Michael's Thought

Obama, The Imperfect Presidential Choice for Gay People

2012-01-24T11:40:00.004-05:00

I hate that discrimination against LGBT people has forced me into being a single issue voter. For many Gay people like me we have few options in the upcoming presidential election. As I see it there are three options for everyone else and one for us.

The three choices are;

Vote for a Republican candidate. Stay home and don’t vote. Vote for Barack Obama.

I don’t see the Republican option as a viable one for LGBT people because all the current candidates will set back our equality for at least a decade if elected. If you are an LGBT person and you think a Republican candidate might be an option for you, perhaps because you're financially well off and think the Republicans will help you protect your assets, you’re probably right. You’ve chosen your wealth over your equal rights and those of your community. If this is the case, please stop reading and leave this page because you’re too stupid to do the right thing and too selfish to look beyond yourself.

I’ve supported the option of staying home before to send the message to Democrats that we are not a sure thing. I think that is what happened two years ago in the midterm elections. Obama stuck us on the back burner, courted the center and right of the political landscape and lost big. I think he has gotten the message and has woken up. I would site his decision to order his Justice Department to not defend DOMA after the midterm elections as they did during his first two years in office. Either way the stakes are too high this time around to stay home and not vote. Gay people must come out and vote.

For a Gay man like me, Obama is really the only option for the 2012 presidential election. I don’t think he is perfect. I think he has played politics with our civil rights, and I think his first two years in office with a Democratic Senate and House were a complete waste of a mandate for change. I also think he is lying about evolving on Gay marriage. I believe he is for it, but lacks the balls to admit it. My reasoning is this. He is a constitutional law professor. He knows that marriage is a civil right and that not permitting it for one group of people is discrimination. He also has a strong understanding of this country’s principle of the separation of church and state.

So while flawed and imperfect, Obama is our best chance at full equality in the next four years. At a minimum I believe we can count on him to not set us back from the gains we have made. At best his next four years will put and end to the issue of our equality so Gay American’s can break out of our discrimination enforced one issue voter prison and have the freedom to base our votes on a majority of important issues this country faces. A right afforded to our heterosexual counterparts since the foundation of this country.

“No, Your Past” - ( From 2009)

2011-12-20T07:54:00.001-05:00

In a “Christmas Carol”, Scrooge asks the Ghost of Christmas Past if the spirit will be showing him Christmases of long past. The Ghost responds by saying “No, your past.” The bitter sweetness of the Christmas holiday is found in our individual pasts. I think growing up, and if we are lucky, into our young adult years, we experience a golden time. Though I do not think we recognize it while we are in it, we certainly long for it when it has past. The golden time for me was when all those I cared for and loved were alive and in my life.

One of my fondest memories of Christmas was sitting on the kitchen floor with my brother playing with Christmas toys, while my mother prepared for dinner and the arrival of my grandparents. Growing up in New York City both sides of my family lived in close proximity to each other. We were all within a short car, cab, or bus ride from each other. Drop ins on Christmas day were both welcomed and expected. We had a steady stream of family, friends, and neighbors dropping in for coffee and a Christmas drink. All came bearing gifts and all received gifts back from my family. On other holidays, we too made our rounds, but not on Christmas. My father insisted that we stay home on Christmas because he knew my brother and I would be miserable having to part with our toys, if even for a short time. I love him for that even today.

That was my golden time and sadly, it exists no more. I realize that I was lucky to have a golden time, as I know some kids never did. I hope they find it as an adult because everyone deserves a golden time or two in their lifetime. I woke up today missing my golden time and the people that are no longer with me. I lost my last and closest grandparent a few years back. She was my mom’s mom and though she lived until 92, I still think she left us too soon. I lost my other grandparents years before that, and my brother an even longer time ago. There are also a host of friends and other relatives that left us much too soon, and I remember them all today. In my mind, I can pick one memory that is unique to each of them, and I honor them by recalling it today. I do so with the mixed emotions of the Christmas holiday.

I do not mind sadness and I have learned to embrace it as I do any other emotion. In this case, I find it useful because it helps bring to mind the memory of those lost but still loved. Tomorrow I will focus on what I have today. I am luckier then most as I am loved very much by my husband, parents, and friends, and I believe by the God who created me. My husband and I are in the midst of creating our own golden time, did I mention you could have more then one? This golden time of my life is different in that I have an adult mind to recognize it with while I am in it, and enough of a child’s heart left to see it’s magic.

Love,

MT

Do You Hear What I Hear - Linda Eder

2011-12-13T15:24:00.000-05:00

#ItGetsBetter when we #MakeItBetter

2011-12-10T13:50:00.003-05:00

So last night we went out to dinner. As we were leaving we passed two women in a booth, one white and one black. As we passed their table the white one said "So I told him he was a big faggot", the black one started laughing. I went back to their table and said, "So you're using the word faggot huh?" I turned to the black lady and said, you a black woman laughing? You should both be ashamed. " You're fucking bigots." They looked shocked, as we left. I had to try and #MakeItBetter

Marry The Night Video- Lady GaGa

2011-12-05T15:55:00.001-05:00

Whats goin on.. Video by a hurting brave Gay Kid

2011-12-04T17:51:00.000-05:00

Toys For Tots

2011-11-30T05:51:00.001-05:00

Toys for Tots made easy on EBAY

Merry Christmas-Canon

2011-11-29T14:38:00.000-05:00

Chris Cornell - John lennon's Imagine

2011-11-18T13:17:00.001-05:00

Rest In Peace - Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T06:26:00.004-04:00

Sonny and Cher - I Got You Babe - 1960s

2011-10-02T17:45:00.000-04:00

The Killing of Georgie - Rod Stewart - Make It Better

2011-09-27T15:26:00.003-04:00

Just Don't Say "It Gets Better" , Make it Better!

Simon and garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water

2011-09-21T15:09:00.000-04:00

Peter, Paul and Mary - Puff The Magic Dragon

2011-09-21T15:06:00.001-04:00

Peter, Paul and Mary, Where have all the Flowers Gone

2011-09-21T15:01:00.000-04:00

Peter, Paul and Mary - This Land Is Your Land

2011-09-21T14:57:00.001-04:00

Peter, Paul and Mary - Leaving On A Jet Plane

2011-09-21T14:52:00.000-04:00

If I had a Hammer - Peter , Paul and Mary

2011-09-20T11:00:00.000-04:00

Blowin in the Wind-Peter Paul and Mary

2011-09-20T10:58:00.000-04:00

Free Falling - Stevie Nicks

2011-09-13T12:55:00.001-04:00

Lady Gaga's solo piano performance of "Hair" on Howard Stern Show

2011-08-12T16:43:00.000-04:00

Lady Gaga - The Edge Of Glory" on Howard Stern Show

2011-08-12T16:42:00.000-04:00

The Marvelous Toy - Peter, Paul, and Mary

2011-08-04T15:42:00.000-04:00

Sad Eyes

2011-08-03T11:28:00.005-04:00

(Enrique Iglesias)

Every day here you come walking
I hold my tongue,
I don`t do much talking
You say you`re happy and you`re doin` fine
Well go ahead, baby,
I got plenty of time

Sad eyes never lie
Sad eyes never lie

Well for a while
I`ve been watching you steady
Ain`t gonna move `til you`re good and ready
You show up and then you shy away
But I know pretty soon you`ll be walkin` this way

Sad eyes never lie
Sad eyes never lie

Baby don`t you know I don`t care
Don`t you know that I`ve been there
Well if something in the air feels a little unkind
Don`t worry darling, it`ll slip your mind
I know you think you`d never be mine
Well that`s okay, baby, I don`t mind
That shy smile`s sweet, that`s a fact
Go ahead,
I don`t mind the act
Here you come all dressed up for a date
Well one more step and it`ll be too late

Blue blue rib-bon in your hair
Like you`re so sure
I`ll be standing there

Sad eyes never lie
Sad

Blue blue ribbon in your hair
Like you`re so sure
I`ll be standing there
Sad eyes never lie
Sad eyes never lie
Sad eyes never lie
Sad eyes never lie

Enruques Iglesias - Sad Eyes on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/user/lauii94#p/a/u/0/o8YzXCawMcg

I'm Weary

2011-06-21T11:36:00.004-04:00

Bob Seger -We've Got Tonight Lyrics:

I know it's late, I know you're weary
I know your plans don't include me
Still here we are, both of us lonely
Longing for shelter from all that we see
Why should we worry, no one will care girl
Look at the stars so far away
We've got tonight, who needs tomorrow?
We've got tonight babe
Why don' you stay?

Deep in my soul, I've been so lonely
All of my hopes, fading away
I've longed for love, like everyone else does
I know I'll keep searching, even after today
So there it is girl, I've said it all now
And here we are babe, what do you say?
We've got tonight, who needs tomorrow?
We've got tonight babe
Why don't you stay?

I know it's late, I know you're weary
I know your plans don't include me
Still here we are, both of us lonely
Both of us lonely

We've got tonight, who needs tomorrow?
Let's make it fast, let's find a way
Turn out the light, come take my hand now
We've got tonight babe
Why don't you stay?
Why don't you stay?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JymsO5Sjtog

Moving on now ......

2011-06-08T12:17:00.003-04:00

The next part of Michael's story is his conversation with his brother Lucifer. I won't be continuing it here, but I will be writing more of his story. Thanks for your interest.

Michael

“The Angel's Insight”

2011-06-03T14:08:00.003-04:00

The Eleventh Part:

Pain is not a stranger to the archangel. They are made to bleed when they see the pain of humans or intervene and shield human from pain. Their wings are connected to both their hearts and their brains by thick fibrous nerves and massive arteries. They are the source of great pleasure and great pain. Their hearts rupture and bleed as they sense pain. The blood pools and forms a protective skin around their hearts as it clots and heals. The heart grows stronger with each blood skin, yet as it increases its size it also increases its venerability to pain and suffering. It is a vicious cycle; it is the archangel’s life.

Accustomed to physical pain and human pain, Michael had not been prepared for his own pain caused by the betrayal of his brother Lucifer. They were meant to go through eternity together caring for and protecting humans. When Lucifer lead the rebellion against the Kingdom, known as Heaven to Humans, and against the Creator, known as God, Michael lost the one he trusted most, other than God itself. The pain then was immobilizing, physical only in the sense that is was so intensely emotional that it manifested as pain in parts of the angel’s body. It was intensified by Lucifer’s mutilation at Michael’s own hand, as God had willed. It had changed Michael. He was never the same. He hid it well.

Now over two thousand years later, the pain regained its freshness freeing itself from its protective scar tissue, as Michael looked down upon what had been his brother as it writhed in pain on Hell’s floor. It that had been Lucifer was unchanged from the day Michael had uprooted its wings and imprisoned it in the Depths. Suddenly, Michael remembered the day when a newcomer to Heaven, witnessing Michael’s pain, had cried out repeatedly asking God, “Who will watch out for Michael”? It haunted him then because seemingly there was no answer. Who could possibly guard the Guardian of all, the most powerful and able archangel? The question haunted him again now, but not because it had no answer, but because it did. It hit him with a force like a train hitting a human knocking the body out of the skin. Before him lay the answer in the mutilated body of Lucifer that painfully dragged itself toward Michael. It was what had caused the tear of God in response to the newcomer’s plea. Michael’s protector was his brother….

"A Soldier's Story" - Memorial Day 2011

2011-05-30T09:06:00.004-04:00

Some boys like girls.
Some boys like boys.
Some boys like both.
Some boys should have been girls.

Some girls like boys.
Some girls like girls.
Some girls like both.
Some girls should have been boys.

Boy or Girl they went to war.
Boy or Girl they bled the same.
Boy or Girl they died the same so
we could live proudly as we are,discarding
shame.

Thanks for that. MT.

The Angel’s Justice

2011-04-28T15:25:00.005-04:00

The Tenth Part:

The Kingdom is not a democracy, nor is there a trial by a jury of peers. There is simply the judgment of the One who knows the count of the hairs on every human’s head.

Michael stood hovering over his brother Lucifer. Michael intended, no wanted to end Lucifer. He wanted to end him so he could not make another attempt against Creation, but there was another reason. Michael, could not make sense of a world, his world, with the knowledge that his brother whom he loved was somewhere in creation existing apart from Michael for eternity. Vessels in the Archangel ruptured silently and oozed angelic blood at this thought. This close to the Creator they sealed quickly as proximity to Him known as Lord, increased the speed of the regenerative healing that makes an angel immortal. The rupturing and sealing continued, it was painful for Michael, No one noticed, no one cared.

The One who sits upon the throne of the Kingdom sentenced Lucifer short of death. His would be living death. Eternity in the Depths once stripped of any physical and spiritual attribute that made him Archangel. Michael would mutilate his brother to satisfy the Creator. An Angel’s wings run through its body and are directly connected to the heart, the brain, and the spirit by thick arteries and thick nerves. The wings are thus a conduit for the angel that coordinates its actions, feeling, suffering, brain activity and spirituality. They are both the source of great pleasure and great pain.

Michael turned Lucifer on his stomach and placed a foot between his brother’s massive shoulder blades. He reached for the base of one wing where it entered Lucifer’s body and grasped his strong hand around it. While Michael could do what was to come next quickly, minimizing his brother’s pain, He who sat in judgment ordered it be done slowly. Michael began to unroot the wing from his brother’s body. He pulled slowly but forcefully as nerve and artery began to tear inside Lucifer and bone snapped. With a glance from Michael, several Guardians assisted by holding Lucifer down. They did not gag him as the Creator wished for all of Creation to hear Lucifer’s screams from the torture. Michael continued to slowly pull at the wing as it began to separate from his writhing brother. He felt the snap of the nerves that led to the heart, brain and spirit. He felt the tear of the artery routed in the same places as blood gushed with the force of a fire hydrant from each of Lucifer’s orifices and the hole left by the now separated wing. The wing lay in a blood soaked heap in front of Lucifer who was forced to look at it as Michael began to pull the second one. Lucifer was now insane from the loss of the wing, the blood, and the pain its pulling caused him. When the second was done, he ceased to be the brother Michael knew. He appeared as an animal gone rabid.

Though mutilated, he was still at his core angel. Regeneration and healing began and would continue until Lucifer was imprisoned in the Depths. Michael moved quickly. Scooping the Lucifer thing up in his massive arms, Michael took flight from the Kingdom toward the Depths. A handful of Lucifer’s followers were allowed to go with him. They could not enter the Depths only remain eternally outside its entrance, free to come and go, but to never enter. They would be Lucifer’s only contact with other creatures for the millenniums to come. As Michael flew, the healing of the now unconscious Lucifer continued but slowed as they gained distance from the Creator and Its Kingdom.

Michael arrived at the depths and entered with his brother’s mangled body and spirit. He placed him in the Depths instructing Lucifer’s followers to stay outside the entrance. Heads bowed in fear, they cried out to Lucifer looking for some sign that their fellow angel, their leader, their friend, still existed somewhere inside the thing Michael had carried. As Michael turned to leave Lucifer regained consciousness and cried out to his brother, “You have doubts”. Michael paused, and then flew off. He would hear his brother’s hunting cries over the millenniums but would not set eyes upon him again until over two thousand human years had passed. That day was now. It had come.

Now, over twenty human centuries later, here stood Michael. His own doubts in the Creator of all had grown until he could no longer ignore the cries of he who had been his brother. Here Michael stood in the Depths facing what had been Lucifer. Knowing the truth that his doubts and Lucifer’s had become one….

“The Angel’s Kill”

2011-04-14T13:24:00.008-04:00

The 9th Part:

The Depths is the furthest place from the Kingdom and the Creator. Within the Depths the presence of the Creator though Omnipresent, is absent. It is absent as the Creator as chosen to limit It's Omnipresence and Omniscience from this sole place in creation. It is without the life force, without soul, without death, and without regeneration. At the time of the rebellion it had never had an inhabitant. Its first inhabitant would be the Creator of all, Itself.

At the moment of death, the Creator now bloodied and hanging from a cross, would go to the Depths for three human days. It was part of the Creator’s plan of redemption. When It or He or She, occupied the Depths, It would be cut off from It’s creation, It’s Kingdom and all knowledge of events that went on beyond the place of the Depths. It had willed this as part of It’s plan. For a short time, creation would continue without its Creator and the Creator without It’s creation.

The time when the Creator would be separated from creation would cause great suffering. The pain, the suffering, would be felt by both the Creator and the creation, though the creation’s pain would be felt over millenniums. It would be as a stone hitting calm waters causing ripples on its surface. Though in this case the ripples would grow over the centuries instead of subside. No one in the Kingdom or upon the earth knew of this, only the One who created all, the One known as creation’s Author, the One hanging upon a cross. He alone had this knowledge, as now do you.

The immediate severity of the pain would be felt by He who hung upon the cross. It was within this pain, that the redemption was to be accomplished. It was He who sees all, that planned it as such and it was His separation and discontinuance for a period of three human days that would leave creation vulnerable as it was redeemed. It was during this time that Lucifer would move against the Kingdom to save man from what he and his followers believed to be their unjust pain and suffering at the hands of a Creator and creation out of control. Lucifer believed his cause to be just.

Upon earth, in the Creator’s last moments of this incarnation, as instructed, the Archangel Michael commanded legions of angels to encircle the planet. Angels are both shape and color shifters. They enlarged their bodies so as to cover the planet. They hovered in rows expanding their wings. They aligned side by side in such a way so they were opposing each other head to toe. The tip of one angel’s expanded wing touched the arm pit of another angel so as to become a solid angelic mass blocking out the sun. Their shapes, distorted to the human eye due to their increased size, appeared as dark cloud cover to humans below. As this physical life of the Creator came to an end, tears flowed from the angels and fell upon the earth as rain. In unison the angels began flexing their wings causing great winds to impact the earth. The winds blew open graves and dislodged the corpses held inside them. It was as if the dead walked the earth. It was thus the Creator died.

At the moment of physical death, it began. The Creator now in the Depths removed from the creation. Lucifer and his legion acted against the Kingdom and its protectors, Michael and his angels. The life of a Guardian can only be taken by He who was now in the Depths and by those It gives the power to. This time, before taking on human form, the One with eyes that see into the soul of man, had called Michael to the throne and bestowed the power of life and death over Guardians upon him. Michael spoke not of this power. As the most powerful and gifted Archangel, he could subdue anything in creation except the Creator, and he saw no need to have this power, but had taken it obediently. Michael had been wrong.

The battle for the Kingdom raged for days. Michael saw his brother and his legion advance sword and wing drawn. The initial assault was evenly matched as the angels were identically created. Some of Michael’s were gravely wounded and put out of battle as they waited to heal and regenerate, and some of Lucifer’s were equally wounded. Toward the end of the battle’s second human day, Michael called the leaders of his army to him. He instructed each to hold out their sword and expand their massive wings. Each with head bowed did as instructed. Michael drifted as a ghost between them touching his sword to each of theirs and his wings to each of their wings. In doing so he bestowed upon them the power of death over Guardian angels. None was to battle Lucifer but Michael.

