Merit-bound Alley

The American Family Association has opened a form for other bigots to tell Hallmark how angry that are about Hallmark’s new line of gay marriage greeting cards.

What do you say we use that form to send some positive feedback to Hallmark? Mine is already sent.

I aim to misbehave.

h/t to Fark.com

South Carolina state government is getting into the religion business, and hardcore, too according to this story from the Charlotte Observer.

One creates license tags with “I Believe” in front of a cross; a second makes clear prayers can be offered before public meetings and a third allows set public displays of key historical legal foundation documents that would include the Ten Commandments.

Well, that runs the gamut, doesn’t it? Promoting Christianity specifically by offering only a cross on the license plate, promotion of religion in the government with a prayer, and allowing display of religious “legal” documents on public grounds.

Offering only the cross is pretty blatant, but the other two seem pretty general and maybe all-inclusive, don’t they? Yes, until we understand where the government is coming from on religious views:

What about Wicca, commonly referred to as witchcraft? “Well, that’s not what I consider to be a religion,” McGill said. And Buddhism? “I’d have to look at the individual situation. But I’m telling you, I firmly believe in this tag.”

Interesting. So, some small-minded bureaucrat will be making the decisions as to what counts as a religion. It’s good to see that they are putting so much thought into this. It’s plainly evident that the people creating and supporting these bills will be using them to put their particular brand of Christianity into the government. Should these unconstitutional bills pass, and somewhere down the line a Buddhist or a Wiccan wants a pentagram or fat guy on their license plate, the same people purtporting this as all-inclusive will be fighting the petitioners with the standard cry, “This is a Christian Nation founded on Christian principles!”

This is why complete separation of church and state is necessary. As soon as it even cracks a little bit, the religion with the most clout will take a sledgehammer to it, and in the process destroy the rights of everyone not part of the In Crowd.

Barack Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech (video, text) has begun to settle in on America’s collective self-conscience, over 4 million people watched the speech live and over 2 million have watched the speech on youtube. Obama’s speech personifies to me what it means to be a leader, what is means to be a visionary and what it means to be President of the United States.

More specifically, what the speech exemplified was not his repudiation of Rev. Wright’s remarks, not his explanation for the hurt felt by blacks and not his explanation for the resentment felt by whites; it was Obama’s call for Americans to open a constructive discussion about race. This discussion is needed to begin to heal the wounds of the past with a hope for the future.
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In a huge win for equal rights protection in the state of Delaware, SB 141 was voted to stay in committee on Wednesday, 6/20. I would like to give out special thanks to the following people:

Thurman Adams for having the strong moral fortitude for bravely assigning this bill to a committee that, not only had nothing to do with employment legislation, but also had enough opposition to the bill to ensure it never reached the floor. Good job, you disgusting bureaucrat!

John Still for his faith in the political process. “”This bill has now shown up in three different committees, some of which I haven’t served on, and it’s never gotten out. I’d say that shows the pro tem knows how to pick committees.” Let it be heard throughout the world that the skills of protecting a bill from the process of a democratic vote on the Senate floor is far more important to Mr. Still than equal rights in the workplace. This is a man of distinct and well-considered priorities.

Nancy Cook for keeping in touch with her constituents. “‘I am here to represent my constituents,’ Cook said. ‘I believe the majority of my constituents are opposed to the bill.’” It’s so heartening to hear that we have at least one Senator that believes she is in touch. A real woman of the people.

All of you, thanks so much for giving this piece of worthy legislation the hiding it deserves. All of you made yourselves part of what it means to be an American: making second-class citizens out of gays and lesbians. A worthier cause could not be imagined.

Oh and a special note of appreciation goes to Greenwood resident and former Delaware blogger Jordan Warfel.

“Gays are not made to sit at the back of the bus,” Greenwood resident Jordan Warfel said, calling the bill “socialism.”

Yes, gays and lesbians should not be unhappy about being refused the same workplace protections as other minorities, in fact, they should be thankful that we don’t treat them worse. Thanks, Jordan, for keeping your archaic and ignorant opinion out there!

I’ve had a very stimulating discussion with Dave Burris over at DelawareLiberal on the necessity of this bill. I want to take a moment that I enjoy discussing our different viewpoints with Dave. He always seems to have good points in favor of his views, which helps me think more deeply about the issue and we rarely resort to childish namecalling unless it’s really  funny.

At any rate, it seems that this bill, which adds sexual orientation to the current protections against discrimination in the workplace,  may finally see floor time. This is an interesting story. It seems in order to make sure this bill never saw the light of day, out favorite enemy of democracy Thurman Adams assigned this bill to the Senate Insurance and Elections Committee.

I’m sorry, where? Holy shit, we know this man resorts to slimy tactics to make sure any worthy legislation dies with hardly a whimper, but couldn’t he at least do us the courtesy of trying to hide it? Can the Delaware public really be expected to look the other way while Adams thumbs his cauliflower nose at us? Well, yes, that’s been proven time and again…. where was I?

