The Republic of T.

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for May 28th through May 30th:

• Blacks in Space –
• ‘The Mormons Are Coming’ –
• Marriage: A Question of Rights, Not Politics –
• A new path to gay equality –
• Why Our Troubled Economic Times May Spell Disaster for Your Marriage –
• Domestic Disturbances: The Outsiders Are In –
• The Right’s Supreme Court Complex –
• Sonia Sotomayor, the New Face of America –
• Stinson Carter: When the People Are Wrong — A Son's Defense of His Father's Gay Marriage –
• Roberta Lee: Guns in Parks – What are We Thinking? –
• It's Not a Gay Issue –
• Deepak Bhargava: Health Insurance You Can Trust –
• Another clue to the identity of the Anti-Christ –

ii

What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.

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We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation.

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In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

The proponents of Proposition 8 are, of course, pleased with the outcome.

Gay marriage opponents, who in recent months have seen four more states join Massachusetts in extending marriage rights to gays and lesbians, praised the ruling.

“The voters have decided this issue and their views should be respected,” said Andrew P. Pugno, a lawyer for ProtectMarriage.com, the leading group behind the initiative.

Proposition 8 proponents do not plan to challenge the existing gay marriages that were protected by the court, Pugno said.

“We see it as really a minor point in ultimately the will of the people being upheld,” he said.

“The voters have decided,” they’re fond of saying. Or “The voters have spoken.”

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i

Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

The morning of November 5th, 2008, was bittersweet. I awoke that morning, after Barack Obama’s historic, with a sense of hope diminished by a nagging despair following the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which attempted to snatch away the equality that that the state Supreme Court granted to same-sex couples just months ago. The Obama campaign slogan, “Yes we can,” was transformed into “Yes we did,” by revelers in the streets of D.C. and in other locations across the country and around the world. I couldn’t honestly join in the celebration without also reminding myself that “No, we didn’t.”

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OK. Rob Thomas was never all that hard to like. (At least not as far as I’m concerned. He’s easy on the eyes, and many of his songs work quite well for my voice, on the occasional karaoke night).

But then he goes and writes stuff like this, and makes it even easier to like him.

I am a person who believes that people are born gay. I don’t think you have any control over what moves you or to whom you’re attracted. That’s why it’s called an attraction and not a choice.

I believe that America is a great nation of even greater people. I also believe that anyone who says that this is a “Christian nation” has RHS, or revisionist history syndrome, and doesn’t realize that most of our founding fathers were either atheist or at least could see, even in the 1700s, that all through Europe at the time, religion was the cause of so much persecution that they needed to put into their brand new constitution a SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE so that the ideals of a group of people could never be forced onto the whole. (I also find it funny when people point out to me that it says “one nation under god” in our pledge of allegiance, not realizing that this was an addition made in 1954 during the communism scare of the McCarthy era. It’s not surprising, however, knowing that these same people would punch me in the mouth if I called Jesus a Jew.)

I believe the fact that an atheist, who doesn’t believe in God at all, is allowed to enter into the holy land of marriage while a gay Christian is not, shows that this law is arbitrary. Are we to believe that anyone who doesn’t live their life according to the King James Bible isn’t protected by the same laws that protect those who do? Using the same argument that I’ve seen on the 700 Club, that would mean that Jewish, Hindu, or Muslim weddings are also null and void.

I believe that to deny this right to the gay population is to say to them, “this god is not your god and he doesn’t love you.” There isn’t one person who is against gay marriage that can give me a reason why it shouldn’t be legal without bringing God or their religion into it. Still, I’m amazed at the audacity of a small, misdirected group of the ultra-conservative Christian right wing, to spend millions of dollars, in a recession, on advertisements to stop two men or women who love each other from being able to be married, but when you present any opposition to them, they accuse you of attacking their religion. Isn’t it funny that the people who are the quickest to take someone’s basic rights to happiness are always the loudest to scream when someone attacks their right to do so?

But this isn’t a paper about religion. How could it be? Since we clearly have a separation of church and state, how could a conversation about laws have anything to do with religion at all? I’m writing about basic civil rights. We’ve been here before, fighting for the rights of African Americans or women to vote, or the rights of Jewish Americans to worship as they see fit. And, just as whites fought for African Americans or Christians for Jewish Americans, straight people must stand up and be a voice for gay people.

Talented, good looking, and a straight-guy-who-gets-it?

I long ago gave up getting serious crushes on straight guys. But guys like this one have my respect and admiration.