As the battle raged on during the second human day of the Creator’s time in the Depths, angels lost their lives for the first time since creation began. Unknowingly, Lucifer’s legion drew their swords against Michael’s army of Guardians. As each of Michael’s Guardians struck their fellow angel with either wing or sword, the horror of an Angel’s death became apparent. It was as if an internal force grasped the heart of the dying angel and crushed it out of existence. Blood erupted from their pores and orifices, shock registered upon the dying’s faces and upon the face of the angels that caused their death. Their wings erupted in flames as if the blood that drenched them was flammable. The deaths were horrific, long and painful, as angels are not meant to die. Slow torturous death overcame their regenerative nature. Upon death their bodies lay as grotesque skin bags emptied of all supernatural life and spirit. In life they were beautiful, in death a horror. As the shock of angel death registered in the Kingdom, the hearts of Michael’s Guardians, now angel killers, began to bleed from the anguish of their deeds and the death of their brethren, at their hand. A cry that shook existence went out from Michael ordering Lucifer and what was left of those loyal to him to lay down their weapons. To stop the massacre, to stop the death.

In an instance Lucifer faced Michael and drew his sword. The Archangel deflected the first blow from his brother with a flex of his wing. The second blow struck Michael and pierced his already bleeding heart, bleeding from the pain of his brother’s betrayal, yet he did not falter. Michael had not raised his sword against Lucifer until the third strike was initiated. It was blocked by Michael’s weapon turning Lucifer’s sword to ashes. Michael,heart broken, raised his sword to end he who was Lucifer.

On earth the sun rose. It was now the third human day since the Creator’s death. Before Michael’s sword struck Lucifer there was a cold blinding light and a thunderous roar. The Creator was becoming Omniscient and Omnipresent again as He left the Depths. Amidst the thunder a deafening voice was implanted in the heads of those who dwell in the Kingdom, implanted as He who is life does not often speak aloud. The voice not heard upon the earth said, “Enough, he is finished.” Michael’s disempowered sword already in motion struck Lucifer sprawling him to the ground, but not ending him as Michael’s power of death over angels was itself ended,and so was the rebellion.

Judgment and punishment were excruciating and swift for Lucifer and sadly for Michael. For Lucifer as he would receive the judgment and sentence, and for Michael, as he was ordered by his Creator to carry out the punishment against his brother. It would be a site never before or since seen in any realm of creation.

Lucifer’s crime recorded in the book of life was rebellion against the Kingdom and its Creator. As all truth, even personal truth is recorded in this book; a notation was made. They were quotes from the lips of Lucifer. They read, “Spare those who fought with me.” and “I led the rebellion but did so in defense of man, who I am compelled by every cell of my own creation to protect, as humans have become the neglected play thing of a Creator gone mad.”

“The Angel’s Existence”

2011-04-07T14:16:00.009-04:00

Part 8

In Michael’s world angels are not loved, they are used.

Used by the One who created them to absorb the pain of humans preventing it from reaching Him who presides over creation’s Kingdom. They are used by humans who hurt one another. Their pain not always preventable, not preventable as angels are not omniscient nor omnipresent.

In the Archangel’s world, angels are hurt by their own endurance. When lesser creatures would wither and die, or perhaps just give up and turn away, angels have no choice but to go on, endure the pain, scarring, and healing. No choice, because it is within their cell structure to be fiercely loyal to those they love, whether the objects of their love bring them joy or grief.

Sadly Michael thought,that an Angel’s existence would be so different if only they were loved as they love, imperfectly, but completely,loyally and without end, but this was not to be. He who has the eyes that can see into the darkest crevice of creation destined it to be as it is.

Pain, loss, and loneliness are the home of the angel. After a time it grows to be comfortable as most familiar things do, but the longing of an angel to be truly loved will never really cease. For a time it may ebb or flare, but can only be extinguished by love, and for an angel love is not to be under the current rules of creation’s plan.

His own creation was than flawed thought Michael, as he was not allowed to be loved. Than why the desire for love,the painful desire? The Archangel wrestled with this as his doubts grew about the Creators sanity and pureness. He had loved his Creator. A Creator who had become absent, distant and unheard from for millenniums by the human ear,as even the forces of nature grew increasingly out of control. A Being who too, did not show love to the angel, the Archangel, His fiercest protector. Rage and hurt grew in the Archangel as did pain and doubt. He hated the doubt as it hurt him, and wished it were not………

"He Made Them Angel"

2011-04-06T11:21:00.006-04:00

Part 7

He that is both Mother and Father, made them all. He made them male, He made them female, and He made them Angel.

Lucifer had spent forty days and forty nights with Him, over two thousand years ago when the One who is creation took form on earth as a Jewish male. Lucifer, as had Michael, been told of creation’s plan, and had watched it spiral out of control with little intervention from its Author. They watched as two of the first humans were placed in a forest having all their needs met as children by their Parent. They watched as the Parent took delight in tempting His creation with a test, they had no chance of passing. They watched as the Creator evicted these two humans from the forest to fend for themselves after their failure. They watched as the Author of creation repeated this test with humans around the earth, always with the same result. It seemed insane to Lucifer as the One who made the sun, created and spread guilt and shame upon the earth. Michael would not speak of it and share his thoughts. He remained in painful silence; it grew to be his home.

After the testing of humans, the crown of creation, had ended, they began to multiply, interact, starve, die, and murder. The Author of all, added to Michael and Lucifer legions of Guardians as the number of humans grew. Subjected to the violent acts of nature, they in turn became violent against one another. The Creator’s communications with Its creation were few, often through what the humans called prophets and signs. Sometimes thought Lucifer, the communication intentionally provoked derision amongst the humans that led to slaughter. Such was the case when a tribe of humans called Jews, were told they were set apart as chosen by the Creator. They became hated, enslaved and despised by other human tribes, but this too was the intent of He who knows all. It was during this time that the seeds of doubt began to take root in Lucifer’s mind. Was the creation cherished or simply the play thing of its Creator? Was the plan of Creation imperfect? Was the One who breathes life imperfect as well? Lucifer confided his doubts to his brother, but Michael would not speak his feelings. The Author of life knew Lucifer’s thoughts, as It knew Michael’s, but did nothing.

Creation's Author had another plan. It was one of redemption, it was one of many, as were the tribes of humans. In Lucifer’s mind this plan was horrifying. It included the torture of humans, the slaughter of animals and the eventual death and resurrection of the Creator of all. It seemed insane. As the plan unfolded over hundred of human years it came toward its end as the Creator became human for a time. Became human to allow Itself to be tortured, murdered and resurrected. It was during this time that Lucifer guarded the Creator in the dessert and tried to reason with the Author of Life to abandon the plan. Lucifer pleaded with the One who is the atom, to simply interact with Its human creation, because it was truly the Creator’s lack of interaction that caused humans to live as they did.

They were as children without a parent, innately given the knowledge of right and wrong, the desire to love, but no guidance as to how. Instead they lived in misery under the laws imposed upon them by an absent Creator. Frustration over this pressure, and despair over having their own immortality yanked from them, so they now too faced death, caused their violence and excesses. Simple interaction with the One who created them, would have calmed their fears and silenced their doubts, but none came from the Kingdom. Guardian Angles were created to deal with the symptoms of the creation plan gone awry but were not able to deal with its true disease, a distant Creator.

After the time in the desert, the Creator of Life, now human, ordered Lucifer away. During the next three human years Lucifer recruited allies amongst the nonhuman creations of the Kingdom convincing them that the Creator was imperfect, Its plan inflicting needless harm upon humans. Of those he convinced, a number were Guardians under his and Michael’s command. Lucifer reminded them of their charge to intervene on the behalf of man protecting them from harm when possible, aiding them in their recovery when not.

Lucifer convinced them that it was their obligation to man that compelled them to rebel against the Creator, the Author of life, also the Author of all human suffering and pain. Now as the Creator was nailed to a tree, a bloody raw pulp made of His human body, Lucifer and his patriots prepared to act, to rebel against the Kingdom at the moment of death. All in place; all ready, all but Michael, the most powerful Archangel, the brother of Lucifer. Lucifer sadly understood. He understood that if not convinced, Michael would battle him protecting the Kingdom and its Creator. The war against the Kingdom would come down to the two Archangels. One would remain, one would not.

The Angel's Brother

2011-03-28T15:06:00.011-04:00

Part 6

The Archangel had lost faith. The One who knows the mind of all, knew this, therefore he was in danger. There were only two Archangels created for the Kingdom, he and his brother. His brother knew of his doubts, but did not share them, at least not yet. However,he was not alone. There were others that thought as he did, that the Creator and the plan of creation were terribly flawed. So flawed that untold pain and suffering would be unavoidable as time unfolded. It was not his hate of man that would compel him to act. No, it was his innate love of man that would give Lucifer no option but to lead a rebellion against the Kingdom, its King, and its Guardian, his brother Michael.

On the day of their creation, Lucifer and Michael were given the knowledge of creation’s plan. They knew the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the last.He with eyes that see the acts of all, had imparted this knowledge so Lucifer and Michael could better love and protect the creation known as man, that bore the image of the Creator. When the knowledge had been given, Lucifer felt strips of flesh tear from his heart. It would be his first scarring and blood skin. His reaction to the pain was apparent to all. Michael’s was not, only to Lucifer. While he felt his own horror take hold, he watched in equal horror as Michael began to bleed. His brother’s massive wings were armored with almost impenetrable feathers. Where the feathers entered the angel’s body, blood began to seep as Michael’s internally wounded heart absorbed man’s destiny of suffering. Suffering unpreventable, as the details and timing were withheld by He who breathes life, suffering that would grow with each millennium if the plan was unaltered as presented by its Author.

Now Lucifer’s love of man caused him to act. Created so the pain of man caused his love of man to increase, his own pain now intolerable to the angel, forced him into rebellion. His pleas to the Author of Life had fallen on Ears that were closed. When the Creator took Human form as a Jewish male, it was Lucifer that appealed to him for forty days and nights in the desert to alter creation’s plan. Lucifer had thought the Creator would listen as he experienced joy, love and pain as a human, but He would not, and commanded Lucifer away. This convinced Lucifer that it was not just the plan that was insanely flawed, it was also the plan’s Author, the Designer and Author of all that is.

Now as Michael stood at the entrance of the Depths, his own doubts unbearable. Now as Lucifer gazed upon the broken hearted,tortured Michael,for the first time since its imprisonment millenniums ago, Lucifer felt its heart tear. It ripped as it understood the horrified shocked look upon its brother’s face as Michael understood how centuries in the Depths had transformed Lucifer. Transformed it into the creature now before Michael, transformed it from something it would never be again. Lucifer’s blood began to drip from its gums,as its thoughts turned to the rebellion and consumed it from the present moment.

The Angel Journeys

2011-03-23T15:38:00.020-04:00

Part 5

Michael considered his own creation as he moved toward the Depths where his brother dwell. It was a far distance to travel even for Michael, the strongest and fastest Archangel created. Humans thought the Kingdom to be in the sky and the Depths to be under the surface of the earth. Neither was true, their minds could not comprehend this truth. When the order was given to separate Lucifer from the Kingdom, the place chosen by the One with the knowledge of life, was the place in creation furthest from the Kingdom. Spiritual and physical universes apart, as opposed to above the sky or in the earth’s core. The distance from the Kingdom and He who made all, was the punishment of Lucifer.

On the day of his creation, Michael was instantly aware and fully empowered. Humans believe the One with all knowledge, to have rested on the seventh day of creation. It was on that day He created their protectors, the Guardians of man. Guardian angels are a unique creation Michael thought, as they are never without pain, whether it be physical, emotional or spiritual. Their first day free of pain would come when humans could no longer be harmed, for it was their harm that caused the Archangel’s pain, inescapable and constant.

The heart of Michael told his history. This record upon the heart is unique to all Guardians, not just Michael, though no angel’s heart held the breadth and depth of his pain. In truth no other angel could survive it. Michael’s heart ripped and bled when man suffered. The surface of his heart bore millenniums of witnessed suffering, of missed chances to prevent, to intervene. What the Archangel did not know, Michael could not stop.

The anatomy of the Archangel's heart was designed to increase its love of humans. When the bleeding would stop for a time, the dried blood would form a skin around the angel’s heart. Each skin of blood would cause the heart to grow in size, as it grew in size, so did its capacity to love man and feel their pain. Michael thought it to be both a vicious and efficient design. So it was by the wounds of the heart, caused by the senseless suffering of man, that the Angel's love of man was perpetuated as was his torture. Though Michael suffered greatly he accepted this as an intended part of whom he was created to be, by the One who created all. Accepted it,until now.

On Michael’s heart there were many scarred over wounds and thick skins of blood. One in the center was set apart by its size and depth. If he were killable, by any except the One who created him, the events that caused this scar would have ended him. It occurred on the day he put down the rebellion, and the will of Him who wills all, was that Lucifer be brought to the Depths, but allowed to exist. Michael remembered the horror he felt, and the horror that came as the One who knows all, charged Michael with this duty. It would be his mission to imprison his brother in the Depths, and he did so obediently as the leader of the Guardians, the Archangel of the kingdom.

On that day, the day the Archangel bound his brother and journeyed with him to the Depths, Michael felt the flesh ripping from his heart. It ripped because Lucifer created to be his equal in leading the Guardians to protect man would now be separated from the Kingdom and from Michael. It tore because of the suffering of man that would occur from Lucifer’s influence upon them. Lucifer would use man to inflict pain upon the One who created him, He who banished him. Michael knew his brother’s mind. Lucifer hoped that the pain of man would succeed in altering the plan of creation, succeed where his rebellion against the kingdom had failed, failed due to the powerful Archangel that now journeyed him from the Kingdom. Lucifer believed the plan to be flawed, and the Planner flawed. This was his crime.

When the task was done, Michael’s heart, now nearly torn in two bled for a human century. The angel’s blood overflowed draining from his mouth, ears and eyes as he awaited the healing that would come, knowing the pain would never fully cease. For eternity he would carry the scourging knowledge that his brother though not dead, existed in the Depths. His massive wings became matted with blood that only the tears from those that dwell in the kingdom could wash away. He lay in his own tears and blood writhing in pain, beginning to scar, as he experienced the separation of his brother and the knowledge of man’s suffering to come.

On that day the Author of life sent angels’ to comfort the mangled Archangel,still more powerful then all, and relay the message that this too was part of the plan of creation. It may have brought some comfort to Michael then, but it did not now. Now as Michael neared the end of that same journey, made only once before, the words rang out again, “You have doubts”,cried Lucifer. The Archangel Michael felt the truth of his brother’s words as he neared the entrance to the Depths, as he laid eyes upon the creature that had once been his brother,it cried out once more,its words tore at Michael's heart. It said,"Our doubts are one".

He who made them both male and female, He who is Omnipresent, watched.

The Angel’s Agony

2011-03-22T11:55:00.015-04:00

Part 4

Michael was in Japan. The Archangel’s wing span was more than 50 miles as he protected the country from radiation. He had been there for a week now. Too late to prevent the disaster, but on time to witness the devastation. Michael watched as humans tried to contain their creation. He watched as they searched through ruins hoping for a miracle. He watched as bodies rolled in with the tide and littered the beaches as the tide went back out. Parts of him were already feeling the wounds of radiation exposure. As always, it would not kill him but he would feel its pain.

As the Archangel performed his mission to intervene and protect man, he commanded legions of guardians across the globe. The earth had much trouble. Senseless mutilation and death both natural and caused by man. His legions,uncountable to all but Michael,and He who created them, were well engaged in their created purpose to intervene at the benefit of men. As Michael’s thoughts turned to the senseless preventable tragedies a pain that shook the angel’s core broke his heart. It was a heart broken many times. Its history could be told by its scars, its capacity to love by its size and the dried blood that formed a skin around it.

As Michael grieved watching the horrific scene below,his consciousness was snapped into the moment by a voice. It was not human, nor did it come from the kingdom. It was like thunder, it was meant for and it was heard only by the Archangel. It was familiar, it repeated its message, ”You have Doubts.” it said. The voice was undeniable, it was Michael’s brother. It was Lucifer. A greater pain unleashed in the angel, as it sounded again, “You have doubts.” Though shocked by the contact, Michael was not surprised by the message. Michael looked upon Japan and its failing reactors, man’s own creation gone out of control. If man was made in the image of the One who authors life and man could lose control of what he created, than could not the Creator of all lose control of man? Was this inability to keep control a part of the One who sees all, now passed on to men as part of His image?

It sounded again ripping a fresh wound in the heart of Michael, “You have doubts.” Its direction was clear. Though it had been millenniums, Michael knew the way well. In less than a human second he summoned four guardians to take his place. As they assumed their vigil, Michael turned and flew toward Lucifer’s voice. He moved toward the Depths, to his brother’s banished place of dwelling.

In the Kingdom, protests echoed in the ears of Him that hears all. They begged the Creator to stop Michael. A thought came from Him that knows the beginning and the end. It was instantaneously placed in the consciousness of all in the kingdom, silencing their protests. The Archangel Michael heard it as well. It was simple,it was resigned. It said, “Let Michael go”. The kingdom wept, as did the One who Creates all. The blood flowed freely from Michael’s heart as he continued on toward Lucifer.

The Pain of the Angel

2011-03-17T13:46:00.011-04:00

Part 3

It was a pathetic sight to the human eye, though the human eye is limited. Limited by what it wants to see and what its brain allows at its limited capacity. Humans had figured out they only use a small percentage of their mind, but they had not yet realized that the unused capacity was reserved for a later time, a time when life transcends the physical.

There on a peak lay the wounded archangel recovering from a failed intervention on behalf of man. His body was curled, knees tucked to his chest. His wings were sprawled out in sharp unnatural curves, tattered and bloodied. Even in this weakened state, Michael’s strength was still greater than any Guardian, second only to the One who creates all. The Archangel lay suffering and anguished, the degree of his suffering was also second to none, but He who sees all. It was not his physical wounds, those would heal as they always did. It was not the fear of death from his wounds as his life could only be taken by the One.

An Archangel’s greatest time of suffering is when an intervention on the behalf of man has failed or come too late to prevent the harm. This is why Michael suffered today. He could not intervene as he did not know. He who gives life had known, but Michael did not know His mind anymore than he knew the minds of men or the timing of events that bring them harm. So he suffered, and his suffering turned to the thoughts that tortured him the most. His growing doubt in the One with ears that hear all. His doubt that there was a divine plan and that at a designated time the purpose of all would be made clear.

