"Why Will Won't Pledge"

Will Phillips isn't like other boys his age.

For one thing, he's smart. Scary smart. A student in the West Fork School District in Washington County, he skipped a grade this year, going directly from the third to the fifth. When his family goes for a drive, discussions are much more apt to be about Teddy Roosevelt and terraforming Mars than they are about Spongebob Squarepants and what's playing on Radio Disney.
....

Will's family has a number of gay friends. In recent years, Laura Phillips said, they've been trying to be a straight ally to the gay community, going to the pride parades and standing up for the rights of their gay and lesbian neighbors. They've been especially dismayed by the effort to take away the rights of homosexuals – the right to marry, and the right to adopt. Given that, Will immediately saw a problem with the pledge of allegiance.

“I've always tried to analyze things because I want to be lawyer,” Will said. “I really don't feel that there's currently liberty and justice for all.”

Will asked his parents if it was against the law to refuse to say the pledge of allegiance. When they said no, he decided not to stand and say the pledge each day at school, which brought trouble his way. Read the rest of the story at the website.

The final words of the story:

At the end of our interview, I ask young Will a question that might be a civics test nightmare for your average 10-year-old. Will's answer, though, is good enough — simple enough, true enough — to give me a little rush of goose pimples. What does being an American mean?

“Freedom of speech,” Will says, without even stopping to think. “The freedom to disagree. That's what I think pretty much being an American represents.”

Somewhere, Thomas Jefferson smiles.

Yes, indeed. I'm smiling, too.

From the Arkansas Times.

Thanks to David@Montreal for sending the link.

"...Speak Your Truth...."

Fran at There Will Be Bread posted a lovely tribute to Roseann and another brave friend, Cathy. She quotes Roseann's words, which I have read before, but which resonated in a new way when I read them at Fran's blog.

Show up. Pay attention. Speak your truth. Don't be attached to the outcome.

Forgive. That is the key to all.- Roseann Allen-Matthews

Words of wisdom from a brave, wise, spunky woman, who, throughout her many trials, has never lost her wonderful sense of humor.

I highly recommend a visit to Fran's place.

Roseann's email address is:

revamundo (at) gmail (dot) com

The Conspiracy Is Real

The right-wing conspiracy to either take over the Episcopal Church or, failing that, to attempt to destroy the church is not a figment of the imagination. More evidence from Openly Episcopal in Albany.

Story Of The Day - Too Much Stuff

I try not to collect too much because
having stuff takes more time than you
think. But then again sometimes it's
good to stay busy.


Paging Ann, Lauralew, and Lynn!

From StoryPeople.

Words From Straight Ex-Wives Of Gay Men

If anyone could have talked himself out of being gay, Kimberly Brooks said, it was her husband.

He wanted to be straight; she wanted him to be straight. She once followed his gaze across the beach to another man but quickly dismissed the thought. No, he couldn't be. Then he started spending more time with one particular friend, and an unease pushed Brooks to ask the question that ultimately confirmed her fears: Was that friend gay?

"He said, 'I don't know.' And in that moment, I knew," said Brooks, who is a therapist in Falls Church. "That day, the marriage was over."
....

Brooks, who lives in Arlington County, was 28 when she met Robert Webb on a blind date. He was perfect: tall, handsome and a lawyer. As a husband, she said, he treated her "wonderfully," celebrating with champagne the day she got her master's degree. They talked about having children.

Webb said he never meant to hurt her.

"I married her because I loved her," said Webb, a lawyer in Orlando whose firm has an office in the District. "I married her because I wanted us to spend the rest of our lives together. We had lived together, and things were fine. I thought I had conquered that thing I didn't want to be."

But then he met the man he's been with since. "And there was this incredible overriding basic attraction that drove everything else out of my life," he said. "It was no longer a matter of mind over matter."
....

Brooks, who is starting a therapy group for straight spouses, said that for a long time, she neither favored nor opposed same-sex marriage. But as the D.C. Council prepares to vote on the matter next month, she thinks about her former husband.

"It would be heartbreaking if in Rob's final days his partner was not allowed to be in the hospital with him, was not allowed to make decisions for him," she said. "And he's the one person Rob would want there."

The entire article is worth reading. Others besides Kimberly and Robert tell their stories. If more of us came to view the sexual orientation of LGTB folks as normal and supported same-sex marriage, at least some of tragic and hurtful situations such as Kimberly's and Robert's could be averted.

Robert Webb says:

"You want the things you're taught to want," Webb said. "You want the life you're taught to want."

Powerful words, indeed. All of the stories from the article are quite moving and cautionary to all of us, but especially to those who insist that LGTB folks can be other than what they are. I think with sadness of the words from Episcopal Bishops Mark Lawrence and Michael Smith, "...persons who experience themselves as gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender....", and the implication in their words that the experiences of LGTB persons may not be true or valid.

Thanks to Ann for sending the link.


From the New York Times Washington Post.

Marty, The Recovering Republican

I was a feminazi-hating, liberal-bashing loudmouth who tried to befriend Bill O'Reilly. Man, I was such a douche.

Every day I wake up with the same thought: "I used to be such a goddamned idiot."

