The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I want to thank those of you who sent me words of encouragement. You are true friends. We all have our bad days. What makes life so worth living is knowing that the next day or maybe the next day after that will be a better day. In time, maybe the world will be better. We all have to stick together to make all of this work!

ok... I think I'm back on track again. We have a major hurricane about to hit the east coast. Connecticut won't be hit directly by this storm, but will receive some major rain and wind from the storm. I may be home tomorrow because of this and with a little luck, may have my new notebook computer!

I came upon these items in my daily search. There's a little bit of everything here. I call it the good, the bad, and the ugly (and yes, I am a Clint Eastwood fan!).

THE GOOD
New fraternity geared toward gay, bisexual men. It's good to see the inclusion of other groups that were once so unpopular. I'm sure it won't be easy to belong to this fraternity, but hopefully in time, it will become more commonplace throughout the country.

MPs accept gay unions.

OTTAWA -- By a razor-thin margin, the federal Parliament embraced gay marriage on Tuesday by rejecting a 137-year-old definition that preserves the institution for "one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others."

MPs voted 137-132 against a Canadian Alliance motion to maintain the traditional meaning, despite a string of court rulings that allow gays and lesbians to wed.

There are fair-minded people out there. I think with all the bad news in the world now, it's easy for us to forget that we do have friends and allies. Politically, I'm sure it took a lot of courage to come out in favor of giving gays in Canada the right to marry.

MPs hand gay-rights activists another win.

OTTAWA -- Homosexual-rights activists claimed a second straight victory last night as MPs passed a controversial bill to ban verbal gay-bashing.

In a 141-110 vote, Parliament decided to include "sexual orientation" in a law that already bans inciting hatred against people of colour, race, religion or ethnic origin.

THE BAD
Republican Senators Lobby to Prevent Gay Marriage

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anxious to counter moves to legalize gay marriage, a group of Republican senators lobbied Wednesday for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

"In response to those who are trying to destroy the legal status of marriage and force their will on the American people, a constitutional response is necessary," said Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas.

The "legal status" of marriage that the good senator is referring to are all the federal and state CIVIL rights that come from being able to obtain a marriage license. Yes, I for one am trying to destroy the legal status of marriage as it currently stands. The legal status is a civil issue, not a religious issue. As such, you can't set up a membership (in this case, straight couples) to a class that receives those benefits, excluding others. That is wrong and will be found to be unconstitutional, assuming that strict legal interpretation of the Constitution is observed.

The Constitution, Amendment XIV, Section 1:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

THE UGLY
Gay Israelis Charge Police Brutality.

TEL AVIV -- Gay civil rights activists in Israel have leveled charges of police brutality against members of the Tel Aviv police force, who they claim took part in a violent and unprovoked attack on gay people in a city park last week.

"I was sitting in Independence Park with a few friends, and suddenly about 10 people arrived," a 25-year-old witness told the Haaretz newspaper. "We didn't know yet that they were policemen, because they wore [special patrol unit] uniforms, and we didn't notice this in the dark."

I immediately called the police," the witness said. "The policeman on the telephone told me it wasn't such an urgent case and that we would have to wait."

More calls were made. Haaretz reports that a single squad car arrived about an hour and a half later. The police, who were surly and in no apparent hurry to apprehend the attackers, approached the area. "When the [attacking] policemen saw that they were other police officers, they simply laughed and left," the witness said.

It's odd that in a country such as Israel that such brutality would exist among it's own citizens. Perhaps the police are so used to being in a violent state of mind that they see this as "sport". That still happens a lot in this country. There are still many places that if you belong to an unpopular minority, that last call you want to make is to the police. You never know what you are going to get.

"When the [attacking] policemen saw that they were other police officers, they simply laughed and left," the witness said. I guess that pretty much says it all.