February 2, 2011
Here is a great film called “The Consequence of Oil” made by Mark Manning of Global Access Media.
The film shows the US and BP mismanagement and covering-up of the real and continued damages to the ecology and peoples of the Gulf.
See more from Global Access Media here:
http://www.globalaccessmedia.org/index.html
January 9, 2011
I hope that other marriage rights advocates will join me in putting away charges of hate against those who would discriminate against us, our loved ones, our fellow Americans.
Recently, Matthew Franck of the William E and Carol G Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution at the Witherspoon Institute wrote an essay in the Washington Post asking that advocates of personal liberty not “play the hate card”. I promise that I will not ‘play the hate card’ and I also will ask that others will join me.
Why? Because my goal is the fair and equal treatment of LGBTQ folks and their families and I know the law is on our side. I know from history that with consistent hard work of justice minded people, the Constitution will protect individuals from the tyranny of the masses. We are not backing down and the wheels are set in motion–with our perseverance and courage and social justice co-laboring and allied work we will win what is rightly due.
So I will be as kind, compassionate, and understanding as I can be as we continue on our righteous path.
Just as we justice workers have learned the language difference between:
“You are a racist” versus “What you just said sounded racist”
we can learn to approach our those who would withhold liberty by not calling them hateful or bigots.
Franck in his essay says he and others feel tired of being compared to those who stood in the way of civil rights and supported anti-miscegenation laws. While we don’t need to compare Franck and detractors of liberty to those movements, we can most likely agree that Franck and many members of those past movements were honestly doing their best. They had good intentions, were motivated by perhaps their faith, their care for the nation, their care for society. That is a hard pill to swallow, but gay marriage advocates would do well to accept that for any given individual from the ‘traditional marriage’ movement, it may be love (albeit misguided and twisted) not hate that is motivating them.
This is to our favor to recognize. Who better to speak the language of love than those who wish to marry and their loving allies? We know what it is to love, so let us engage them at the level of love. Franck may be right on this point: call someone a ‘hater’ and the conversation is pretty much over. Begin to share to your experience of love and romance, and you may well have their attention.
A few words about ‘hate’:
So while I’m not going to level charges of hate against individuals, I think it is important to see why the use of ‘hate’ has been used to describe the anti-liberty movements.
1. Hate speech laws. Hate speech laws need not investigate the interior emotional state of a person or their disposition towards the aggrieved party. All that is needed is proof that there may incite prejudiced action or violence, or may be libelous towards a lawfully protected group. When an individual advocates the discrimination of a protected group, it can be valid to investigate whether their actions qualify as hate speech. It is always well for us LGBTQ folk and allies to remember to remind our detractors that we would do the same if someone sought to discriminate against them. We can remind them: “Its not personal. I’m just standing on the side of righteousness and justice. If you ever are denied justice, I’ll be in your corner too.”
2. ‘Hate’ has a variance of meaning. For example, Jesus said that to follow him, one had to hate their parents. That doesn’t mean one must scowl at their parents and begrudge them. Many preachers and commentaries have pointed out that Luke 14:26 says one must ‘hate their family’ as well as their ‘own life’ and simply means that one must ‘value with less esteem’ or with ‘lower priority’ these than the Divine. By Jesus use of hate, is it hateful what Franck and the Witherspoon Institute are doing? Well, being made into a second class citizen would seem a bit like being given ‘lower priority’. Discrimination and poor treatment need not have ‘gut feelings’ of anger, spite, vitriol. Again, we advocates for marriage equality would do well to remember we cannot see the inner state of another. We can take a page out of the Christian scriptures some like to use as a weapon: “judge not”.
I’m happy to put aside “hate” because US law and the common grounds of reason are on our side.
If ‘hate’ language like Mr. Franck says, stops a debate I won’t use it because I am assured that the grounds of reasoned debate will favor LBGTQ families.
Be very sure of this: just because I won’t use the “hate card” doesn’t mean I will stand by for a minute and allow any word or deed that may incite violence or disparage my loved ones. In the public arena through compassionate debate and vigorous social justice action and through applying all the laws that protect against discrimination, I will be steadfast against those who would molest liberty and my loved ones’ full enjoyment of life.
Our cause is assured and our goal is near. Just because some oppose me does not mean I need make of them my enemy. When this issue is settled I will extend to them the very Christian forgiveness and love that they seemed unwilling to share to us.
