-06-13T07:50:00.003-04:00

I got a mini-science lesson AND A SMILE out of this. For me, that's a rarity...

I, Barack Obama, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month

2009-06-04T06:18:00.000-04:00

I know that it may not seem like a big deal to most people, and I also know that there’s much more to supporting the LGBTQI community than making a Presidential Proclamation but I am so thankful that we finally have a President who acknowledges that LGBTQI people actually exist, without using us as a way to whip up fear, encourage ignorance & rally the politically faithful. I still believe that offering committed same-gender couples "civil unions" instead of full & equal civil marriage rights as opposite-gender couples is not good enough (by a long shot) & that the "separate-but-equal" idea is heavy on the "separate", but light years away from "equal" & that it is as wrong today as it was in the last century. President Obama is right when he states that "there is more work to be done," but this proclamation reminds me that I no longer have to feel like an enemy of the state simply because I love someone of the same gender.

What a change from the previous occupant of the White House, of course, who only ever spoke about us in terms of the threat we posed to “family values” and “traditional marriage”.

Like Senator Barbara Boxer once said, “Elections have consequences…”.

I personally LOVE this particular consequence!

Dick & Mary & The Mad Tea Party

2009-05-31T09:07:00.002-04:00

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” --from Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

OK, when I read today on The Advocate’s website that former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney (yes, the guy who is making the rounds nowadays trying to untarnish his image & scare people into thinking that we are now somehow less safe because of President Obama) may soon be “coming out” as a supporter of equal marriage rights for gays & lesbians, I had to first re-read the article to make sure I hadn’t misunderstood anything; then I pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming; then I had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn’t April Fool’s Day; then I took an online test to be sure that I was still (mostly) in possession of my faculties & that I could still read & comprehend English; and finally, I pinched myself again. Truth is, I didn’t misunderstand what the article said: Dick Cheney may finally be considering doing the right (as in “correct,” not as in political spectrum right) thing where GLBT rights are concerned. It even feels weird to even type those words. Maybe another pinch is in order...

Anyway, I am quite sure that, should this still hard-to-believe excursion into the Looking Glass occur, it will probably be in large part because of his daughter, Mary, who is publicly out about her sexual orientation. Dick Cheney may be many things (please, feel free to fill in the blanks, according to your political persuasion), but he is also a father, who we can only assume loves his daughter. I’m no fan of Dick Cheney (and I’ve long been disappointed that Mary Cheney—when she was a much more public figure—was not more vocal not just in favor of GLBT rights, but in her opposition to Bush’s push for the so-called “marriage protection” amendment), but I don’t believe it is my place to judge or comment on the relationship between a father & his children. For me, personally, that is beyond the pale.

I disagree with Dick Cheney on 99.997% of issues & I actually feel sorry for Mary Cheney that she has to carry around with the rest of her life the idea that she silently went along with a political administration that was out to score as many political points as it could on the backs of GLBT folks.

As interesting & as surreal (and, oddly, even as ostensibly helpful) as it would be to hear Dick Cheney come out as a supporter & possibly a friend of GLBT rights, I can’t help but remember how Dick Cheney treats some of his friends.

Makes me wonder if I should get ready to jump for joy or duck for cover!

In the Case of: Your "Rights" Vs. My Life

2009-05-27T19:36:00.001-04:00

I truly understand that the right of the citizenry to propose changes to the legal documents that guide their society is most certainly sacred. I also think that, as Americans, we have a duty to be active participants in our own government, and that we must never fail to make our voices heard on those issues that affect our very lives. I believe these things, and though it seems to me that too many of my fellow citizens are too often too ready to dig the heel of permanent second-class citizenship even deeper into my figurative throat, I still agree with what President Lincoln told Congress in 1862 in the very midst of the bloodiest war ever waged on American soil: even with "the fiery trial through which we pass", the United States of American remains the "last best hope of earth."

Having said that, anyone who has ever read anything I've written on LiveJournal or on my own blog will not find it surprising that I am more than just a little displeased with the ruling yesterday from the California Supreme Court regarding equal marriage righgs. As I stated before, I get the idea that free people have the right to change the laws when they feel a change is needed. Intellectually, I understand that right. What I don't understand is when it became acceptable to use the state's most sacred legal document to take rights away from ONE GROUP OF PEOPLE. What I have a problem with is why 52% (or whatever percentage it happens to be) of citizens believed they were imbued with right to decide that another group of citizens are not entitled to be treated fairly & equally under the law. And what neither the California Supreme Court nor any other entity or person can ever convince me of is that any of us are ever completely safe from the loss of liberty at the ballot box simply because most people want to take that liberty away.

Today it's GLBT people because we've made ourselves targets by refusing to abide our closets any longer & just sit in timid silence while ugly lies stand unchallenged, but if you believe that this brand of malicious "justice" ends with us, then you have no idea the genie that has been loosed from the bottle. The people who pushed & paid & prayed for Prop 8 have most certainly been heartened by their "triumph" in the highest court in the Golden State, to be sure, and they may feel that the enemy has been slain. Today these citizens celebrate what they have so proudly taken from their compatriots. I imagine that these scared little people must find a measure of safety & comfort now that GLBT people have been put in their place.

What they do not know & cannot understand is that what they have been allowed to take from us (and, though I live in Florida, it is my "family" in California who have been hurt, so I have been hurt) means infinitely more to those of us from whom it has been taken than to those who have taken it. They may never grasp that we cannot let it stop here, and that we cannot allow ourselves to be vanquished, and that while they fight for their "beliefs" & their "opinions", WE ARE FIGHTING FOR OUR VERY LIVES. There truly is no comparison.

We cannot afford the luxury of taking time to feel sorry for ourselves or to have a moment to mourn our loss; too much hangs in the balance--too much has already been lost. And, though I hate the idea of it, we will almost certainly lose again, if not in California, then in another place just like it, where fear & lies obviously speak louder than those of us same-sex-loving people who seek only to live our lives quietly yet openly, just like those citizens who somehow feel they are entitled to a little more equality than some other citizens.

If we "win" or if we "lose" these grand battles that must surely be fully engaged by GLBT people & our straight allies, I hope we will be driven by something else President Lincoln once said: “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have.”

Remember, it is only light of truth that can dispel the darkness of ignorance & fear...even ignorance & fear with an official government imprimatur on it.

Under the cut below, you will find a post about this subject by Rob Thomas on the Huffington Post (yes, he of Matchbox Twenty), which I found pretty enlightening for a mere musician ;-).

I love the title of his post, too, The Big Gay Chip on My Shoulder

The Big Gay Chip on My Shoulder

I am a straight man, with a big gay chip on my shoulder.

A while back on my Twitter page (yes, I know how ridiculous it sounds), I mentioned that, if I believed in the devil, Pat Robertson might be him.

Being a fairly liberal-leaning guy with either liberal friends or Republican and Christian friends who don't believe that being one has anything to do with the other, I was surprised at how many people took offense to what I had to say.

These people weren't friends of Mr. Robertson but friends, apparently, of God. They had "spoken" with him and he had assured them that he was no friend of the gays. He also told them that he loved America more than any other country and was a huge fan of Dancing With the Stars.
The small controversy or "Twitter-versy" (patent on phrase pending) all started when I had made the mistake of asking why two people of the same sex shouldn't be able to make the same life-long commitment and (more importantly) under the same god, as straight people. Why can't my gay friends be as happily married as my wife and I? It seemed simple to me, but let me start off by telling you a series of things that I believe to be true:

I am a person who believes that people are born gay. I don't think you have any control over what moves you or to whom you're attracted. That's why it's called an attraction and not a choice.

I believe that America is a great nation of even greater people. I also believe that anyone who says that this is a "Christian nation" has RHS, or revisionist history syndrome, and doesn't realize that most of our founding fathers were either atheist or at least could see, even in the 1700s, that all through Europe at the time, religion was the cause of so much persecution that they needed to put into their brand new constitution a SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE so that the ideals of a group of people could never be forced onto the whole. (I also find it funny when people point out to me that it says "one nation under god" in our pledge of allegiance, not realizing that this was an addition made in 1954 during the communism scare of the McCarthy era. It's not surprising, however, knowing that these same people would punch me in the mouth if I called Jesus a Jew.)

I believe the fact that an atheist, who doesn't believe in God at all, is allowed to enter into the holy land of marriage while a gay Christian is not, shows that this law is arbitrary. Are we to believe that anyone who doesn't live their life according to the King James Bible isn't protected by the same laws that protect those who do? Using the same argument that I've seen on the 700 Club, that would mean that Jewish, Hindu, or Muslim weddings are also null and void.
I believe that to deny this right to the gay population is to say to them, "this god is not your god and he doesn't love you." There isn't one person who is against gay marriage that can give me a reason why it shouldn't be legal without bringing God or their religion into it. Still, I'm amazed at the audacity of a small, misdirected group of the ultra-conservative Christian right wing, to spend millions of dollars, in a recession, on advertisements to stop two men or women who love each other from being able to be married, but when you present any opposition to them, they accuse you of attacking their religion. Isn't it funny that the people who are the quickest to take someone's basic rights to happiness are always the loudest to scream when someone attacks their right to do so?

But this isn't a paper about religion. How could it be? Since we clearly have a separation of church and state, how could a conversation about laws have anything to do with religion at all? I'm writing about basic civil rights. We've been here before, fighting for the rights of African Americans or women to vote, or the rights of Jewish Americans to worship as they see fit. And, just as whites fought for African Americans or Christians for Jewish Americans, straight people must stand up and be a voice for gay people.

I've heard it said before, many times, that if two men or two women are allowed to join into a civil union together, why can't they be happy with that and why is it so important that they call it marriage? In essence, what's in a name?

A civil union has to do with death. It's essentially a document that gives you lower taxes and the right to let your faux spouse collect your insurance when you pass away. A marriage is about life. It's about a commitment. And this argument is about allowing people to have the right to make that commitment, even if it doesn't make sense to you. Anything else falls under the category of "separate but equal" and we know how that works out.

The support of legalizing gay marriage is in no way meant to change the ideals of the section of Christians who believe that homosexuality is a sin. But we should refuse to let other people's ideals shape the way we live our lives. Each of us has a short ride on this earth and as long as we stay in our lane, and don't affect someone else's ride, we should be allowed to drive as we see fit.

Lifeline

2009-05-25T16:02:00.004-04:00

I just found this song on YouTube today, and I love it.

It's a new song called Lifeline by Mat Kearney. Lyrics follow below the video.