Archangels are created to protect humanity, all of humanity. They can not take a life in the process of doing so. They must protect both the murdered and the murderer, because He with all knowledge had issued a fiat that none were to be excluded from the kingdom’s gates. Michael thought of his brother Lucifer. Michael had repelled the battle against the kingdom and driven his brother,and his fallen, into the bowels of existence. Michael had wanted to follow Lucifer into the depth, slaying him, bringing an end to his influence upon creation, but had been stopped. He who breathes knowledge had decreed that even Lucifer was not beyond redemption and therefore must be allowed to continue.

It was hard for the Archangel to understand as his physical pain began to dissipate, his blood clotted, and wounds began to fade. It was always so that the internal pain far out lasted the physical for Michael, and for all Guardians of man that he commanded. In frustration a roar began to grow from the angel’s powerful midsection. It traveled through his chest. He bent his powerful neck back sharply and loosed the roar from his injured body. It was guttural,spirit deep. The sound could only be heard by creatures other than man, and by those who dwell in the kingdom. On earth a herd of elephants stampeded, a flock of a thousand birds suddenly changed course. In the kingdom, those that had been human fell to their knees, the Author of life simply absorbed the sound, and bowed His head as His heart broke, but He did not intervene to ease the angel's pain, He never did.

An Angel Reflects

2011-03-11T11:59:00.005-05:00

Part 2

The Archangel circled the earth looking for opportunities to intervene on the behalf of the creation man. His legions did the same. Michael knew where each guardian was located. The One who knew all had created him with this ability. This awareness began at the moment of his creation, and at the moment of theirs. Still, he did not have this knowledge of men, or of the events that would harm them. As he circled he reflected again on his own limitations. He found himself doing this more and more as the centuries came and went.

Had the One with eyes that see all made a mistake when Michael was brought into existence? This thought made the angel uncomfortable. For thousands of years he would not allow himself to think it, but for the past decade of centuries he did. Still it made him anxious. If it were true, than He who can creates from thought, was Himself flawed. Michael thought of Lucifer. Lucifer had been one of Michael’s legions until the rebellion. As such Michael knew Lucifer’s location and actions every millisecond of time. The knowledge made the Archangel frown and tense his massive blood stained wings.

Was Lucifer a mistake or an intention? If a mistake, than He who knows the suffering of all was imperfect, and than the meaning of all was in doubt for the angel. It was all for nothing. All creation was a horribly flawed with no purpose, no great answer, and no master plan. It was just out of control, and possibly out of control of the Creator.

As he circled what man called the African Continent, Michael considered the alternative. Lucifer was an intended part of the plan of He who knows the outcome of all events. There was some small comfort in this for the Archangel. For him it meant there was a purpose to all the suffering, to his suffering, to the suffering he could not prevent due to the limitation of his own creation. Still it tortured him. His mission and that of his legions since the rebellion against He who is life, was to protect and intervene toward the good of man, but without the ability to know the mind of man, success was never total, and would never be until time ceased.

As the Archangel’s attention became focused on a car bomb being driven toward a school full of children, and within the fraction of a second it took him to wrap his massive wings around the school and place his body between the building and the car, Michael felt drops of rain upon his body. No ordinary rain was this. He knew it well. It was the tears of the One who knows the meaning of all. As the bomb exploded and impacted the angel, his blood began to flow, the tears were not a comfort.

“But who will watch out for Michael ? ”

2011-02-23T12:40:00.007-05:00

Part 1

The voice of the newcomer echoed in the ears that hear all, “But, who shall watch out for Michael?” it said. Two eyes that had the sight of a billion eyes focused on the creation Michael as he went about his mission. Michael was the Archangel, the Protector, and the Guardian of man.

Michael invisible to men, was in the middle of a busy four lane highway. He was hunched over and head bowed. His great wings formed a protective barrier around a small child that had wandered onto the highway. Both cars and trucks buffeted Michael’s wings as they made impact and were forced around the child. To the drivers it seemed that their own reflexes were responsible for steering their vehicles around the small child, but the two eyes that saw all, focused on the Archangel and knew differently. The wings were bloodied but the child unharmed as the angel guided him to safety.

Michael flew off to heal. The wounds of an angel heal quickly, but the pain from the injury lasts long after the visible signs have gone. As the Protector healed, and watched for another opportunity to intervene on man’s behalf, he reflected on his own limitations.So did the One with the eyes of infinite sight, they shared the thoughts of Michael. While Michael was a powerful creation, no angel stronger, he was not created with the ability to know the mind of man. While millenniums of experience had given him intuition, sadly he was still taken off guard by the cruelties that man could inflict on each other. Those were the hardest to understand for him. The natural disasters he could make sense of, but the man made ones, he could not. He also was created without omnipresence. Often he would arrive when the time to prevent had past, and all he could do was intervene on behalf of those not harmed. It tortured him.

September 11, 2001 was an example. As Michael’s wings began to heal and the angel’s blood began drying on his wings he thought of that day as did his Creator. Unlike the One with ears that hear all, Michael was taken off guard with the events of that day. When he arrived on the scene one of the towers was collapsing. Without thought the Archangel focused on small group of firefighter trapped in a stairway. In milliseconds Michael expanded his great wings and encircled the group as floor after floor of the tower came crashing down upon his wings. The pain that day was great. The healing was long,but the men survived in the space made by the wings of the angel.

As Michael’s thoughts continued, the One with the all knowing mind focused again on the cries of the newcomer. Horrified at the sight of the bloodied hurt Guardian of man, the newcomer’s voice again cried out, “But who shall watch out for Michael?” A tear flowed down the cheek of the One with infinite sight. Its glow was brilliant as it contained the life force of billions. As the newcomer watched he ceased his cries and understood. The answer was in the tear. The tear was the answer.

2011-02-17T15:51:00.004-05:00

I've become, just a ghost in the machine.

Random Thoughts This January 20th 2011

2011-01-20T11:49:00.003-05:00

The repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was signed into law by Barak Obama, but the policy still remains in effect until everyone is sure the heterosexual soldiers will be OK with it. No one asked the Gay soldiers if they were OK with being discriminated against all these years, so we are still in the back of the bus.

It boggles my mind that there are people in responsible positions of power that think it is OK to ask a Gay soldier to risk his or her life in the defense and service of this country , and also think it is OK to force them to lie about who they are for the privilege. It points to a fundamental problem with the soul of America and the lack of courage among its leadership. We are sadly past the days of producing Abraham Lincolns and Martin Luther Kings.

Sarah Palin said today, oh who cares, never mind.

The Obama administration was back in court defending DOMA again. They say keeping the Defense of Marriage Act in place allows states to experiment with equal marriage in their states. When did the lives of Gay men and women become science projects?

I watched a behind the scenes program about the Oprah Winfrey show. During the taping of the show Oprah was thought to say something offensive to a Gay guest. She didn’t feel it was offensive but allowed herself to be overruled by her staff and the comment was edited out. I’ve never been a big fan of Oprah, but I have to admire a leader who can accept criticism and change direction.

I’ve been thinking a great deal this week how little effort it takes to just accept others as they are and wish them well. Acceptance doesn’t always mean their “thing” is my “thing” it just means I understand and value them as part of society’s fabric and support their right to be. Kind of simple isn’t it?

MT

"And So This Is Christmas"

2010-12-25T00:00:00.002-05:00

"Happy Christmas" - John Lennon

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over over
If you want it
War is over
Now...

Love, MT

"Happy Christmas" on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb2YSAVHmIE

The Cancer of Bullying Rotting the American Soul

2010-11-17T10:49:00.009-05:00

Although highly publicized in recent weeks, Gay teen suicide is not a new phenomenon. Gay teens are at particularly high risk for suicide for several reasons.

These reasons include dealing with their developing sexual orientation and not finding acceptance from family, friends, and society, for who they are born to be, Gay kids. Heterosexual kids may also be a risk for suicide for a variety of reasons but it is unlikely that their sexual orientation is a factor. The difference lies in society’s lack of understanding and lack of acceptance of homosexuality as a norm within its continuum, despite the existence of fact based evidence. The conditions our kids live in begin with the policies of the government we have elected. A government that sponsors terrorism with Gay people as its target through both its active discriminatory policies, and its failure to enact laws that secure the equal civil rights of its Gay citizens.

The American Government is in the business of bullying the Gay community and therefore guilty of creating the conditions that pressure our kids to kill themselves. There are several languishing issues before our government that perpetuate homophobia and homophobic hate among the general population. Each branch of government has a hand in this. I will use the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” as an example.

Military service is a sacrifice of time at best and of one’s life at worst. It is fact that Gay men and women can be wounded, maimed and killed no differently than their heterosexual peers in their service to the country. The difference begins and ends in the message the government sends with the continued enforcement of DADT. It says: you may serve us, you may die for us, but you can only do so if you keep who you are a secret from us. If we find out you are Gay, your willingness to serve us is moot, and we will discharge you from service. The message to our youth is this: there is something wrong with you. The message to the general population is: there is something wrong with Gay men and women and they are not to be accepted or thought of as a normal part of humanity.

The President, or the executive branch, has publicly stated the desire to repeal DADT but its actions are contrary to its rhetoric. The President has the ability, and I would argue the moral authority, to issue an order putting an end to the witch-hunt-like discharges of Gay service men and women as repeal of DADT works its way through the courts and the legislative branch. The President has failed to issue this order as he placates the political right and betrays the community that helped elect him. It is a failure to lead, a lack of courage, and an act of bullying. When one has the power to end a wrong done to a person or group of people but fails to act, or when one takes actions to harm a person or group of people less powerful, it is bullying.

Despite a recent court decision finding DADT unconstitutional, the executive branch has ordered the vigorous defense of DADT in court and has won a stay. Had they not done this the policy would have ended and Gay men and women would be serving openly in the military. A supporter of President Obama or not, it is necessary to ask why a President who ran on the repeal of DADT would instruct his justice department to defend a discriminatory policy in court? The official statement is that the President as the chief law enforcer is obligated to defend a policy whether or not his administration agrees with it, but this is simply not true. There are a number of cases when an administration chose to let a court decision stand and did not defend a law it thought obsolete or discriminatory. In fact during the very same week the justice department was defending DADT, it chose to not defend an unrelated court decision that struck down a law the administration did not agree with. This is inconsistency at best and an act of bullying at worst. In taking this action, the President has sent the message to the Gay community that his promises to us mean nothing. He has told us and our kids that we are less than human, easily betrayed, and do not deserve the same rights as heterosexual men and women. Remember that the general population will take its cue from Government on social change. The cue here is, while it’s OK for the Gays to die for your peace and security, their sexual orientation is such an abomination that they must keep it a secret.

The legislative branch is equally guilty of bullying the Gay community, doing so at the expense of the whole country. When the defense authorization bill was before them, a vote was prevented because it contained language repealing DADT. There was no vote taken, no defense budget agreed and no repeal of DADT going into an election that saw control of the house return into right wing Republican hands and the ever dimming hope of the repeal of DADT or any forward movement on Gay Civil rights. The message to the country was clear. Gay people are so inadequate, so sinful, that we are willing to not have a budget that will ensure the continued defense of this country if that bill contains langue that advances the Gay community’s civil rights.

This was not just a failure to lead on a social issue, it was the wrong civil rights and social agenda message to send given the recently well publicized Gay teen suicides. Hate breathes irresponsibility and oppression. This was a classic example of government sanctioned bullying of a disenfranchised segment of society. It is no different than segregated battalions of black soldiers not allowed to mingle openly with white soldiers. The message in both cases is clear. Back then it was, there is something wrong with you if you’re black, now, there is something wrong with you if you’re Gay.

The judicial branch of the government also owns its share in bullying Gay Americans and promoting violence against us that sends our kids into depressions leading them to take their own lives. As mentioned above, a federal court found DADT to be unconstitutional. The Obama administration chose to go to court and defend a policy it says it wants to repeal. The matter went before the Supreme Court of the United States. Last week the highest court in the land handed down a decision staying the judge’s order and allowing the continued enforcement of DADT in the United States for the foreseeable future. The Supreme Court did not act to ensure the rights of all citizens but to perpetuate the discrimination of a minority population of American citizens. In doing so it continued the message that being born Gay is wrong and people who are Gay do not deserve to be afforded the same rights as other Americans, even when willing to die for their country. It is an act of bullying with a clear message to Gay people and our kids that our humanity is inferior and not to be accepted. The Supreme Court failed in its mission to provide a balance between the executive and legislative branch by ensuring the rights of the individual. Personal beliefs and political influences have tarnished the Supreme Court’s reputation and diminished its ability to render fair unbiased decisions.

In recent days parts of the Pentagon’s study on repealing DADT have leaked into the press. The report will say that overall there is no real issue or negative impact within the military preventing the repeal of DADT. The US government knows this, as do the fiercest opponents of Gay civil rights. If the facts do not support the argument, one must ask why our government fails to act on the behalf of Gay soldiers and in doing so perpetuates myths about Gay people that promote hate and violence against us. Faced with the facts of the report, Senator John McCain revealed his next strategy in preventing repeal of DADT. McCain stated that the report was done with the premise that its mission was the repeal of DADT. He went on to state that this will not answer the question as to whether or not DADT should be repealed at all. McCain, even when confronted with the facts, will not change his position, but continues on a mission to promote bigotry against Gay men and women willing to die for their country.

Where is the common sense, the fairness or the image of God in saying to Gay people it is alright for you to go to war and be killed in service to your country as long as you hide the person you were born to be from your country? Where is the common sense or the principles of our constitution in promoting the idea that it is OK for citizens to vote on the civil rights of other citizens? Is it not the promotion of mob rule and the promotion of bullying of a minority by the majority, by our government

The message from the most powerful government on earth is clear. Gay people do not deserve equal rights and protection under the law. In sending this message it is creating an environment in this country that fosters bigotry and violence. In doing so it diminishes the world standing of a country long thought of as a leader in human rights and a beacon of freedom. It is now known as a country with government sponsored hate and violence against its own citizens who are Gay. The United States has become a hollow symbol, a clanging bell of its former self. Gay citizens are simply trying to contribute to society and live out the constitutional principles of pursuing freedom and happiness. As with any population our children are the most vulnerable to suggestion and physical harm. The bully receives the message that it is OK to hurt and dehumanize Gays. The Gay kids hear the same message and live the verbal and physical abuse promoted by it. Heterosexual adults see the abuse and turn a blind eye assuming it is the norm of our society instead of jumping to the defense of our kids. This passive acceptance of bullying happens everyday in schools across this country.

Our kids are a casualty of this war, this terrorism, this genocide. A casualty of government sponsored bullying that is costing us our youth. While there is no sense of urgency to the President’s supposed mission to fight for equal Gay civil rights, which is evidenced by his wasting two years of control in the house and senate, there needs to be a sense of urgency instilled in the Gay community and our supporters. Every hour that goes by, another fist hits the face of a gay kid, another slur is hurled at the ears of Gay kid, and another Gay kid feeling helpless thinks he or she has only one choice, the choice to end his or her life to stop the pain. While we must act with a sense of urgency to change the laws governing our society, we must act with the same sense of urgency to let our kids know that there are better choices than suicide and that there is help for them available from within our own community. Our kids need Gay role models now more than ever who have been through what they live each day. Role models who are willing to expose their lives and experiences to help our kids to know we are fighting for them and will protect them.

MT

P.S. If you are a young Gay man or woman and need help; (re-post)

I understand how you feel. It is a hurt you can’t escape from. You feel dirty, like there is something very wrong with you. It’s hard to look at people. When they look at you, you think they all know. Maybe your parents don’t know yet, maybe they do and have tossed you aside. Maybe you just can’t tell anyone but really need to tell someone who you are and how you are feeling, but there is no one you think you can trust. It seems like it won’t get any better. You are so frightened and so depressed you barely have enough energy to think. When you do, you think of killing yourself to stop the pain. In your head, you feel guilty for being different, dirty and ashamed of who you are. You feel like a disappointment to those who love you. You need to end the bad feelings, the attacks from others, and the pain of who you are. Your scared of ending your life but more afraid of continuing it.

I know how it seems,but I also know that the depth of the pain you are in is clouding your judgment. It does get better. You are not alone. There is help for you. Most importantly there is nothing wrong with you. You were born as you are and meant to be as you are. You are a jewel that is misunderstood. You don’t need to go it alone; you don’t need to end your life to stop the hurting.

There are people like myself that have been through what you are feeling and have made it. We want to help you. We care about you. We love you. When you are through the worst of this, look around. You will see us marrying in more and more states until it is the law of the country. You will see us out in the open in all professions. You will see us celebrate who we are with the friends of our community. Sadly, you will still see those due to ignorance who hate us, but you will see their number decrease. When this moment passes you will see hope,if you just STOP and call out for help

Take a look at the Videos on the YouTube,”It get’s better project” site - http://www.youtube.com/user/itgetsbetterproject . The videos are made by Gay people like you and I, and our friends, to show you that there are many people who care about you, who have been through what you are living through now. They want you to know that it will get better, we do care, and there is help. You are not alone.

There are people like us, Gay people, waiting to help you at the Trevor project. Their number is 866-488-7386, their website is http://www.thetrevorproject.org/. I know it is hard to love yourself right now, but love yourself enough to make this one phone call. I promise you it will help and this moment will pass.

I promise you that people care about you and I know that you are loved. Please make the call.

"Crazy In The Night" or "Don't Forget To Vote"

2010-11-01T10:57:00.003-04:00

"Crazy In The Night" - Kim Carnes

Sometimes I really think
I'm going crazy in the night
When I hide down in the covers
And I won't turn out the light
I think nothing's gonna get me
But then again it might
What can I do to keep from going
Crazy in the night

I need a drink of water
But I swallow hard instead
Cause it's hard to move a muscle
When you're frozen in your bed
If I could make it to the phone
Before I die of fright
What can I do to keep from going
Crazy in the night

Sometimes she really thinks
She's going crazy in the night
When she hides down in the covers
And she won't turn on the light
She says nothing's gonna get to her
But then again it might
What can she do to keep from going
Crazy in the night

There's a monster on my ceiling
There's a monster on the wall
There are thousands in the closet
Now they're coming down the hall
I'm so hidden they can't find me
But then again they might

What can I do to keep from going
Crazy in the night

Sometimes she really thinks
She's going crazy in the night
When she hides down in the covers
And she won't turn out the light
She says nothing's gonna get to her
But then again it might
What can she do to keep from going
Crazy in the night

And if I disappeared
Do you think they'd ever look
Would I be headlines in the paper
Or the cover of the book
Got to pull myself together
I don't want to die of fright
What can I do to keep from going
Crazy in the night

Sometimes she really thinks
She's going crazy in the night
When she hides down in the covers
And she won't turn on the light
She says nothing's gonna get to her
But then again it might
What can she do to keep from going
Crazy in the night

Kim Carnes singing "Crazy In The Night" on YouTube -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9OSuy4e4HU&p=88C1EBC7BC2CD5E0&playnext=1&index=1

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

2010-10-29T18:12:00.001-04:00

2010-10-23T08:21:00.000-04:00

Bye for now

"The Nurture of Bullying"

2010-10-18T13:42:00.006-04:00

(Pictured above, please find one bully.)