Ah, equal workplace protection. You can read many of my quite brilliant points over at DL, but the conversation was ended abruptly by the juicier Oberle almost-scandal (which I would have linked if it hadn’t disappeared from the NJ… interesting). The main point, I feel is that if there is a workplace protection bill, it needs to cover all minorities. Everyone in the country deserves equal protection in the eyes of the law. It’s one of the strongest ideals upon which this country was founded.

Dave may not see the necessity of that, but I do. And it looks like a lot of legislators do as well.

Oh, and Wiccans can now have pentacles on their military graves.

Wicca is a fairly new religion in the grand scheme of things, and centers on a nature-based view of the world. It has gained a pretty large following in it’s 50 or so years, and is pretty fun to practice, if you like chanting and drums.

If you know any Wiccans in the military, congratulate them. It was a hard-won battle for them to get the same respect that is afforded to every other religion in the world (not including wacky cults like the New Heavens Gate and Scientology), and it was a deserved win.

And Bush is a giant asshole.

Governor of Massachussetts Mitt Romney is attempting to revoke the rights of gays to marry in his state, cravenly masking it as a gambit by the Massachussetts General Assembly to block the people from putting it up to a vote. According to this slimy bastard:

“The issue before us is not whether same-sex couples should marry. The issue before us today is whether 109 legislators will follow the constitution,” declared Romney, promising to send the 109 lawmakers a copy of the constitution and their oath of office to underscore his frustration. “Let us not see the state, which first established constitutional democracy, become the first to abandon it.”

Yes, let’s please forget the fact that he’s initiating this in order to take away the rights that had been granted by the state in 2004 for gays to marry. Let’s also forget that the Assembly is trying to keep the majority from voting on the rights of the minority. Mitt Romney is apparently the vaunted protector of the MA Constitution, not a hatemonger in power! What a, dare I say, Culture Warrior!

I don’t envy the position of the MA legislature. This smarmy piece of shit is making them choose between the Constitution of their state, and the Bill of Rights. Whether or not they allow the people to vote to revoke the right of gays to marry, they will be unwillingly turning their back on a constitutional law. So far, their hesitiation to allow this shows a commendable loyalty to Civil Rights, but how long can they hold out against the teeming, frothing masses of neo-conservative bigotry?

God, how slick! The kind of devious genius that the Governor is using for no better reason than to steal the hard-won rights of a minority. Don’t forget, in his demented mind, he’s the good guy:

Yesterday, though, Romney said there is no question that the majority of state legislators on Nov. 9 decided to “usurp the Constitution, to abandon democracy, and substitute a form of what this nation’s founders called tyranny” for the will of the people. He said the constitution “plainly states” that legislators must vote directly on petitions from citizens.

Note the strong words: usurp, abandon democracy, tyrrany. Sounds great unless you have held in your mind that his version of democracy means taking the right to marry away from a minority group, and his tyrrany is the GA’s struggle to defend the civil rights of a minority group. But, you were supposed to forget about that, because he’s simply defending the state constitution and not initiating a draconian bid against the rights of a minority.

I’ll leave you, dear reader, with a thought: it was never a basis of our legal system that the majority could dictate the rights of the minority. The rights of every single American are unalienable, tempered by the Bill of Rights against miserable attempts, such as this, of a majority to mandate the rights of a minority. Every attack on civil rights, successful or unsuccessful or unavailing, blatant or hidden, is an attack on the spirit of what we struggle for: peace and happiness for all. There is no peace when there is inequality.

UPDATE: 

…a spokesman for House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi said, “The speaker is not going to respond every time the governor stages a cynical political ploy designed to impress right-wing Republican voters in primary states.” (link)

Now, that’s a quote!

In 15 minutes, Progressive Voices will be starting, with a program about GLBT rights. Please listen in and contribute, as this could be a very important show.

Update:

I feel I must say that I don’t think there is a more noble purpose than equal rights for everyone in this country. I also feel, that in consideration of the answer I got from Larry Peterson, that he and the Haven group seem to be dropping the ball.

I called in to tonights Progressive Voices show. My question for the guests was (paraphrased), “What are you doing to educate todays candidates about the topics that are so important to you?”

Unfortunately, I was not completely satisfied with the answer, which seemed to be that they have a democratic group that talks to democrats about equal rights for gays. The Delaware Stonewalls are a group that:

is committed to working within the Democratic Party to assure that the Party lives up to its Platform of being an inclusive Party.

In a state such as Delaware, where there is no support for GLBT rights outside of the Dems, it falls to Haven to pick up the slack. Especially in a time such as this, where the rule of the incumbents could not be in more jeopardy, the GLBT community has the unique opportunity to educate all of the candidates to the issues that they represent. To limit themselves to the Democrats seems to me to be a huge oversight, especially when they have the resource of a young and idealistic candidacy.

Believe me, it pains me to criticize a group that I so agree with, but Haven needs to do more than preach to the choir. They need to start educating those that may not already agree with their message. They may find that many of this years candidates may support their message.

Equal rights for all Americans is not a point to be taken lightly, and Haven has a message than can change civil rights in this country. I hope they realize the potential for empowerment before this years election is over.