Hope you love it, too:

You're watching everything
you ever held on to
slip away from you
and all you're running from,
well, it's catching up to you.

Got you looking for a lifeline
swimming in the high tide
waiting for the daylight
to bring you home

The world is too big to never ask why
the answers don't fall straight out of the sky
I'm fighting to live and feel alive
but I can't feel a thing without you by my side
Send me out a lifeline

You're watching everyone
you ever belonged to
walk away from you
maybe all along
you've been running from the truth

Got you looking for a lifeline.
You're swimming in the high tide
waiting for the daylight
to bring you home

The world is too big to never ask why
the answers don't fall straight out of the sky
I'm fighting to live and feel alive
but I can't feel a thing without you by my side
Oh, send me out a lifeline

There's nothing i would change,
I'd give it all away
for you again and again and over again
everything I own is in your control

I'm looking for a lifeline
swimming in the high tide
waiting for the daylight
to bring me home

The world is too big to never ask why
the answers don't fall straight out of the sky
I'm fighting to live and feel alive
But i can't feel a thing without you by my side
Oh, send me out a lifeline.
Won't you send me out a lifeline?
Send me out a lifeline...

...and a little child shall lead them, or, The Littlest Activist

2009-05-23T15:32:00.003-04:00

Ethan McNamee is a third grader at Montclair Elementary in Denver, Colorado. As improbable as it sounds, for his class project, Ethan organized an Equal Marriage Rights Rally today at the Capitol Building in Denver.

From all I’ve read about it, this was entirely Ethan’s idea & he was told that not everyone in attendance at his rally would necessarily agree with what he was saying. In the video below, Ethan even addresses the fact that “there might be some people who have a different view from us”, but young Ethan encouraged supporters to “please keep all your positive energy on the rally. Despite the views of these people, I believe that I am doing the right thing, and lots and lots of people can many lives better…”.

Since I don’t think I can put it any better than Ethan did today at the rally, let’s hear and (thanks to YouTube) see what Ethan has to say.

Rock on, my little brother…

He's Gay! That's Why!

2009-05-15T18:05:00.002-04:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Dan Choi Is Gay

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Economic Crisis

Political Humor

What God Gave Me Today

2009-05-09T17:02:00.002-04:00

In the midst of the current storm of my life, God keeps whispering sweet hope to my heart.

As insubstantial as the source of this hope may seem on its face, a song I heard for the first time today by (of all people) Miley Cyrus proved yet again to me that our Lord will do what He must to touch our lives, if we only let Him in.

I'm also starting to see that I can't let my life be about all those things I do not or cannot have; I want it to be about how--in spite of everything--truly blessed I am that God loves me enough to send me encouragement from the four corners of the world, and to have so many dear, precious friends who selflessly hold me up in prayer...and just plain hold me up when I don't even feel like I have the strength to stand at all.

Today, God gave me this...

The song is called The Climb and below is Miley's video.

Some of the lyrics that especially touched me today:

]I can almost see it
That dream I'm dreaming but
There's a voice inside my head sayin,
You'll never reach it,
Every step I'm taking,
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking but I
Got to keep trying
Got to keep my head held high

There's always going to be another mountain
I'm always going to want to make it move
Always going to be an uphill battle,
Sometimes you going to have to lose,
Ain't about how fast I get there,
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb.

P.S. Thank you, God.

In Honor of Matthew...

2009-05-01T21:11:00.010-04:00

On April 29^th, after debating the issue, the U.S. House of Representatives approved, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (LLEHCPA), also known as the Matthew Shepard Act by a vote of 249 to 175.

In the midst of the debate, with Matthew’s mother, Judy Shepard, in the Visitors Gallery to hear every word, Republican Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina’s 5^th District resorted to outright lies to try to stop passage of the LLEHCPA:

“…I also would like to point out that there was a bill -- the hate crimes bill that's called the Matthew Shepard bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay. This…the bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a hoax that…that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills…”

Rachel Maddow had a chance to speak exclusively with Judy Shepard after the vote about how she felt about what the US House had done & to comment on Rep. Foxx’s reprehensible mis-characterization of her son:

Being me, I examined the results of that House vote & thought I’d share it here.

Of the 256 Democrats currently in the US House:

231 Voted FOR the Matthew Shepard Act
17 Voted AGAINST
8 DID NOT VOTE

There is also a vacancy in California’s 32^nd District at present, due to Rep. Hilda Solis (D) being appointed as President Obama’s Labor Secretary. A special election in the district will be held on July 14, 2009 to select Ms. Solis's replacement for the remainder of her term.

Of the 178 Republicans in the US House:

18 Voted FOR The Matthew Shepard Act
158 Voted AGAINST
2 DID NOT VOTE

It’s also interesting to note where the 17 Democrats who voted against the LLEHCPA came from:

3 came from the Midwestern States
1 came from the Northeastern States
13 CAME FROM THE SOUTHERN STATES
NONE of the Democrats from Western States voted against

As for the Republicans who voted in favor of the LLEHCPA:

2 came from Midwestern States
7 came from the Northeastern States
5 came from the Southern States
4 came from the Western States

Next stop for the Matthew Shepard Act is the U.S. Senate. Not sure what the prospects in the Senate are right now, but I’m feeling more hopeful now than I have in the past…oh…8 years or so.

Always Golden

2009-04-25T18:18:00.004-04:00

My world is a little darker & a little sadder today.

Bea Arthur passed away this morning.

Thank you, Bea, for giving us Maude & Dorothy.

They (YOU) are more precious to your fans than you will ever know.

May you find even a fraction of the joy you gave to others while we were blessed enough to have you here.

When you meet your Maker, I pray you are given at least one star for every time you made us laugh.

The entire night sky wouldn’t be enough.

Love Me Some "First Wives"!

2009-04-24T22:01:00.004-04:00

I am posting this video clip from The First Wives Club merely because not only do I adore Bette Middler, Goldie Hawn & Diane Keaton I truly dig their own inspiring rendition of Leslie Gore's hit You Don't Own Me.

Check it out:

"...recognize ourselves in each other..."

2009-04-24T21:12:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, President Obama spoke at a Capitol Hill ceremony honoring the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Days of Remembrance, the theme of which was Never Again: What You Do Matters.

In the speech he gave at the ceremony, President Obama highlighted the fact that the same fears & ignorance (including homophobia) that helped to give birth to & nurtured the Holocaust, are sadly afflicting the human race even now:

"To this day, there are those who insist the Holocaust never happened, who perpetrate every form of intolerance--racism and anti-Semitism, homophobia, xenophobia, sexism and more--hatred that degrades its victim and diminishes us all.

Today and every day, we have an opportunity as well as an obligation to confront these scourges, to fight the impulse to turn the channel when we see images that disturb us or wrap ourselves in the false comfort that others’ sufferings are not our own."

President Obama also spoke of the innate power in the human ability to examine our own hearts when we see all around us examples of humankind’s cruelty to its own. He challenged us not to give in to the urge to look away when we see the inevitable effects of that cruelty. He called on people of good will to use the ugliness foisted upon us as an impetus to challenge the status quo; as a way to re-dedicate ourselves to the idea that we can change this world, but only as long as we believe we can, and as long as we're ready to back up our good intentions with equally good actions:

"…we have the opportunity to make a habit of empathy, to recognize ourselves in each other, to commit ourselves to resisting injustice and intolerance and indifference, in whatever forms they may take…"

Amen, Mr. President.

Amen.

The Gaythering Storm!

2009-04-21T19:42:00.001-04:00

I have to wonder if these people in the National Organization for Marriage ever knew that the $1 million + they spent on their "I'm Scared of Gay Marriage" campaign would bring more laughter & ridicule than any actual support for their paranoid delusions??

From Funny Or Die...

A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

Marriage Equality Polls & Numbers & Charts, Oh My!

2009-04-10T16:25:00.017-04:00

Just read a recent poll by CBS News about the slowly-but-surely growing acceptance of equal marriage rights for same-sex couples by the public in general, and--as an admitted NON-expert as regards polling--I found myself pretty encouraged by the numbers I saw!

Below the cut, you will find more information on the poll & my totally amateur analysis of the information I found. The charts & the words are not the most professional things you will ever see, but I hope it helps to explain why I find more hope every day that fate (or, your own personal version thereof) is definitely on the side of the good guys (and gals) in this struggle. P.S. If you want to take a closer look at the charts included in the article behind the cut, just make clicky on them to increase their size.

According to the CBS News poll, which took place between March 12 – 16, 2009, posted on PollingReport.com, there was an upward swing of 11 percentage points in support of legal marriage for same-sex couples in the 5 years between the first poll taken in March, 2004 and the last one taken in March, 2009.

One interesting aspect of these polls, for me, is that while there has been this slow but sure increase in the acceptance of the idea of equal marriage rights for same-sex couples,there has been a corresponding decrease in the proportion of Americans who support either civil unions (down by 6% in the same 5-year period) or who want no legal recognition at all for committed same-sex relationships (down by 5%). According to my handy, dandy Texas Instruments calculator, 6 + 5 = 11, which is the amount of increase in those who believe in providing equal marriage rights to gay & lesbian Americans.

The “Unsure”s remain at about 5% of the population.

While a plurality of those surveyed in March 2009 support no legal recognition of same-gender relationships (35%), those who support either full marriage rights (33%) or civil unions (27%) comprise a majority of those surveyed (33% + 27% = 60%). While the exact numbers have certainly shifted in these past 5 years, the facts for 2004 were still the same: 40% wanted no recognition of same-sex relationships; 22% wanted full legal marriage, and 33% supported civil unions. So, obviously even 5 years ago, more Americans supported SOME sort of legal recognition for these relationships (55%) than those who don’t (40%). The same, of course, is true today, but the poll seems to indicate that the public is, generally-speaking, is in the throes of a collective change of heart & mind where some sort of legal recognition of same-sex relationships is concerned.

If we take a look at a more detailed break-down of those who have been surveyed & where they stand on this issue, we see what many other polls have also shown: that the younger the person, the more accepting the person is of the idea of legal marriage or civil unions for same-sex couples. Those identified in the poll as between the ages of 18 and 45 were supportive of legal recognition of some sort for same-sex couples by a 2 to 1 margin, 64% (41% marriage + 23% civil union) to 32%. While a majority of the next age group (45-64) also supports legal recognition, the youngest group in the survey was the only age group where MORE people support full marriage than civil unions. Those aged 45-64 support civil unions over full marriage by a 32 to 29% margin (with 35% wanting no legal recognition at all). For the oldest Americans (aged 65 and over), 45% (18% for marriage; 27% for civil unions) support legal recognition while the biggest response (47%) was for no legal recognition at all.