Bullying is not just a problem among Gay youth. It is a problem for our whole community. The laws a government hold sacred and enforce greatly influence the thinking of the people it governs. The message from the United States government has been that Gay people are second class. There is no urgency to end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the Defense of Marriage Act, or pass the Employment Non Discrimination Act. In fact the current administration is appealing court decisions that declared D.A.D.T. and D.O.M.A. unconstitutional, while saying they are against both laws. It is confusing and either side of the road is littered with broken promises and pointed fingers lecturing Gay people to wait and be patient for our rights.

Bullies get the message and act upon it. Our Gay youth get the message and are on the receiving end of the harmful actions that are reinforced by our government’s lack of leadership on our civil rights. The adults in our community are still subject to acts of violence and other hate crimes. How long we are willing to wait for our rights is up to us. It is a choice we make. Wait peacefully or draw a line in the sand and fight back with whatever it takes to get the job done. The casualties of this war mount up as we decide our course.

Below are some definitions of bullying. Keep in mind our governments actions and messages to us as you read them. You may come to the conclusion that we, in the land of the free, are a bullied people. It does get better I want our youth to know that.I want our adults to know that too. It does get better through the perseverance and hard work by those who came before us and now that same blood and sweat is required of us, for those who come after..

Definitions of bullying on the Web:

•The act of intimidating a weaker person to make them do something
•Blustery: noisily domineering; tending to browbeat others
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

•Bullying is a form of abuse. It comprises repeated acts over time that involves a real or perceived imbalance of power with the more powerful individual or group abusing those who are less powerful. The power imbalance may be social power and/or physical power. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying

•Includes behaviors and actions that are verbal, physical and/or anti-social, such as exclusion, gossip and non-verbal body language. It can occur at school or in transit between school and home.
www.oklahomaparentscenter.org/Dictionary.html

If you are Gay and are being bullied, please call The Trevor project 866-488-7386,they will help you.

“To LGBT Youth Who Are Thinking of Ending Their Life”

2010-10-05T19:22:00.004-04:00

I understand how you feel. It is a hurt you can’t escape from. You feel dirty, like there is something very wrong with you. It’s hard to look at people. When they look at you, you think they all know. Maybe your parents don’t know yet, maybe they do and have tossed you aside. Maybe you just can’t tell anyone but really need to tell someone who you are and how you are feeling, but there is no one you think you can trust. It seems like it won’t get any better. You are so frightened and so depressed you barely have enough energy to think. When you do, you think of killing yourself to stop the pain. In your head, you feel guilty for being different, dirty and ashamed of who you are. You feel like a disappointment to those who love you. You need to end the bad feelings, the attacks from others, and the pain of who you are. Your scared of ending your life but more afraid of continuing it.

I know how it seems,but I also know that the depth of the pain you are in is clouding your judgment. It does get better. You are not alone. There is help for you. Most importantly there is nothing wrong with you. You were born as you are and meant to be as you are. You are a jewel that is misunderstood. You don’t need to go it alone; you don’t need to end your life to stop the hurting.

There are people like myself that have been through what you are feeling and have made it. We want to help you. We care about you. We love you. When you are through the worst of this, look around. You will see us marrying in more and more states until it is the law of the country. You will see us out in the open in all professions. You will see us celebrate who we are with the friends of our community. Sadly, you will still see those due to ignorance who hate us, but you will see their number decrease. When this moment passes you will see hope,if you just STOP and call out for help.

Take a look at the Videos on the YouTube,”It get’s better project” site - http://www.youtube.com/user/itgetsbetterproject . The videos are made by Gay people like you and I, and our friends, to show you that there are many people who care about you, who have been through what you are living through now. They want you to know that it will get better, we do care, and there is help. You are not alone.

There are people like us, Gay people, waiting to help you at the Trevor project. Their number is 866-488-7386, their website is http://www.thetrevorproject.org/. I know it is hard to love yourself right now, but love yourself enough to make this one phone call. I promise you it will help and this moment will pass.

I promise you that people care about you and I know that you are loved. Please make the call.

MT

"I am Diminished"

2010-10-04T12:55:00.005-04:00

When one of us dies I am less than I was. The world should stop when a Gay kid commits suicide. It won’t stop on its own; it needs to be stopped by us, the survivors. It is unacceptable for one our youth to be in such pain that he or she takes their own life. Pain this unbearable should be felt by us, but it is not always.

The burden for Gay kids killing themselves rests with discrimination. The burden for the continuation of discrimination rest with us, the Gay community. We listen to the promises of politicians who want our vote. When those promises are broken, are we outraged? No, we call for patience and time to win our neighbors over. As we wait our kids dies. We are more outraged when a favorite club closes than when one of us takes his or her own life. We are more interested in fashion and furniture than protest and action.

So we blame everyone but ourselves. When people rise up within our community we criticize but don’t offer suggestions of our own. We put more energy into tearing down each other then ensuring the safety of our youth. Given the choice between civil disobedience to advance our civil rights and shopping at IKEA, we choose IKEA

We are arm chair quarterbacks who can’t see past ourselves to help each other. We find fault with the methods others use, offering no direction of our own. Instead of cheering on those in our community that bloody their hearts everyday to make things better for those who come after us,we apathetically scoff.

Currently we are all outraged over the suicides of five of our young. Their lives are causalities of a war we should all be fighting. A few weeks from now most of us won’t even remember their names as we go on with our lives and their bodies decay. It could be different. It just takes a willingness to feel. To feel how diminished we are at their loss, and turn that grief, their memory, into action. Action demanding urgency as our youth continues to die by the hand of our apathy and misplaced priorities.

Today,today I am diminished.......

Bye for now

2010-09-22T05:58:00.002-04:00

“The Midterm Election Can Be A Turning Point For the Gay Community”

2010-09-14T12:28:00.009-04:00

As the midterm elections approach Gay people are hard pressed about a decision to vote or to stay home. Along with many in the Gay community, we do not feel comfortable staying home and not voting this year. We DO NOT believe that staying home will send the necessary message to the Obama administration and the Democratic Party. On the other hand, we can not see fit to vote for a Democratic candidate in support of a President who has broken his promises to the Gay community without sending a message. We have thought it through, and have come to a decision as to voting and who to vote for.

Barak Obama has betrayed the Gay community as have so many Democratic presidential candidates before him. He campaigned on the repeal of D.O.M.A, yet his Justice Department continues to defend it when it is challenged in court. Obama claims his administration is obligated to defend DOMA as long as it remains the law. This of course is not true Mr. President, and as a constitutional law professor you know this.

When Proposition Eight was struck down by a Federal court in California, the statement from the President reiterated his personal belief that marriage is between one man and one woman. Was that really necessary on the cusp of a major civil rights victory Mr. President? What are your real personal beliefs? How is it you signed a petition in support of equal marriage before becoming a presidential candidate but now say you didn’t understand what you were signing? Does your personal belief really matter, or is the equal distribution of civil rights the real issue here?

To the Gay community, do we realize former Republican vice president Dick Cheney is in support of equal marriage now, but the man our votes helped elect to the presidency continues to be against it?

President Obama's leadership on the repeal of D.A.D.T. has been equally as weak. An executive order could have stopped the discharges from the military that are still occurring today. Last week a Federal court decision stated that DADT is unconstitutional. There has been no clear communication from the White house regarding a decision to appeal this decision or to let it become law and put an end to this discriminatory military policy. The lives of Gay soldiers continue to be used as political pawns by this administration as it tries to salvage the mid term elections.

As this is a midterm election, the Gay community has an opportunity to send a message of no confidence to Barak Obama before the next presidential election in two years. Here are our options;

1: Stay home and don’t vote. This will not send a clear message of our community’s discontent and many of us can not in good conscious refuse to exercise our right to vote.

2: Vote for a Republican candidate. This too will NOT send a clear vote of no confidence to Barack Obama and will be used by the Republicans to support their argument that the country is turning back to conservatism.

3: Vote for the Democratic candidates again. Before you do this STOP, think of the message it will send. It will say to Barak Obama that the Gay community has no choice and by default will continue to vote for Democrats. It is the same reason why the Obama administration feels comfortable breaking its promises to the Gay community and riding the fence on equal civil rights for Gay people. Is this the message we want to continue to send? Do we want to say, you have our vote despite what you do or don’t do for us? We CAN'T continue to do this anymore.

As a community, decide to vote this midterm election on November 2nd, but DON'T choose any of the options above. We need to send a clear message to the Democrats and to the Obama administration about our dissatisfaction, and that our vote is not a sure thing anymore. We need them to understand that in two years they are in jeopardy of not winning re-election and that our community is a powerful voting block to be reckoned with similar to the African American community.

We will do this in one of two ways.

1: If you feel you just can’t vote for any candidate this year because of broken promises to our community, don’t just stay home. Go and vote by writing “Gay Community” in as a write in candidate. This will send a message that we are here, have a voice and are disappointed in the lack of progress and leadership over the past two years.

2: If you still feel strongly about voting for a candidate then do so, but send a message by writing “Gay Community” across the top of your ballot. Your vote will count and our message will be heard.

If enough of us across the country do this it will send an undeniable and unprecedented message from our community that we are done being taken for granted, done with broken promises and that this administration must improve it’s record on equal rights for Gay people now and earn our vote. We know the risks, but we believe at this point in history it’s worth it. We need to send the Democrats and the Obama administration a message before the next presidential election in 2012.

Will you join us this November and cast your vote for us, for the “Gay Community” !

A Facebook page to support and gain attention to this cause has been created. Please visit it and join by clicking on this link - http://www.facebook.com/VoteForTheGayCommunity

Please share with our friends and supporters.

MT

"Just a Reminder "

2010-09-13T14:03:00.006-04:00

Sometimes,as today,I need a reminder like the lyrics to this song. Although it is well known, I thought I'd share it with you today. A suggestion,although you may know it, slow down and read the words carefully. Let them sink in,life will get along without you for a few minutes.

MT

I am what I am
I am my own special creation.
So come take a look,
Give me the hook or the ovation.

It's my world that I want to take a little pride in,
My world, and it's not a place I have to hide in.
Life's not worth a damn,
'Til you can say, "Hey world, I am what I am."

I am what I am,
I don't want praise, I don't want pity.
I bang my own drum,
Some think it's noise, I think it's pretty.

And so what, if I love each feather and each spangle,
Why not try to see things from a different angle?
Your life is a sham 'til you can shout out loud
I am what I am!

I am what I am
And what I am needs no excuses.
I deal my own deck
Sometimes the ace, sometimes the deuces.

There's one life, and there's no return and no deposit;
One life, so it's time to open up your closet.

Life's not worth a damn 'til you can say,
"Hey world, I am what I am!"

2010-09-08T12:52:00.001-04:00

Now the time has come to leave you
One more time
Let me kiss you
Then close your eyes
I’ll be on my way
Dream about the days to come

“Being Gay In The Twilight Zone”

2010-09-01T12:52:00.007-04:00

My husband and I own the old 1960s Television series “The Twilight Zone” on DVD. At the beginning of each DVD, at the main menu, while it waits for you to make a selection, it plays parts of scenes from different episodes. One of these scenes is of a clown’s head that says, “Who are we”? So each time we pop in the DVD I see this clown ask this question. If I take too long to make a selection the scene will repeat again and again until I do. This often happens as we are delayed in the kitchen getting snacks. I’ve come to wait for the clown and time it so I say it as he does as I enter the room.

I have not seen the episode yet so I don’t know why the clown asks the question and I don’t know if he ever gets an answer. Who are we, is a hard question to answer, but I would like to see if it can be answered when applied to Gay people. I think to answer this question for a population of people we need to start with the individual people who make up this group. I’m a Gay man. I could stop there and keep it relatively simple. Some people who don’t like me or others like me do stop there. It makes it easier to reduce me, my humanity, and my segment of the population into a one dimensional entity. This makes it easier to target me, pass judgment on me, and accuse me of sins against God and humanity for trying to live a truthful life as I was created, but is it a thoughtful logical explanation? Does it answer the question, who am I, and who are we as Gay people?

The answer of course is no. I am a Gay man. To answer the question for just me would take pages and a lot of time. Just describing Gay would take a lot of time. Describing how Gay looks on me would take even more time. I would than have to deal with what it means to be a man and how that looks on me. If I was able to answer each of those questions, I’d have to explain how I uniquely join being Gay with being a man. Still, I couldn’t stop there because how I exist today and how I manifest being a Gay man, might and probably will look different next year as I continue to evolve and make my way through life. It is a story with no ending yet, and so is yours.

To try an answer the question, “Who are we?” for the Gay community is impossible. I could perhaps sum up some commonalities we share but even in these attributes we would find unique individual manifestations of these traits. So why do we let people outside the Gay community label and box us? Why do we try to change aspects about our community so as to be more palatable and gain acceptance? It’s not only useless and impossible, it’s harmful.

We are made up, each one of us, of ever changing complex humanity as is everyone else that lives on this planet. So perhaps the best answer to the question of who is the Gay community, for us within and you without, is that we just might be more like you than different from you. Celebrate our commonalities, celebrate our differences, what good has ever come from fear and hate? Why do we allow ourselves to be judged by hate and fear? Why do we discriminate against each other in the Gay community? Why do you judge us? Why pass judgment at all, when we can't even answer the question of a clown?

MT

“Michael’s Gay Thought 101”

2010-08-30T11:13:00.004-04:00

I’ve realized that I have quiet a few new people who read my writing. Some of you are signed up and some not. Thanks to those that are; I often look at your faces when I write. I thought I would give a "Michael’s Gay Thought 101" for the new people and a refresher for those of you who have been around for awhile.

The core of my belief about the Gay community is that we should strive for full acceptance, not tolerance, from society as we are. I don’t believe that we should change to make any aspect of who we are more palatable to gain this acceptance or our equal civil rights.

As a Gay man there are as many sides to me as there is diversity in the Gay community. Diversity is to be celebrated and not hidden. All are welcome here.

I want my writing to reflect all those sides and I hold back very little. There are times when my writing is politically radical, sad, funny, angry, faith based, and sexual. None of us is one thing and I refuse to reduce myself to a one dimensional human being. Society tries to do this to us. To many heterosexual people, all we are is what we do in bed and whom we fall in love with. It’s a way of marginalizing us as humans and diminishing our humanity. I won’t go along with it, so I let my writing be guided by whichever aspect of me is closest to the surface when I write.

My writing also focuses on the Gay community. I cherish and respect our heterosexual supporters. I do believe that despite your empathy, it is impossible to understand our lives completely unless you experience the thought processes we go through due to the hate and discrimination that we have lived through and still live through everyday. Please don't be offended as I do appreciate you.

You can agree or disagree with me. I’m always willing to hear a logically thought out opinion that differs from my own. I publish most comments here except those that are hate based as I don’t see the point and they are always anonymous. There are also times when I don’t publish comments from sheep. If you are blindly following anyone or any ideology because the majority of people in your community do so, and have given no thought to your position, please don’t bother.

Most importantly my thoughts are my own and like you and your thoughts, I’m entitled to them. They are first and foremost my thoughts, Michael’s thoughts.

MT

PS. You can also find my articles at these websites.

Queer Magazine online
http://www.queermagazineonline.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&layout=user&id=422&task=user&Itemid=624&lang=en

OutWI
http://www.outwi.com/Site/Buzz/Post.aspx?BuzzId=2608

Need Your Help

2010-08-07T09:34:00.004-04:00

There is a mission to LGBT people living near Boston that needs some financial help. It is run by an openly Gay priest who is not a part of the Roman Catholic Church so as to have an open and affirming ministry and welcoming church. Their mission car is old and broken. It is used to minister to people in their homes, nursing homes and other locations. They need just 1,500 to fix it but their ministry is broke. They are down to sixty dollars in their account. They are NOT part of the Rich discriminating Roman Catholic church. They are part of our community. Below is a link to a donation page. If you do donate, let me know how much privately. All they need is 1,500 to get the car fixed or a donnation of a working car. That would be just 100 dollars from fifteen people or 50 dollars from thirty people.

I know times are tough but I also know the bars are full. So don't be a cheap Gay or a Cheap person who Supports Gays. Please consider a donation. These guys go around trying to bring truth to the Gay Community that God does love us and created us as we are, and dispel the lies our community has been told and believed for years.

MT

TO Donate - http://www.missionstsergius.org/Making_A_Donation.html

“Without Comment” – August 6, 2010 Edition

2010-08-06T14:42:00.002-04:00

“IT Was A Very Good Year” - Ervin drake

When I was seventeen
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for small town girls
And soft summer nights
We'd hide from the lights
On the village green
When I was seventeen

When I was twenty-one
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for city girls
Who lived up the stair
With all that perfumed hair
And it came undone
When I was twenty-one

When I was thirty-five
It was a very good year
It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls
Of independent means
We'd ride in limousines
Their chauffeurs would drive
When I was thirty-five

But now the days are short
I'm in the autumn of the year
And now I think of my life as vintage wine
From fine old kegs
From the brim to the dregs
It poured sweet and clear
It was a very good year

It was a mess of good years

(Frank Sinatra singing "It Was A Very Good Year" on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwv-DxOPhSc )

“All The Lonely People, Where Do They All Come from”?

2010-08-02T13:53:00.003-04:00

I worry about the health of the Gay community. There seems to be a lot of lonely Gay men out there. Having a Psych background of sorts, I know that chronic loneliness can take its toll on both physical and emotional health.

I think sometimes loneliness is a symptom of discrimination. Discrimination can be isolating for a Gay man. Whether you live in a big city or a rural area, discrimination can instill us with fear, a fear that prohibits us from being ourselves. When we can’t be ourselves, we must always hold an important part of ourselves in reserve, locked away and hidden. If this is how we go through life we have built ourselves a prison where we are the sole prisoner. We never let people in. We hide who we are from family, friends, and potential same sex lovers. Even though there are thousands of us sharing similar cells, we can not find camaraderie here either, as it would mean revealing ourselves with all the risks involved. Risks that are so worth taking but risks whose fear has been beaten into us making it almost unthinkable for some to utter the words, “I am Gay”.

