Saintless

It appears as though equality suffered a blow yesterday, when Prop. 8 passed by a narrow margin in California. It’s a sad day when we see equality and human rights take a step backwards. But, we don’t have to sit back and accept defeat. And I’m not going to.

After a discussion with Joseph Price on Facebook, I realized that we can take this movement in a different direction, and maybe it’s the one we should have been going in the first place.

Marriage should not have a legal definition in America. Religious groups have argued that marriage belongs to them, and used that argument to ban gay marriage. Well, I say we let them have it.

I realize this is a really difficult and complicated issue. But, the government needs to get their noses out of my business. Churches should issue marriage certificates, not the County Clerk. I am no legal scholar, nor do I have all of the potential issues ironed out. And I definitely need help. This is far bigger than I am. I’m hoping to get some experts on board, and I’ve started putting out feelers to get that help.

In the meantime, share your thoughts and ideas in the comment section, after you read this article that Joseph shared with me:

WHY do people — gay or straight — need the state’s permission to marry? For most of Western history, they didn’t, because marriage was a private contract between two families. The parents’ agreement to the match, not the approval of church or state, was what confirmed its validity.

Stephanie Coontz goes on to talk about the history of marriage in America, and provides a very convincing argument that maybe it’s time for the historical tradition of marriage to make a comeback.

I just got this email from Janet Hurley, the Events Coordinator for Utah for Obama:

Hello Utah for Obama members,

Last year we helped plant trees along the Jordan River Parkway with Tree Utah in the Spring and sponsored a food drive for the Utah Food bank in the Fall. This year let’s help homeless patients of the 4th Street Clinic in downtown Salt Lake City.

I will collect your donations of $5 gift cards from grocery stores from now until Election Day. These $5 gift cards will be distributed by care providers at the 4th Street Clinic to their homeless patients.

If you would like to donate more than $5, please purchase additional gift cards in $5 increments. If you would like to make a large donation, please contact me so that we can arrange for development staff at the 4th Street Clinic to get you an acknowledgement letter for your tax purposes.

If you would like to act as a bundler, collecting $5 grocery gift cards from your friends and acquantances, that would be great! Contact me and we can coordinate our efforts.

I will submit the gift cards to 4th Street as soon as I have a large number of them. If we do well, I may be able to sumbit multiple times before Election Day on November 4th.

We’ve already experienced winter conditions and yesterday’s news indicated that unemployment has begun to rise in Utah. These gift cards will help some of the most vulnerable among us get through the season and this economic downturn, at least in the short term.

You can find out more about the 4th Street Clinic and its programs here:

http://www.fourthstreetclinic.org/

To get your gift card donations to me, please call or email me so that we can arrange an exchange. Thanks for your generosity everyone!

Janet Hurley
shamba_84@msn.com
(801) 712-3564

Since Albertsons and Smiths are both located downtown, and across the valley, they are probably the best choices, if you’d like to help with this.

This is 7 minutes long, but worth every second of your time. Especially the last 2 minutes.

I just got this email, and I think it’s a wonderful idea!

This idea came from Letty Cotton Pogrebin.

Make a donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin’s name. A Planned Parenthood donation is tax deductible, where a political donation isn’t.And here’s the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they’ll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here’s the link to the Planned Parenthood website:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/ go to donate, then to honorary gifts.

You’ll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the “in Sarah Palin’s honor” card.

Governor Sarah Palin
Alaska State Capital Building, 3rd floor
P.O. Box 110001
Juneau AK 99811-0001.

The fax # is 907 465.3532.

I’ve been a proud supporter of Senator Obama’s run for the White House, way back since the time we weren’t even sure he was going to run. I’ve also been very against the idea of Senator Clinton as POTUS, way back since we were all very certain that she would run.

Now that Barack has secured the nomination, I feel the need to share a secret: I’m absolutely thrilled that Hillary Clinton almost won the Democratic Nomination.

Just to clarify, the word “almost” is in there. I most certainly don’t want her for President. However, I am very glad that she’s set the stage for the future. I really think that within my lifetime I will see a woman as President of the United States. And Hillary’s run showed us all that it can be done, and isn’t something to be afraid of. Her comments about having cracked the glass ceiling are true. I really hope that when a woman finally does make it, that she will be the candidate I can believe in, and support.

Last Tuesday, I was asked how I felt “being part of this historical campaign”, and I’ve thought about that question a lot since then.

My skin is basically white, and I’ve never experienced the discrimination that many others do feel. Being female, you’d think I would have, but really it’s been very minor. I’m a software developer, and I work in a man’s world. Not because women aren’t accepted, but because many women just don’t choose this as a career, and the field is dominated by men. Yet, if I am honest with myself, I can’t say that I’ve often encountered any sort of discrimination. If anything, I’m very welcomed as either a bonus for HR’s statistics, or a “change in the scenery”. The few things that could be attributed to discrimination really haven’t been more than an excuse to myself for why someone didn’t seem to like me.