Not surprising to me at all is the fact that the March 2009 poll shows that more women (64%) support legal recognition than do men (55%), though obviously a majority of both support some sort of legal recognition. The poll shows that 12% more women support marriage over civil unions (38% vs. 26%); whereas, with men, slightly more men favor civil union than legal marriage (27% vs. 28%). In spite of those numbers, a plurality of the men surveyed want no legal recognition at all for same-sex relationships (42%); this compares with 30% of women who favor no legal relationship recognition (8 points less than the percentage of women who support full marriage).

Where political affiliation (or, lack thereof) is concerned, Democrats in general seem to be more in tune with the overall population than Republicans. Overall, a third of all poll respondents were in favor of equal marriage rights. Forty-six percent of those who self-identified as Democrats support equal marriage rights (13% more than the general population),while only 6% of self-identified Republicans agree with equal marriage rights (27% LESS than the general population). Thirty-seven percent of Independents favor equal marriage rights (4% more than the average).

With civil unions, 27% of all those surveyed support civil unions for same-sex couples, while 23% of Democrats do (4% less than the average); thirty-four percent of Republicans support civil unions (7% more than average); political Independents came closest to the average in this area, nearly duplicating the overall average of 27% (compared to 26% of Independents).

Overall, 35% of those surveyed see no legal recognition for same-sex couples, which is 5% more than Independents, 9% more than Democrats, and 24% LESS than Republicans, the majority (59%) of whom want no legal recognition of committed same-sex couples.

It’s also interesting to note that Republicans seem to be more firmly set in their ideas than Democrats or Independents: 5% & 7% of Democrats & Independents, respectively, said they were unsure of how they felt about the subject, while only 1% of Republicans said they were unsure. Overall, 5% of all poll respondents had no opinion.

While the overall population has become generally more accepting of equal marriage rights between the last 2 polls in May 2008 and March 2009 (58% for marriage or civil unions in 2008 vs. 60% in 2009), it is telling that Republican support of equal marriage rights between May 2008 & March 2009 fell by over half (from 14% in 2008 to 6% in 2009); also, the percentage of Republicans wanting no legal recognition of same-sex relationships increased from 50% in 2008 to 59% in 2009. Even though there was a slight 2% increase amongst Republicans supporting same-sex civil unions during this time frame (32% vs 34%), overall, the overall numbers appear to indicate a more conservative leaning on this issue in the current GOP, whereas the opposite trend appears to be taking place amongst Democrats (whose support of equal marriage rights INCREASED by 10% in the same time frame ) and Independents (whose support of equal marriage rights increased by 3%).

The 10% increase in full marriage rights by Democrats appears to have come from a corresponding decrease in support for civil unions (a 4% decrease) and from Democrats who supported no legal recognition at all (a 6% decrease).

The 3% increase from Independents for equal marriage rights appears to have come from a decrease in those Independents who wanted no legal recognition (down by 1%) and those who were previously unsure (down by 2%).

Finally, comparing the survey results from the first poll listed (which took place in March, 2004), overall support for legal marriage is half-again as high 5 years later (22% in 2004 vs. 33% in 2009).

Support for civil unions 5 years later has actually DECREASED from 33% to 27%. The same holds true for the “No Legal Recognition” opinion, down by 5% points from 40% then to 35% now. Those who are unsure still account for 5% of the population. Considering the only increase in all these categories has been in support of full “Legal Marriage”, the decrease in support for civil unions appears to indicate that most people who may have accepted civil unions in the past have now evolved their thinking & now support full marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Full results of the polls in question can be found at Polling Report.com.

Did I Say How Much I Love Matt Alber???

2009-03-27T17:50:00.006-04:00

Well, I do!

Such a beautiful voice, and so, so, so, so gay! :-)

The song is Monarch from his album, Hide Nothing.

Sound & Fury Signifying Nothing

2009-03-27T17:47:00.005-04:00

...a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
--Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5

Today's G.O.P. brought you by the number "ZERO" (ya know, as in the number of good ideas the G.O.P. has in trying to fix the economic systems they screwed up in the first place...)

Be The One...

2009-03-24T16:27:00.001-04:00

Beannachtam na Feile Padraig + 2!

2009-03-19T17:04:00.009-04:00

So, apparently those of homosexual persuasion were still not welcome in New York City’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, and it’s no surprise to me that some people think those of us in the GLBTQI community are no better than Nazis and Klansmen (ya know, the ones who would exterminate us like so many human pests, if they could). Remember, the Nazis in WWII had enough hate to spread around to almost everyone not of their beloved "master Aryan race." In my humble opinion, comparing gay people to Nazis is beyond insane; it is way, way below the belt. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that 100,000 men were arrested by Hitler's regime during World War II for simply being "suspected" homosexuals. 5,000 to 15,000 were estimated to have been killed for their “crime”.

Anyway, even though the boots of the NYC’s first openly-gay City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn, didn’t have the chance walk in this year’s St. Paddy’s Day parade, I’m pretty sure that Ms. Quinn quickly forgot about the little minds in the Big Apple, though, considering her cool consolation prize! Christine Quinn got to actually celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with our President! It’s still so amazing to me the difference one election can make. We still have a long way to go, of course, but it’s so good sometimes to be reminded that not everyone is motivated by ignorance & fear.

Julian Bond Stands & Delivers For The Gays!

2009-03-18T19:07:00.005-04:00

Julian Bond, the head of the civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NCAAP), spoke at a Human Rights Campaign Gala in Los Angeles.

Mr. Bond is always eloquent. This speech is a prime example that Mr. Bond's dedication to true equality for all Americans. He cited Coretta Scott King (wife of slain American civil rights, Dr. Martin Luther King) and Mildred Loving (whose case regarding marriage between people of two different races was the first to be argued before the US Supreme Court, which finally pierced the evil heart of Miscegenation) and how they both saw the battle for marriage equality for same-sex couples as an integral part of the honorable, and on-going, battle of civil rights for all people.

He really makes a good pitch & reminds me again why I am so glad Julian Bond is on OUR side.

Enjoy:

Give Me That Old Time Religion -- Or Not

2009-03-10T05:00:00.004-04:00

Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut recently released the results from its 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), conducted from February through November 2008 of over 54,000 adults in the 48 contiguous states, one of the largest surveys of its kind ever done.

For me, personally, beyond the fact that nearly 15% of the American population now claims no religion at all, the most interesting results of the ARIS 2008 survey show that, among other things:

→The percentage of Americans self-identifying as “Christians” has dropped 10 percentage points overall from a high over over 86% (before the 1990s) to about 76% now. Most of that decrease occurred within what the survey calls “the non-Catholic segment of the Christian population” (i.e., Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians/Anglicans, and the United Church of Christ). These groups, which represented nearly 19% of the American population in 1990, now account for less than 13% of the population.

→While the overall percentage of people claiming to be some form of Christian is in decline, the number who identified as “non-denominational” or “evangelical/born again” has actually increased 40-fold from 200,000 in 1990 to nearly 8 million now. Mark Silk, director of the Public Values Program for Trinity College, explains that this survey indicates that, "A generic form of evangelicalism is emerging as the normative form of non-Catholic Christianity in the United States."

→The number of Baptists (my former Religion) increased by about 2 million since 2001, but 7 years later, they account for a smaller proportion of the population overall.

→The proportion of the population claiming an affiliation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has held steady at just shy of 1.5% of the population.

→The proportion of the population identifying as Muslim has doubled from 1990 to 2008, going from 0.3% of the population to 0.6% now.

→Americans of Asian descent tend to be “substantially more likely to indicate no religious identity” than any other sub-set of the 2008 survey.

→While those who identify as Jewish by ethnicity alone has “remained stable over the past two decades,” the number of Americans who identify religiously as Jewish has fallen from over 3 million in 1990 to 2.7 million in 2008, which represents about 1.2% of the overall American population.

→It’s interesting, too, to note that, while less than 2% of those surveyed actually claimed the label of ”atheist” or “agnostic”, when respondents were asked specifically if they believe there is a God, 12% said "No" or were "Unsure." Another 12% said they believed in a “higher power” but not a “personal God”. In sheer numbers, the population of atheists grew from 900,000 in 2001 to 1.6 million in 2008, an increase of nearly 80%.

→Those claiming what the survey calls “New Religious movements, including Wiccans and self-described pagans,” grew at a higher rate in this decade than in the last.

→The northern part of the New England is now the “least religious” of the lower 48 states, overtaking the previous leader, the Pacific Northwest.

→Where religious affiliation is concerned, the only category that saw an increase between 1990 and 2008 in every one of the 48 states was “None”. Vermont (of course, located in New England) led all states with one-third of those surveyed there claiming no affiliation; 9 points higher than any other state.

Be Careful What You Wish For...

2009-03-08T12:50:00.009-04:00

David Frum, a well-known conservative who works with the right-wing American Enterprise Institute and is editor of the equally right-wing website, New Majority.com, penned a column recently for Newsweek in which he attempts to lay out the case against Rush Limbaugh from a die-hard Republican point of view.

I agree with Mr. Frum on very few things, but I certainly agree with him on one point: if Rush Limbaugh, with his gargantuan ego, keeps on insisting that he is the Chosen One--the anointed guardian of conservative Republican purity--as well as the party's biggest & loudest mouth, the pusillanimous political pachyderms will more than earn their electoral & historical fate.

The ever-shrinking Elephant Party, who've been actually behaving for so (too) long like bulls in a china shop, have left the shop (i.e., our country) in shambles, and have been properly politically punished for the mess they've left for the next guy. You'd think that the few Republicans that are still left standing might have actually learned something from the past couple of national elections, and that they'd be thankful enough to still have a job that they'd want to who work to help fix what they've so blithely broken, but apparent repeated mass repudiation of their neo-con agenda means nothing at all to a party more beholden to ideology than to anyting resembing the common good. Nope. No, sir. Rush say that's socialist talk, maybe even communinism.

If the minority Republicans buy Rush's line that it's not the message that's defective, it's that the volume at which said message has been broadcast hasn't been cranked up enough & if the "R's" insist on simply standing in President Obama's way complaining about the mess & the smell they have made as he & the other Democrats attempt to sweep out the shards & the elephant droppings, they might as well get used to their well-earned status as the increasingly-irrelevant Party of "No". I have to say, it couldn't happen to a more-deserving group of dittoheads.