Loneliness can also be caused by discrimination within the Gay community. There is plenty of that to go around. Whether it is age discrimination, body type or maybe because a Gay man is too feminine of too butch, he might find himself not welcome in certain circles of Gay men. Some get ignored because they just don’t seem Gay enough, choosing to shop at Wal-Mart instead of the current overpriced trendy store. Some are rejected because they have a faith in God and go to church. After all how can you be Gay and love God. Doesn’t God hate the Gays?

Sometimes loneliness comes from choices we make ourselves as Gay men. We always seem to be waiting for that hotter guy to come along. Perhaps we erroneously think we would have to give up the club scene if we settle down with one person. Maybe our alcohol and or drug abuse has made us undesirable to our Gay peers. Friendships based on chemicals are not very deep, are they? Perhaps it’s the lack of respect we have for ourselves because of the lies we believe about who we are that promotes our own loneliness. Confidence and self respect are attractive and the absence of them is not. Maybe it’s our constant striving to fit Gay relationships into the molds that heterosexuals use, that leads to our loneliness. Why do some Gay people think that heterosexual life styles are the Gold standard for our relationships and friendships?

Gay people are intrinsically different from heterosexual people. It’s not just about who we are attracted to or whom we fall in love with. It’s the way we experience the world and allow the world to experience us. Trying to fit our friendships and loves into heterosexual ideals is the cliché of putting a square peg into a round hole. Holding onto that notion may be what leads to all this loneliness. Not all Gay men need to marry; we just want the right to. Some of us will form families through our friendships. Some or us will be in monogamous relationships and some not. It’s when we feel bad about our desires, and how they differ from society’s Gold standard that` we fall under the false notion that we are inferior and perhaps not worthy of happiness and fulfilling relationships.

Here in lies the urgency of putting an end to discrimination and to those who tell us what we need to be before we are fully accepted. Each minute that passes without equality, damages us as a people. Each minute that passes where we believe a lie about who we need to be so as to palatable to society, damages us as unique human being in this world. Each time one of us is prevented from, or chooses not to be who our heart tells us we are, the fabric of society frays a little more, because Gay people are vital to its strength and survival. One might argue that human beings as a race will never live up to their full potential as long as society oppresses any one group of us. Our hate stunts our growth.

Without Comment - July 30, 2010 Edition

2010-07-30T12:13:00.005-04:00

“Everything Possible” – Fred Small

We have cleared off the table, the leftovers saved,
Washed the dishes and put them away
I have told you a story and tucked you in tight
At the end of your knockabout day
As the moon sets its sails to carry you to sleep
Over the midnight sea
I will sing you a song no one sang to me
May it keep you good company.

You can be anybody you want to be,
You can love whomever you will
You can travel any country where your heart leads
And know I will love you still
You can live by yourself, you can gather friends around,
You can choose one special one
And the only measure of your words and your deeds
Will be the love you leave behind when you're done.

There are girls who grow up strong and bold
There are boys quiet and kind
Some race on ahead, some follow behind
Some go in their own way and time
Some women love women, some men love men
Some raise children, some never do
You can dream all the day never reaching the end
Of everything possible for you.

Don't be rattled by names, by taunts, by games
But seek out spirits true
If you give your friends the best part of yourself
They will give the same back to you.

You can be anybody you want to be,
You can love whomever you will
You can travel any country where your heart leads
And know I will love you still
You can live by yourself, you can gather friends around,
You can choose one special one
And the only measure of your words and your deeds
Will be the love you leave behind when you're done.

MT

(Everything Possible sung by Roy Bailey on YouTube. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUBc6-keVIQ )

"Without Comment" - July 22, 2010 Edition

2010-07-22T09:42:00.006-04:00

"If I Should Lose My Way" - by Jack Murphy & Frank Wildhorn

As we turn our lives
Down this complicated road
If you need a hand to hold
I promise you
I will be your friend
Through whatever life may send
And I know that you will be there too

If I should lose my way
Along this road we share
Please bring me home, come-what-may
If I should lose my way

When the wild wind blows
And the rain begins to fall
I will find you through it all
And comfort you
But as we move on
Should you turn and find me gone
Then just rest awhile, I'll be along If I should lose my way
Along this road we share
Please wait for me, come-what-may
If I should lose my way

Day after day,
Never let the sun go down
'Till love is found once more

If I should lose my way
Along this road we share
Please look for me, come-what-may
If I should lose my way

Please look for me...
If I should lose my way

Linda Eder singing "If I should Lose My Way" - http://vodpod.com/watch/537264-if-i-should-lose-my-way

“How To Screw A President 101”

2010-07-20T14:07:00.007-04:00

In the United States we are approaching what is called a “midterm election”. It is called this because it comes near the halfway mark of a President’s term. It is largely looked at as a referendum on the President’s performance and policies. The thinking is that the voters will re-elect to the senate and congress, candidates from the President’s political party if they think his policies are working and his job performance is good. Of course the reverse is also true. If the electorate thinks the President’s policies are not working and his performance is weak, they will elect candidates from the opposite party or not come out to vote. In a country so divided by partisanship as America, it behooves an incumbent President to keep his voter base engaged and on board by fulfilling the promises he made to them while running for office.

After the failed Bush Presidency, political and social policies, the country voted for economic, political and social change. Viable Presidential candidates such as Hillary Clinton were swept by the wayside in favor of Barack Obama’s vision of change. Both the African American and GLBT electorate, traditionally supportive of Hillary Clinton, abandoned her and supported Obama, becoming a major force in electing him to the Presidency. President Obama finds himself in a quandary with the Gay community as the mid term elections approach.

Barack Obama made several promises to the Gay community. The major ones are the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT), the passage of the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA), and the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). As of this writing, he has failed to deliver on any of these promises. DADT remains in effect and the Obama administration continues to permit its enforcement. Gay soldiers continue to be prosecuted and discharged from the military under the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. Lives and careers are ruined as we say to our Gay soldiers it is OK for you to die for your country but not to be truthful about who you are and who you love. By executive order, President Obama can stop the discharges today while work continues on the repeal of DADT. He has chosen not to. His convictions and ability to stand up for them in the face of bigoted adversity do not match his words. Talk is cheap, but actions show the true measure of a leader.

ENDA is still not law in this country. Gay men and women continue to loose and be denied jobs, and endure harassment and discrimination at the hands of coworkers and employers because they are Gay. The President continues to promise the passage of this legal protection but fails to act and bring pressure upon the congress to pass this bill. The passage of ENDA requires Barack Obama to push it as a priority with the leadership of the Congress and Senate. He has failed to do so despite a controlling majority in both legislative bodies by his own political party. Here again talk is cheap but actions are revealing of this Presidents ability to lead.

There has been no movement on the repeal of DOMA due to the Obama administration’s actions. In fact the Obama Justice Department has defended legal challenges against DOMA on several occasions, once with a poorly written legal brief containing homophobic language. The President claims that his administration is legally obligated to defend the law even if its official position is that it should be repealed. Not so Mr. President, as there is legal precedence for a Justice Department to not defend laws that are ideologically against the administrations policies and felt to be discriminatory.

In the past few weeks the state of Massachusetts successfully won a ruling stating that the major part of DOMA is unconstitutional as it does not allow a state to define marriage as it sees fit. The ruling was made by a Federal judge. The loosing side was Obama’s Justice Department that had again defended DOMA in federal court. Obama often says that same sex marriage should be an issue for the states to decide, but when one of the states legalizes same sex marriage and wants the right to provide same sex couples with all the state and federal benefits of opposite sex couples, Obama’s Justice Department fought against it.

The Obama administration now has a mess on its hands as it approaches the midterm elections. Having failed to take a strong stand on Gay issues as promised, it has been able to keep these important social issues from playing a key role in public opinion regarding the President’s performance and policies. With the court’s ruling in the Massachusetts case, it has thrust the issue of same sex marriage to the top of the list as an issue in the midterm elections. If Obama’s Justice Department does not appeal the decision it is political fodder for the right wing in a key election year that could determine control of the Congress and the Senate.

If the Obama administration does appeal the Federal court decision, the President will further alienate the Gay community. A community whose patience has come to an end due to his inaction and or inability to fulfill the promises made to it, a patience that has been lost over the continued discharges of Gay soldiers and the administration’s continued legal defense of DOMA. In alienating the Gay community, Obama has put our vote in play and thereby the control of the Senate and the House, as well as the future of his own Presidency in the 2012 election.

Barak Obama is in danger of loosing control of the Legislative branch and of becoming a one term President presiding over a failed Presidency. He finds himself in this predicament due to broken promises and a lack of courage to spend the political capital to advance the issues important to his Gay voter base in the first two years of his Presidency.

As we see more and more countries like Canada and Argentina legalizing same sex marriage, America is dimming as a beacon of freedom and equality. It is loosing its credibility as the force behind human rights and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as a God given right. While the Bush presidency was no friend to the gay community, it was viewed as the last of the old guard, passing away. We saw the Obama Presidency as a signal that “Change had come to America” and this country would regain its credibility as a human rights leader. Instead our continued decline under Obama not only alienates the Gay community it continues to fracture our position as a world leader and our reputation in the world community. Barack Obama’s self inflicted damage has harmed us all. To whom much is given, much is expected.

How do you screw a President? In Obama’s case he screwed himself by failing to rise to a moment in history that called for strong leadership in newly defining the meaning of Human Rights, Equality and Civil Rights both in he United States and on the Global stage.

"License To Be Mean"

2010-07-13T15:08:00.004-04:00

I often wonder why people are so mean to each other. I spend most of my week at a hospital. There seems to be sub groups of people who think it is OK to ignore people in different potions than their own. Most everyone talks to me. Some because of what I do and some because I talk to them. I prefer the last group because the first won't talk to everyone, just the ones they think they should talk to, or can benefit from. I talk to everyone and get something from most I speak with. When I see people ignore someone they perceive of as being part of a lesser station in life, but speak to me, I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed for the condition of a human being who thinks they are better than another and I'm embarrassed that an ignored person might group me with them. I hate the look of shock I see on some people when I talk with them. It means they have been ignored by some at the hospital who feel they have license to do so, and have come to expect it. It makes me sick.

It does happen to me sometimes too. Today I was in a meeting with one of our Vice Presidents. The other participant in the meeting showed up and introduced herself to me. I reminded her that we have met and see each other at least twice a year but she stuck to her story about not knowing me. So I put out my hand and introduced myself anyway. She refused to shake my hand saying, "there's no need for that, if we already met." The better part of me wanted to verbally devastate her, but in my mind she already made herself look pretty bad, so I left it alone and continued with the meeting.

It's experiences like the ones above that also ground me. I'm reminded to not be a self important ass myself. I tend to get tunnel vision when I busy or on a mission and sometimes forget to acknowledge people I'm breezing by. Today on the way back from my meeting I saw one of the hospital plumbers who worked on one of my locations about a year ago. He was waiting at the elevator I needed to get on. As I approached him he put his head down. I said hi to him and we talked until I got off on my floor. It was a mood changer for me as I was able to find some good in my experience with the lady who had just been rude to me.

I just don't understand mean and why we feel it is OK to inflict it on others. This is one of the few times in life that I'm happy not to be able to wrap my mind around something.

MT

“Without Comment” – "Something Inside So Strong" - July 7, 2010 Edition

2010-07-07T09:27:00.002-04:00

“Something Inside So Strong” – Labi Siffre

The higher you build your barriers
The taller I become
The farther you take my rights away
The faster I will run
You can deny me
You can decide to turn your face away
No matter, cos there's....

Something inside so strong
I know that I can make it
Tho' you're doing me wrong, so wrong
You thought that my pride was gone
Oh no, something inside so strong
Oh oh oh oh oh something inside so strong

The more you refuse to hear my voice
The louder I will sing
You hide behind walls of Jericho
Your lies will come tumbling
Deny my place in time
You squander wealth that's mine
My light will shine so brightly
It will blind you
Cos there's......

Something inside so strong
I know that I can make it
Tho' you're doing me wrong, so wrong
You thought that my pride was gone
Oh no, something inside so strong
Oh oh oh oh oh something inside so strong

Brothers and sisters
When they insist we're just not good enough
When we know better
Just look 'em in the eyes and say
I'm gonna do it anyway
I'm gonna do it anyway

Something inside so strong
And I know that I can make it
Tho' you're doing me wrong, so wrong
You thought that my pride was gone
Oh no, something inside so strong
Oh oh oh oh oh something inside so strong

Brothers and sisters
When they insist we're just good not enough
When we know better
Just look 'em in the eyes and say
I'm gonna do it anyway
I'm gonna do it anyway
I'm gonna do it anyway
I'm gonna do it anyway

Because there's something inside so strong
And I know that I can make it
Tho' you're doing me, so wrong
You thought that my pride was gone
Oh no, something inside so strong
Oh oh oh oh oh something inside so strong

Because there's something inside so strong
And I know that I can make it
Tho' you're doing me, so wrong
You thought that my pride was gone
Oh no, something inside so strong
Oh oh oh oh oh something inside so strong

(The Flirtations singing “Something Inside So Strong” on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK1BoGI5KZw )

“I Could Have Said Nothing.”

2010-07-06T11:21:00.010-04:00

Below is a re-post of my article on how my husband and I were interacted with in an Emergency Room at a hospital in Boston Massachusetts. Following the re-post is a letter from the hospital that is the conclusion to the story, and what I believe is an outcome that will make it better for the next same sex couple that walks into the emergency room of this hospital.

I often write this, but it is worth repeating, activism is each LGBT individual’s responsibility until we have full equality under the law. In many ways an individual’s willingness not to settle for second class citizen status in their everyday life, as they go through life, has a greater impact on societal change than the bigger actions that capture media attention.

The next time you find yourself in a situation similar to mine you have a choice to let it go, or seize it as an opportunity to make life better for your LGBT brothers and sisters.

If you are LGBT and happen to visit Faulkner Hospital and are treated respectfully, please remember this article, and remember, I could have said nothing.......but really I had no choice.

MT

Re-Post

“Due Diligence or Discrimination?”

I live in the state of Massachusetts. Same sex marriage is legal here and has been for some time now. It became law in 2004. I have been married since 2006. Most heterosexual people think the battle for equality ended then in my state, it didn’t. It didn’t end anymore than desegregation ended the battle against discrimination for Black Americans. I often tell my heterosexual friends who tell me they can empathize with me, that it is a nice sentiment, but unless you walk in a Gay man’s shoes you can’t really get the full picture of our lives.

This past weekend is a good example. Two things happened that were troubling to me.Both minor events, but they go to the bigger picture. A friend was traveling to Provincetown on the ferry and updated his Facebook page about his trip. There were straight couples with kids on the boat and he and his partner got a few disapproving looks from one of the woman. He updated his wall page by complaining that if people are not going to be accepting, they should not be on a ferry to Provincetown, which of course is one of the Gay Mecca’s of the United States.

The stare itself is disturbing, but it didn’t end there. One of his heterosexual friends criticized his update by saying, “Tolerance works both ways” My issue is the word ‘tolerance”. As I commented on my friend’s page, tolerance implies that you are putting up with something wrong. You tolerate a mosquito bite, you “accept” a human being, and I’m sorry it does not work both ways. We have very few places in this world were Gay people are the majority. Places where we don’t have to modify some system or form of entertainment made for a heterosexual world. We demand acceptance when we are in one of those places that we are the majority. If you can’t accept us in these places, than you don’t belong in our neighborhood and should stay out.

The second is more personal. I had to bring my husband to the emergency room for an illness this past weekend. The intake nurse was rude to me as I tried to answer questions for my husband who could barely speak. At one point she asked him if it he wanted me to leave. This was after we told her we were married. We both let her have it, helping her to adjust her attitude. After they took him back to get him settled I was asked to register him. I answered many questions. Finally I was asked what our relationship was. I replied married and got ready for the next question. The intake person paused, raised her eyebrow and asked, “Legally married”? My initial response was yes, but then it sank in so I asked, “Would you ask that question of a heterosexual spouse who stated they were married”? I got back some mumbo jumbo about having to do, due diligence for legal reasons. I told her that was not a good response so she just moved on.

This morning I called Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital here in Boston to inquire about their intake policy regarding relationship status. All agreed that the intake person should have stopped when I said we are married. They went on to say this satisfies due diligence. They further stated that if they were to go further, they would have to start asking everyone for a copy of their marriage license and this is not feasible in an emergency. This morning I spoke with patient relations at the hospital I took my husband to. The representative seemed genuinely embarrassed, apologized and told me what action would be taken. They will have the staff person’s manager call and apologize to me later today.

Some may say I’m making a big thing out of nothing. I say my responsibility is to make things better for Gay people who come after me and I feel as if I helped do that today. My point about people thinking Gays have it made in Massachusetts is this, everyday our lives as Gay people require us to adjust and or correct those around us. It is wearing. In the emergency room a heterosexual married spouse would have been free to “just be” concerned about the condition of their spouse. As a gay man, as a Gay married couple, we were not afforded that right. The fight for equality does not end with signing a bill into law. However, it does begin a new front in the war as it gives us the legal support to challenge everyday discrimination. Without equality laws in place we move from a goal of acceptance to a world of tolerance. Been there, done that, won’t go back.

MT

(Click on letter to enlarge)

Tomorrow, a follow up to ,“Due Diligence or Discrimination” ?

2010-07-05T16:57:00.000-04:00

“Without Comment” June 23, 2010 Edition

2010-06-23T12:14:00.012-04:00

(I read today,that the remains of seventy five people were recently recovered from the World Trade Center Ground Zero site in Manhattan.)

"Grand Central Station" - Mary Chapin Carpenter

Got my work clothes on for love, sweat and dirt.
All this Holy dust upon my face an' shirt.
Headin' uptown now, just as the shifts are changin',
To Grand Central Station.

I got my lunch box, got my hard hat in my hand.
I ain't no hero, mister, just a workin' man.
An' all these voices keep on askin' me to take them,
To Grand Central Station.
Grand Central Station.

I wanna stand beneath the clock just one more time.
Wanna wait on the platform for the Hudson line.
I guess you're never really all alone, or too far from the pull of home,
An' the stars upon that painted dome still shine.

I paid my way out on the 42nd Street.
I lit a cigarette an' stared down at my feet.
Imagined all the ones that ever stood here waitin',
At Grand Central Station.
Grand Central Station.

And now Hercules is starin' down at me.
Next to him's Minerva an' Mercury.
Well, I nod to them an' start my crawl, flyers coverin' every wall:
Faces of the missing are all I see.

Tomorrow, I'll be back there, workin' on the pile.
Going in, comin' out, single file.
Before my job is done, there's one more trip I'm makin',
To Grand Central Station.
Grand Central Station.

Grand Central Station.
Grand Central Station.

(Mary Chapin Carpenter singing "Grand Central Station" on YouTube ) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fZG0fa7-nM&feature=PlayList&p=D2605925994B09FB&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=2%20%29

MT

“Due Diligence or Discrimination” ?

