Abortion
This may seem farfetched at this time in our history but I assure you, America will someday have an out-of-the-closet and into your hearts, gay president.
As a gay man, I found it exciting when Barack Obama — the first black president — became the first president to endorse gay marriage. Some even say that he is the first gay president, similar to how Bill Clinton was the first black president. Obama’s wife Michelle of course, would disagree with that idea entirely, I am certain, accept in only the honorary title in which it would be intended.
Even though we gay people have found our way into many American hearts, we still have a way to go to win our way into the White House. I am confident that when that day does come, that gay or lesbian president will serve their country with its interests with their whole heart.
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Americans most generally have a great sense of pride for their country, because they believe in what it stands for and the principles it was founded on.
Over our nation’s history, America has had many voices speak out, though in protest or by petition, from many segments of its population, thanks to the strong civil liberties we all inherit by being citizens of this great country. Most of those voices came from minorities, protesting their rights to equality. Some came from religious groups and anti-abortion groups, and some groups have tried imposing their will on all of us by changing our laws to reflect their own beliefs.
Much of the battles for civil rights, from the Emancipation of slavery to the fight for gay rights, women’s rights and other civil rights movements of today, have molded this nation into what it has become. We have grown enlightened but at a somewhat slower pace than many of our European allies. Then of course, some of the countries that we have fought wars in are far behind us when it comes to women’s rights, gay rights, and civil rights in general. Read more
This is a republish from Yahoo, which I am a contributor of.
I am a middle-class American. I am red, I am blue, and I am purple. I live in the suburbs, I live in the city, I live in the country and I live by the sea.
I believe in God and I don’t believe in God. I am white, I am black, I am brown and I am yellow.
I am Christian and I am Muslim, I am Jewish and I am Hindu, I am Buddhist, and I am Atheist.
I work two jobs and I want the best for my children. I am concerned about my health and that of my family. I vote and I don’t vote. I am a Democrat and I am a Republican Read more
The Republican National Convention is meeting this week to, I suppose, confirm their support for the Republican candidate for president, and set their agenda.
Let me point out that the Republican agenda is usually the same, except this time it has moved even further to the right, especially when it comes to abortion. We Democrats look forward to Republicans making abortion an important subject for the 2012 Election season.
However, let us take a walk down fantasy lane with the RNC platform and see where it takes us:
Abortion Ban Read more
This is a continuation from Part 1
As a boy preacher, I expected everyone to believe like me and if they chose not to, they would suffer the fires of Hell. That is how I was taught to think.
I well remember a time that I watched a Catholic priest smoking a pipe of tobacco. It was at a local Diary Queen and he sat in his car, smoking his pipe. As a minister– even a boy minister– it was my duty to inform him of the consequences of smoking that pipe so I went up to his car window and told him that it was a sin to smoke and he would go to Hell. He gave me a curious look but didn’t give me much thought. Read more
Many years ago when I was but eleven years of age, I became a preacher. As a Pentecostal, I had a very strict belief system, which also affected my sermons. I believed many things were sin, even if the Bible never mentioned them, such as smoking for example; smoking was a sin to me, or at least that was what I was taught.
Like so many Christians nowadays, I really didn’t know the Bible that well. I could quote a few scriptures but those were scriptures that supported my particular belief system, even if they were taken out of context. Read more
Mitt Romney and other Republicans may be publicly distancing themselves from Rep. Todd Akin’s [R, MO] recent comment on “legitimate” rape, but most congressional Republicans are on the record supporting policies that create similar distinctions in law.
Just last year 164 Republicans and 10 Democrats co-sponsored and voted to pass a bill, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” that sought to create a new legal distinction between different types of rape. Under the bill, only victims of so-called “forcible rape” would be able to use government funds or health insurance purchased on one of the yet-to-be-established healthcare exchanges to pay for an abortion. If a rape is deemed by a judge not to be sufficiently “forcible,” the victim would have to pay out of pocket if the rape leads to pregnancy. Read more
I for one do not believe that most Republican lawmakers really care about unborn children that much, if they did then they would not be spending so much effort into taking food out of poor children’s mouths.
What I do believe is, Republican legislators in both the United States Congress and in state houses across the country, really want is to control women’s bodies. This is just a speculation here but it seems there are still many men, who look upon women as though they are property, or at least should be.
Recently a certain lawmaker made the news because he inadvertently revealed his personal thoughts about rape, which really is the personal thoughts of many of the GOP, but his mistake was to reveal what he really thought, instead of what the GOP’s talking points are. Bad boy, out you Go! Read more
Reading an article in USA Today by Aamer Madhani called “Global newborn mortality still high” it reminded me of all the suffering that children on the face of this Earth go through and all the death for such innocence. Then I am daily reminded of the loud roar in this country concerning abortion and how some in the pro-life movement seems so concerned for unborn children, even though once those children are born, those from the right – including anti-abortionist, will be finding ways to cut funding for those same children they fought so hard to save. Read more
In the continual spread of assaults on women's reproductive freedom in the wake of the 2010 tea party movement, another state, Idaho, is legislating women receive unnecessary and invasive medical procedures prior to obtaining abortion.
This is part of an unprecedented effort at the state level to restrict reproductive rights, and in 2011 a record number of these measures have passed. Read more
This article is so powerful that it pretty much defies comment. It is a first-person account of a pregnant woman in Texas who learned that her son would be born with horrible, painful birth defects, if he survived long enough to be born at all. Thanks to the vile misogynists who run the state, she was made to suffer several further rounds of emotional torture before she could avail herself of the only viable option, an abortion. All I can say is that the Republicans who support these laws are monsters. If you vote for them, then you're a monster too. Read more
In a debate on the floor of the Georgia State house over a bill to force women to bring all pregnancies after 20 weeks to term, even in cases of dead or non-viable fetus, this Georgia representative reaches a new low. State Rep Terry England seems to be suggesting pigs and cows do it, why can't humans?
Rep. Terry England compares women to cows, pigs and chickens. from Bryan Long on Vimeo. Read more
I’m pinching myself to be sure I’m actually not dreaming as I watch the Republican Party hand over the 2012 election to us Democrats.
Back in 2010, Republicans took over the U.S. House of Representatives and state houses across the country. They did this on a platform of providing jobs and opposition to the new law on the books; the Affordable Care Act. But nowhere was there any talk about social issues, such as abortion and especially not contraception. Yet here we are; Republicans are introducing and passing laws all across the country to block abortions and funding for contraception for women – it would seem they had a secret agenda that they predetermined wouldn’t help them get elected. Read more