I've included some of my favorite parts of Frum's article below, and I've highlighted one sentence in particular that shows that at least SOMEONE in the Republican party has been paying attention.

Enjoy:

Every day, Rush Limbaugh reassures millions of core Republican voters that no change is needed: if people don't appreciate what we are saying, then say it louder. Isn't that what happened in 1994? Certainly this is a good approach for Rush himself. He claims 20 million listeners per week, and that suffices to make him a very wealthy man. And if another 100 million people cannot stand him, what does he care? What can they do to him other than … not listen? It's not as if they can vote against him.

But they can vote against Republican candidates for Congress. They can vote against Republican nominees for president. And if we allow ourselves to be overidentified with somebody who earns his fortune by giving offense, they will vote against us. Two months into 2009, President Obama and the Democratic Congress have already enacted into law the most ambitious liberal program since the mid-1960s. More, much more is to come. Through this burst of activism, the Republican Party has been flat on its back.

We need to modulate our social conservatism (not jettison—modulate). The GOP will remain a predominantly conservative party and a predominantly pro-life party. But especially on gay-rights issues, the under-30 generation has arrived at a new consensus. Our party seems to be running to govern a country that no longer exists. The rule that both our presidential and vice presidential candidates must always be pro-life has become counterproductive: McCain's only hope of winning the presidency in 2008 was to carry Pennsylvania, and yet Pennsylvania's most successful Republican vote winner, former governor Tom Ridge, was barred from the ticket because he's pro-choice.

We need an environmental message. You don't have to accept Al Gore's predictions of imminent gloom to accept that it cannot be healthy to pump gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We are rightly mistrustful of liberal environmentalist disrespect for property rights. But property owners also care about property values, about conservation, and as a party of property owners we should be taking those values more seriously.

Above all, we need to take governing seriously again. Voters have long associated Democrats with corrupt urban machines, Republicans with personal integrity and fiscal responsibility. Even ultraliberal states like Massachusetts would elect Republican governors like Frank Sargent, Leverett Saltonstall, William Weld and Mitt Romney precisely to keep an austere eye on the depredations of Democratic legislators. After Iraq, Katrina and Harriet Miers, Democrats surged to a five-to-three advantage on the competence and ethics questions. And that was before we put Sarah Palin on our national ticket.

In the days since I stumbled into this controversy, I've received a great deal of e-mail. (Most of it on days when Levin or Hannity or Hugh Hewitt or Limbaugh himself has had something especially disobliging to say about me.) Most of these e-mails say some version of the same thing: if you don't agree with Rush, quit calling yourself a conservative and get out of the Republican Party. There's the perfect culmination of the outlook Rush Limbaugh has taught his fans and followers: we want to transform the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan into a party of unanimous dittoheads—and we don't care how much the party has to shrink to do it. That's not the language of politics. It's the language of a cult.

I'm a pretty conservative guy. On most issues, I doubt Limbaugh and I even disagree very much. But the issues on which we do disagree are maybe the most important to the future of the conservative movement and the Republican Party: Should conservatives be trying to provoke or persuade? To narrow our coalition or enlarge it? To enflame or govern? And finally (and above all): to profit—or to serve?

Hi-"Fidelity"

2009-02-28T11:49:00.021-05:00

I had first heard of Regina Spektor when she gave the California Courage Campaign permission to use her song, Fidelity, to lend a little musical assistance in the fight for equal marriage rights & to overturn California's Proposition 8.

When I had heard the California Courage Campaign was working to get the word out about the dangerous precedent that Prop 8 would set in allowing 50% + 1 of the population to take away the rights of their fellow citizens, I posted about it in this blog, and I included a video of Regina's song created by the CCC that presented pictures of some of the real people & real families that would be legally hurt if Prop 8 were allowed to stand.

Today, I found Regina's song on YouTube with the original video she created for it. This video, of course, does not mention equal marriage rights, but I think it is a cute & visually appealing little video (well, maybe "little" isn't the right word since--as of the writing of this post--nearly 10 MILLION people have viewed the video on YouTube).

I've personally have always believed that an honorable cause deserves a knock-out theme song, and this catchy little tune by our Ms. Spektor--in my mind--more than fills the bill...

I believe there are Angels among us...

2009-02-24T10:26:00.007-05:00

Continental Airlines Flight # 3407 left Newark, New Jersey heading for Buffalo, New York on the evening of February 12, 2009. Less than an hour later, the plane, carrying 45 passengers and a crew of 4 crashed into a private home, just short of its destination, in the Buffalo suburb of Clarence Center. All aboard Flight 3407 and one of the 3 residents of the home perished that night.

On Sunday, February 22, a memorial service was held for one of the victims of the crash, international human rights advocate, Alison Des Forges.

Seeking to make himself & his hateful Old Time Religion appear relevant & never passing up a chance to remind the world how much God hates a world that just doesn't hate gay people quite enough for the “good” reverend’s liking, Fred Phelps & his Westboro Baptist Church, seeking to strike while the attention iron was hot, posted the ugly intentions of their dark hearts on their infamous website, godhatesfags.com:

“God, in his longsuffering mercy, spared the lives of those in the plane that crashed into the river at New York City. Rather than take the incident as another warning from God to repent of their manifold and filthy sins of the flesh—(i.e., sodomy, fornication, divorce, adultery, etc.)—Americans went right on sinning against God. Is there any wonder that, GOD HATES AMERICA? Nor is there any wonder that God, this time, did NOT spare the lives of those in Flight 3407.”

When word spread that Phelps & family were planning on protesting at Alison Des Forges’s funeral, the residents of Clarence Center came to the conclusion that simply trying to ignore ignorance & hate were not enough.

An article on Artvoice, a local newspaper’s website reports that a local gay rights group, OUTspoken for Equality decided to fight fire with love.

According to the article, local OUTspoken members ”…organized a silent vigil, wearing angel costumes fashioned from white PVC pipes and white cloth. University of Buffalo students held white banners. Together they formed a white wall in the hopes of warding mourners attending the memorial service from intimidation by Phelps’ group.”

Nearly two-hundred of these angels stood out in the cold and in the nearly 20 MPH wind to shield the mourners from what wound up being 3 WBC protestors.

Before the service, a spokesman for this modern-day band of angels explained that the motivation for their action was quite simple:

“We’re not here to address Phelps. We’re not a counter-protest. We’re not here to outshout them. We’re here to stand in solidarity with the families of Flight 3407. We’re here to protect their right to grieve. The people of Buffalo won’t stand for this type of harassment especially from people not even from this community”.

After all these years, it still amazes me what evil continues to be done in God’s name, and how far evil will go to make its ugly voice heard.

All I can say is, Thank God for Angels!

"...and the Oscar goes to..."

2009-02-23T17:59:00.010-05:00

In accepting his Oscar for Best Original Screenplay last night, writer Dustin Lance Black said that, if openly-gay former San Francisco City Councilman Harvey Milk, whose life and subsequent murder 30 years ago at the hands of former city councilman Dan White was the basis of the film, Milk, were still alive today...

"I think he'd want me to say to all the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, and by the government, or by their families that 'You are beautiful, wonderful creatures that are valued. And no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you, and very soon, I promise you that you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours.' Thank you, God, for giving us Harvey Milk!"

There are so many people out there--gay kids and those of us who used to be gay kids--who needed to hear that & who needed to be reminded of something that so many others have always had the luxury to take for granted.

Living & Loving In The Beehive State

2009-02-16T15:20:00.006-05:00

Though he started out in the arcane world of professional baseball stats as a number-meister extraordinaire, Nate Silver has nearly officially morphed into the next big thing in political prognostication. With the same attention to detail & his nearly-trademarked kit-glove handling of ostensibly insignificant minutiae that he pours into baseball, Nate may have started out as an internet sports sensation, but his ability to not only read but forecast the direction of the political winds with as much apparent ease as his nearly dead-on sports prognostication has only served to add to Nate’s notoriety & “street creds,” as they say.

The day of the 2008 election, on his political website, 538.com, Nate predicted a final Electoral College vote in favor of Barack Obama of 349 to 189, off by only 16 electoral votes. While he (fortunately) incorrectly predicted that Obama would "narrowly [lose]…Indiana" to John McCain, he was spot-on in calling not only my own home state of Florida for Obama, but Virginia & North Carolina, too. I remember well hoping against hope that Nate was right, but having strong doubts about not only Obama’s ability to flip two reliably crimson red states like VA & NC to sapphire blue, but his chances of delivering a state like Florida with nearly every statewide office being held by the GOP as well as a nearly non-existent state Democratic Party over to the political light side. Nate’s proven adroitness in calling political winners with as much ease & nearly as much accuracy as calling baseball games has made me a true-blue believer. While I'm on the subject of colors, I gotta say that, as one of his newest fans, I think Nate Silver is golden! :-)

This is my admittedly long-winded preface to the issue about which I am really writing today. Nate is reporting on his website that Jon Huntsman, the Republican governor of Utah has announced his support for civil unions for same-sex couples. For me, it’s not as personally satisfying as if Gov. Huntsman had endorsed full marriage rights for same-sex couples and, in the best of all possible worlds, it would have been nice if the governor had made his sentiments known earlier in his political career as opposed to the end of his term, but, considering from whence comes this news—Ground Zero for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints—this is really pretty big news!

In putting this announcement into proper perspective, Nate writes on 538.com that this die-hard Republican’s conversion is "in its own quiet way, just as much as a cultural signifier as [California’s] Proposition 8. The days in which bigotry can be exchanged for votes may be numbered."

One can only hope...and keep fighting the Good Fight.

Happy Valentine's Day (+1) To ALL of Us!

2009-02-15T15:55:00.004-05:00

Recently, Suze Orman, the openly-gay financial guru, put her own unique economic spin on the argument for marriage equality for all Americans.

On behalf of Suze, I dedicate this belated video valentine to all those married couples whose government recognition of their promise to take care of one another brings them more than just financial security & to those who still fight to know how that feels:

There's Something About David

2009-02-14T08:43:00.006-05:00

So, while I was doing some early-morning cruising through the Intertubes, I happened upon an article about super-sexy British soccer superstar, David Beckham, and I was reminded how very little I care about professional sports & how very much I really dig Mr. Beckham. I won't even pretend that it's all about his sports prowess. No. It's all about his being one of the the walking, talking epitomes of male beauty. As the gals say, he's just a cutie.

It's really that simple!