2010-06-21T13:54:00.004-04:00

I live in the state of Massachusetts. Same sex marriage is legal here and has been for some time now. It became law in 2004. I have been married since 2006. Most heterosexual people think the battle for equality ended then in my state, it didn’t. It didn’t end anymore than desegregation ended the battle against discrimination for Black Americans. I often tell my heterosexual friends who tell me they can empathize with me, that it is a nice sentiment, but unless you walk in a Gay man’s shoes you can’t really get the full picture of our lives.

This past weekend is a good example as two things happened that were troubling to me.Both minor events, but they go to the bigger picture. A friend was traveling to Provincetown on the ferry and updated his Facebook page about his trip. There were straight couples with kids on the boat and he and his partner got a few disapproving looks from one of the woman. He updated his wall page by complaining that if people are not going to be accepting, they should not be on a ferry to Provincetown, which of course is one of the Gay Mecca’s of the United States.

The stare itself is disturbing, but it didn’t end there. One of his heterosexual friends criticized his update by saying, “Tolerance works both ways” My issue is the word ‘tolerance”. As I commented on my friend’s page, tolerance implies that you are putting up with something wrong. You tolerate a mosquito bite, you “accept” a human being, and I’m sorry it does not work both ways. We have very few places in this world were Gay people are the majority. Places where we don’t have to modify some system or form of entertainment made for a heterosexual world. We demand acceptance when we are in one of those places that we are the majority. If you can’t accept us in these places, than you don’t belong in our neighborhood and should stay out.

The second is more personal. I had to bring my husband to the emergency room for an illness this past weekend. The intake nurse was rude to me as I tried to answer questions for my husband who could barely speak. At one point she asked him if it he wanted me to leave. This was after we told her we were married. We both let her have it, helping her to adjust her attitude. After they took him back to get him settled I was asked to register him. I answered many questions. Finally I was asked what our relationship was. I replied married and got ready for the next question. The intake person paused, raised her eyebrow and asked, “Legally married”? My initial response was yes, but then it sank in so I asked, “Would you ask that question of a heterosexual spouse who stated they were married”? I got back some mumbo jumbo about having to do, due diligence for legal reasons. I told her that was not a good response so she just moved on.

This morning I called Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital here in Boston to enquire about their intake policy regarding relationship status. All agreed that the intake person should have stopped when I said we are married. They went on to say this satisfies due diligence. They further stated that if they were to go further, they would have to start asking everyone for a copy of their marriage license and this is not feasible in an emergency. This morning I spoke with patient relations at the hospital I took my husband to. The representative seemed genuinely embarrassed, apologized and told me what action would be taken. They will have the staff person’s manager call and apologize to me later today.

Some may say I’m making a big thing out of nothing. I say my responsibility is to make things better for Gay people who come after me and I feel as if I helped do that today. My point about people thinking Gays have it made in Massachusetts is this, everyday our lives as Gay people require us to adjust and or correct those around us. It is wearing. In the emergency room a heterosexual married spouse would have been free to “just be” concerned about the condition of their spouse. As a gay man, as a Gay married couple, we were not afforded that right. The fight for equality does not end with signing a bill into law. However, it does begin a new front in the war as it gives us the legal support to challenge everyday discrimination. Without equality laws in place we move from a goal of acceptance to a world of tolerance. Been there, done that, won’t go back.

MT

"Without Comment" - June 11, 2010 Boston Pride Edition

2010-06-11T10:50:00.008-04:00

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" - Harold Arlen (music) and E.Y. Harburg (lyrics)

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow.
Why then, oh why can't I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?

(Judy Garland singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8UWNv4wkb0 )

"Give them what they want,then go out and get a hamburger." - Judy Garland

Happy Pride

Love,

MT

“Random Thoughts, Michael’s Thoughts” June 10, 2010 Edition

2010-06-10T13:49:00.004-04:00

Boston Pride is this week. I think the theme is “Riots to Rights”. Good to celebrate what we have achieved, but in my view premature until every last Gay, Transgender, Queer, every HUMAN BEING as equal rights.

We are in something like day 51 or 52 of the oil leak in the Gulf. First it isn’t a leak, it’s a gusher. Second why didn’t BP have a big enough tanker in place so they could close all the vents and capture more of the oil? Obama needs to send in the military with a crowbar so they can pry his and BP’s head out from up their asses.

Obama is starting to resemble Jimmy Carter. He is getting that failed one termer look about him. He fooled a lot of people. Unfortunately one of Ted Kennedy’s legacies will be throwing his support to Obama in the election instead of Hillary Clinton. It swayed a lot of people and fooled even more into thinking he was our agent of change. I voted for Hillary in the primaries and stand by my vote. I wonder how life will be under a Mitt Romney/Scott Brown administration.

I’m looking forward to a decision in the Prop 8 trial in California. I know it will be challenged, but I sense a ground breaker coming here. If this judge gets it wrong, most of us will loose what is left of our faith in good ultimately winning out, as far as the rule of law is concerned.

Destiny is not an immovable conclusion. We have more control over it than we understand. It takes a slowing of the mind, a breaking of patterns, and an introduction of thoughts with the power to create. We spend too much energy texting and surfing the internet, and not enough taking control of our future shaping it into our dreams. I’d rather miss out on seeing a website than be left with an unfulfilled desire that died at birth. You?

MT

“Season of Crazy”

2010-06-08T11:18:00.003-04:00

I think the moon is full permanently and as a result we have entered a season of crazy;

BP continues to say they have made progress on stopping the oil gushing in the gulf. When I look at the live footage I see oil gushing in the gulf, but BP says I’m not seeing what I’m seeing? Obama says he actually visited the gulf a month ago so he could figure out whose “ass to kick”. We are still waiting for said boot to hit said ass. Note to Obama, you should not have thought it necessary to go to the gulf to figure out whose ass to kick. I think the BP logo is all over this one.

Actor Gary Coleman fell in his basement and cracked his head open. He died a few days later. In the newly released 911 call his ex-wife describes him lying in a pool of blood on the floor. She refuses the 911 operator’s request to give him first aide even as a dazed Coleman staggers to his feet. Why did she refuse? She says it would upset her too much and she might have a seizure. Eventually she threw him a towel from the stairs. She is now shopping around pictures of him taken at the hospital after he died.

Helen Thomas has been a White House correspondent since John Kennedy was running for President. She is almost 90 years old. Last week she made an insensitive comment about Jewish people. She speculated that they should leave Palestine and go back to the countries where they came from to end the Middle East conflict. She was forced to resign her position despite an apology. First if we are all to be honest, I’m sure her thoughts have crossed other minds and second, old folks are known for saying shocking insensitive stuff. At 90 they feel they’ve earned the right to back out of the driveway without looking.

It is suspected that Joran Van der Sloot got away with murdering Natalee Holloway in 2005. He confessed to murdering another young woman yesterday whom he called his girlfriend. Supposedly she was looking through his laptop before he murdered her.Why would any woman hang out with a guy suspected of murdering another young woman? O.J. Simpson has a girlfriend also. What are these women thinking?

Finally, Rush Limbaugh got married. For those of you who don’t know he is the radio voice for the extreme right wing. He hates Gays and his against Gay rights. For one million dollars, openly Gay singer Elton John sung at Limbaugh’s wedding. He sold his ideals and the Gay community out for a large sum of money. Pictured above, please find one self-loathing asshole.

MT

"Without Comment" - June 4, 2010 Little Monster Edition

2010-06-04T10:24:00.004-04:00

"Bad Romance"
Authored by,Germanotta, Stefani; Khayat, Nadir
Performed By Lady Gaga

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga Ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance

Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga Ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance

I want your ugly
I want your disease
I want your everything
As long as it’s free
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love

I want your drama
The touch of your hand
I want you leathe-studded kiss in the sand
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love

You know that I want you
And you know that I need you
I want it bad
Your bad romance

I want your loving
And I want your revenge
You and me could write a bad romance
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!)
I want your loving
All your love is revenge
You and me could write a bad romance

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance

Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga Ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance

I want your horror
I want your design
‘Cause you’re a criminal
As long as your mine
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love, uhh

I want your psycho
Your vertigo stick
Want you in my room
When your baby is sick
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love

You know that I want you
And you know that I need you
(‘Cause I’m a freak bitch, baby!)
I want it bad
Your bad romance

I want your loving
And I want your revenge
You and me could write a bad romance
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!)
I want your loving
All your love is revenge
You and me could write a bad romance

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance

Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga Ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance

Work-work fashion baby
Work it
move that bitch crazy
Work-work fashion baby
Work it
move that bitch crazy
Work-work fashion baby
Work it
move that bitch crazy
Work-work fashion baby
Work it
I’m a freak bitch baby

I want your love
And I want your revenge
I want your love
I don’t wanna be friends

J'veux ton amour
Et je veux ton revenge
J'veux ton amour
I don't wanna be friends

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
(I don't wanna be friends)
Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance

(I don't wanna be friends)
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!
(Want your bad romance)
Caught in a bad romance
(Want your bad romance)

I want your loving
I want your revenge
You and me could write a bad romance
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!)
I want your loving
All your love is revenge
You and me could write a bad romance

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
(Want your bad romance)
Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
(Want your bad romance)
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
(Want your bad romance)
Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance

Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga Ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance

(Bad Romance, On YouTube,performed by Lady Gaga
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrO4YZeyl0I )

“Without Comment” Memorial Day, Remember a Soldier Edition” - May 27, 2010

2010-05-27T11:24:00.005-04:00

Well maybe one comment;

This Memorial day, think of and reach out to the partner or spouse of a dead soldier, or to a living one who carries the memories of war with them. Gay or straight, sexual orientation does not play a role in the remembrance of a soldier, as it should not play a role in their being allowed to fight for us.

“Tears In Heaven” – by Eric Clapton and Will Jennings

Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same
If I saw you in heaven?

I must be strong
And carry on,
'Cause I know I don't belong
Here in heaven.

Would you hold my hand
If I saw you in heaven?
Would you help me stand
If I saw you in heaven?

I'll find my way
Through night and day,
'Cause I know I just can't stay
Here in heaven.

Time can bring you down,
Time can bend your knees.
Time can break your heart,
Have you begging please, begging please.

Beyond the door,
There's peace I'm sure,
And I know there'll be no more
Tears in heaven.

Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same
If I saw you in heaven?

I must be strong
And carry on,
'Cause I know I don't belong
Here in heaven.

(Eric Clapton singing "Tears in Heaven" on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AscPOozwYA8 )

MT

“Random Thoughts, Michael’s Thoughts” - May 26, 2010 Edition

2010-05-26T12:58:00.003-04:00

While experiencing something new or the thought of it can be frightening, comfort can be the trap in which your life ebbs away.

Why does it continue to be necessary to lie to your country in order to die for it?

Obama is looking kind of old lately; cowardice will do that to the human spirit. Taking a stand is invigorating, sitting on the fence and breaking promises takes its toll on the soul.

If we can’t stop a catastrophic oil leak at the bottom of the ocean, perhaps we shouldn’t be drilling one. Man should never do something irreversibly harmful to the environment, it will kill us.

Social networks are sanitizing. It is easy to be rude to a picture staring back at you or worse to ignore it. I think we all need a reminder that there are real people behind those pictures who live, breathe, and bleed. It’s never been easier to be callous.

MT

"Self"

2010-05-24T12:38:00.002-04:00

It is the beginning of happiness. It can come at the beginning, middle, or end of your life. Sadly, for some, it may not come at all. Happiness without it is hollow and fleeting. Life always has that “not quite right” feeling if it is missing. Its void is often temporarily filled with things like drugs, careers, and sex, but nothing can really take its place, there is no good substitute. It can’t be given or received as a gift to or from another. Your happiness and well being depend on it, but it must come from within you. It is self acceptance of who you are on this planet despite what anyone else may think.

Self acceptance is the foundation on which a happy life exists. Yet it seems easier to accept others as they are than ourselves. Without self acceptance we are an imitation of who we are meant to be. It is kind of like when you hear a classic hit song made famous by a legendary singer, sung by someone else; it’s not quite the real thing. Our lives are unique meant to be lived uniquely by us. When we live in a manner that solicits the acceptance of others as opposed to our own self acceptance, our life is fear based and our happiness and self worth is transient as it is based on the approval of others.

The reasons for not accepting ourselves are many, but the common denominator is fear. If I’m Gay and I choose to stay in the closet, I’m afraid of what will happen if I come out. The consequence will ruin my life and impact those I involve in my life. If I try to live a heterosexual life and marry, I’ve now involved another person in my lie, if I have kids; they become involved, and so on. My friends and family are never given the opportunity to know who I really am and the chance to accept me of reject me. I also deny myself a chance at real love and moving in social groups that truly accept me as I am. Sexual orientation is just one example where a lack of self acceptance will cause misery, there are many others. It could be body type, gender, sexual proclivity, looks, desires or anything that makes us unique.

Living in a city there are many chances to observe people. I often see some very unique people. They seem to go through life oblivious to the fact they look or act a little different than seems socially acceptable. Where once I judged them, now I can appreciate them and admire them. It seems totally freeing to me, to be able to interact with society on your own terms, perhaps not because of obliviousness but purposefully due to self acceptance, as if any other way would be foreign.

At the end of life, looking back, is it better to say I lived as a unique creation and was happy or I kind of faked it and made others happy and more comfortable to be around me? Is it better to say I lost some friends and family who couldn’t accept me when I accepted myself, but made some true friends who did, or I kept friends and family at the cost of living a lie and denying my own uniqueness?

I don’t know what about yourself you struggle with. I don’t know what it will cost you to accept yourself and live as you are meant to be. I do know that until you do, you are not yet living. Many people go to the grave after long lives without really living. I think that is a higher price to pay than what you might loose by loving and accepting yourself and going through life genuinely you. Think of what you might gain, because at the end of life as you tally up the years, the regret column needs to be the smallest.

MT.

"Wipe Your Feet On Me"

2010-05-17T11:25:00.005-04:00

The Gay community is angry with the Catholic Church for many reasons. Most recently, there seems to a propensity for Catholic schools to not admit children of Gay couples. They cite the reason being that the parents are living a lifestyle not consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church. It is obvious to most that the child, whose sexuality is not an issue, is being victimized. It is obvious to most that the Catholic Church is doing the victimizing. It even seems obvious to one Catholic diocese, as they have offered one child from a Gay family admission to another one of their schools. In doing so they chose not to overrule the Principal of the school, a priest that refused the child admission. Overruling this principle would have been justice, but justice does not come easy for Gay families when it is coming from the hands of the Catholic Church. Is the Catholic Church the only one doing the victimizing in these cases? I don’t think so; I think we need to take a hard look at the Gay parents as well.

Why would Gay parents choose to place their child in an environment that does not support who they are as people? Why would Gay parents pay tuition to an institution that is outspokenly engaged in activities to deny their humanity and civil rights? If you are a Gay parent, and your child is in a Catholic run school, are you prepared for the day your child hears you are a sinner going to hell because of your sexual orientation? Are you prepared for the upset your child will endure, and the questions he or she will have for you?

If your answer is, it is the best school in the neighborhood; it isn’t a good enough response. You owe it to your child to place him or her in a loving nurturing environment that is supportive of his or her family structure and values. Move if you have to, but it is irresponsible of you to place your child in a school run by any religious institution that does not value your family structure and your humanity. They have your child everyday. How can you not be concerned about what he or she is being taught about you? Is it any different than placing an American child in an Al-Qaida run school, because it is the best or closest in the neighborhood? The Catholic Church terrorizes our community attempting to demonize us in the eyes of our neighbors.

The Gay community is at war for its identity and civil rights. Placing your child in the hands of one of our enemies to be educated is irresponsible and demonstrates a lack of understanding as to the seriousness of the civil rights war we are engaged in. It is time to come out from within the enemy’s midst and take a stand. It is certainly not the time to hand your child over to one of the perpetuators of our discrimination. What are you thinking?

The Gay community needs to understand the dept of our discrimination. We continue to spend money with companies that have anti-Gay policies in place. We continue to spend dollars with businesses and organizations that donate to religious institutions that use our own money to fight our equality. Our community continues to suck up to, and support politicians who break their promises to us.

In the war on terror, one of the primary weapons being employed is seeking out and identifying the funding sources of terrorist groups, and then cutting off the money flow. Until we employ this technique and stop funding political parties, businesses and religious institutions that discriminate against us, we are only playing at wanting civil rights and full equality. We are a doormat and the world knows it.

“A Personal Thought”

2010-05-13T11:21:00.002-04:00

On May 25th 1998 I was living in Connecticut and contemplating a move back to New York City. I had been in Connecticut for a couple of years having moved there for a good job and career move. On that day, I was on my way out, one foot through the door, when I heard the phone. Normally, I keep going, but this time I hesitated and went back. On the phone was this guy who needed the electric motor of his car window replaced before driving it to Nashville where he was moving in a few days. He heard through a friend that I knew how to work on cars and had gotten my number. Minutes later we met at a diner for coffee and to talk about his car.

It is now May 13th 2010, twelve years later, Patrick and I have spent those years building our life together. We have gone through our share of ups and downs as in any relationship, attended weddings of friends and funerals of family on both sides. If you are together long enough you get to experience a lot of life.

On May 13th 2006 Patrick and I legally married in Boston Massachusetts. Somehow a bond that was strong got even stronger at that ceremony. It’s hard to explain how a commitment like marriage can make you feel about your relationship. I remember taking out the garbage the day after our wedding, and thinking I’m doing this for my husband. I think I glowed a little that evening, with that thought. Getting married might not be for everyone, but everyone should be able to.

Our relationship continues to be loving, comfortable, interesting, exciting, surprising, and despite it being twelve years, it still feels new and mysterious at times. I hope it always will. Happy anniversary honey!

Love,
Michael

“Random Thoughts, Michael’s Thoughts” – May 12, 2010 Edition

2010-05-12T12:27:00.004-04:00

The oil is still leaking in the gulf. As I write this 4,638,661 gallons have leaked.Click here for a real time counter. - http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/05/how-much-oil-has-spilled-in-the-gulf-of-mexico.html

It looks like Obama may have nominated a Gay woman to the Supreme Court, but he is too timid to say, and she is too scared to be proud. It’s no time to be closeted; it’s time to stir some shit up.

The house next door to us just went up for sale. They were showing it to multiple perspective buyers last night. My husband and I put out our rather large Rainbow flag in response. It’s our neighborhood, we were here first, and people should know it. After all we can’t just let anyone in.

I’ve come to believe that most discrimination is religious or fear based. I’m also starting to believe that the reason Gay people don’t have equal rights, is Gay people.

I’m not using the word “lesbian” anymore when I write. Gay is Gay and we have too many descriptive divisive letters.

