Thoughts on Gay Marriage

This is a letter that the daughter of a friend of mine wrote to another person expressing their view on gay marriage. When this friend of mine read it to a group of us, radiating an immense amount of pride at her daughter's well versed retort, I was also very impressed. This girl has a good head on her shoulders and I felt I had to share this with everyone else. In the light of such intense fighting on both sides of this issue and all the crap that you see at various political events (see picture), it's nice to hear someone argue their side so very well. The letter is used with the permission of all involved parties. Enjoy!

Having just opened the letter with a quick note on how she appreciated the person this letter is addressed to, she says-

... I just view it as not the place of the government to force the people of this country to believe or follow specific religions views on topics such as marriage. In this beautiful country of ours there is supposed to be a seperation of church and state. There are millions of people practicing many many different religions and it is not feasable for the government to make laws insisting people follow each and every one. This is the point of religious freedom in the US. So it is not the my place, or anyone's place to tell people what they should and should not believe or who they are or are not allowed to love and marry. Especially the government. 

And if it is decided that this religious belief is important enough to make laws based on then it should make laws on all aspects of it. On this Divine marriage belief then divorce, children out of wedlock, single parents, adoption, Vegas marriage chapels, adultery, tv shows featuring people competing for marriage and money payoffs and all other non-traditional marriage related actions should all be outlawed. It doesn't seem fair to single out sections of people to eliminate rights for while letting other people who are also not following the traditional marriage beliefs face no consequences. My fiancee is not Christian. In fact he practices Buddhism, not strictly but that is still what is printed on his dogtags. So ours is not a traditional marriage either. So should we lose our right to marry as well? Simply because he is a man and I am a woman it is allowed?

I feel since God creates all people. Then God must create gay people as well. By doing so then he is in a sense changing the definition of humanity. And then some other "rules" should be changed as well. I see God as an all accepting loving being. And I don't see him as the type to tell certain people that they do not have the same rights as others simply because they happen to fall in love with someone of the same sex. 

I just don't see it as my place, or anyones place, to eliminate millions of Americans rights to marry because they are different than I am. It won't affect my personal life, therefore it is not my place to say no it is not ok. At the end of the day, every single gay man and woman is still gay. Many are still in loving relationships. Still active members of their community. Still making this country great. Outlawing the benefits of their relationships doesn't make them hetrosexual. So who is it hurting to give them the same rights everyone else has?

I really didn't mean to start a debate on the topic, I'm just trying to explain my views on the matter so you have an understanding where I am coming from as well. There is just one question I have for you. If one of your children were homosexual would you not want them to be allowed to marry the person they loved?

Pretty well said. I, for my part, am cheering this girl on in any of her endeavors. 

Sarah Weddington

Last night I got to be in the same room with a little piece of history. That "history" was Sarah Weddington the lawyer who argued the side of Roe in the United States Supreme Court case Roe vs. Wade and was also the youngest person at that time to argue before the SC. While I am still riding on the excitement of getting to see this woman and haven't had any thoughts on the evening, this will be a short entry. 

Sarah Weddington spoke at the Planned Parenthood Center in Stapeleton yesterday after having spoken at other places around town in celebration of the 36th anniversary of the victory of Roe vs. Wade back in 1973. The impact that that event had on our nation's growth and the move forward that that gives to many different human rights issues is unbelievable. Sarah spoke on her experiences and how that has enabled her to continue to help women's rights movements since and also commented on further work to make sure that we as Americans have the freedom to make our own choices. 

Further thoughts on this even as well as Roe vs. Wade to come later. I'm still not awake. Lol

Another Tree-Hugging Blog Entry

Waking up in a foul mood can have a huge impact on how you look at the world around you that day. 

This morning I found myself awake at dawn suffering (oh, the melodrama) from a mild case of whatever the cat had yesterday. During the time spent taking her to the vet I was able to get a read on what the kitten was feeling and it felt like a mild case of the flu that we humans get from time to time. After getting the read, I didn't properly ground the energy picked up and got the full effect early this morning. Damn me and my energy work. 

After improperly waking up from an "acid" dream to a fucked up eye, a headache carried on over from the night before, and a disturbing loss of all sense of time and space I found myself in a really pissy mood. The wrong side of the bed is an aptly used phrase here. All ailments aside, I have no idea why my otherwise perky overcoat I typically wear to the world had completely dissolved on waking. This led to some morning meditation.