I guess we all have our shallow side, don't we??? ;-) You have to admit that it's nice sometimes to indulge in the not-so-intellectual side of life. For me, this is the time.

Oh yeah, I even wear his cologne, Instinct.

Please Don't Divorce Them Redux

2009-02-07T07:29:00.002-05:00

In spite of what the world has shown me in my 46+ years, and against all apparent reason, at my core, I am an optimist--sometimes obstinately so. :-)

Having endured a closet that almost killed me, and having slowly but surely started to re-claim my faith & working to come out as a gay follower of Christ, I suppose in my mind & in my heart, I really can't help myself. God has shown me that the old line is true: it IS darkest before the dawn.

Even with an abiding faith that, as the email from the California Courage Campaign stated, this "shameful attempt to nullify these unions will not be vindicated in the eyes of history" & that "love will prevail, no matter how hard they try to fight it," I have also come to understand that faith without words is dead.

Of all that my Lord has taught me since leaving the prison I had built for myself, my eyes have been opened to the undeniable reality that my own broken heart simply cannot stand as a reason to stop fighting; those Christian Soldiers out there who see "abomination" in how we love, and who see us as enemies instead of siblings in Christ really do count on our being too demoralized to speak up & to stand up for our own hearts & our own lives.

It's not enough to not-so-simply know that I am right in believing that even GLBTQI people were made in God's image, and that we are loved just as we are...warts & all, as they say. It's not enough to know that following where the heart that God gave me leads me, and being truthful to myself & to the world is no sin. It's not enough to refuse to hide anymore. It's not enough to merely hope for better.

I know that "love is patient, love is kind...it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres," and I know that it is life-changing love that provides the impetus to keep going when sometimes all else seems lost, and--while "they" may not realize it yet--Love is what "they" are truly fighting here. I'm pretty sure that those who would, with ugly pride, attempt to put asunder what God has brought together know not what they do, and so it is up to each of us--unwilling to forgo this most noble of human endeavors simply to validate someone else's dogma--to remind them every...single...day that the enemies they have created in the dark recesses of their minds & against which they preach their Gospel of Exclusion bear no resemblance to the virtual Army of Lovers--and those who support our equality--who fight for a higher & much more sublime purpose than simply the right to do with our genitals as we please.

For so much of my life, it was other people who fought the fight for me, because I was too weak & too hurt to fight for myself, but--THANK YOU, GOD--those days are gone.

Part of my own spiritual rehabilitation is speaking out & screaming as loudly as I can & to as many people as I can that the Emperor Has No Clothes, and reminding the world (or as much of the world as I--as one person--can reach) that this whole fight is not about how I love, but that I love...and that's why I know we will yet see victory...even if not in my own time on this earth.

In this battle, those who fear & lie about us don't seem to be on the same page as the rest of us. "They" think they are fighting people who toil endlessly to be able to have the right to engage in what "they" have determined is "perverted sex," not knowing--or, at least, not admitting--that what we are really fighting for is our hearts' desire.

The true bottom line here is that we have so much more on the line in this fight than "they" do, so maybe they really can't fully understand that we can never give up, and we can never give in because--while they are fighting for what they believe is their "Godly cause"--we are fighting for our very lives.

To me, there is simply no comparison.

Matt Alber

2009-02-05T23:49:00.003-05:00

From my newest favorite singer, Matt Alber, the song, "End of The World":

Please Don't Divorce Them

2009-02-05T16:08:00.008-05:00

The California Courage Campaign reports that Ken Starr (of Clinton-Whitewater-Monica-Lewinsky infamy) & the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund will present their case to the California Supreme Court starting on March 5, 2009 demanding that the Court void 18,000 marriages of same-sex couples that were legally performed between June 16 & November 4, 2008 in that state. The same court that ruled that citizens of the State of California could not be denied the right of marriage by mere virtue of their sexual orientation will hear Starr’s pleas to not only deny those self-same citizens of the right to marry, but to validate the idea that a minority’s rights are subject to plebiscite. Ken Starr & his minions will, in essence, seek to force divorce on all those couples who simply took advantage of their right to make a legal bond with the person they love.

Even though I don’t live in California, I am on their email list & I got an email from the Courage Campaign today that updated the status of the fight in the Golden State. They included a music video made by the Courage Campaign with pictures of some of the loving couples & their families who will be affected by whatever the California Supreme Court decides (a ruling is expected by the end of June, 2009).

The song in this video is entitled, “Fidelity” by Regina Spektor, who gave full permission to use it in the battle to overturn Prop 8 in California.

After watching the video, I hope you’ll do what I did and sign the online petition standing against what Ken Starr is attempting to do. The last paragraph of the petition states simply:

As Americans who believe in the rule of law and fundamental civil rights, we know that Ken Starr and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund's shameful attempt to nullify these unions will not be vindicated in the eyes of history. We know that, ultimately, love will prevail, no matter how hard they try to fight it.

So simple, right??

The email I got today started off by stating, “This video will break your heart,” and it did, but it also reminded me that the Good Fight still needs fighting & that good people can no longer just sit on their hands.

Not for nothing, but I Still Love Lucy...Always Will

2009-02-01T17:54:00.002-05:00

Watching the Hallmark Channel I Love Lucy marathon.

After all these years, I--and multiple millions of others--still love that wacky red-head!

Wall Street's Days of Wine and Roses Are Numbered

2009-01-31T10:31:00.017-05:00

They are not long, the days of wine and roses:

Out of a misty dream

Our path emerges for a while, then closes

Within a dream.

-- Ernest Dowson

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, in a prime example of justifiable righteous indignation, on the greedy "idiots" of Wall Street whose voracious & ugly appetite for spending taxpayers' money like so many overly-eager swine gorging themselves stupid at an ever-diminishing trough as a perverted payoff for helping drive their companies (and our country) to near-ruin.

If these current Welfare "Wizards" of Wall Street can't find a way to somehow make it on "only" $400,000 a year while they are on the public dole, with unemployment at near-record highs, I'm sure there'll be plenty of other folks who'd be glad to take their places. They certainly couldn't possibly do much worse than the sub-par simpletons who ran us off the economic cliff in the first place.

Barack & The Supremes

2009-01-29T17:32:00.010-05:00

Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, works to help young people -- advocates, activists, journalists, artists -- make their voices heard on issues that matter. I'm on their email list & today I got an interesting email from them regarding President Obama's potential for making a long-lasting change & a real difference in the highest court in the country. The article from Campus Progress's website follows below:

Choosing the Court
Barack Obama could pick as many as three Supreme Court justices. His choices could change the Court’s trajectory for decades to come.

By Dylan Matthews
January 28, 2009

At 88, John Paul Stevens could very well leave the Supreme Court during President Barack Obama’s first term. Today, he the court’s leftmost member. He frequently votes with the other members of what is now considered to be the court’s “liberal” wing, Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and David Souter. He also occasionally stakes out a more ambitious position, as he did on obscenity issues in ACLU v. Ashcroft and on search and seizure in Scott v. Harris. But when Gerald Ford appointed him in 1975, Stevens was considered a centrist. This shift was not in Stevens’ ideology; it was in that of his colleagues. He did not grow more liberal; the court grew more conservative.

At first glance there appears to be little Obama can do to reverse this development. The liberal justices are on the older end of the spectrum—Ginsberg is 75, Breyer is 70, and Souter is 69. Of the court’s conservatives, the oldest, Antonin Scalia, is 72, fiercely on his game, and unlikely to go anywhere for a while. Clarence Thomas is 60, and Samuel Alito and John Roberts are in their 50s. The chances of Obama replacing any of them with a liberal jurist—especially if he should serve one term—are slim to none. But if he does get the chance to select replacements for Stevens, Ginsberg, and/or Souter, Obama need not reinforce the status quo. He could, instead, work to revive the wing of the court that has disappeared in recent decades—the one that was to Stevens’ left in 1975.

The liberal wing was led by William Brennan and included luminaries like Thurgood Marshall, William O. Douglas, and, briefly, Arthur Goldberg. This faction of the court formed the core of many of the court’s most critical rulings under Earl Warren. They established the right to privacy in Griswold v. Connecticut, struck down school prayer in Engel v. Vitale, and first required police officers to issue Miranda warnings. They dominated Warren E. Burger’s Court as well, effectively abolishing the death penalty in Furman v. Georgia and, most notably, protecting the right to choose in Roe v. Wade.

But with Richard Nixon’s four court appointments, the tide began to turn. The death penalty was ruled constitutional again in Gregg v. Georgia, laws against sodomy were upheld in Bowers v. Hardwick, and the court moved to limit affirmative action programs in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. Then-Associate Justice Rehnquist succeeded Burger in 1986, and Antonin Scalia was simultaneously appointed to Rehnquist’s old associate seat. These moves accelerated the rightward shift. The court ruled against students’ right to free speech in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier and against a right to end the lives of loved ones in a vegetative state, also known as the right to “die with dignity,” in Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health.

By the end of 1991, the entire left wing had retired. Douglas and Brennan were succeeded by fairly liberal Republicans (Stevens and Souter, respectively) and Marshall was replaced by his ideological mirror image, Thomas. While liberal rulings would still be made from time to time in the Rehnquist era, the task was significantly harder by the wing’s departure.

If Obama is to restore the tradition of Brennan, Marshall, and Douglas, he must use the few Court appointments he might be afforded to appoint justices unafraid to push for a vision of the Constitution that strongly protects individual rights and liberties.

Some believe that Obama’s cautious political style will lead him to select a moderate liberal from the appellate Court benches, and will cause him to pass up candidates capable of more systemic change. One of his recent appointments, thankfully, suggests a different direction.

Elena Kagan, whom Obama appointed to the position of solicitor general, is the outgoing dean of Harvard Law School and has shown a strong commitment to social justice. She has a particularly outstanding record on speech issues and would make an outstanding Supreme Court justice. Winning confirmation for her may not be easy: When President Bill Clinton nominated her to a seat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1999, Sen. Orrin Hatch refused to even hold a hearing on her nomination. But by selecting her as solicitor general, which has been a stepping stone to the Supreme Court for past justices like Marshall and Robert Jackson, Obama may be signaling an intention to prepare her for a seat when one opens up.

Beyond Kagan, a number of other academics, including Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh and former Stanford Law Dean Kathleen Sullivan have impressive liberal credentials and would make excellent justices. Koh and Sullivan in particular would be historic appointments. Koh would be the first Asian-American justice and Sullivan would be the first openly gay one. Alternately, Obama could appoint a progressive politician like Deval Patrick or Jennifer Granholm. Historically, former elected officials like Earl Warren and Hugo Black have been tremendously effective as justices, due to their ability to count votes and lobby for their opinions. Patrick in particular would be a great choice. He has previous experience as assistant attorney general for civil rights and he has expressed strong support for Massachusetts’ state supreme court decision that legalized same-sex marriage.