I am a former Republican. And I wasn't merely the libertarian, live-and-let-live, fun-at-parties kind of conservative whose primary concern is balancing the budget; I was a spiteful, narrow-minded, fire-breathing paranoid lunatic who questioned the patriotism and morality of my liberal fellow citizens. Recognizing the error of my ways has done wonders for my mental health but left me with constant, unremitting remorse; I really want to go back in time and kick my own ass.

Hmmm. That's good.

Much like our previous chief executive, I should have seen the danger of sealing myself in an echo chamber to prevent contamination from outside viewpoints; I began only hanging out with conservative true believers, only reading conservative books, only getting my news from conservative media outlets. In order to avoid journalistic "left-wing bias," I embraced right-wing bias, foolishly confusing sensationalist entertainment with debate and truth-telling. Outrage became my drug of choice.

Well, no chance for me to be in an echo chamber because of where I live. I hear the Republican side of the argument often enough from folks who, for the most part, don't have the basic facts straight. However, I'm guilty of screening out the right wing gas bags as my news source.

Strangest of all, I developed a finger-wagging puritan bent, which made absolutely no sense for a 20-year-old guy who was getting laid and intoxicated on a steady basis. I blamed "the anti-family Left" for encouraging couples to divorce and youngsters to fornicate, as if liberals were all conspiring together to destroy the traditional family, as if liberal states do not have lower rates of divorce and teen pregnancy than their conservative counterparts. My hypocrisy is mystifying in retrospect -- why would I bash sexual liberation while having sloppy drunken unmarried sex whenever possible? -- but perhaps conservative politicians such as John Ensign, Mark Sanford, David Vitter, Larry Craig and Newt Gingrich can explain.

It gets better and better. Read the entire article on Marty's recovery. He opens a window into how seemingly intelligent people can get caught up in wrong-headed and harmful idealogy.

From Salon.

Thanks to Mark for sending the link.

Lou Dobbs Is Gone

I won't shed a tear for the old boy. He had a long run. Who will miss his anti-immigrant rants? I stopped tuning in to CNN a good while ago.

From CNN:

This will be my last broadcast here on CNN, where I have worked for most of the past 30 years and where I have many friends and colleagues whom I admire deeply and respect greatly
....

I've talked extensively with Jonathan Klein; Jon's the president of CNN, and as a result of those talks, Jon and I have agreed to a release from my contract that will enable me to pursue new opportunities.

At this point, I'm considering a number of options and directions and I assure you I will let you know when I set my course.

Yes Lou, please let us know. Does Fox News beckon?

From Politico - Keith Olbermann on Dobbs:

I can only say that I always wondered if his stance on immigrants, legal or otherwise, took a bigger toll on him than on the immigrants. This is, whether he or others will admit it, a Hispanic issue, and not only are Lou's wife and kids Hispanic but the daughters are in the Horse Show game, which, after the restaurant industry, is the top employer of undocumented immigrants in this country - and Lou helps pay them. If that isn't the ultimate hypocrisy, it must be the ultimate self-contradiction and very painful psychologically.

You can't make this stuff up.

Story Of The Day - Blank Map

This is a blank map that lets you go as
far as you want in any direction, with
no questions asked, but it's no help at
all if you want to know if you're going
the right way.


The story describes my day. From my blank map, I didn't know if I was going the right way more often than not.

From StoryPeople.

I Need Help With iTunes!

My iTunes program will not open. I get the message:

The iTunes application could not be opened. An unknown error occurred [-50].

My computer runs on Windows XP. I found help advice which said that I should uninstall iTunes and reinstall. I did that, but the program will not open, and I get the box with the same message as above.

I've spent the greater part of the morning on this with no solution to the problem. Any ideas from you techie experts about what else I can do?

UPDATE: Nevermind. I uninstalled iTunes again because it didn't work, and an Apple Software Update appeared on my Quick Launch panel. From there, I reinstalled iTunes and Quick Time and - Voila! - I have my music back.

Rose & Barb

Two 90-year-old women, Rose and Barb had been friends all of their lives. When it was clear that Rose was dying, Barb visited her every day.

One day Barb said, 'Rose, we both loved playing women's softball all our lives, and we played all through High School. Please do me one favor: when you get to Heaven, somehow you must let me know if there's women's softball there.'

Rose looked up at Barb from her deathbed and said, 'Barb, you've been my best friend for many years. If it's at all possible, I'll do this favor for you.'

Shortly after that, Rose passed on.

A few nights later, Barb was awakened from a sound sleep by a blinding flash of white light and a voice calling out to her, 'Barb, Barb.'

'Who is it?', asked Barb, sitting up suddenly. 'Who is it?'

'Barb -- it's me, Rose.'

'You're not Rose. Rose just died.'

'I'm telling you, it's me, Rose,' insisted the voice.

'Rose! Where are you?'

'In Heaven,' replied Rose. 'I have some really good news and a little bad news.'

'Tell me the good news first,' said Barb.

'The good news,' Rose said, 'is that there's softball in Heaven. Better yet all of our old buddies who died before us are here, too. Better than that, we're all young again. Better still, it's always springtime, and it never rains or snows. And best of all, we can play softball all we want, and we never get tired.'

'That's fantastic,' said Barb. 'It's beyond my wildest dreams! So what's the bad news?'





'You're pitching Tuesday.'

From the usual suspect.