Unless you are a minority you really don’t understand the daily life of one, even if you are minority friendly. A smart minority group will use it to their advantage; a stupid one will do nothing but whine about it.

MT

Stay Tuned

2010-05-11T14:31:00.000-04:00

Will be back after this brief message.

MT

"Without Comment " - May 6, 2010 Edition

2010-05-06T09:11:00.010-04:00

John Doe No. 24 - Mary Chapin Carpenter

I was standing on the sidewalk in 1945
In Jacksonville, Illinois
When asked what my name was there came no reply
They said I was a deaf and sightless half-wit boy
But Louis was my name, though I could not say it
I was born and raised in New Orleans
My spirit was wild, so I let the river take it
On a barge and a prayer upstream

Well they searched for a mother and they searched for a father
And they searched till they searched no more
The doctors put to rest their scientific tests
And they named me "John Doe No. 24"
And they all shook their heads in pity
For a world so silent and dark
Well there's no doubt that life's a mystery
But so too is the human heart

And it was my heart's own perfume when the crepe jasmine bloomed
On Rue Morgue Avenue
Though I couldn't hear the bells of the streetcars coming
By toeing the track I knew
And if I were an old man returning
With my satchel and porkpie hat
I'd hit every jazz joint on Bourbon
And I'd hit everyone on Basin after that

The years kept passing as they passed me around
From one state ward to another
Like I was an orphan shoe from the lost and found
Always missing the other
And they gave me a harp last Christmas
And all the nurses took a dance
But lately I've been growing listless
I've been dreaming again of the past

I'm wandering down to the banks of the great Big Muddy
Where the shotgun houses stand
I am seven years old and I feel my dad
Reach out for my hand
While I drew breath no one missed me
So they won't on the day that I cease
Put a sprig of crepe jasmine with me
To remind me of New Orleans

I was standing on the sidewalk in 1945
In Jacksonville, Illinois

(John Doe No. 24 on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=969y80lXm1I )

(P.S. I started this Blog last May and thought to myself I would give it a year and decide what I want to do with it. The first things I wrote were very different to where I've ended up. I like that, stagnation is death to me. Although I haven't decided, at this point I'm leaning toward ending it here and sticking it in my memory file. MT )

“Random Thoughts, Michael’s Thoughts” – May 5, 2010 Edition

2010-05-05T12:15:00.002-04:00

Earthquakes, oil spills, terrorism attempts, volcanic eruptions, when everything seems to be going wrong, it may be time to listen up and change direction.

Why are we tasering teenage boys for running onto a baseball field? People have been doing this since the game was invented.

I’m a citizen of the United States who does not have equal civil rights because of my sexual orientation. How come there aren’t any nationwide protest and out cries of injustice for me as there are against Arizona’s new law impacting illegal immigrants?

Wishing someone harm is detrimental to the one making the wish and is a choice we make. I choose not to wish anyone harm.

There are more things that connect us than things that keep us apart. It depends on what you choose to focus on.

Don’t spew hate it the name of God, you’re embarrassing yourself.

You’re worth it.

You’re valuable.

You’re Loved.

MT

"Ho Hum, A Nation's Reaction To LGBTQ Direct Action"

2010-05-03T11:21:00.005-04:00

The recent resurgence of direct action and civil disobedience protests in the LGBT community has been encouraging. It is good to see a disenfranchised people open a new front in the civil rights war other than protests, phone calls, lobbying and letter writing. All valuable tools in the arsenal but none that can get the job done without assistance from additional weapons of freedom. What is not so encouraging is the lack of media coverage these direct action campaigns are getting from local and national news organizations. For the most part they seem to go unnoticed or are minimally covered at best. Let’s take a look at some reasons for this;

We live in a time when special effects can realistically portray the destruction of a major city. Unprecedented disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti and the oil spill in the gulf are covered without censorship and available on our televisions in our homes on demand. When we watch events unfold like the attempted bombing in Times Square, it’s easy to feel removed from the averted tragedy and view it as if it were just another unfolding movie plot with little affect on our own lives. We have become desensitized to the misery and tragedy of others that does not touch us directly. It is the product of modern technology and fantasy. There was a time when one assassination could sadden the world but that time has passed. Much of Poland’s government perished in a plane crash a few weeks ago and the world barely blinked.

So we see LGBT activist chain themselves to the White House fence, first three, than five, than maybe ten or so. The LGBT community goes nuts with excitement but the rest of the country barely takes notice. I applaud and respect the acts of Get Equal but I acknowledge that they are not enough as they have little to no affect on the general population or the American government.

We need LGBT actions that are disruptive if we are to be noticed and reckoned with by those withholding our civil rights. We need to put aside our fear of making the general public angry. Perhaps if they get angry enough, that anger could be redirected at those withholding our rights, and those groups would then feel the pressure of a nation. There is a certain respect you get when you’re willing to piss off everyone for what you believe in. Right now we are fighting a war surgically, taking great care not to inflict any harm or cause any negative reaction from the general public. In doing so we are tying our hands in the same way our soldier’s hands are tied in Iraq by the limiting rules of engagement.

We need to have actions that disrupt the everyday life of this nation in order to get noticed and effect change. While space limits my ability to brainstorm ideas, we need to be prepared to disrupt functions of life that will impact the nation. Things like the commute to work, the business of local and Federal government, the ability of businesses to do business, the ability of enemies like the Catholic and Mormon churches to pass the collection plate on Sundays. We need to begin and maintain this level of activity until we are noticed and covered my national media with the same attention given to foreign wars and natural disasters. We need to change the media’s reaction from “ho hum” to “UH OH”.

MT

Without Comment – April 30, 2010 Edition

2010-04-30T10:34:00.007-04:00

My Heaven – Mary Chapin Carpenter

Nothing shatters nothing breaks
Nothing hurts and nothing aches
We've got ourselves one helluva place in my heaven
Looking down at the world below
A bunch of whining, fighting schmo's
Up here we've got none of those, in my heaven

There's pools and lakes and hills and mountains
Music, art, and lighted fountains
Who needs bucks here, no one's counting
In my heaven
No one works, we all just play
We pick the weather everyday
If you change your mind, that's ok, in my heaven
Grandma's up here, Grandpa too
In a condo with to-die-for views
There's presidents and movie stars
You just come as you are
No one's lost and no one's missing
No more parting just hugs and kissing
And all these stars are just for wishing
In my heaven

There's little white lights everywhere
Your childhood dog in Dad's old chair
And more memories than my heart can hold
When Eva's singing "Fields of Gold"

There's neighbors, thieves and long lost lovers
Villains, poets, kings and mothers
Up here we forgive each other, in my heaven
For every soul that's down there waiting,
Holding on, still hesitating
We say a prayer of levitating, in my heaven
You can look back at your life and lot
But it can't matter what you're not
By the time you're here, we're all we've got
In my heaven
In my heaven
In my heaven

(My Heaven - On YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBMCFPQSeJY

Love, MT

“Without Comment” – April 29, 2010 Edition

2010-04-29T09:52:00.006-04:00

I'm sailing away
Set an open course for the Virgin Sea
'Cause I've got to be free
Free to face the life that's ahead of me

On board, I'm the captain
So climb aboard
We'll search for tomorrow on every shore
And I'll try, oh Lord, I'll try to carry on

I look to the sea
Reflections in the waves spark my memory
Some happy, some sad
I think of childhood friends and the dreams we had

We lived happily forever
So the story goes
But somehow we missed out on the pot of gold
But we'll try best that we can to carry on

A gathering of Angels appeared above my head
They sang to me this song of hope and this is what they said

They said, "Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me lads
Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me baby
Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me"

I thought that they were Angels, but to my surprise
We climbed aboard their starship, we headed for the skies

Singing, come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me lads
Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me

Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me

(Styx - "Come Sail Away" on YouTube ) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo_4QopvYFs

Love, MT

“Some Random Thoughts, Michael’s Thoughts” - April 28, 2010 Edition

2010-04-28T11:26:00.005-04:00

If you want to be treated fairly and respectfully in life, take the time to treat others the same way.

It doesn’t matter that they didn’t return your greeting or smile as they passed you, it matters that you gave one.

Sometimes a defensive response will inflame a heated situation, while an empathetic response will defuse it.

It’s hardly ever all about “me”, it is most often about “us”.

Intense anger is often the close relation of intense hurt.

Make sure you’re able to walk comfortably in your own shoes before judging how another walks in theirs.

An act of kindness if often free,but withheld by the owner as if it were a rare thing in limited quantities.

Whether we interact and reach out to another or ignore and withdraw, we have made an impact on their life. You choose.

Love, MT

“Credit Where Credit Is Due”

2010-04-26T13:55:00.003-04:00

There are times when I have absolutely nothing to say or add to the noise of the world and I happily embrace the peace of silence. There are times when I feel driven to write about an issue or thought. I often get an idea in my head that demands to be written. This happens most often when I’m working out. I attribute it to the increased blood flow and oxygen going to my brain. I suppose it also has to do with the mild euphoria that comes from intense exercise, and the feeling it is still possible for one person to make a difference.

I still believe one person can have a positive impact on social change. If that is true, than logically the opposite must be true as well, that being that one person can also set back social change. To be physically and psychologically healthy throughout life, striking a balance is necessary. It is a skill to be acquired and maintained as it is easily lost in the heat of passion over a heartfelt issue. I’ve had a chance to be in the company of both present and former GLBT activist. The toll taken by burn out and anger in former activist is sad, as it seems to have consumed their lives with bitterness. It’s hard watching a current activist who is on the road to the same destination, but I suppose this is war and there will be causalities. We as a community must care for our wounded when the battle has had its way with them.

As far as one person making an impact on a social issue, I do believe it is possible. I don’t think it is always the person who gets the most press or the one recognized regularly for their contribution. It is certainly not politicians who promise to advance the GLBT cause. Sure we hear about them and the celebrity clout they carry can not be denied, but I don’t think it is they who will ultimately deserve the credit for the victory.

The credit will go to you who live an out life style providing an example to the world as to who we are as GLBT people. You do this when you leave your home each day to go to work. It is you who are brave enough to be who you are as you go out to eat, attend the theater, go to the movies, or interact with a repairman who comes to your home. You will be the one who counteracts the lies and misconceptions about who we are, showing us to be valuable members of society’s fabric. It is you who are on the front lines, it is we. The reverse is true as well. The most damage to our cause will not come from those who try to limit our rights, it comes from GLBT people who limit their own humanity and remain hidden.

As in all wars, the generals may get the credit and the gold stars, but in the hearts of a nation, in the hearts of the GLBT community this truth will be found, it is we who lived an unashamed out life, that forced the enemy to retreat.

MT

"Without Comment" - April 23, 2010 Edition

2010-04-23T07:11:00.005-04:00

Life Is A Cabaret - John Kander and Fred Ebb

What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret.

Put down the knitting,
The book and the broom.
Time for a holiday.
Life is Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret.

Come taste the wine,
Come hear the band.
Come blow your horn,
Start celebrating;
Right this way,
Your table's waiting

No use permitting
some prophet of doom
To wipe every smile away.
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret!

I used to have a girlfriend
known as Elsie
With whom I shared
Four sordid rooms in Chelsea

She wasn't what you'd call
A blushing flower...
As a matter of fact
She rented by the hour.

The day she died the neighbors
came to snicker:
"Well, that’s what comes
from to much pills and liquor."

But when I saw her laid out like a Queen
She was the happiest...corpse...
I'd ever seen.

I think of Elsie to this very day.
I'd remember how'd she turn to me and say:
"What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret."

And as for me,
I made up my mind back in Chelsea,
When I go, I'm going like Elsie.

Start by admitting
From cradle to tomb
Isn't that long a stay.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Only a Cabaret, old chum,
And I love a Cabaret!

MT

(Life is a Cabaret, sung by Liza Minnnelli - on YouTube)

A Message to Catholics and the Leaders of the Catholic Church

2010-04-13T14:05:00.005-04:00

While it is realized that LGBTQ people have supporters in the Catholic Church, we are at war for our rights and against our discrimination. This religious institution, whose leadership condones and covers up Child Rape by some of its clergy, is again trying to deflect its responsibility by blaming homosexuality instead of pedophilia. In doing so they are trying to villainies LGBTQ people in an attempt to blur the lines between an intended creation and an egregious criminal act.

If we have friends and supporters in this church, they should speak up now and fight this misinformation and against our discrimination publicly from within, or leave the church in support of the LGBTQ people they call friends. We call for the Pope's resignation to show the world that this previously untouchable institution has entered a new age of accountability for its criminal actions.

Queer Rising Boston

“Without Comment” – April 8, 2010 Edition

2010-04-08T11:17:00.004-04:00

Bridge Over Troubled Water – Paul Simon,1969

When you're weary
Feeling small
When tears are in your eyes
I will dry them all

I'm on your side
When times get rough
And friends just can't be found
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

When you're down and out
When you're on the street
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you

I'll take your part
When darkness comes
And pain is all around
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

Sail on Silver Girl,
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way

See how they shine
If you need a friend
I'm sailing right behind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind

MT

(Bridge Over Troubled Water on YouTube) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYKJuDxYr3I&feature=related

“Some Random Thoughts, Michael’s Thoughts” - April 7, 2010 Edition

2010-04-07T10:54:00.005-04:00

In 2010, what possessed CNN reporter Kyra Phillips to do a show asking if homosexuality needs a cure? What possessed CNN to air such trash? My guess is a pathetic attempt at controversy and ratings. Where is the out cry from Gay leaders and our friends? Who are our Gay leaders? If Phillips did a show asking if Black skin needs a cure my guess is she would be out of job this morning and CNN would be running a public apology. Each time they strike out at us and we don’t retaliate with an appropriate response, it gets easier to do it again, and let’s not forget the damage done by the misinformation that entered thousands of homes.

I could write a lot about the poor Lesbian girl who was given a fake prom, but the people and parents who did it make me want to vomit.

There are people out there who claim to have good intentions and want to help a cause, but have a hidden agenda meant to distract from the success of that cause. If you wait long enough they show their true colors. There are people out there who will spur you on with words of support, encouragement and advice, but when it comes time to get involved on a real life level and actually do something, they are no where to be found. Beware such people.

Advocates for rights often use the letters “LGBT” but I find often that the letters L and G would rather the letter T just went into hiding and wasn’t part of their movement. It makes me sick. If your human and there is a way I can help you get rights, I will. Letter T s welcome here.

Obama is not the savior or champion of LGBT equality. I hope that is apparent to all at this point. LGBT people need to be their own champion when it comes to their equality. Equality is not going to happen by parading around with signs, or by phone, email, and letter writing campaigns alone. All the in fighting and power struggles within LGBT activist groups is so damaging, honestly get over yourself, we all need each other.

I think we should spell out more clearly what is going on in the Catholic Church. I heard a caller on the Michelangelo Signorile show say that we have become immune to the word molestation, so it doesn’t carry the weight of the offense anymore. He suggested we use the word rape. It makes sense as we are talking about child rape by Catholic priests,and the cover up of child rape by the leaders of the Catholic Church.

Iowa celebrated one year with equal marriage as law in that state. Congratulations Iowa. Does anyone have the statistics as to how many heterosexual marriages fell about in the past year due to Gay people marrying?? I didn’t think so….

MT

“Common Denominator”

2010-04-05T13:40:00.001-04:00

The concept of who deserves civil rights seems to be a tough one for many people.Let’s see if this complex question can be simplified.

In the United States, we have a long history of trying to figure out who deserves equality and civil rights. We don’t approach the issue apart from religion, although separation of church and state is built into our constitution. Today this ideal gets a wink and a nod as opposed to being upheld as a standard in deciding law.

Black people now have a full set of civil rights, but there was a time when they didn’t. Although they have the same anatomy as white people, there was a time when those in power and heads of religious institutions, weren’t sure they were human as opposed to animal. About a century after they were freed from slavery they finally won civil rights. During that century they were oppressed, tortured, and murder on their way to equality. Some in the Black community might argue that they still are not fully equal, and they may have a point.

Women were another group in the United States that have not always had equal civil rights. Here again religion taught their inferiority to men, and used this as reason to not treat them as equal. There was a time in this country’s history when women couldn’t vote and were by in large servants of men. When allowed to work by their husbands or fathers, they held jobs subservient to men, taking care of the minor details seen as beneath their male bosses. In the rare instances when a woman held a position of power, she was paid less than a man in a similar position because after all she was a woman. As with the black community, women may argue the point of their equality and here again may have a case.

Gays and Lesbians are now battling for equal civil rights in the United States. Religious institutions are hip deep in this issue as well. They argue that these men and women are choosing a sinful life style as opposed to being born into an orientation as are heterosexuals. Lies and mistruths are told about them in an effort to make them seem less than they are as people, and therefore less deserving of equality under the law.

Another group fighting for civil rights are the Transgender people. They argue that they were born with the wrong bodies, believing that internally their true identity is that of the opposite sex. Religious institutions argue that they are either mentally ill or going against God and nature by changing their bodies to more resemble what they believe their true identity to be.

All of the formerly or currently oppressed groups have some things in common. I’ll mention just a few; their oppression was or is based on religious beliefs and prolonged by weak civil leadership. Most of these groups have discriminated against the other oppressed groups after they received their own equal rights. Women argued against the equality of Black people. The Black community voices some of the strongest opposition to Gay and Lesbian equality. Gay and Lesbian people would rather that Transgender people be left out of their civil rights movement because the public can’t wrap their heads around the Transgender struggle.

The oppression of all of these groups is either based on or made worse by religious institutions and beliefs, and allowed to continue because the constitutional ideal of the separation between church and state is not being upheld by American government. America claims to be the “land of the free”, yet Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people have more freedoms in some other countries. America claims to be the “home of the brave”, yet the politicians that this oppressed segment of America’s citizens helped elect are unwilling to stand up to religious leaders, and again define the vital separation between these institutions and civil law.

What should be the deciding fact as to who should have equality, as to who should have equal civil rights? What common denominator should be used to simplify the confusion about civil rights each time a somewhat different group appears on the horizon? The debate can forever be ended by answering just one question,

“Are they human”?

MT

"Without Comment" - April 1, 2010 Edition

2010-04-01T15:25:00.005-04:00

Leaving On A Jet Plane - John Denver

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin' it's early morn
The taxi's waitin' he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could die

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

There's so many times I've let you down
So many times I've played around
I tell you now, they don't mean a thing
Every place I go, I'll think of you
Every song I sing, I'll sing for you
When I come back, I'll bring your wedding ring

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Now the time has come to leave you
One more time let me kiss you
Close your eyes I'll be on my way
Dream about the days to come
When I won't have to leave alone
About the times, I won't have to say

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh baby, I hate to go

Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

"CrossRoads"

2010-03-30T14:08:00.004-04:00

I think I understand the reluctance some Gay people have to stepping up and getting involved in LGBT civil rights. Since taking on the venture to start Queer Rising Boston I’ve encountered more anger from more people than I’ve experienced before. It’s not the sought of anger that can be used to produce change, but the type that will get in the way of it. Some of it is just mean and pointless, and all of it has been from other LGBTQ people.

