by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
What an absolute thrill it was to wake up on the world's elbow this morning to the news that the President of the United States has finally quit worrying about the tinfoil-hat-wearing-loonies and has boldly taken America into the twenty-first century! The Armed Forces Radio Network (AFRN) put it this way: President Obama has come out in favor of gay marriage.
And it's about damned time!
Yes, I understand the possible political consequences - a President Romney taking away women's birth control along with their shoes - but I trust in America and think it is a far better place than conservatives realize. And the President's sudden burst of leadership can only help speed our national enlightenment.
I have been an active supporter of Barack Obama since before he even declared his candidacy for President way back in 2007. His passion and idealism filled a void that had haunted many of us for eight sad years. Like many Obama supporters, I felt a lot of disappointment when he didn't storm into the Capitol on Inauguration Day with thousands of pounds of legislation aimed at correcting the excesses and crimes of his predecessor.
And while the President seemed to be behaving far too cautiously for my liking, a look back over the last few years does reveal some whopping successes. He had only been in office nine days when he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which guaranteed that women who do the same jobs as men be paid the same wages. What a concept! A little over a year later he had managed to get the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed into law. True, it was badly damaged in the legislative process by Republicans on the take from doctors and insurance companies, and Blue Dog Democrats who feared losing their cushy jobs, but the act was a significant start toward giving all Americans access to health care - a gigantic foot in the door, so to speak.
It was Barack Obama who eventually oversaw the dismantling of the hoary old policy of Don't Ask - Don't Tell from the Clinton Administration - and while many conservatives predicted the immediate collapse of the entire U.S. military, the new policy produced nary a ripple in military operations, much less the tsunami that the right-wing fringe so desperately wanted to happen. Young people, like those in the military, know gay people - and it's no big deal.
Now thankfully the President has applied that same logic to the subject of gay marriage. He has bravely taken himself to a place where most of America was patiently (or not so patiently) waiting. The religious right and their political party will go nuts for awhile, pray to the heavens for their white, English-speaking Jesus to come down and turn the Kenyan usurper into a Tallahassee janitor, and deliver them from evil. But their wrath, like intestinal gas, will eventually pass.
Sadly for them, they are the one's with the least understanding of what Christ was all about. They may mumble that "Do unto others" stuff, but it does not have a home in their hearts. Turning the other cheek? Well, that's just for pansies. And that camel passing through the eye of a needle sounds more socialist than Biblical. They are more in tune to the old time religion of smiting, stoning, and killing. Most of America has figured out that Christ was about love, but these religious hate-mongers seem to have misplaced their Bibles - at least the New Testament - the part that contains the teachings of Christ.
Committed couples should have the right to visit each other in the hospital. They should be able to leave property to one another without paying taxes that people who are married do not have to pay. They should be entitled to all of the same legal privileges afforded to people who have their names inked together on a marriage license. And they should have the right to marry, if that is where their hearts lead them, regardless of their gender. It's more than fair - it is very, very Christian. And so is Barack Obama.
President Obama is a Christian, a real one.
God bless him.
Citizen Journalist
What an absolute thrill it was to wake up on the world's elbow this morning to the news that the President of the United States has finally quit worrying about the tinfoil-hat-wearing-loonies and has boldly taken America into the twenty-first century! The Armed Forces Radio Network (AFRN) put it this way: President Obama has come out in favor of gay marriage.
And it's about damned time!
Yes, I understand the possible political consequences - a President Romney taking away women's birth control along with their shoes - but I trust in America and think it is a far better place than conservatives realize. And the President's sudden burst of leadership can only help speed our national enlightenment.
I have been an active supporter of Barack Obama since before he even declared his candidacy for President way back in 2007. His passion and idealism filled a void that had haunted many of us for eight sad years. Like many Obama supporters, I felt a lot of disappointment when he didn't storm into the Capitol on Inauguration Day with thousands of pounds of legislation aimed at correcting the excesses and crimes of his predecessor.
And while the President seemed to be behaving far too cautiously for my liking, a look back over the last few years does reveal some whopping successes. He had only been in office nine days when he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which guaranteed that women who do the same jobs as men be paid the same wages. What a concept! A little over a year later he had managed to get the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed into law. True, it was badly damaged in the legislative process by Republicans on the take from doctors and insurance companies, and Blue Dog Democrats who feared losing their cushy jobs, but the act was a significant start toward giving all Americans access to health care - a gigantic foot in the door, so to speak.
It was Barack Obama who eventually oversaw the dismantling of the hoary old policy of Don't Ask - Don't Tell from the Clinton Administration - and while many conservatives predicted the immediate collapse of the entire U.S. military, the new policy produced nary a ripple in military operations, much less the tsunami that the right-wing fringe so desperately wanted to happen. Young people, like those in the military, know gay people - and it's no big deal.
Now thankfully the President has applied that same logic to the subject of gay marriage. He has bravely taken himself to a place where most of America was patiently (or not so patiently) waiting. The religious right and their political party will go nuts for awhile, pray to the heavens for their white, English-speaking Jesus to come down and turn the Kenyan usurper into a Tallahassee janitor, and deliver them from evil. But their wrath, like intestinal gas, will eventually pass.
Sadly for them, they are the one's with the least understanding of what Christ was all about. They may mumble that "Do unto others" stuff, but it does not have a home in their hearts. Turning the other cheek? Well, that's just for pansies. And that camel passing through the eye of a needle sounds more socialist than Biblical. They are more in tune to the old time religion of smiting, stoning, and killing. Most of America has figured out that Christ was about love, but these religious hate-mongers seem to have misplaced their Bibles - at least the New Testament - the part that contains the teachings of Christ.
Committed couples should have the right to visit each other in the hospital. They should be able to leave property to one another without paying taxes that people who are married do not have to pay. They should be entitled to all of the same legal privileges afforded to people who have their names inked together on a marriage license. And they should have the right to marry, if that is where their hearts lead them, regardless of their gender. It's more than fair - it is very, very Christian. And so is Barack Obama.
President Obama is a Christian, a real one.
God bless him.
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