Tag: common sense

Ding, Dong! DOMA is DEAD!

I am currently at work and Teri and I are doing the happy dance.  The Supremes have struck down DOMA.  I haven’t read the decision yet, but the fact that it is now DOA is awesome.  Will June 26th be remembered as the day that all Americans received equal treatment under Federal law no matter who they marry?  We’ll see.

I’m letting the live blogging from here scroll through in the background while that venomous little hatemonger Scalia reads the dissent.  There is something nice in knowing that history will judge him and that he’ll end up on the wrong side.  Of everything.

More later,

~Kelly

Owning the past

The whole mess with Paula Deen has me thinking about a lot of people I knew when I lived in the South.  Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia were all places I spent a lot of time.  And the more I think about it, the more I think the image problem the South has in regards to much of the rest of the country (and even the world, to some extent) is this:

The South (as a region) still hasn’t come to grips with slavery, even now, some 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.  Collectively, the South thinks that it has, but really it hasn’t.  I am saying this as someone who was born there and lived there for decades who also happens to be a specialist in the area of 19th century American history.

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What NOT to say when you’re at a craft show

I’ve done 4 shows in the last two weeks.  It’s been tiring but fun.  I met some really fun and really talented crafters, especially at Cambridge Open Studios.  (COS is, by the way, also showing this weekend.  Yes, you should go if you can.  It’s amazing.)

What was striking was not only how great the community of crafters were to each other, but also how great most of the people visiting the show were to us.  However, like any barrel of apples, there were a few rotten ones.

Everything listed below was actually said to me or one of the people I met over the last two weekends.  When you’re at a craft show, don’t be this person.

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It’s good to laugh to keep from crying…

and honestly, I don’t remember the last time I laughed so often and so hard at anything, much less at a subject that has hit Kelly and I personally so very, very hard.  And the economy has definitely hit Kelly and I quite hard in the past few years.

Thank you, Stephen Colbert.

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Come on. We’re better than this.

Honestly, I wish I knew why some people have such a problem with anyone different than them.  American culture is one of the most heterogenous imaginable.  And yet there are still so many people afraid of “them”, whether it be gays, foreigners, or in this case, Muslims.

A U.S. Army veteran, who served in Iraq and is still in the Army Reserve, was apparently attacked by his fare last week.  And the guy was screaming about terrorists and the Boston bombing and whatnot.

You know, from a certain point of view, the group that has created the overwhelming majority of the problems I have had in my life is angry, bigoted white meathead rednecks.  Does that mean we should start profiling white rednecks?  Or start reporting “suspicious” white rednecks to the police? Does that mean all white rednecks are the same?  No, they aren’t.  It’s absurd.  And so is blaming all 1 billion plus Muslims for the acts of a small minority.  It’s not like Christians have been free of committing horrific violence in the name of their religious views.  So get over yourselves, people.  Try learning a little, opening your mind, maybe cracking open a book or two.  And for God’s sake, turn off the TV and the talk radio.  It’s only making things worse.

-Geoff

Marriage Equality- Waiting for Godot The Supremes

HRC summarizes reasonably well what we’re waiting for when Godot The Supreme Court comes down with their ruling on Prop 8 and on DOMA.  Check it out and share it (below the cut).  Everyone needs to understand that this is about Civil Rights, not The Homosexual Agenda.

How today’s announcement by NBA player Jason Collins will affect the general atmosphere around the ruling is unclear.  He came out and admitted that he is gay.  He’s the first pro sports player in one of the four major sports (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) to do this while still playing.

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Back to your regularly scheduled postings of weird stuff

And leave it to Fab.com to bring the, here’s that word again, disturbing stuff.

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Maybe this is the new normal?

At least for now.

We’re 48 hours out from the bombings and things are… different.  It isn’t just the obvious police presence or the national guard people in uniform everywhere.  Things are different.  Yesterday everything was eerily calm, almost like the afternoon of 9/11 when all flights were grounded and nobody knew what was going on, except that yesterday there were helicopters in the air overhead and we were all waiting.

Waiting for news of who else was going to die.  Waiting to hear from that last person or two that we hadn’t yet heard from.  Waiting for news from the police, the feds, the various hospitals.  Waiting.  It was like life in suspended animation.

We were going to work and going through the motions, but everyone was asking the same thing, “Should we be doing this?”  “Is this appropriate?”  “What is the right thing to do now?”

Nobody has an answer for that.  There is no single answer when there is a 15 block long scar in the middle of your city that was carved out by a coward with bombs, a bone to pick with humanity, a need to see his human fears and frailty writ large on the TV, and not enough guts or intelligence to make the change he wants to see from within the system.

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Because commuting in Boston isn’t fun enough…

Tonight it took two hours, a bus, and a taxi to get me from my front door to Mission church where I was singing a Holy Thursday Service (that’s Maundy Thursday to you non-Catholics out there).  Normally it’s a 45 minute trip at most.  Now things are about to get worse.

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Bulletins from the animal kingdom

Easter is almost upon us and that means a couple of things: spring is coming (no, really, it is, promise!), Geoff and I will be *really* busy this weekend, people will be doing stupid and ill advised things like getting their kids bunnies, chicks, and ducklings for their baskets on Sunday morning, and the annual seal skin kill is going on in Canada.

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