Was it worth it?

[dsc]

I know this will come across as churlish. Maybe I should have waited to write this. But it is time for some faces to be rubbed into this pile of shit.

This is addressed to the admittedly small slice of the electorate that voted for Bush on the basis of his position on gay and lesbian issues and claim to care about this country.

Is it worth it now? Let's be blunt here. All of the following was known when you voted for this moron. Bush sent our national guard and army to Iraq on a fool's errund. Bush appointed partisan hacks to head FEMA who had no experience whatsoever in managing disasters. Bush repeatedly cut the budget of the Army Corps of Engineers every year he has been office leaving New Orleans defenseless. In short, he has blood on his hands here, but so do you.

You voted for this. You decided that preventing people like me from having any relationship rights was more important than Iraq. More important than FEMA. More important than the economy. More important than literally anything else. Well guess what people, government matters.

You did this. People are starving in the streets of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast because you decided your hatred of me mattered more than anything else. We are mired in Iraq because you decided your hatred of me mattered more than anything else. We have unimaginable deficits because you decided your hatred of me mattered more than anything else. We have seen an increase in poverty and in black poverty in every single year of this century because you decided your hatred of me mattered more than anything else.

If you don't like what you see and want someone to blame pick up a mirror. You were given a choice. It was clearly laid out. It would have been nice if the press had returned from Aruba long enough to remind you of that choice a little more often, but the info was out there. Your choice was a) vote for the man who hated gays more or b) vote for the competent, war vet who would have restored competency to our government.

Don't you dare tell me about morality. I am sick to death of these radical clerics blaming me for the downfall of society. I didn't appoint hacks to FEMA. I didn't lie to get us into a war. I am not trying to scare the country into ending Social Security. I didn't ignore virtually every scientist on planet earth and leave New Orleans vulnerable to flooding. You did this stuff. The blood is on your hands, not mine.

[dsc]

1. kick

[shraby]

2. I totally agree and I'm a straight who's been

married for 44 years to the same person. You're entitled to live your life as you see fit. It's nobody else's business.

[niyad]

3. thank you for bringing up a point that many are overlooking, and one which

I shall take a perverse pleasure in rubbing in the faces of james dobson, ted haggard and the whole homophobic rightwing crowd where I live.

[Lifelong Protester]

4. Right again...

the whole repub machine is about smoke and mirrors. Let's find some hot button issue, like gay marriage, and get everyone so riled up about how it is going to AFFECT THEM and TEAR THE FABRIC OF SOCIETY, whilst the man behind the curtain, the great Oz, and his cronies, rape and pillage the landscape (and the Federal treasury! HAH! Deficits are now a Republican value!).

All the while, ignoring the issues like poverty, and classism in this country.

This is where the REAL TEAR in the fabric of society is happening, and this tragedy has now put it in everyone's homes. ARE you repubs getting it yet?

[dsc]

5. kick

and thanks for the votes.

[Booster]

6. Read, agree and nominated. You are so right. Those who voted

for this ignorant, arrogant, unintelligent group for totally selfish reasons, and damned our entire country to Hell. No one had better ever try to brag to me that they voted for Bush because I will not be kind. It will be like Nixon; you couldn't find anyone who would admit they voted for Nixon and Bush will be the same. I'd trade Nixon for Bush any day; at least Nixon was a petty man but he was intelligent.

[Independent_Liberal]

8. Amen to that brother!

:)

[Independent_Liberal]

7. Kick!

[Lindsay]

9. Kicked, nominated

and applauded.

The truth was out there, and people closed their eyes and ears to it.

"He'll protect us better than Kerry."

Well, now you see how well he protects Americans.

[AuntiBush]

10. I'm Straight & With You 100% It IS on their hands, not yours.

You got that right, nailed down to a tee!

Kicked!

[titoresque]

11. great post......something I wrote:

thanks for this post, you're right on! Heres a column I write, if you're interested......