Regardless of the particular names he decides upon, Obama should be concerned with not just finding the candidates who have the most impressive resumes, but those who demonstrate a willingness and ability to bring back the constitutional vision of Brennan/Marshall wing of the Court. It is the only way out of the institution’s current, very uneasy, center-right equilibrium.

Dylan Matthews is a first-year student at Harvard. He is regular columnist for Campus Progress and has his own blog, formerly known as Minipundit.

The actual article can be found on Campus Progress’s website by clicking here.

"For The Bible Tells Me So" Redux

2009-01-26T18:42:00.006-05:00

The Sundance Channel was showing For The Bible Tells Me So today, and I watched it again & felt the same things I felt when I saw the movie originally, and I cried again. Seeing this wonderful film again reminded me of the first (and probably only) movie review I have ever written, and I wanted to include it on my blog today. Fair warning: the review is long & winding (something new for me, right???) & can never really describe just how I really feel. Suffice it to say, I was deeply moved. Below is a trailer for the movie:

Started off with Anita Bryant getting a “fruit pie” in her face during a press conference & then a press conference prayer for perpetrator to be delivered from his “demon lifestyle.” Childish as it seems, I never get enough of the guilty pleasure of Anita's banana cream pie facial!

Next I saw Jimmy Swaggart proudly stating, "I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry, and I'm going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I'm going to kill him and tell God he died.” The congregation’s response? Laughter and applause. For some reason, I personally don't believe that the good reverend will ever need to worry about such a thing ever happening to him.

Never heard anything about Billy Graham but I did from Franklin Graham who proudly stated that God loves us homosexuals, but he will still judge us on our damnable sin & is still not happy with us.

There was the husband-and-wife preaching team Brenda and David Poteat from North Carolina, whose daughter, Tonia, is lesbian. Mr. Poteat explains that God loves you but you have to love Him back. Where being gay is concerned, I guess loving God back just isn’t enough.

Mrs. Poteat said how ashamed she was that, after her daughter came out to her, she would instinctively think of how her daughter performed sexual acts with another woman, instead of seeing her as her own flesh-and-blood. She says that while she has overcome that misconception, she still has problems with her daughter’s “lifestyle,” but she does accept that the woman her daughter has chosen as her life partner has made her daughter so very happy & Mrs. Poteat is at least happy for both of them in that respect. The Poteats still apparently don’t agree with their daughter’s “lifestyle” but they still love her. I guess a small victory is better than none at all.

Chrissy Gephardt (daughter of former US House Majority Leader, Dick Gephardt) & even Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire, were married for a while to people of the opposite sex but each eventually comes to the conclusion that they could not wish their God-given sexual orientation away and they couldn’t simply act str8 to “fix” their lives & that they couldn’t go on lying not only to themselves but to their wonderful spouses, who also deserved to live with & love someone who could love them the way a spouse should. I didn’t know before the film, but I found out that, at his consecration as Bishop, Robinson had to wear a bullet-proof vest due to death threats. I guess “God’s work” can be such a messy affair sometimes.

The film covered the favorite word of the Religious Right where homosexuality is concerned: “abomination”. They said that, according to the Bible, it is also an abomination to eat anything that comes out of a pig & certain kinds of seafood.

In the film, they interviewed Rabbi Brian Zachary Mayer, the chief rabbi of Los Angeles-based Religion-Outside-The-Box said, "A few verses above and below it says you shouldn't plant two different seeds in the same hole, you shouldn't co-mingle your crops ... There is other text that says you shouldn't wear linen and wool together. To just pick out, this is the one that we're going to follow ... the Bible doesn't come that way -- it's selective reading ..."

I discovered a few more abominations in Proverbs, Chapter 6:

16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

Many Christians who do not know me and do not want to know me may see my very life of one half of a relatively-stable committed same-sex relationship as an abomination, but I have to wonder, after reading these words, if those very same “good” Christians who “speaketh lies” and who “soweth discord” amongst my former brethren about my “sin” aren’t looked upon by the God they claim to love so dearly as a similar “abomination”. Wouldn’t that be a really ironic & sad kick in the pants??

In the film, Archbishop Desmond Tutu states simply that homophobia is a not-so-distant relative of the evil of apartheid, which he himself endured & helped to subsequently conquer, and calls them both what they are, "contrary to the heart of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

In 1988, Mary Lou Wallner’s daughter Anna “came out” to her in a letter she had mailed to her mom. Being a deeply religious family, in the letter, Anna said she loved God & she knew God loved her & that she hoped her mom wouldn’t try to change her.

A couple of weeks later, her mom finally wrote back to her, and said, in part, “Undoubtedly, the most difficult part of your letter was the gay thing. I will NEVER accept that in you. I feel it’s a terrible waste, besides being spiritually and morally wrong. For a reason I don’t quite fathom, I have a harder time dealing with that issue than almost anything in the world. I do and will continue to love YOU, but I will always hate that, and will pray every day that you will change your mind and attitude.” (as a matter of fact, in the trailer for the film, the “I will always hate that” part is shown to the singing of “Jesus Loves Me”).

A few years later, after very little contact with her daughter except for another letter stating how her mother’s response to her coming out was devastating to her & that she could not forgive her for what she saw as her mother’s abandonment of her, Mrs. Wallner received some awful news. I have cut & pasted the following few paragraphs from Mrs. Wallner’s website (TEACH Ministries—To Educate About the Consequences of Homophobia) as she explains it better than I ever could:

On February 28, 1997 at 10:00 p.m., I received a phone call from my ex-husband and Anna's Dad. At about 4:00 p.m. that afternoon, Anna had been found hanging from the bar in her closet. She had been dead for 15 hours. It was ruled a suicide by the coroner -- no autopsy, no note, no nothing -- but days, weeks, months and years of pain and anguish.

I have heard it said that when a loved one dies of suicide, there is a sense of utter failure. I can identify with that. I did not love her unconditionally, even though I knew 1 Corinthians 13 well. Among other things it says, Love is patient...and kind; Love is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs...It always protects, always hopes, always perseveres.

Throughout these years, since Anna's death, I have done a lot of soul searching to figure out just what part I played in Anna's death. I have wrestled with who I am and how I treated my own flesh and blood.

No matter what else happens in my life, I will always acknowledge the pain and tragedy of Anna's suicide. However, her death has also brought me face-to-face with the untruth I have been taught throughout my life by the church. My transformation has occurred through a wonderful gift given to me by God: getting to know, understand, and love GLBTA (Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transgenders, and Allies).

I am now proud to call myself an ally and am honored to count these children of God amongst my closest and dearest friends. This new awareness has been supported through intense study of biblical passages, as well as continued dialogue with individuals on both sides of the issue.

Recently, I went to the curio cabinet that holds Anna's pictures and dolphin collection. I said to her, "I will never again treat a gay person the way I treated you. That's a promise!"

Anna hanged herself in her closet using her dog’s collar & I will always remember the picture they showed of Anna with that collar around her neck. I will also always remember what Mrs. Wallner said about how she was going to provide to other gay & lesbian sons & daughters who have been abandoned by their families the love she could never find in herself to share with her own daughter. Those words nearly brought me to tears. Not for me or my journey thus far, but for Mrs. Wallner herself, doomed forever to carry around in her heart the knowledge of how very much her love & acceptance would have meant to her daughter. Her pain must be unspeakable.

Jake Reitan, son of Phil and Randi Reitan, had come out to his parents as a young teenager. The Reitans were a family of Evangelical Lutherans whose lineage was replete with pastors in the church & who held the same beliefs regarding homosexuality that they had always believed the Bible & their church had taught them. When it came down to the long-held dogma & the love of their youngest son, they were torn, and they decided to keep it the “dirty little secret” in their family & had advised Jake to keep this to himself til he graduated from high school, for fear of what might happen to him.

Mrs. Reitan told the story about an incident that occurred shortly after Jake came out. She said that they lived in a house in Minnesota that had a long driveway & that she had come outside & had seen something written on the ground at the end of the driveway. When she got to the end of the driveway, she saw the word “FAG” written in chalk on the ground. She rushed inside & got some water & a scrub brush & she erased it before Jake had a chance to see it. She had become deeply scared because she knew now that the secret was out.

The Reitans eventually became activists for gay rights amongst the religious community in America & have worked to make life easier for their son & for all the other sons & daughters who had to travel their son’s path. The film showed that the Reitans were even arrested for trespassing in Colorado Springs, Colorado trying to deliver a letter to James Dobson explaining how his “Focus on the Family” ministry actually actively hurts countless numbers of families who love & care for their GLBT family members when, among other things, he compares gay people’s very existence as much a threat to Christianity as Nazis were to the Jews during World War II & when he tells families to refuse to accept their gay child. Because the good doctor refused to focus on this particular family & listen to their concerns about how they felt attacked by his group, the mountain came to Mohammad. After being confronted by the police guarding the Focus on the Family property from this "assault' & explaining that if they took one more step they’d be arrested, Phil Reitan explained that he was an American and a Christian & a father who loves his children & that he demanded to tell Dobson what he’s doing to all those families. Phil & Randi, with their son’s arms around them, all stepped forward & were peacefully taken away in a police van, but the world was there in the form of cameras & other protesters & the moment was marked forever where this family who saw themselves as victims of this “godly” man’s ministry had said, “No More!” It was a beautiful thing! Contrast that with one of the letters that the Reitans received for daring to stand up to this Man of God, an anonymous “fan” of Dr. Dobson’s writing in a letter to the family, “Death to the Faggits!”.

The movie also brought up an interesting dichotomy where these anti-gay ministries are concerned. They talk about how the believe in the literal translation of the Bible, especially as concerns the “abomination” of a “man lying with a man” is concerned, but they conveniently forget the literal command in the Bible to take all you have and give it to the poor, and what an abomination in the eyes of the Lord must be the ever-growing profits of these ministries, while the poor are getting poorer. How selective their literal interpretation of the Bible is!

