The Power of the Internet

Little did I know when I sat down to write my latest article for Addicting Info that the piece would wind up causing a veritable firestorm on the Internet. I related the experience my friend Barbara Johnson (my ex cousin-in-law) had at her mother's funeral. Barbara is gay and was refused communion by the priest who conducted the ceremony. He then left the altar during Barbara's eulogy and ultimately refused to go to the cemetery to give the final blessing, saying that he was sick.  My intention was to stir people up but I was unprepared for the outpouring of emotion and support and am still surprised. As a writer, it has always been my wish to be able to touch people in a positive way. In the piece I wrote for Addicting Info I wanted not only to inform but to try in some small way to right what I perceived as a terrible wrong. I don't know how this will end but I do know that I am humbled and gratified by the overwhelming response. Thank you to everyone who has sent good wishes to Barbara. And thank you to all who stood up and counted themselves among those who believe in equality for all.

Links to the articles:

Addicting Info - Original Article
Daily Kos
Huffington Post
The New Civil Rights Movement
Towleroad

FIGHTING THE FORCES OF HATRED

For reasons unknown to me, I am compelled to read responses to political news articles on Yahoo. Seriously, this has got to stop. The outpouring of hatred there is almost too much to comprehend.

I am of the opinion that one should always be cordial, even if one disagrees with someone’s stated opinion. If you remain cordial, you can have a conversation. If you can have a conversation, you can come to terms. If you can come to terms, you can get on with things. Sadly, this no longer seems to be the case in the United States of America today.

I just read an article about New Jersey Governor Chris Christy and how he vetoed a gay marriage bill sent to him by the state legislature. No news there. No way no how was a Republican governor going to sign off on something like that. So it really wasn’t much of a news story. The responses to the story were almost without exception an outpouring of hatred and vitriol that is truly astonishing to me. One of my favorites was where some person posted chapter and verse numbers from the Bible (at least I think it was the Bible) but didn’t bother to name the book of the Bible, so unless one was willing to go through the entire book and look up each chapter and verse in each book of the Bible, the reference numbers were meaningless. The post was supposed to prove how God hates gays. I simply posted a reply saying that it sounded pretty Old Testament to me.

There are all these so-called Christians who, if they met Jesus Christ on the street, would refer to him as a dirty rotten hippie and denounce his unrealistic teachings about loving thy neighbor and treating others as you would have them treat you as socialist and communist. They’d call him out for hanging out with Mary Magdeline – that HO! -  and wonder why in the hell a 33 year old man was still single – Is he GAY?  In the end, I think Jesus would wind up just like he did back in the day. Maybe they’d just strap him down in an execution chamber because hey! we’re CIVILIZED now.

I am sick and tired of all the hatred and the willful ignorance displayed by those on the right. I am sick and tired of the monied interests taking advantage of the ignorance of those people and I am sick and tired of people who are too timid to stand up and say something and DO something about it.

As hard as it is to imagine, we could actually, by some terrible fluke or more likely some crime at the ballot boxes of America, wind up with Rick Santorum or Mitt Romney (it’s hard to decide which is worse) as president. There are vast sums of money out there waiting in the wings to get rid of this country’s first black president. They will do everything in their power to bring down this president and get rid of progressives in our government. So I’m doing all that I can to insure it won’t happen. I contribute to campaigns, even if I’m broke. I blog, I write for Addicting Info, I talk to anyone and everyone who will listen and if they’re on the other side, I am respectful of them even if they are not respectful of me but I make sure my point is made. More importantly, when I find an Independent, Liberal or Progressive who feels discontent because things haven’t moved quickly enough, I try to make them see that this isn’t something that can be remedied overnight. I remind them that President Obama told us all it would take more than one term in office, maybe more than two terms in office and perhaps more than one or two presidents to repair the damage that has been done to this country. And I ask them the most important question of all: Do you really think that having any of the Republican candidates for president at the helm would make this country stronger, safer and a better place to live?

I invite anyone who cares about this country to do the same. We may not have the money the 1% has but we’ve got the numbers. It’s time to use them!