Monday, October 27, 2008

Mormons for Marriage

A part of me will always be mormon, and the part of me that is, is proud of the courageous members of the LDS church who have stood up to oppose Prop 8 in California.

From their website:

For all its failings in particular cases, and for all the stress it has borne lately, marriage is the great civilizing institution. No other institution has the power to turn narcissism into partnership, lust into devotion, strangers into kin. What other force can bond across clans and countries and continents and even cultures? In Romeo and Juliet, it was not the youths’ love which their warring and insular clans feared; it was their marriage. (Jonathan Rauch, Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights and Good for America)

I know we have a long way to go as a community, but when people step forward as our allies and choose to risk the wrath of their church, they inspire me to believe we have come farther than we realize.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Why Women Should Vote


(This came across my desk as one of those email forwards but it was still moving.)

It was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote.

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive.

Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.' They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women. Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right
to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

Movies like Iron Jawed Angels can really bring this to life. It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.'

Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote.

History is being made.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

We made the Vice Presidential Debate!

I was shocked to hear Joe Biden say the words "gay and lesbian" on national television. While I am not in mind to agree the glass ceiling in politics has been broken or cracked, things are definitely changing. Our country is engaging in a national debate about what we value in our communities. Of course, what's taking center stage is the economy and the current corporate welfare program we are choosing to fund. Why is it that hungry children and single moms are considered irresponsible if they need government assistance but hungry banks clearly need to be fed, for the betterment of our country, when they start to fail? I'm not a fan of capitalism's encouragement of greedy behavior. And listening to executives defend themselves "no, I didn't get paid $500 million dollars over the last three years, I only got $310 million" is mind boggling to me. Who actually NEEDS $300 million to survive? At that point, it was just a way of keeping score. So why didn't they keep score by using a notepad?

And the truth is, greed doesn't pay over the long term. Look at Costco, a company that shows strong, consistent profits. The CEO of Costco makes only double what a store manager makes, about 1/10 the salary of most CEOs of larger companies. Most Costco employees receive health insurance and make enough money to live comfortably. And they continue to outsell companies like Walmart that over compensate their Execs and underpay their employees.