Lately, while meditating I have focused on what I want and need from my life. This has taken me to one specific routine that I usually just fall into where I can feel the bounty of the Earth rising around me. The Earth is full of wealth and fruit just waiting for the labor. Okay, I say to myself, then why am I having such a difficult time finding work? Well, the economy is shit, of course. But then I find answers coming to me that I didn't expect. 

It reaches much further than just the simple fact that we all have been severely fucked by the previous administration's foreign policies and bad management of the country we entrusted to them. No, it goes beyond that and comes back around to the simple fact we all hear everyday but don't realize its full meaning. We are slipping away from the Earth and all she holds for us. Through generations of development and progress we have forgotten where that all originated and why life even continues today. In our loss of connection with the Earth we have lost our connection to those responsibilities so often talked about in many of the major religious texts and spiritual teachings. That of our job of caring for the Earth and tending it as co-existing entities on it's surface. 

Like a parasite we have crawled across the surface, penetrating beneath the skin, sucking the life and resources from the beautiful planet we live on. In our pollution of the atmosphere, our hording and free-reign destruction of forests, lakes, and oceans, the extinction of so many different animals, and our day to day lack of concern for the well being of those around us, just to name a few, we have failed to uphold our end of the bargain handed down through generations since our first moment of birth in this world. We forget that basic law of cause and effect and have only recently begun to take stock of what we have done. What will be the effects of this thing we have caused?

It is my opinion and belief that the Earth can take care of herself. And if she continues to feel the desecration of her being and the rampant lack of concern for her well being, she will adjust and adapt to take care of the problem. That problem is us. Nature has a way of causing disaster in order to bring new life. It's evident in our forest fires, earthquakes, and climate shifts. From death comes rebirth. From each rotting corpse comes fertile soil and the chance for a new growth. She is powerful, she is a mother, and she will kick our ass until we shape up or are gone completely replaced by a new caretaker and cohabitant. 

What the fuck does this have to do with morning meditation and seeing the riches around us? Good question. Each person has the ability to make the future for themselves that they desire and if we wish to feel the simple joys of a life well lived, a life of fulfillment on a material level, maybe even on a spiritual level, then we need to reconnect with the bounty of the Earth around us put out the labor to reap the fruits. We need to realize that our day to day actions have a universal impact through our interconnection with each other and make those small changes to create a better future for ourselves and each other. 

After a simple morning meditation my mood is hardly improved, but my outlook on tomorrow, heck even today, is improved and with further focus and study and meditation I can start to see how I can be in better control of my future and start doing my part to return to the Earth the love that has been so freely given from day to day. 

So ends my pissed off insights. 

Exactly Two Days Later...

Oh, I am so good. Look at me, the pro blogger posting new entry just two days after the last one! Lol

I was contemplating today all the things I really want to do in 2009 that I failed to do last year. I was lucky enough to conquer more territory in my travels around the U.S. last year with a trip to New York state. That means that I've been all over most of the mid west, eastern, and southern parts of the States with everything beyond the Rocky Mountains to the west to see now. Unfortunately, I did not get to see California last year like I wanted to, but I did get some great photos of the north eastern part of the country and will post those at some later date when they've all been fixed and categorized. But on to the things my little black heart desires for '09. 

Besides a new job, car and apartment that I mentioned in my last entry, I really would love to be able to purchase a bike this year. I see myself leaning more and more towards a greener way of life and really am jazzed about the physical benefits of riding a bike. 

I've also found myself missing my old partying lifestyle. While I have no desire to go back to the drunken, sexless nights of my first year here in Colorado, I really have no desire to lose touch with the local bar scene and hoppin', club nightlife. The faint smell of smoke in a bar full of rum, vodka and tequilas has hit me a few times in the last month and I really do miss it. It's a special feeling and I will be doing my best to reconnect with my inner Brian. 

I am looking forward to a more diverse job field this year too. I know this is flopping back to the "I want a new job for '09" thing I left in the last entry for a good reason, but as a Gemini the experience of a new working 

atmosphere has got me all giddy like a pre-pubescent schoolboy on glue. 