Gene Robinson’s parents, conservatives from deep in the heart of Kentucky, tell of their son’s life. They talk about how, when he was born, he nearly died & that he had physical problems & that no one expected him to live very long or, if he lived, to be able to do or be much. From his earliest years, they told of how he loved God & how he studied the Bible & how he knew he wanted to share God’s love with the rest of the world. His parents, with the deepest Southern twang I’ve heard in a long time, spoke with pride of how their son had overcome so much in his life & how he had worked so hard to tell the world the Good News of his God’s redemptive powers. His parents were there when he was consecrated as Bishop & his parents even placed the Bishop’s garment on their son during the ceremony. They said that God had made their son “that way” & of their belief that the Lord had had His had on Gene & brought him through so much so that he could be a beacon of hope for those who had forgotten how to hope. Speaking of hopelessness, the film also quoted a statistic I had never heard before: gay & lesbian people are 3 to 7 times more likely to commit suicide that those who are not gay or lesbian. Sounds like Gene Robinson is more needed than I thought.

The film revealed that hate is really a violent form of fear. Not that I believe that everyone who says they are “against homosexuality” hates gay people, but it’s hard to come any other conclusion about those people who say “Slaughter the Gays” or “Death to Faggits” or “God Hates Fags” or that AIDS is God’s punishment for homosexuals.

All in all, biased as I may be, I don't think that the film disparaged anyone. The film certainly presented a certain point of view & that point of view is certainly widely unpopular in most Christian circles nowadays, but it does very much humanize those of us who have long been all but demonized in popular religion today & shows that not all people of God see a sin that needs ridding when they see people like me.

It also opened my eyes to understand that to get from there to here is sometimes a long, painful, soul-searching journey, just like my own lifelong trip from deep inside a cold, dark closet to the warmth of truth & freedom.

When I think of people like Mary Lou Wallner and her daughter Anna or Phil or Randi Reitan and their son, Jake, and how their lives were changed forever when their children came out to them (each with obviously different results) and how they were forced to challenge what their churches have always told them was undeniable truth and how they were made to see things quite differently with the passing of the years & the circumstances of their lives, I'm left wondering now if what I have endured to this point in my life had never happened I would truly appreciate life here on the other side of that closet.

Silly as it may sound, maybe Dolly Parton's right when she said if you want to enjoy the rainbows, you're gonna have to stand a little rain! Considering the foregoing, I think "a little rain" is a bit of an understatement, but still the thought remains.

Prayers For Bobby

2009-01-25T11:52:00.006-05:00

I just finished watching the Lifetime Network movie, Prayers For Bobby, and I wanted to share a few thoughts about it:

When your life hurts so much, when you feel as if you have to spend nearly every moment fighting your own heart, when you come to realize that all you’ve ever known as truth has been a lie, when you lose all joy in life and in living, when you have become disconnected from the world around you & you feel like an outcast amongst people who used to love you, it’s understandable to want to find a way out of all of it, and it’s tempting to think that stopping a barely-beating heart—especially an “obviously” faulty heart—is the answer. What of worth could possibly be lost when you are made to feel that there is no value in the mis-creation you’ve become anyway? No matter what your view of a possible afterlife or lack thereof, sometimes some of us come to believe that nothing--NOTHING--could be worse than the shadow of a life we’re living now.

If it is the most basic, human part of our being that holds us here & gives us any sort of reason to believe that it can get better somehow, it is the de-humanization we experience when WHO we are is reduced to WHAT OTHERS THINK WE ARE that can rip it all away, leaving us with nothing to hope for, and ultimately severing the last tether that binds us to the temporal realm. With nothing of substance keeping us here, we start to wonder why we bother at all.

It’s not an excuse for giving up & for ending a life too painful to keep enduring, but it is the reason we oftentimes believe we have no other choice. In the near poetic search for surcease of sorrow, however it can be realized, too many who cannot continue to face a life where they have been made to feel as if they don’t belong, accept what their worn-out hearts see as the only & ultimate solution. In the haze of the ruins of their beyond-sad existence & in a formerly-familiar world woefully unkind to strangers, tragically, some see certain death as preferable to a constantly uncertain so-called “life”. It doesn’t make it the “right thing to do,” but—sometimes for some of us, numbed to reality & left with what we believe is no other choice—ending the nothingness of life seems the only way to finally break free from the lies, and the shame, and the pain.

Then there are people like me: people who had just enough of the Old Time Religion in their upbringing to believe in the sin of suicide, or who, believing that constant suffering was simply the stuff of life, just somehow couldn’t bring themselves to do the deed. In many ways, the fate of those who, to paraphrase the poet John Gillespie Magee, Jr., “have slipped the surly bonds of earth” in a desperate attempt to leave behind the darkest corners of life from whence they grew weaker by the moment to “dance the skies…and [touch] the face of God,” are heart-breakingly similar to those of us who chose to stay & suffer, except we only died on the inside, leaving but a shell to stand as a nearly-living testimony that we were once more than the thing “they” have convinced the world—and us—we are.

Either way, breathing or not, we are just as broken…and, though we may not believe it, to God—if not to all who call His name—just as loved…

Pro-Choice, Pro-Obama

2009-01-22T19:02:00.003-05:00

A reminder to me of one of the MANY reasons I cast my sacred vote for Barack Obama.

I really like this part of President Obama's statement:

"While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue, no matter what our views, we are united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices they make. To accomplish these goals, we must work to find common ground to expand access to affordable contraception, accurate health information, and preventative services."

Thank you, Mr. President!

"...we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass...that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself..."

2009-01-21T18:32:00.002-05:00

President Obama's Inauguration Speech

My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: "Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive ... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Today, it becomes real!

2009-01-20T06:05:00.002-05:00

I Pledge...

2009-01-19T18:57:00.001-05:00

MySpace Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge

Happy MLK Jr Day (a.k.a. Obama Inauguration Eve)

2009-01-19T16:22:00.002-05:00

"...Gay By Divine Rite..."

2009-01-18T19:21:00.002-05:00

I am still in tears.

I don't really watch Oprah Winfrey much. I have nothing against her at all, but I just don't usually catch her show, but apparently recently she had an episode entitled, "Spirituality 101", and one of the guests was Sedric, a gay, African American man. The panel of "experts" (I guess that's what you'd call them) were speaking to this man about his sexual orientation & Rev. Ed Bacon from All Saints Church in Pasadena, California actually said something that Oprah says she had never heard a pastor say before:

"Being gay is a gift from God."

The second of the three experts was Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith founder of the Agape International Spiritual Center, who agreed with Rev. Bacon, said that Sedric was made in the image of God and, therefore, he was "gay by divine rite." Wow! I've never heard it put that way. The third expert, Elizabeth Lesser, of the Omega Institute, didn't speak at all about Sedric's situation in the segment I saw on YouTube (and have included here).

"Being gay is a gift from God."

Such simple words, yet it has taken most of my time on this planet to finally understand that & to really believe it. During my life's journey, as I am sure you all know by now, I don't think that "gift" was a word I was able to use to describe my sexual orientation until relatively recently. For most of my life, I think it is safe to say, it sure didn't feel like a gift.

I have included the Oprah Show clip & the clip below that is the video of Rev. Bacon speaking at what appears to be his home church & explaining his conversation with Oprah & the responses Oprah & he got after he spoke those simple words.

I had to share them with you:

"You Say You Want A Revolution..."

2009-01-17T14:54:00.006-05:00

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right...
"Revolution" by The Beatles

I am a big fan of Jay Bakker & Revolution Church, and it has been Jay & his "Revolution"-ary stance on GLBT rights from a Christian perspective that has been part of my spiritual rehabilitation.

Jay has been doing Q&A's for a while now on YouTube & I submitted a question a while back about whether Jay has ever performed a same-sex marriage or commitment ceremony. Today (January 17), Jay provided his video answer!

In the video below, Jay answers 3 questions, and the last one is mine, so I wanted to post his video answer.

I highly recommend Jay & his church to anyone in need of their own personal faith Revolution!

:-)

"...a new declaration of independence...from...small thinking, prejudice & bigotry..."

2009-01-17T13:43:00.001-05:00

Maybe I've taken our soon-to-be-President's message of Hope too much to heart, and maybe I am more excited than I should be to hear the person who will soon hold the Highest Office in The Land even mention the word "gay" in an inclusive & respectful way, but this excerpt from President-Elect Obama's speech as he left the Philadelphia train station today heading to D.C. for the inauguration reminded me that the American President can be more than just the country's CEO, the President of these United States can be the personification of the hopes & dreams of an entire country. In the even more difficult economic times to come, it's good to know that we'll have a President at the helm whose eyes and heart are wide open.
We are here today not simply to pay tribute to our first patriots but to take up the work that they began. The trials we face are very different now, but severe in their own right. Only a handful of times in our history has a generation been confronted with challenges so vast. An economy that is faltering. Two wars, one that needs to be ended responsibly, one that needs to be waged wisely. A planet that is warming from our unsustainable dependence on oil.

And yet while our problems may be new, what is required to overcome them is not. What is required is the same perseverance and idealism that our founders displayed. What is required is a new declaration of independence, not just in our nation, but in our own lives - from ideology and small thinking, prejudice and bigotry - an appeal not to our easy instincts but to our better angels.

That is the reason I launched my campaign for the presidency nearly two years ago. I did so in the belief that the most fundamental American ideal, that a better life is in store for all those willing to work for it, was slipping out of reach. That Washington was serving the interests of the few, not the many. And that our politics had grown too small for the scale of the challenges we faced.

But I also believed something else. I believed that our future is our choice, and that if we could just recognize ourselves in one another and bring everyone together - Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, north, south, east and west, black, white, Latino, Asian, and Native American, gay and straight, disabled and not - then not only would we restore hope and opportunity in places that yearned for both, but maybe, just maybe, we might perfect our union in the process.

Meet Nick...

2009-01-16T10:30:00.003-05:00

Nick Vujicic.

That’s one of those names that you will probably remember forever if you’ve ever heard of him, or if you’ve ever heard what he has to say.

Nick is a Christian motivational speaker. On his website, he writes of his life’s purpose:

God has used me to let people know in countless schools, churches, prisons, orphanages, hospitals, stadiums and in face-to-face encounters with individuals how very precious they are to God. Secondly, it’s my pleasure to assure them that God does have a plan for their lives that is purposeful. For God took my life, one that others might disregard as having any significance and filled me with His purpose and showed me His plans to move hearts and lives toward Him. Understanding this, though faced with struggles, you can overcome too.

By all outward appearances, Nick & I have very little in common. But, we all know, it’s not about what we behold with our eyes that even begins to explain the value of our lives, and our value to God. The shell in which our eternal souls reside at this moment is the least permanent—the least meaningful—part of who we really are, so the fact that we will never be mistaken for twins, or the fact that the way he has lead his life bares very little resemblance to my own is not just obvious, it is also irrelevant.