[Ed. Note: WARNING. Graphic Pictures Below Fold. NSFW. Possible Trigger.]

Word is, at least one of the pictures the Obama administration decided not to release shows an American soldier raping a female prisoner.

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

The graphic nature of some of the images may explain the US President’s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published.

Maj Gen Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the President’s decision, adding: “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.

Not that it pleases me in the least to say, but …

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for May 27th through May 28th:

• The Audacity of Hopelessness –
• A Wise Person for the Court –
• A Justice for Us All –
• The Empathy Dodge –
• Joe Peyronnin: Reverse Thinking –
• Chris Weigant: Republicans' Other Latino Problem –
• California Was The Future –

Well, she’s right. He was definitely kinda cute. (Heck, I’d have given him a second look.)

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for May 26th through May 27th:

• Obama Caves to ‘Scaredy-Cat Nation’ –
• Navarrette: Sotomayor made it on her own –
• Andy Ostroy: Shame on You California –
• On the Bangs and Whimpers of the Prop 8 Decision –
• How – and Why – Barack Obama Picked Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court –
• California Was The Future –
• The cost of gay marriage – in dollars and cents –
• Defending John Yoo –
• How Can We Expect an Industry That Profits from Disease and Sickness to Police Itself? –
• Former Interrogator Slams Cheney Over Torture Policy –
• The GOP’s Misguided Attack on Sonia Sotomayor –
• mandrake society radio » Black and gay activism: just some of my story. –

Nancy Griffith has long been a favorite artist of mine, ever since my college days of deejaying at WUOG, the student run radio station where I first played “Love at the Five and Dime”…and loved it.
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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for May 25th through May 26th:

• The CIA’s History of Deception –
• Think Who Might Be 45th President –
• Colin Powell Skates Free on Torture –
• Sam Schulman Doesn’t Know Any Gay People –
• AN ANTI- SUPERSTITION CAMPAIGN MANIFESTO FOR AFRICA –

Update: The ruling is in. Basically, they split the baby. The good news is that there are 18,000 gay and lesbian Americans who are that much closer to full U.S. citizenship status.

I’ll have more later, after I’ve had some time to read the decision and think about it. So, as usual, I’m not going to be one of those bloggers with a new post up immediately after the news breaks. It’s going to take me a little longer.

Today’s the day.

The California Supreme Court will rule this morning on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage.

The decision will be made public at 10 a.m. at the courthouse in San Francisco and on the court’s website.

My heart is in my throat, and I’m holding my breath. I don’t think I’ll be able to concentrate on much today until I get the news.
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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for May 21st through May 25th:

• The Benefits of Distraction and Overstimulation — New York Magazine –
• Do Conservatives Actually Believe Their Own Lies? –
• Letter on Africa: Wrestling With Ghosts of Colonialism –
• Travel: The Slave Castle of Ghana | Newsweek Travel | Newsweek.com –
• The Poor Will Always Be With Us –
• Why Do Christians Worship Greed? –

For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.

~ Audre Lourde

The other reason I finally felt the need to speak about the collision between marriage equality and the homophobia of some African-Americans is more personal.

The gay men in Bishop Alfred Owens’ congregation who felt they “had no choice” but to participate in the degradation and denial of their own humanity are not alone. It’s a performance that takes place in some form or fashion every Sunday, in black churches (and beauty shops or barber shops, for that matter) across the country, which Michael Eric Dyson captured in his essay “The Black Church and Sexuality.”

One of the most painful scenarios of black church life is repeated Sunday after Sunday with little notice or collective outrage. A black minister will preach a sermon railing against sexual ills, especially homosexuality. At the close of the sermon, a soloist, who everybody knows is gay, will rise to perform a moving number, as the preacher extends an invitation to visitors to join the church. The soloist is,in effect, being asked to sign his theological death sentence. His presence at the end of such a sermon symbolizes a silent endorsement of the preacher’s message. Ironically, the presence of his gay christian body at the highest moment of worship also negates the preacher’s attempt to censure his presence, to erase his body, to deny his legitimacy as a child of God.

… the black church, an institution that has been at the heart of black emancipation, refuses to unlock the oppressive closet for gays and lesbians. …Black Christians, who have been despised and oppressed for much of our existence, should be wary of extending that oppression to our lesbian sisters and our gay brothers.

