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California and Colorado connect in the middle of our home and family (by "our" I mean my partner and myself,) so I feel driven to jump up on my soapbox. Recently, the voters of CA effected my life because of the way they effected my partner's life. The two of us have different views on what Prop 8 means and what effect it will have in the long run for California and the rest of the (sometimes not so) United States. I love his passion about how the vote effects his friends and other Californians and I think it hurts him that the people of his "home state" would even consider putting such a bigoted proposition on the ballot (though they are not the first,) let alone voting to approve it. That passion makes it difficult for us to discuss. Like anyone else, gay or straight, I don't like seeing my partner being hurt by the actions of others. It frustrates me that I seem powerless to lessen his pain. Now, a little history. In 1992 there was a similar polarizing issue on the Colorado ballot:
Colorado Amendment 2.
Neither the state of Colorado, through any of its branches or departments, nor any of its agencies, political subdivisions, municipalities or school districts, shall enact, adopt or enforce any statute, regulation, ordinance or policy whereby homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships shall constitute or otherwise be the basis of, or entitle any person or class of persons to have or claim any minority status, quota preferences, protected status or claim of discrimination. This Section of the Constitution shall be in all respects self-executing.
Amendment 2 prevented any laws banning discrimination against gays, and would nullified gay rights laws in Aspen, Denver, and Boulder. Despite polling showing it would fail, Amendment 2 passed.On May 20, 1996, the United States Supreme Court struck down Amendment 2. Romer v. Evans is the foundational decision in favor of gay and lesbian civil rights.
Justice Kennedy's decision stated, in part:
"…the amendment imposes a special disability upon those persons alone. Homosexuals are forbidden the safeguards that others enjoy or may seek without constrain …Its sheer breadth is so discontinuous with the reasons offered for it that the amendment seems inexplicable by anything but animus toward the class that it affects; it lacks a rational relationship to legitimate state interests."
In Lawrence v. Texas, Romer v. Evans was the primary decision used to strike down the sodomy laws in Texas and other states. It struck down Bowers v. Hardwick. It is my sincere hope that the California Courts, and that any and all Federal Courts will follow the legal precedents established in Romer v. Evans that, "California Proposition 8 imposes a special disability upon those persons alone. Homosexuals are forbidden the safeguards that others enjoy or may seek without constrain …Its sheer breadth is so discontinuous with the reasons offered for it that the amendment seems inexplicable by anything but animus toward the class that it affects; it lacks a rational relationship to legitimate state interests." I also hope that the courts consider California's Constitution, Section 4, which states: "Free exercise and enjoyment of religion without discrimination or preference are guaranteed. This liberty of conscience does not excuse acts that are licentious (author: lacking legal or moral restraints) or inconsistent with the peace or safety of the State. The Legislature shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
I question whether some of the actions taken by organized religions within the State of California may actually violate Section 4 of the California Constitution.
I'd like to see all people take a stand for fairness. If LDS (and other) church members from inside and outside California can interfere in a state ballot measure (use money to fund manipulative advertising and blatant lies,) I see no problem with people outside California supporting a stand against bigotry and attempts to codify that bigotry into a state constitution.
You can do that on Sat 11/15 at 11:30 in Denver: http://www.myspace.com/427990852For information on what you can do in your area, see: http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/ Tags: "romer v. evans" "ca prop 2"
Current Location: Home Office
Current Mood:  hopeful
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Page 56 Meme* Grab the nearest book. * Open the book to page 56. * Find the fifth sentence. * Post the text of the next seven sentences in your journal along with these instructions. * Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
"This is the book that has shape us and will continue to shape us."(7) The bible is "the constitution of the Christian world",(8) "the ground of the world in which Christians live",(9) "the primary collection of ancient documents with which Christians are to be are to be in continuing dialogue. This continuing conversion is definitive and constitutive of Christian identity. If the dialogue ceases or becomes faint, then we cease to be Christian and become something else."(10) "To be Christian means to live within the world created by the Bible. We are to listen to it well and let its central stories shape our vision of God, our identity, and our sense of what faithfulness to God means. It is to shape our imagination, that part of our psyches in which our foundational images of reality and life resides.