I am determined to accomplish some new feat in my knitting hobby pool this year and with the very exciting prospects of starting a new knitting group (OMG Kelly, another knitting group!) with some friends I'm sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to find that special thing. My goal is fewer scarves and more Anticraft! Lol

I say every year that I want to get in shape and look hot, blah blah blah, but it's one of those things you have to believe-it-when- you-see-it. I'll just leave it at that. No sense in even getting all nutso about it here and screwing it up later when I have failed utterly. Again! Actually it's just a good excuse to slip in a pic of a hot shirtless guy. Agh! My plan is foiled by my own inane babble!

I did some work with my coven last year, just basic classes, and I am getting very excited about starting back up again. It's all tied in with getting a job, of course, but I am in a very spiritual state of mind lately and want to get back into pagan action quickly. Personal studies have gotten me far in life, thus far, but a good teacher is to be prized and I feel a little balance, as I see it, is needed in my life. Nothing like resolving to take better control of you life!

I would also like to build some bridges with my family this year too. As estranged as they are, I have had them on the brain and feel that this could be a good year to do some repairs. I have no big expectations, but it would be nice to get a call from the 'rents from time to time. I may be expecting miracles but I do have a spark of hope. In the meanwhile, I have a great group of friends and adopted family that I am pretty fond of, so I'm good. Lol

This is a mass of unconnected paragraphs I have realized. Hopefully you all are coming back from time to time and managing to last all the way through these posts. If you are, you're insane. But I love you. If you don't and just skipped to the end accidentally, a pox be on you and your slimy spawn. 

And like a Gemini with A.D.D., I'm heading off to other shiny baubles! In the common streak of the week I bid you all a g'day and scream a hearty "for the love of Ganesh!" 'Cause we all love the elephant-headed god. 

Exactly A Month Later...

...I return! Gods, I'm lame. True, I have been in a bit of a slump. But I think things are turning around. 

Two thousand and nine promises to be a good year in many ways. Numerology-wise my numbers are matching up this year with the energy coming in. It promises to be a year of global importance in the area of awareness and higher thought. According to this article I found in the Global Pagans Online forum, 2009 is a Universal 11 year which we have not seen since 1910. The energy brought in by this highly important number will have people asking big questions of themselves and looking deeper into the "why's" of their spiritual sides. For a Gemini like myself this will sync up nicely with my own personal horoscope forecast for the the year. The planets are in place to bring some good shit in this year. Double whammy for me, it looks like. 

With my good news out of the way, let me just say that 2008 was a crash landing into crappolla of the pretty nasty kind. We hit the bottom on many levels and I'll spend the first quarter of this year recovering. However, coupled with the good news in paragraph two, I've found positive ways of looking at it and have found many of the green grasses hidden under the cow pies. It's amazing how good it feels cutting ties to bad juju from your past. I've done some damn fine chopping. Some of it forced, but all of it fun. 

Swinging along with the "2008 was blah blah, and 2009 was blah blah" of the two pseudo relationships and many (cough record setting cough) one-time encounters, I've walked into '09 with no attachments and no plans to really do anything about it anytime soon. Yes, I'm still a horny fucker. Not that you wanted to know that, but I just raped your eyes with it so deal. But I've decided to move back to that point where I pursued dating a little more logically than last year. Dating. Hardly. 

Hobby-wise, I've recently all but finished my red scarf and am getting ready to work on a charity project for the troops on duty. Pictures will most likely follow if I can motivate myself to post anything. Yeah right. If you are on Ravelry, you'll see them sooner. Speaking of Ravelry, I have taken up some activity in the groups I've joined but am starting to fall off the wagon again. It comes and goes. The more projects I actually finish will spur me to post again, I am sure. 

The hunt for a car and apartment should take up the better first part of this year. Both of these contingent on getting a job. We here at Shawn Inc. are hoping for some work here soon in the temp field and then something a bit more permanent after that. This year promises to be good for my online tarot business and we are keeping our fingers crossed. 

Since this is turning into a rather lengthy (STFU cretins in the back!) entry, I'm going to cut it short here. Mostly because I'm a Gemini and getting bored with myself. And I want to smoke. And get some water. And play with my cards. More tomorrow where I will talk about my goals for the year, trends in sprituality I can or can't see coming, and just how full of shit I am. 

Now back to your boring daily lives. And remember- breathe in, breathe out.