My family background is very diverse. The only heritage that I know of is that I’m about 1/4 “Native American”, and I’m pretty sure that breaks down to Cherokee and Quapaw tribes. I often claim that as my race when filling out forms. Mostly, because I think it’s really cool, and I wish I knew more about it. As far as the rest goes, it’s anyone’s guess. I am only half joking when I tell people that I’m “Heinz 57″. But, whatever the breakdown, my skin is white, and my eyes are blue. The nice tan I get in the summer from my Indian blood looks good, but I’m white, and I’ve never had to deal with the crap that so many others of various races within our country have had to.

So, when I think of the feminist movement, I identify with it as far as human rights go. I would love to call myself a feminist, but I’ve seen that taken too far, and I think we are equal, and not better than anyone else. In my mind, the feminist movement is in the same boat as making sure we don’t discriminate against blacks or Hispanics or gays or anyone else based on some superficial difference. I adore the Human Rights Campaign because, while their “main” issue seems to be GLBT, when you go to their web site, “The Issues” cover things like “People of Color” and religion.

We’re all people, ok? Whether we identify with one minority or another, we’re all working to be seen for more than that. And, if anything, we’re proud of whatever that minority is. While I live a monogamous life with a great boyfriend, and have no personal need for gay marriage to be recognized, I identify with the GLBT cause (the “B” in there), even if I didn’t personally, I have some great friends who gay, and I don’t like that they have such a struggle to be able to have their relationships recognized. If it weren’t for the fact that they need legal recognition to have what most people consider normal lives – things such as hospital visitation, financial dependence, etc – I doubt that there would be a big “gay marriage” debate in this country. That debate might exist within churches, as it rightfully should.

And so, I’m confessing my dirty little secret, that I’m thrilled that Clinton cracked the glass ceiling, because I believe she cracked that ceiling for all sorts of people. And while I’m glad that Barack will likely be the first black President, I’m mostly thrilled that we get to have a president who will do a good job, and I believe that his skin color also helped human rights fights for women, people of any race, and for those in the GLBT community – and that’s icing on the cake.

We’ve decided to use my Jeep for Utah for Obama in the Pride Parade this Sunday, along with the 10′ Obama puppet. Here are a couple of photos of the Jeep:

I’m hoping to find someone that has one of the following to decorate the Jeep with:

• Spare tire-cover for 31″ tire:
  Patriotic theme
  OR
  LGBT Pride
  OR
  Old one that can be redecorated
• American Flag
• Metal Poles appropriate for attaching to the roll bars to display the flag

If you have any of the above that you can help us with, please let me know ASAP. I’ll be decorating the Jeep tomorrow (Saturday). Any suggestions for other decorating ideas are also welcome.

And if you want to be in the parade with us, it’s not too late to sign up!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/4d3m

Last Wednesday, hundreds, thousands or some large number of people showed up at Washington Square for the Peace and Human Rights Rally. So, we decided that would be the perfect place to register new voters, and update others’ registrations. I had at least 6 people join me, including Cheryl, Theo, Brandon, Susan, Sherri, and Claire and her son. I swear there were a couple more but I didn’t do a sign-in, so I’m stuck with the ones my short memory will recall. Anyway, we were able to register 43 voters. Not bad for an hour’s work, right?

Here are some of the photos from the rally, much thanks to Theo for getting some of the better shots for me.

It took me 3 tries, but I finally got a full shot of this “Prez Lie Dispenser” sign.

These guys with the foil signs walked in front of and through the crowd several times.

Here’s a shot from near the back of the crowd.

One from the side.

Another from the side.

Here’s Rocky at the beginning of his speech.

I liked the signs put up from High Road for Human Rights. They said:

Our America Does Not Torture

America: Where Everyone Including The President Is Bound By Rule Of Law

Torture Is A Subversion Of American Values

Anyway, we’ve had a lot of positive stories about Vote for Change across Utah. Josh Der sent this email about the Logan Vote for Change event:

On Saturday, May 24, 2008, Utah State University for Obama, Cache Valley for Obama and the Cache County Democratic Party jointly organized a voter registration drive in Logan.

We had four volunteers and we collected 16 new voter registration applications, 6 of which were Democrats, 6 were unaffiliated and only one of which was Republican. This was a test-run and was a great success, considering it was nice weather on a holiday weekend without any big events happening in Logan.

One of our volunteers scouted the community for potential drive locations, one registered voters downtown and two volunteers worked outside of a locally owned, progressive coffee shop/deli counter.

We wore our Obama flair, but focused on registering people to vote. If they asked why we were doing it, we told them about the Vote for Change campaign. We were well received and connected with some potential volunteers.

