No One’s Civil Rights Should Be Decided by Referendum

In the 1960’s a number of legislative Civil Rights bills that granted rights to Black Americans were passed by the United States Congress and signed by the presiding President. If any of those issues were presented as Referendums to be voted on by the majority of Americans they would have all failed. If any of them were left to the States we would today have an America similar to what we had prior to the bloody and violent Civil War.
Today, all across America individual States are amending their Constitutions to deny the Civil Rights of a small and harmless minority which is only seeking the right to be who God created them to be.
Gays and Lesbians have served our Country with honor throughout our history, and have been demonized for doing so. Gays and lesbians have served the “Church” for centuries and have been demonized for doing so.
Peter Sprigg’s response (Peter Sprigg is vice president for policy at the Family Research Council)in the USA Today’s June 25th, 2007 editorial column suggests to me that he believes that any marriage that does not result in children is null and void. I think all American’s should take note of this fanatical thinking. Peter is suggesting that seniors who marry should not be given the benefits that Government offers to married people, folks who are married and do not conceive should not be given the benefits either, indeed according to his philosophy their marriages should be ended and not recognized by the “State”.
Peter’s organization seems to want to be the “determinator” of what Love and marriage is all about, they are not. He says people in Marriage “ are happier, healthier and more prosperous than people in any other living situation”. Yet he and his organization are willing to deny Gays and lesbians a happier, healthier and more prosperous life. I don’t get it.

Screwing Veterans-Not to Mention All Americans

I am posting this info as a result of a recent article in the Sarasota Herald Tribune regarding the outsourcing of Veterans health care by the Veterans Administration to HMO’s. While I understand and support the notion that Veteran’s living in areas not supported by VA Health facilities has to be addressed, it will not be surprising to me that those who run the HMO Insurance Companies will eventually leave our Veterans high and dry for some faulty reason and will leave a Veteran without any life saving recourse.
Any politician that does not investigate this absurdity by the Veterans Administration is not worth their weight in salt. It seems, once more, that this nation knows how to create Veterans, but has no idea or will to take care of them.
Thirty one years ago when I was a young accounting supervisor, for a major petroleum company I attended an annual seminar on employee benefits conducted by our Human Resources Department. As a young man I was impressed with the then Vice President of Human Resources suggesting that there was a crisis in the Health Care system in America. He knew then, back in 1976, that the healthcare system in the United States was heading for a fall. I began to think a little more about the issue and realized that most people are literally slaves to Corporate America in one way or another and since most health care insurance is tied to a person’s job one of the greatest limiting factors to the mobility, creativity and entrepreneurship in America is the limitations placed on Americans and their families by the so called “free market” by the rationing of Health Care and its favoritism towards wealthy Americans.

Americans have the opportunity to "seize the moment" and force their politicians to respond to their needs, all you have to do is shout out,loud and clear, I HAVE HAD ENOUGH, and mean it.

If the politicians do not respond, fire them. Take away their Health Care Insurance and see how they feel. If they are really wealthy, take away their wealth, via ridiculous taxes until they respond to the middle class.

No one needs billions of dollars to live a good life. But if it takes a billionaire to set things right then I am all for him.

Republican Hypocrisy - Somebody Make it Go Away

It should come as no surprise that I am confused about the current slate of Republican candidates seeking the nomination of their party for the Presidency of the United States. For the past six years my community has been diminished and demonized by the Republican Party and now their leading candidates are; a serial monogamous, Rudy Giuliani, A Mormon, Mitt Romney, who’s Religion has not yet stricken the words of Joseph Smith regarding Polygamy from their “Book”, Newt Gingrich, an unannounced candidate, who debated the terms of his divorce while his wife was recovering from an operation (at the same time leading the charge to impeach Clinton and cheating on his wife with a chorus singer who sang at the national Catholic Cathedral), and Fred Thompson, a divorced man, how’s that Marriage Oath go, “until death do us part?” All of these so called moral mistakes or weaknesses would mean nothing to me if not for the fact that for the past six years the Republican Party has been finding a way to peek into my bedroom and dehumanize me and 10% of America. Republican hypocrisy is highlighted in the photo of Dick Cheney and his wife holding there grandchild without the parents. That the parents allowed that photo to be shot and published is even more absurd and demeans all children who are lucky enough to have two loving parents, whether same sex or otherwise.
When choosing a President, it is important to me that the person finds a way to unite our divided country. His/her personal choices in the affairs of love really have nothing to do with their ability to manage our economy, this absurd war, the health-care in our Nation, care of our veterans, immigration, and fear. Hopefully during this election cycle the one issue voters will expand their minds and do what is best for all Americans.

Meglomaniac America

President Bush recently made the statement that no one would interfere in “his government”. I guess I am behind the times because I always thought that the United States Government was the Government of the American People and not the domain of the Bush family. Megalomania can be harmless in the minds of the powerless but when it infects the leader of the most powerful nation in the world it can result in disaster. It seems as though this megalomania is running rampant in Washington based on the recent statements of Connecticut Senator Lieberman. Senator Lieberman now wants to bomb Iran based on “evidence” that he apparently is not willing to share with the American people. If Americans, (i.e., poor Americans since the wealthy have no reason to sacrifice since they have the poor to fight their battles), are going to offer their children to the Bush/Lieberman megalomaniacs then I think we need to have solid and confirmed evidence(not by them but by third party nations) that offering our children so their friends can play golf and cruise the Gulf, is in the interest of all Americans.
We as a society have grown so inept in understanding what it is to have a bomb dropped on our houses. War is not a computer game. We think that we are special among nations, we are not, we are a nation among nations. Most of us are just lucky to have been born here. That “luck” allows us to speak our minds, at least for now. I believe that Americans, other than those families who have experienced the ultimate sacrifice of a loved one or are struggling with the military and/or the Veterans Administration and know what losing a life or the quality of life to war is all about, have no clue what it is to sacrifice and be a true American.