(from: " Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church - Reclaiming the
Spirit of Jesus," Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, John Garratt Publishing, Victoria Australia, 4th Printing, Nov. 2007) That's was the book next to the laptop. If you are interested in the politics and power of sex and church's use and misuse of power, this book pretty much lays it out there. Tags: meme 56
Current Location: Home Office
Current Mood:  anxious
Current Music: None (CNN)
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I'm not a very good blogger. I go months without posting anything, but when I have something to say and don't know who I should say it to, it goes into a blog. Fair warning: [Open Rant Mode] So, for the third time in the last couple of months, some bone head with the best of intentions plasters my truck windshield with a two page, poor quality photocopy about supporting terrorism, being a damn Republican Bush/Chaney supporter, and driving gas guzzling polluting vehicles. Now there were a bunch of statements that could offend just about anyone on these two pages. Lots of anti-Arab bullsh_t and the typical half thought out ramblings that some public school educations produce. The part that really pissed me off was being called a Republican!! I might buy into being called a Libertarian. Now, I'm going to "assume" that this individual is just ignorant, but 1) My vehicle is a 1-ton dually 4 door Ranch Truck, NOT an SUV. 2) It doesn't burn gas, it's diesel. Right now its using 80/20 bio-diesel (I was up in "tree hugging Boulder, CO " for work, so I put $100 worth in the tank.) 3) Diesel engines produce more particulates, but less CO, NO and NO2 than gasoline engines. 4) My 6 cylinder Cummins gets 22-23 miles per gallon of diesel. As far as their waste paper, I put it in the compost bin with the kitchen scraps and the chicken shit from the poultry house. Oh yeah, this individual may want to rethink accusing a Vet from the 1st Gulf War of supporting terrorism. I spent 12 years defending the Constitution and free speech, but this person's "free speech" is inaccurate and libelous.  Current Location: Sitting at home
Current Mood:  irritated
Current Music: Carson Daly yapping on TV
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Today is one of those days that just sucks. I had to do something for all the right reasons, but that doesn't help the lump in my throat or the grief in my heart. Mickey, my ex's dog, started going downhill in November. His eyes went cloudy and his hearing seemed to be going. He seemed to have problems standing up and walking. Sometimes his hind legs seemed to give out and he'd fall on the floor. He started walking into walls, people, ... everything. He started having problems with propreception (the sense of knowing where your limbs and muscles are.) All in all, these are signs of some type of neurological problem. Last night, he stepped in his dog dish and broke one of his nails right out of the bone in his paw. He was bleeding everywhere and the bone in his paw was broken,. He didn't even feel it. I got the bleeding stopped, but decided it was time. I got up this morning and called the Denver Dumb Friends League and made an appointment. I could barely talk. I drove Mickey down to Denver. We stopped at Sonic and he had a couple of cheese burgers ... I couldn't eat. We got to the DDLF and I thought I was doing OK. Someone asked me what was wrong with him, and I said he was old and sick. Then I lost it. I have no problem bringing the cattle to auction, but dogs are different for me. I'm one of those people who allow dogs to become part of my family. He was one of my "kids." And he was the second one I lost this year. Today just sucked. I'm such a mess. Current Location: Home
Current Mood:  depressed
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[First the apology... I get beat on at work for something dumb and I take it out on LJ. Maybe someone feels the same way] I work for a company that wants you to "Know you are special!" They want people to "stop talking and start doing." They want me to innovate. Some of "them" also don't want me to change the way things are being done today. "Don't rock the boat!" Innovation without change...is it even possible? Sounds more like a daydream or a pipe dream (no, they weren't smoking anything.) If they had been, at least there would be some excuse. Is this like good thoughts and intentions without good deeds? I keep thinking of the tag line I use in my work email. Some people complain it is too long. I really wish they would read it rather than complain about the length.
"The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word because the eyes of others have no data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them....A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do." Considering that it was published in 1841 by Ralph Waldo Emerson in " Self Reliance and Other Essays," I amazed that it maintains its relevance. Maybe it is even more relevant today. It isn't the desire or intent...it is the action. Do something different....something unexpected. Do something that is outside your "orbit." Even though Samuel Johnson is often given credit for saying "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" in 1775, the real quote is much older: "Hell is full of good intentions and desires." -- Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153) I guess Albert Schweitzer may have had it right: "Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but to accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it." But damn...I hate it when they throw the rocks at me. http://www.davidandgoliathtees.com/games/throwrocks.htmlCurrent Mood: stressed
Current Music: Tick Tick Boom - The Hives
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