NPR’s coverage of Franck’s essay:
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/21/132235150/the-word-hate-ends-debate-on-gay-marriage
Matthew Franck’s essay in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/17/AR2010121702528.html
December 6, 2010
December 2, 2010
Thank God. Finally someone had the courage to say what we’d all been thinking.
Sarah Palin absolutely nailed the First Lady for trying to step into our families’ busniess by telling us what we should and should not be doing.
Sarah Palin knows that we all have our God Given Rights and Freedom!
Freedom is free, but it ISN’T CHEAP!..Just like God’s grace. Yes, Jesus loves you for being who you are but who you are had better be hetero.
Sarah Palin is a political genius and could win just about any middle school’s popularity contest. She is a wunderkind compared to kids!
In a recent radio interview, Palin just NAILED First Lady Nancy Reagan’s Big Government bullying us around. Criticizing her anti-drug campaign Palin said:
“What she is telling us is she cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should smoke and inject…instead of a government thinking that they need to take over and make decisions for us…just leave us alone, get off our back, and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions and then our country gets back on the right track.”
Palin also SLAMMED Hillary Clinton’s campaigns for women’s rights saying:
“What she is telling China and other oppressive countries is she cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own daughters, for their own families in what sweat shops they should be sent to…instead of a government thinking that they need to take over and make decisions for us…just leave women alone, get off our back, and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions and then our country and countries that want to stone adulterers get back on the right track.”
Palin DESTOYED Barbara Bush’s literacy campaign by burning a copy of “Tom Sawyer”.
Palin did however praise Laura Bush’s support of the National Anthem Project because “America is exceptional. Its like…American exceptionalism. Refudiate. Twitter. America.”
Alongside keepin’ it real and politickin’ like whoa, Palin is currently filming a new TV series with Animal Planet tenatively titled “Spoor Love”.
November 30, 2010
Hillary Clinton broke through a door at a press conference in Washington DC this morning, roaring and holding a donkey’s jawbone.
“Honesty will never prevail.” She said in her prepared response to the most recent WikiLeaks release of diplomatic cables.
Addressing WikiLeaks spokesperson Julian Assange directly, Clinton bemoaned “We’re trying to spin a web of lies over here. And you just angered the spider. To be perfectly clear: I have a venom producing gland.”
The diplomatic cables have been upsetting to some nations around the world as they contain such statements from US embassies and diplomatic envoys as: “You hear about the King of Sweden? Yeah, he totally stuffs!” and “Dude, you know that little island country in the Mediterranean? Is it Malta? Is Malta in the Mediterranean? Anyway. Dude, the club scene there is kicking!”
At the closing of Clinton’s press conference, she promised: “We will never stop lying to you, world. We will never stop hiding information from you. Our covert missions and our backdoor dealings and our deceit will never end. That I can promise you. I will make that bad bad WikiLeaks pay.”
October 6, 2010
Many of us who live in U.S. urban and suburban environments are now witnessing the twilight of the U.S. Car Culture.
This current car culture I characterize by:
a) privately owned vehicles
b) which get less than 100 miles per gallon of gas
c) are the primary transportation for a individual or family
d) are not ‘smart linked’ to an organizing network enabling hands free driving
e) weigh an average of more than 1,800 pounds
In the interests of the health of our world, our local communities, our families, and ourselves it is a very good thing that all five of these current features of
our U.S. car culture will be going extinct for many areas.
This post will gather information of why we all have cause to celebrate the end of the old way of U.S. car culture and encourage you to quicken the pace of the change through your own political voice and action. Web sources will be available below as well as book citation.
THE OLD WAY OF DOING CARS IS HORRIBLY EXPENSIVE AND ISN’T WORTH IT
In 2004 the average household spent 17% of their income on car ownership and operating costs per year.
In 1996, car loans represented one third of all consumer debt (Alvord 102).
Because of depreciation, a new car costs you almost 15 dollars a day whether it is used or not (Alvord 102).
In 2000, repairs and maintenence averaged around 750 dollars a year per car (Alvord 102).
BUT THERE’S MORE HIDDEN COSTS!
Parking lots and garages, tolls, parking tickets, speeding tickets, ‘upgrades/bells and whistles’.
Taxes subsidize road and driver infrastructure.
“Researcher Douglass Lee calculates that U.S. taxpayers contribute over $41 billion a year to cover the road costs that drivers don’t (Alvord 105).”