That performance is the price some of us pay to remain in or part of the communities we started out calling home.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for May 19th through May 20th:

• If gay marriage isn’t such a big deal anymore, then maybe the religious right isn’t, either. –
• Bertha Lewis: "Lupus Isn't the Only Thing Eating Me Up About Health Care" –
• Jaime Pozuelo-Monfort: We Need More Tax Justice –
• Our unending war of terror –
• What Are We Fighting For? –
• Gay marriage turns a corner –
• John Cusack’s Email to Obama’s Blackberry: You’re in Power, Don’t Let Cheney’s Torture Crew off the Hook –
• Op-Ed Columnist: War’s Psychic Toll –

For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house…

~ Audre Lourde

That’s for Marion Barry, a number of D.C.’s black ministers, and many African-Americans who seem to need the reminder.

When the D.C. city council voted to recognize same-sex marriage, I blogged about it. I didn’t blog about the theatrics that ensued afterwards.

I knew about it. I read about it. But I didn’t comment on it for a couple of reasons, until now.

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Listen to Tony Lagouranis, author of Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator’s Dark Journey Through Iraq, describe what he witnessed and did in Iraq.

One of the most disturbing things abut Lagouranis’ book is that over and over again he expresses concern — and makes a convincing case — that many of the people picked up and exposed to our "enhanced interrogation techniques were merely petty criminals at best, or at worst completely innocent of any crime or violence.

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Eric Holder was right. We are a nation of cowards.

One might say that Attorney General Holder is proving himself to be part of that “nation of cowards” that he called the United States in a different context, i.e. our unwillingness to address the issue of race. What about when the victims of torture are Muslims? Where’s Holder’s courage then?

Surely, I was not the only one stunned by former Vice President Dick Cheney’s public admission that he helped authorize waterboarding of detainees. But, on reflection, there seems to have been a method to his madness; and, so far at least, the method seems to be working.

Have Holder and Colin Powell forgotten from their days growing up in the Bronx the typical reaction of bullies when caught in the act? “Okay, so waddaya gonna do ‘bout it!” It was an attempt at intimidation, and it was generally effective with those who felt not quite up to the challenge.

This has been the case on the issue of the economy (i.e. the bailout), and it is the same on the issue of torture. We let ourselves be bullied into re-electing Bush in 2004, after we knew about Abu Ghraib, And now we are being bullied into not prosecuting the officials responsible for putting America back on the list of nations that practice torture. Now we are being bullied into not even looking at further evidence

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for May 15th through May 19th:

• The Next Step Toward School Integration –
• The High Cost of Poverty –
• Eve Ensler: War on women in Congo –
• The Disease of Permanent War –
• Will Obama End the War on Drugs? –
• The Bush Era Nightmare Won’t End Until Obama Embraces True Transparency –
• Don’t Let Georgia Execute an Innocent Man: Join the Global Day of Action for Troy Davis –
• Robert Kuttner: Profiles in Financial Courage –
• Op-Ed Columnist: Obama Can’t Turn the Page on Bush –
• Op-Ed Columnist: Cheney, Master of Pain –
• Cheney’s Chains to Torture –
• Anger at Guantánamo Ruling –
• Torture Continues at Guantánamo Bay –
• Op-Ed Columnist: Chastise Cheney –
• How Hate Groups Went Mainstream –
• Torture on Obama’s Watch –
• From the Archives: The Myth of The Ticking Time Bomb –
• The Fierce Urgency of Whenever –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for May 13th through May 14th:

• Carl Pope: The Logic of Terror –
• Census: Minorities are 34% of U.S. –
• Antidote to Drug War Madness –
• Ian Welsh: The consequences of (yet again) failing to stand up to the banks –
• Why Atheists Have Better Sex –
• Release The Photos –
• Why Republicans make the rest of us miserable when they lose. –
• Judith Shapiro: Proposals of "Marriage" –
• Mike Malloy: "Sadistic . . . violent . . . inhuman" –
• Barbara J. Nelson: I Am Like A Free Person of Color in a Slave State –
• When PTSD Comes Marching Home –
• Ex-agent: ‘Enhanced interrogations’ don’t work –
• Commentary: Expanded hate crimes law needed –
• Changing Obama’s Mindset –

Coming to terms with race and resolving racial disparity in America feels like an insurmountable, unfinished task, because it is unfinished. The work was started and abandoned, started and abandoned many times by generations before us. But it’s only insurmountable to the degree that we tell ourselves the work is finished – or “finished enough”- choose to leave the rest of the work to those who will come after us.

But if it seems hard now, it will only be harder then. Yet it’s easy enough to start, once we assess where the previous work stopped.

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