The story of Nick’s life & his ministry can be found on his website, Life Without Limbs. I think, though, the most important word in website title is Life because, though—at first glance--Nick would have every reason in the world to be bitter, and sad, and angry, and though he may have felt all those things & more at some point in his life, it is his life that he is so obviously thankful for.

Nick & I have lived our lives very nearly a world apart, but we share at least one thing in common: our belief that God has a purpose for even the most broken of His children. The “broken” to which I refer, of course, means physically or spiritually or emotionally, or in any other way. If Nick & I share anything else in common, it is that we haven’t always known that there was any real purpose to our individual brokenness, beyond the pain that seemed to define our so-called lives.

I’ve come to understand that we humans sometimes must have our time to hurt & to grieve & to be angry & to become familiar with & even resentful of our perceived imperfections & to even believe that we have no value at all; that we are pitiful & unworthy; that we have no right to hope for a new day or to dare to dream of being more than we are right now. It seems we must sometimes indulge the self-pity—even if for a while—in order to finally be done with it, to wring it out of our lives & to finally come to understand the value & the honor of just giving up, and giving it all to God. That’s another thing Nick & I have in common.

For so long, I wondered why I had to endure a life entirely bereft of any sense of humanity or a connection to the world outside my closet. I wondered why I was left to suffer & to take up space that could be used by someone or something that actually mattered. I became so angry at God &--without really knowing it—myself. When all that comprises your “life” is pain & anger & darkness, it’s easy to see death as sweet release. I remember wishing that God would just have mercy on me &, since I wasn’t “brave” enough to do it myself, end my suffering in whatever way He could manage. I wasn’t picky. I didn’t care how it ended. I just wanted it to end.

As I have recounted many times on this Ark, I have cried that proverbial river of tears & I became quite familiar with self-hatred. I know now that the only way out of the deep, dark hole I had unwittingly helped “the world” dig for me was by finally asking God to lead me out. It has taken me so long to get from there to here, and I know that I’ve still got far to go on my spiritual voyage, but now I know the secret: in order to gain even a measure of control & direction in my life, I had to give up the control I tricked myself into believing I had in my life.

Just like Nick, I had to learn to stop measuring my life by what I could not be, or could not do, or could not hope for. By beginning to allow God to truly work His will in my life, I’ve begun to see that I placed value on all the wrong things. With Nick’s story & the video below, God is reminding me that I still have much to learn & much to look forward to as He uses what nearly killed me to heal not only my own life, but the lives of all of those people in the world who, unfortunately, know my story by heart.

Equal Marriage Rights = Civil Rights

2009-01-15T17:19:00.010-05:00

There’s not necessarily a lot new in this pro-equal marriage rights post, titled Even Same-Sex Marriage Is A Basic Civil Right on The Huffington Post, but I am impressed that the author of the post, Menachem Rosensaft, is—among other things--a devout man of faith, who is a professor at the Cornell University Law School , Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Holocaust Survivors’ Memoirs Project, and the son of two Nazi concentration camp survivors.

I think that, from a possibly semi-selfish point of view, hearing people of the Jewish faith (especially those, like Mr. Rosensaft, who have a direct link to the horrors of World War II) speak up & advocate for GLBT people helps to remind the world that all kinds of people have long been victims of ignorance & irrational fear. I think it also helps to remind that part of the world who—by circumstance—are more casual observers in the worldwide battle for human rights understand that what homosexual people seek & aspire to is not really any different than those lofty (and sometimes even not-so-lofty) ideals that spring eternal in the breast of any of the other members of the family, homo sapiens.

Obama Invites Bishop Gene Robinson to pray at Inaugural Event

2009-01-12T14:10:00.006-05:00

President-elect Obama has invited openly-gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire to give the opening prayer at the inauguration ceremony this Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial .

I am sure there will be many people who will be discussing why Bishop Robinson was given this opportunity, and if the choice of Robinson was meant to counter-balance Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to give the Inauguration Day invocation, and the political implications thereof, but—for me personally—this is a huge step toward healing the hurt in my heart caused by even the inadvertent message sent to me by this man who will be President, and in whom I have placed so much of his nearly-trademarked hope, that I must yet again defer my dream of equality for the sake of political expediency.

I know that I’ve made my feelings about Rick Warren known here, and I won’t go into it any further, but I just wanted to say—in the same place where I made my displeasure over Warren known—how much I appreciate my new President hearing the concerns of so many GLBT people—and our wonderful, loving allies--about the kind of message Obama’s choice of Rick Warren was sending to those of us who had genuinely come to believe we could expect better from this President.

All this reminds me of a line I once heard or read somewhere that seems somehow apropos:

There is no sound, no voice, no cry in all the world that can be heard until someone listens.

Thank you, soon-to-be-President Obama for not just hearing us, but listening to us.

How Great Thou Art...How great, indeed!

2009-01-10T17:12:00.005-05:00

Today, I did a little YouTube surfing. Sometimes I get a song stuck in my head, and I just HAVE to find it on YouTube to satisfy my musical curiosity.

For whatever reason, today I was humming that long-time favorite, How Great Thou Art. I am not sure the last time I actually sat down & listened to or sang this beautiful song (beautiful in spite of the way I sing it! ;-).

In watching one of the random videos on YouTube for this song, I was reminded of one of the stanzas in the song that really got to me today, to wit:

And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burdens gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

I think that part of the song means more to me now than it ever has. I have traveled many a mile in my faith walk. I have endured so much & cried more than my share of tears. I promise I’m not boo-hooing or throwing a pity party for myself (again), because I know that anyone who has somehow managed to hold on to faith in a world not always faith-friendly, has had their own trials & their own challenges. I’m sure it’s difficult for anyone to cling to something so sublime & so physically insubstantial as faith. To believe in something that, by mere definition, is impossible to prove scientifically, can never be easy for any of us in the “modern age” (or of any age, really) where faster and faster & more complicated computers by the day, can derive a solution to nearly any problem or any question, but which cannot even begin to derive the value or the strength of faith. We come to count on a constantly advancing technology as a regular part of our every-day lives, and so, in an ever-more-cynical All-Information-All-The-Time world, it becomes too easy to doubt what we cannot see or prove. In the primordial battle between our hearts & our minds, where faith is concerned, only the open heart can foster that which is, at once, so ethereal yet--in order to sustain us & to guide us in who we are as human beings--so iron.

As much as I knew/know God loves me, and as much as I have loved my Lord since I came to know His name, I wouldn’t be entirely truthful if I told you that I never, ever doubted for a moment that those who claim to speak for Him might be speaking even a speck of truth when they blare from their pulpits their beyond-sure knowledge of my unacceptability in the Kingdom. Just as with many others like myself, I’ve never been able to take my status as a child of God for granted. It’s not easy trying to remind yourself every, single day that God loves you even if His people do not…or cannot…or will not. It’s really tough sometimes to keep holding on to a truth—and to a faith—when all the world seems to see things so completely differently—and insists so loudly that what makes you different is also what makes you fatally flawed. Maybe faith was never meant to be easy, and maybe it requires strength beyond what we mortal humans can muster by ourselves. From my own personal experience, I do know that, once its roots had taken anchor in my heart, my faith held on to me, even when I felt like I could not hold onto it much longer.

Of course, where this issue is concerned, I have become an expert at rambling (probably comes from all those years when I dared not utter a single word about what was going on on THIS side of the huge walls I stubbornly built around my own heart), but what the beautiful song, How Great Thou Art reminds me of today is that Jesus “bled and died” for even someone like me. That simple but stark & life-changing fact is why I am still here today…and why I still dare to Keep The Faith in spite of “the facts” that others create to try to separate me from God.

“They” may have their beloved “facts” & “they” may have the all-consuming pride of their secure knowledge of God’s heart. I will settle for having a simple truth…so simple, in fact, it’s sometimes easy to forget in the constant spiritual war without end: I’ve got the blood of the Lamb, and—while “they” may work feverishly at trying to convince me & the world otherwise—like that other old song goes, “No, no, they can’t take that away from me…”

Is it January 20th yet?!?!?

2009-01-09T18:07:00.002-05:00

Below, please find David Letterman's Top Ten Bush Moments.

My question is, how'd he narrow it down to just 10???

Who made HIM President?!?!? Oh, WE did!!

2009-01-04T07:50:00.008-05:00

I almost, kinda, sorta, a wee bit, feel guilty in posting this article from a website called 23/6, that reports on the absolute shock & fear that the same neo-cons & their enabling political pachyderm pals who blithely drove our country into the current ditch in which we find ourselves are enduing as they watch Barack Obama pick the people who will be running the federal government. My mother taught me to never gloat, so I very nearly hate to rub what is supposed to be a victory for the entire country (even the world) into the faces of those who have to be dragged kicking & screaming into the 21st century. They cannot believe that the President-Elect, to use 23/6’s words, “… isn't appointing the same people John McCain would have appointed if he had won.”

What the…???

Amazing how deep & dark runs the GOP stronghold State of Denial, isn’t it???

What nerve of Barack Obama to behave like he has not only won the election, but got the most votes of any US Presidential candidate ever!! I think there’s a pretty good reason for that, though: EX-MAVERICK-TURNED-BUSH-SIDEKICK, JOHN MCCAIN & HIS LIPSTICK-WEARING-PIT-BULL OF A SOUL MATE SARAH “THE MOOSE KILLER” PALIN ACTUALLY LOST THE ELECTION OF ‘08—even if “only” by about 9 ½ million votes!

I guess, since they long ago ran out of anything approaching real ideas & since they obviously have nothing constructive to add to the new national conversation, all the Republicans have left is whining & obstruction, and--if history is any indication—they’ll soon run both of those strategies together with their political fortunes & any real chance they have to be part of a badly-needed solution to the ugly mess they’ve worked so hard to create—even further into the ground before you know it.

While I'm not really one to encourage or offer hope to a political group who largely has no compunction whatever in promoting the idea of befouling our nation's most sacred document with the codification of a permanent second-class citizenship for GLBT people, perhaps all is not necessarily lost for the (formerly) "Grand" Old Party. In the link above to the 23/6 article, there's an awesome pie chart included that provides some pretty good advice to the remnants of Dubya's party, in case they still believe in life after (near-political) death.

One year and one day ago...

2009-01-04T07:31:00.005-05:00

January 3, 2008: The day the world (or, at least these United States of America) refused to stand still any longer...