“Friends of the Earth estimates that oil production, health and property damage, and related clean-up costs the U.S. about $10 billion yearly (Alvord 107).”
“Congestion costs may total as much as $168 billion a year in the U.S. (Alvord 107).”
“American motorists pay $52 billion a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs, and $230 billion a year for medical costs, lost productivity, travel delay, workplace costs, insurance costs, and legal costs stemming from motor vehicle accidents.”
http://cpr.ca.gov/CPR_Report/Issues_and_Recommendations/Chapter_4_Infrastructure/INF20.html
Commuting a total of 1.25 hours a day will cost you about 28,ooo dollars a year in opportunity cost (time missed from actually working).
http://steve-olson.com/the-high-cost-of-commuting-to-work/
OUR CURRENT CAR CULTURE COSTS TOO MUCH IN HUMAN SUFFERING AND DEATH
| Killed in car accidents | 42,116* |
| Killed by the common flu | 20,000* |
| Killed by murders | 15,517* |
| Killed in airline crashes (of 477m passenger trips) |
120 (1) |
| Killed by lightning strikes | 90* |
| (1) Annual average over 19 year period. *Average annual totals in United States.  |
|
http://www.unitedjustice.com/death-statistics.html
Researchers found that artery wall thickening among people living within 100 meters (328 feet) of a Los Angeles highway progressed twice as quickly as those who lived farther away.
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006946.html
“…minute sooty particles, emitted largely from the burning of diesel and other fuels and inhaled deeply into the lungs, shortens lives by seven to eight months. In pollution hotspots like areas of central London and other cities, the particles could be cutting vulnerable people’s lives short by as much as nine years.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/22/air-pollution-deaths
How will you speed the transition to better transportation and standard of living?
Alvord, Katie. “Divorce Your Car: Ending The Love Affair With The Automobile” (Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers. 2000)
October 6, 2010
In 2010, the biggest health insurance companies have given three times the cash to Republican lawmakers than Democrats.
They’re also paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobbyists closest to Republicans.
Why the love?
Insurance companies like the new health care law which states that individuals have to pay a fine to opt out of having insurance.
(That opt out will cost 95$ in 2014 and 695$ in 2016)
That’s not the issue. The companies just want the opt out to cost more.
Insurance companies like that more folks will be covered with health insurance.
That’s not the issue. The companies just want to deny your children coverage, quit coverage when you get sick, and pay very little if you’re sick for a long time.
Writes Noam Levey, “Insurers in the past have been able to count on the GOP, which often helped shape the market to the industry’s specifications…With the help of GOP legislation, insurers also have increasingly shifted costs to consumers through high-deductible plans…And Republicans have pushed to allow insurance companies to sell their plans across state lines, avoiding state regulations.”
So, it seems that Republican candidates and lawmakers are good on their promises: “You pay us enough money and we’ll get you a profit.”
If affordable and effective health insurance is what you want for your family, does the GOP deserve your vote?
From:
Noam N. Levey “Health Insurers Pour Money Into GOP Campaings, Hoping To Limit New Regulations”
Los Angeles Times. Tuesday October 5th 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-health-politics-money-20101005,0,4869233.story
October 1, 2010
The Human Rights Council has concluded that Israel violated the Geneva Conventions when it descended upon
the humanitarian aid ship Mavi Marmara.
In a report from the Human Rights Council, Israel was found to have committed:
willful killing
torture or inhuman treatment
sexual humiliation
willfully causing great suffering
and arbitrary execution.
Furkan Dogan, a 19 year old American civilian who was aboard the Mavi Marmara when the Israeli forces attacked the ship in international waters was found to be executed at point blank range by the Israeli special forces.
Furkan was videotaping the event when he was shot a number of times including the head, back, and leg. Forensic evidence reveals that he was laying on his back in a semi-conscious state when he was shot point blank in the face.
Five others were killed execution style.
The question must be asked: will the U.S. stand idly by as Israel breaches international law and executes one of its citizens? What kind of reaction would North Korea or any other country receive from the U.S. if they illegally boarded a humanitarian aid boat and executed an unarmed U.S. citizen? When will the U.S. decide that unquestioning support for Israel is obviously untenable at this time until great recourse has been made in this matter?
http://www.groundreport.com/Politics/Israel-Found-Guilty-of-Massacre/2929381
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/25/gaza-flotilla-aid-attempt
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/un-factfinding-mission-sa_n_743873.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mavi_Marmara_Massacre#Legal_assessments
|