By the end of the day, we came away feeling excited and energized. We also gave out free Obama bumper stickers to supporters who expressed interest. We didn’t really push the stickers, but still gave out close to 30 of them.

This registration drive represents something tangible, easy and proactive we can all do to promote Obama. The more we promote Obama in Utah, the stronger the democratic party will be on Election Day, regardless of how Utah’s electoral votes are cast. This means the possibility for REAL change on a local level, where we are most directly affected.

Here are a couple pieces of advice for organizers based on our experiences:

1) Identify locations before you start. Corporate-owned grocery store chains (e.g. Walmart or Albertsons, etc.) don’t want anything to do with politics, so don’t bother sending volunteers to these places, they’ll just get turned away. I’ve found locally owned businesses are much more receptive to this voter registration drive. Consider the management’s perspective; try not to bother patrons inside of the business, but rather catch them on their way in or out. Don’t block the entrance and don’t be too pushy. Look for places where you’ll get a lot of foot traffic. Consider your target demographic and go to where you are likely to find them (e.g. for youth, find the local hangouts or work on campuses; for Latinos or Asian Americans, go to an ethnic market or restaurant). If you can (and they will allow), get a booth or a table at a local festival or farmer’s market, otherwise get a lot of volunteers to work the crowd. In any case, its best to work in a location where people are not in a rush and can spend a few minutes to fill out the form or to chat with you.

2) Visit your County Clerk’s office. They are required to provide voter registration application books to organizations who are registering voters. They will give you 4-5 books of 50 applications. Each volunteer will need a book, so this may limit how many volunteers you can use, but if a few different people request them independently or you make a plea that you are working a large event, you may be able to get more. The books have carbon copies so you can give each voter a receipt that is proof of registration and will get them a ballot in case they don’t get their voter registration card or their application gets lost somehow. The books fit on a clipboard well and you don’t have to make any photocopies or carry stacks of loose paper or bulky state-printed mail in forms (however, its good to have a few mail in forms to give out to people who don’t have time, want their voter information kept private, or want to give it to a friend). Be sure to check that all the required information is completed and legible. When you finish a book, bring it back to the County Clerk and they will replace it.

Set up your own vote for change event: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/create

Lots of people are organizing small drives, and local businesses seem to be supportive, and often let people run the drive from there. In fact, Golden Braid Books contacted us, to offer a location. It’s easy, and even if you don’t want to run one yourself, you can join us at larger gatherings, like next weekend when we get going at Utah Pride. Check out events statewide.

I’m absolutely appalled that America is just standing by and watching as the children and parents of the FLDS are treated as criminals. Here’s what I know of the situation (please enlighten me on anything I might be missing):

• A woman calls in and lies about who she is, saying she’s being abused
• Texas “authorities” round up babies, toddlers, teens and mothers as if they were cattle
• Nursing babies are abused by those authorities by being separated from their mothers
• Toddlers are abused also, although at least they haven’t had their only chance at nursing ended
• The whole community is being paraded in the news as a circus spectacle

And then, they’re all subjected to DNA tests to figure out how the community fits together?

This is the worst violation of basic human rights that I can imagine our country coming up with, short of declaring these people to be “3/5 human”! If there are abuses going on, and I’m sure that there are, is the way to prevent this to round up hundreds of the victims themselves and subject them to massive human rights violations? I fully consider depriving the infants from their mother’s milk to be an aggressive act of abuse.

This is America. We sit in our warm, cozy houses thinking we have the perfect country, where our human rights are protected more than anywhere else in the world, and watch this debacle unfold on television, where it seems more like an HBO special happening to fictitious characters than something horrible happening to US citizens.

This is not right. And the most I’ve seen anyone suggest that I can do about it is sign an online petition sure to get ignored. I don’t want to sit on my hands about this. Yet, what else can I do? This is a sad day for Democracy.

Update 1: Well, if you think that the Houston Rockets basketball team are responsible for the FLDS mess, there’s another option. KSL reports that some are planning to protest the Jazz vs Rockets game, along with stalking the players at their hotel rooms. Brilliant!

Tags: FLDS

This is a really dumb idea. The House has approved a bill to repeal Utah’s Driver Privilege Card law.

Who in their right mind thinks that illegal immigrants are going to come here so that they’ll break fewer laws (i.e. they get a driver privilege card)?

How many murderers, terrorists, gang members and sex offenders come from the immigrant population? Seriously! And if these horrible members of society are going to break every other law, why would they go through the trouble of coming here just so they “can get the card and use it for illegal activity”?

It would be much better to have all these people driving around (which they will do anyway) without insurance? Nice. Really nice. I’m glad we have such intelligent people running things.

Idiots.

Tags: immigration, Utah Legislature