Perhaps as a community our collective anger over inequality is at a ground swell, all the more reason to not direct it at each other. Resistance to a new group in the area has been steady but is mild compared to angry emails, name calling, egos, and at least two different conspiracy theories I’ve been warned about. It seems posing a question about a possible strategy, is enough to set people off to make angry ill informed statements, and condescending misunderstandings. Ideas are just ideas and should provoke healthy debate as opposed to angry responses and personal attacks.

While my rights and those of all LGBTQ people are important to me, more important is my husband, my home, and the peace we have built around ourselves.

MT

Demand WBZ Reporter David Robichaud make An On Air Statement

2010-03-26T05:16:00.007-04:00

Last week during two morning news casts on WBZ TV news reporter, David Robichaud was discussing whether or not the Boston Bruins should retaliate for a cheap shot by another team that left one of their players unconscious. Robichaud asked if the Bruins would be “Sissies” if they choose not to retaliate.

The definition of the word Sissy is;

1. A boy or man regarded as effeminate.
2. A person regarded as timid or cowardly.
3. An offensive derogatory term for a boy or man who is considered not to exhibit stereotypical masculine behavior, especially by other boys or men.

In the state of Massachusetts our government was debating an anti bullying bill. There has been an increase in kid on kid violence nation wide. Many Gay men have grown up with the term "Sissy" hurled at them before being bashed. David Robichaud and WBZ news have the privilege of entering our homes every morning. His use of the word "Sissy" to describe grown men on the airwaves, while adults and children watched the program in our homes is a violation of the public trust.

In light of this, we see it as an irresponsible use of the word by this reporter. During a Direct Action last weekend where the LGBTQ community left comments asking for an apology, Robichaud criticized a Gay man for using the word "Queer". He continued to receive comments, emails and phone calls by members of the LGBTQ community across the nation and beyond. Finally on Monday morning Robichaud left a statement in a note addressed to his Facebook friends acknowledging his poor choice of words and that they were offensive.

As he used the word on the air and in doing so came into our homes, we are demanding that he read his Facebook statement on the air during the morning news cast. He failed to do so this morning. Please follow the links below to contact David Robichaud and WBZ to add your voice in demanding an on air reading of this statement by using all of the contact links below.

David Robichaud on Twitter http://twitter.com/robiwbz

on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/note.php?note_id=376198020274&comments

General Contact WBZ News at http://wbztv.com/contact

WBZ Phone number - 617-787-7000

WBZ FaceBook Page - http://www.facebook.com/robi#!/wbztv

WBZ on Twitter - http://twitter.com/wbz

He has now restricted his main page so we can only leave comments to his questions. We should do this as well.

Michael for
Queer Rising Boston

“A Case For The Gay Civil Rights War”

2010-03-24T10:20:00.006-04:00

There are many reasons why wars start, some political, some to preempt a larger problem and of course some for economical reasons. Let’s take a look at three and see how they relate to the global Gay war for civil rights equality;

Reason 1:

Wars are started or entered into to stop human atrocities. The torture and killing of groups of people have provoked wars throughout history and, of course World War II comes to mind. This too is one reason for our global war for Gay civil rights today. It is common to hear of bashings and murders of LGBTQ people. It seems to be a monthly occurrence. Gay teen suicide rates are of epidemic proportion due to non acceptance and discrimination. Governments fail to provide rights, protection, and in some cases are the promoters of violence against our population. These acts of violence, these suicides, and these murders must be viewed as acts of atrocity against the Gay community.

Reason 2:

Wars happen when the way of life of a group of people is attacked without provocation. September 11th and the war in Afghanistan is a recent example of this. The way of life of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered has and is being attacked globally. Along with physical violence, we are fired from jobs and thrown out of housing. Our children are not allowed to bring their same sex dates to their school proms and our relationships in the United States are over taxed as they are not recognized by our federal government. Minding our own business, our clubs are raided and their patrons abused by law enforcement. It is all an attempt to diminish our humanity, force us back into hiding, and end our way of life, a way of life we were created to live.

Reason 3:

Wars happen when countries are invaded and valuable territory is taken from the weaker nation by the stronger one. The first Gulf war and the invasion of Kuwait come to mind. Our Gay nation has been invaded and our hard fought territory has been taken. In states where equal marriage has become law, religious institutions such as the Catholic Church and the Mormon Church have poured money, lies and bodies into those states to overturn equal marriage. Their tactics are consistent, spread lies, incite fear, and bring a minority’s right of equal marriage to a vote by the majority. In each case where this has happened they have been successful in taking our rights from us. Their campaign continues across the country using methods that are meant to incite hatred against our community. Methods such as the Catholic Church in D.C. is using by denying healthcare benefits to all spouses of its new employees so it does not have to provide them to same sex married couple. Through this, our President, our staunch ally, has stood by not using the influence of his office, merely spewing empty words and broken promises. None of our rights are safe and our territory can and will be attacked wherever we have made gains.

Our reasons for a civil rights war are clear. Our battle plan needs to change from reacting to attacking, attacking with protests, direct action and non violent civil disobedience. We need to go after those entities that are threatening our way of life and those governments that are refusing our equality. We need to be feared, and by becoming feared we will weaken the enemies’ resolve to attack us at will. It is called deterrence. They need to consider the consequences before coming at us again. Every battle is important whether it is a one person action or an organizational one. It is OK to make people angry and upset with us as we disrupt for our rights. We need to be minutemen, ready for a call to battle at a moments notice to impact homophobia and discrimination. We need to readily join each other’s battles against ignorance, discrimination and hate without waiting for a formal invitation. When soldiers hear shots, they grab their weapon and run toward the battle. The time is here when we can no longer leave it up to others to fight for our rights. We need everybody to enlist.

MT

"Without Comment" - March 19, 2010 – Radical Edition

2010-03-19T09:49:00.016-04:00

The Times They Are A Changing - Bob Dylan

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

“A Call To Educate WBZ TV And News Reporter David Robichaud”

2010-03-18T11:56:00.004-04:00

This morning on WBZ TV news reporter David Robichaud was discussing whether or not the Boston Bruins should retaliate for a cheap shot by another team that left one of their players unconscious. Robichaud speculated that the Bruins might be seen as “Sissies” if they choose not to retaliate.

The definition of the word Sissy is;

1. A boy or man regarded as effeminate.
2. A person regarded as timid or cowardly.

In the state of Massachusetts our government is currently debating an anti bullying bill. There has been an increase in kid on kid violence nation wide. Many Gay men have grown up with the term Sissy hurled at them. In light of this, I see it as an irresponsible use of the word by this reporter. If you agree, please contact WBZ and let him know.

David Robichaud on Twitter http://twitter.com/robiwbz

on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/robi

Contact WBZ News at http://wbztv.com/contact

Michael for
Queer Rising Boston

“Some Random Thoughts, Michael’s Thoughts” - March 17, 2010 Edition

2010-03-17T12:33:00.006-04:00

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." (Not my thought,but still true.)

Is there something wrong with the LGBTQI Civil Rights Movement when we have to rely on a ten year old boy to be our hero? (P.S. Thanks Will)

Is there always an ulterior motive?

How come GLAAD isn’t recognizing actor Rob Reiner? Isn’t he almost single handedly funding the Prop 8 challenge in California? I mean Joy Behar for god’s sake! Maybe someone at GLAAD wants to get on her show? (Thanks Rob, love M)

True acceptance must come on our terms, as we are, including all our diversity, fine linens and rags, or it's not true acceptance at all.

If you think you don’t need any more soldiers with different ideas and different tools, might as well go home, you’ve lost the war.

MT

“Egos And Infighting Are Killing Us”

2010-03-16T14:43:00.013-04:00

The phrase, “Our Apathy is Killing Us” has grown in popularity in the LGBTQI civil rights movement. Certainly apathy is a killer of action as it decreases the number of people who get involved to fight for their own rights. In a war, and this is a civil rights war, we need as many people involved as possible, developing and employing as many methods as are available to attack hate and discrimination. Apathy is a passive killer, but there are two other more active civil rights movement killers at work in the LGBTQI movement. They are egos and infighting.

Let’s start with egos. People do things for a variety of reasons, some good, some bad, and some self serving. When the scale begins to tip and a civil rights leader or a civil rights organization becomes less about the cause and more about the leader or the leader’s recognition, their usefulness begins to diminish. It begins to drift away from the cause and become deaf to the people it represents. In some cases, the leaders and the organizations start to resemble the bureaucracies that withhold rights and promote discrimination by broken promises and inaction. The leaders of these organizations become well known faces in political circles and garner a degree of power and acceptance.

We all enjoy being praised for our accomplishments, that is human nature, but when the praise, the power, and the recognition or acceptance into political or powerful social circles becomes the driving force behind the motives of LGBTQI civil rights leaders and the organizations they represent, they cease to look at the causes of LGBTQI inequality objectively. Their vision becomes clouded by self-perpetuating motives and actions. In doing so they choose to serve a different master and not the victims of discrimination. Many people have climbed over the backs of the oppressed they claim to represent to attain positions of political power and become part of the Washington elite. They cease to hear the voices of the community they represent and in some cases take the side of the oppressor happily settling for empty promises and small civil rights crumbs.

It’s disgusting to watch them justify an action that a President’s administration takes against their own civil rights in order to remain in good standing with that administration. In their communication with the LGBTQI community, when they choose to come to the table at all, they behave as though they know something we don’t and treat us as ignorant children whose opinions shouldn’t be seen or heard. The enemy of our equal rights courts the ego, and uses it against us making those leaders drunk with praise and position.

This brings us to infighting and its destructive force. Infighting is different than disagreement. Disagreement and debate are healthy exchanges of ideas between entities that have a common purpose. The entities are able to see the value in each others thinking and approaches. We need all the approaches and ideas out there, so in my view this strengthens what we are trying to do. It’s OK to agree to disagree on ideas and methods as long as we get to the goal of equality for LGBTQI people.

I think the problems start to occur when we think our approach or idea is the only valid one. This, by nature,negates the value of others ideas and approaches and fosters and environment for infighting. Infighting will fracture and splinter a movement, setting it back. It takes the energy away from the movement and directs it on the devaluing or destruction of our own. In the LGBTQI civil rights movement, infighting is due in large part to an attempt by established organizations to maintain power and influence while resisting the evolution of the movement. If the larger LGBTQI organizations were willing to enter the conversation, listen to the concerns of the community they represent in regard to standing by methods that have produced small results, our quest for full equality would be much further along. The history lesson of the revolutionary war’s British soldier comes to mind, marching rigidly in single file while American soldiers picked them off one by one. When the war changes, so must the battle plan. It makes little sense to not incorporate new weapons when the old ones are incapable of getting the job done or continuing to fight on a battle field of the enemy’s choosing and experience loss after painful loss.

In response to this deaf ear people splinter off and grassroots movements establish themselves with the mission of implementing the current thinking of the LGBTQI movement. This may be the only good to come of infighting. We are seeing that now with direct action and civil disobedience groups. While these methods are a new weapon for the LGBTQI civil rights movement, they are tried and true having been used effectively by other minority groups. They are by no means the only right method. If direct action and civil disobedience become the only method used, they too will fail. So instead of replacing old methods with new ones, they need to be employed in conjunction with the old ones until we find a combination that gets the job done. We would be a great force if all LGBTQI organizations both large and small could acknowledge the value of each other’s experience, thinking and methods as opposed to being critical of the current organizations and methods and trying to squash the new ones that the movement is birthing now. How refreshing it would be if the new valued the experienced, and the experienced helped the new to grow.

So why all this infighting? Clearly it is an attempt to maintain power and influence by larger organizations that have become too comfortable and are afraid of becoming irrelevant. On the part of grassroots groups it is an expression of anger and frustration over our inequality and the rigidity of those organizations that claim to represent us, some of which stopped listening to the community or working for us quite sometime ago.

While the reasons for ego driven leaders and infighting may differ,the results are the same. A movement is fractured and results are delayed. There is no common sense to it. If we are all truly in this to get LGBTQI equality in this lifetime, than it makes little sense to malign each other or hinder the growth of the movement’s evolution.

If you are an established leader in the LGBTQI movement and you feel threatened by the new grassroots groups, ask yourself why and what is most important to you. If the answer is maintaining your position and influence and not achieving full equality, you are useless to the civil rights movement.

If you are part of a new grassroots movement and you think the established organizations are the enemy and attempts should not be made to partner with them when appropriate, for the greater good, ask yourself what is most important to you. If it is proving their methods alone won’t get the job done and that they have made mistakes and it is not achieving your community’s equality, you too will be useless to the civil rights movement.

The common sense of it all is this, we are bound by our discrimination, and the true enemy are those who actively and or passively refuse us rights,diminishing our humanity. We must value and use every weapon in our arsenal to win this war. It’s ironic that in all likelihood, to win this battle, we must first stop fighting with ourselves.

MT

"Without Comment" - March 12, 2010 – Edition

2010-03-12T10:44:00.006-05:00

Pilgrim - Enya

Pilgrim, how you journey
On the road you chose
To find out why the winds die
And where the stories go.

All days come from one day
That much you must know,
You cannot change what's over
But only where you go.

One way leads to diamonds,
One way leads to gold,
Another leads you only
To everything you're told.

In your heart you wonder
Which of these is true;
The road that leads to nowhere,
The road that leads to you.

Will you find the answer
In all you say and do?
Will you find the answer
In you?

Each heart is a pilgrim,
Each one wants to know
The reason why the winds die
And where the stories go.

Pilgrim, in your journey
You may travel far,
For pilgrim it's a long way
To find out who you are...

Pilgrim, it's a long way
To find out who you are...

Pilgrim, it's a long way
To find out who you are...

"Pilgrim" on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNR2O6iotuU

“Some Random Thoughts, Michael’s Thoughts” - March 11, 2010 Edition

2010-03-11T12:01:00.006-05:00

Patrick Kennedy went off on the press for choosing to cover insignificant issues as opposed to important ones. Some say it was grandstanding. While he didn’t do it with the finesse Ted would have, it was kind of nice to see a Kennedy with fire in his belly again. Watch it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q-VGZiEbrs

Anti- Gay rights Senator Roy Ashburn gets arrested for drunk driving, announces he himself is Gay, and that he will continue to vote anti-Gay if his constituency wants him to. Webster’s definition of self loathing is extreme disgust and detestation with one’s self. Pleas email it to Senator Ashburn at http://cssrc.us/web/18/contact_us.aspx

Still waiting for Barack Obama to grow a set of balls, he should check his shorts everyday until the November elections. That ominous splashing sound you hear is the cowardly Democratic party rats jumping ship. What a wasted opportunity and presidency thus far.

Marie Osmond’s son committed suicide. I grieve for her and him. Word has it, he couldn’t reconcile his Mormon upbringing with his homosexuality. Chalk up another tragic death to the Mormon’s illogical hate and discrimination against Gay people. I guess they would rather have their children tortured and killing themselves as opposed to being accepted and living happy lives with same sex partners. If you are Gay, remember Marie’s son the next time you stay at a Marriot hotel as its owner is a member in good standing of the Mormon Church. It doesn’t matter how many Gay people work there or how Gay friendly the hotel seems.

MT

“Family Resemblance”

2010-03-08T18:47:00.005-05:00

If I remember from seminary, the Greek words for Christian mean “little Christ”. Christians or followers of Christ believed that the sincerest form of worship was the imitation of Christ and his behaviors. In seminary, I preached on the verse John 13:35, it reads, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." The words belong to Jesus. So let us see if some modern day followers of Christ can stand up to Jesus’ standard for his disciples. Let’s look at the Catholic Church.

Equal marriage was set to become law in the state of Maine. The Catholic Church pumped money, people and misinformation into Maine and was able to get the issue on the ballot this past November. Prior to the ballot vote they used the media to spread misinformation to the people of Maine as to what equal marriage would mean for their state. They canvassed homes spreading lies and hate about Gay people. They were successful and equal marriage was voted down in the state. As a side note, the Catholic priest in the Ogunquit Maine parish is a frequent flier on piano night in one of the LGBT bars. I think scripture would attest that Christ would have been on the side of the minority and railed against the notion of the majority voting on their rights. Wrong done to a group is still wrong no matter how small the group. I can’t see the “little Christ" in the Catholics who helped defeat equal marriage in Maine.

In Washington DC equal marriage became law despite the Catholic’s efforts to stop it. This included threatening to remove Catholic Charities’ services from DC and a last ditch effort by conservatives to get a ruling by the Supreme Court. The church thought it was better to stop feeding and clothing the homeless than to let Gay and Lesbian people marry.

When they lost the battle, they showed their true colors. In order to not provide health care benefits to spouses of same sex married couples who work for Catholic organizations, they have decide to not provide these benefits to any new homosexual or heterosexual employee’s spouse. The same holds true for existing employees who have not yet signed up for spousal benefits. Essentially the church is saying that Gay people are not human enough to deserve health care and rather than provide it to us, it is better to harm all their employees. It is an attempt to demonize and incite anger against Gay people, and an attempt to hold a city hostage. I do not see the Christ like example here either but I might be blinded by the fire of hate and the clouds of hypocrisy.

In Boston, the church got out of the business of adoption. If they stayed in it, they would have had to help Gay couples adopt. Therefore, they feel it is better for homeless children to grow up without a home than to let loving same sex couples adopt. Where is God in that?

Also in the news were two couples and their children. One couple is Lesbian and one is a Gay male couple. Both have similar stories and both have children enrolled in Catholic run schools. Both couples have been notified by the schools that their children will not be welcomed to enroll next year due to their parent’s sexual orientation. I can’t find the image of Christ here either. I do think that the motives are apparent here, as the Catholic Church’s position seems to be stating that children of Gay and Lesbian couples are not entitled to the same education as children of heterosexual couples. Now it is our children, both Gay and heterosexual, who are made to feel the discrimination of this religious organization that claims to be Christ like.

To further point out the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church I could point to their attempted cover up of the child abuse scandal by moving offenders around to different parishes. I could also point to the more recent prostitution scandal discovered within the Vatican, but none of that is necessary to see if this church passes the test as a follower of Christ.

Remember the words of Jesus, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Do you see a love of people based on the actions of the Catholic Church? I think if Jesus was allowed to enter the Vatican, and today that is a big if, He’d slap a big red F on the pope’s head. He might even turn over some tables and boot a few people out the door. You know, he’s been known to do that kind of thing. In current times, we call it Direct Action and Civil Disobedience.

MT