Hey everybody! I’m leaving tomorrow (Friday Oct. 24) for a week’s vacation (yay!!!!) without internet access (booo!!!!) so I will be out of touch for a while (I’ll be back Sunday night, Nov. 2).
To make up for that, I’ve posted three new articles this week at Article Base:
Hopefully these will hold you til I get back, and make for enjoyable Halloween and pre-election reading.
Blessed Samhain and Happy Halloween, everyone! I’ll talk to you when I get back.
BB,
Vivienne
P.S., don’t forget, the free bonus material being offered at www.careandfeedingofspirits.com is going to expire soon, and I won’t be here to give you another reminder. The “Subtle Samhain Celebration” article and “The Patriot’s Spell Book” will both be removed by Nov. 5 at the latest, so order On the Care and Feeding of Spirits now and don’t miss out! I think you will find this book very useful and enjoyable reading for Samhain/Halloween.
“No philosophy or political party has a monopoly on patriotism.”
“What makes America great has never been its perfection, but the belief that it can be made better…. [W]e can be governed by laws, not men, …we could be equal in the eyes of those laws; …we could be free to say what we want and assemble with whomever we want, and worship as we please; … we could have the right to pursue our individual dreams, with the obligation to help our fellow citizens pursue theirs.”
“Patriotism is always more than just loyalty to a place on a map, or a certain kind of people…. It’s also loyalty to America’s ideals…. It is the application of these ideals that separates us from… Zimbabwe… Burma…. or Iraq….”
“Patriotism can never be defined as loyalty to any particular leader, or government, or policy. As Mark Twain… once wrote, ‘patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.’ That’s what patriotism is. That’s what patriotism is.”
“When our laws, when our leaders, or our government are out of alignment with those ideals, then the dissent of ordinary Americans may prove to be one of the truest expressions of patriotism.”
“Recognizing a wrong being committed in this country’s name, insisting that we deliver on the promise of our Constitution, these are the acts of patriots, men and women who are defending what is best in America, and we should never forget that, especially when we disagree with them, especially when they make us uncomfortable with their words. That’s part of the American tradition. That’s part of why we are proud to be Americans.”
“It is our responsibility as Americans and as parents to instill that history in our children, both at home and at school. The loss of quality civic education from so many of our classrooms has left too many Americans without the most basic knowledge of who our forefathers are or what they did, or the significance of the founding documents that bear their names. Too many children are ignorant of the sheer effort, the risks and sacrifices made by previous generations to ensure that this country survived war and depression through the great struggles of civil and social, and workers’ rights. it is up to us then, too teach them. It is up to us to teach them that even though we have faced great challenges and made our share of mistakes, we have always been able to come together to make this country stronger, and more prosperous, and more united, and more just. And sometimes to teach them that America has been a force for good in the world, and that other nations and other peoples have looked to us as the last best hope on earth.”
That’s what patriotism is. That’s what patriotism is.
On Thursday, May 15, 2008, the Supreme Court of California came down with a momentous ruling that’s reverberating around the country: it is illegal to discriminate against gays’ and lesbians’ civil rights, including the right to marry, based on sexual orientation. The court ruled that the state Constitution of California made such discrimination illegal, and suggested that the laws against same sex marriage were equivalent to the anti-miscegenation laws of the 20th century that made it illegal for mixed race couples to wed. They also suggested that the difference between civil unions versus actual marriage is the same “separate but equal” mentality of the notorious Jim Crow laws that relegated African Americans to the back of the bus and to their own segregated schools and water fountains.
Right wing bigots have vowed to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot in California. Changing the state Constitution to make same sex marriage illegal would have the effect of negating the Supreme Court’s decision, which is based on the existing law as represented by the current Constitution. 694,354 names are required on a petition to get the amendment put on the ballot for November. Governor Schwarzenegger, however, supports the court’s decision and has vowed to uphold the ruling, declaring that he will not support an attempt to amend the state Constitution.
The controversy started in 2004, when the mayor of San Francisco had his city hall start issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples, and marriage ceremonies continued for about a month before the state supreme court stepped in to put a temporary halt to the issuing of licenses pending Constitutional review; the state courts invalidated all the licenses that had been issued. It has taken until this past Thursday for the matter to final resolve in this historic ruling.
Let this be a reminder to everyone: this November’s presidential election is of crucial importance, because of the U.S. Supreme Court justices that the next President will be choosing. Unlike Califorinia, we currently have a conservative majority on the Court; if we don’t get a liberal in office, further conservative appointments may result in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Brown v. the Board of Education, and any number of other 20th century victories for our civil liberties, rolling us back to the dark ages.