“We will remember not the words of our enemies; but the silence of our friends” –MLK

Those words are as haunting and as powerful as they were when Martin Luther King led the fight for Civil Rights. Decades later I stand on the corner of a busy intersection every evening. I stand with Mothers and citizen patriots of all walks of life. Holding signs; candles lit. Elsewhere around the Valley similar vigils are being held as more and more people are compelled to take their fight to the streets. Informative, strategic meetings, peaceful demonstrations and events are regularly taking place in the fight for GLBT Equality. Families and individuals are coming together and speaking out in solidarity to end an illegal and immoral war. So when history writes the stories in the minds of people whom “were there”; what will your story be? What will be remembered of you my brothers and sisters?

I’ve been truly honored to write the Family Focus column. And for the past year I have given careful consideration in attempting to answer your questions regarding the unique challenges we as GLBT parents are faced with; raising children in a “straight” society. For this issue I’m very pleased to have been given the opportunity to ask the question. So here it is: Do you believe with all your heart that you are worthy and deserving of equality? Do you?
Sounds like an absurd question? I agree. But please give this careful consideration, because in this pivotal moment in history if you are not answering this question with action you’re part of the problem!

As mothers of a teenage daughter, my wife and I were faced with an unexpected shock this past week when our daughter made a choice, which resulted in a “grounding” to beat all groundings! I will spare my daughter the embarrassment of sharing details, but I will say that the conversation that ensued went a little like this. Me: “So, if your friend jumped off a cliff, would you follow?” (That’s always a timeless classic) Daughter: “No!” Me: “You know Rain, (that’s her name) you’re going to be faced with choices like this all your life, and you’re going to have to decide; are you going to do the popular thing? Or are you going to do what is right? Unfortunately you’re going to find, that too often the “right” thing is a long and lonely road, but it’s the road that will take you on a journey through life feeling proud to be you.”
Ok, so it was a bit of a lecture rather than a conversation. But trust me on this, it was huge! My point is, is that no matter how old or smart we think we are, we still have these basic choices to make which effect not only ourselves and our families; but our entire world.
So what is it? Are you waiting for that small army of people to magically appear; are you waiting for equality to start looking popular? To be fair, I have say that
I’ve been so humbled and inspired by all the Martin Luther Kings, Andy Stephensons, Cindy Sheehans, Brad Wishon’s, Charlotte Strayhornes and so many others who work and have worked tirelessly to enrich our life experience. I guess the good news here is that there are too many to list. But the truth is, is that these hero’s have carried us for far too long. So I urge you; from one Mother to another, from one human to another; for the sake of our children and for the sake of truth and justice and all that is peace; it’s time we stand and speak out! Now is the time to rise and give back! Now is the time to get off our asses and get to work at taking our country back! Let’s stand together, now is the time.

[dsc]

14. well phrased

I am sort of out down here. Out to friends and family and not directly lying at work. It doesn't exactly take Sherlock Holmes to figure it out but I haven't specificly said it either. I am not in the class of people you mention but I do try my best to do what I can.

[titoresque]

15. my wife and

I have been together for 9 years, we pretty much got sick of living to make other people feel comfortable so we're "out" everywhere now. I suppose it probably helps a bit that I am girly and she is not an extreme of boy or girl.......but regardless people who are "offended" by me, are the ones who havent gotten to know me, or the ones who I don't care to know anyhow. :)
Peace to you!

[dsc]

16. I am a non tenured teacher

so I am a little on the vulnerable side still. I did lobby my professional association to add gays and lesbians to the state non discrimination law in regards to state employees, we are state employees here. Sadly the state didn't go along.

[titoresque]

20. do you have

GLSN in your area? Sorry not really familiar with that group but I do know quite a few teachers that belong and they do great things in the school system. I do agree there are a lot of professions where it boils down to how much you really value paying your bills.
I once went head to head with my boss at CB Richard Ellis about discrimination and I even called around for a lawyer and literally found that every office I called represented CBRE and couldn't take my case.

[dsc]

23. I think they have a chapter in Carrborro

which is around an hour and a half away. I live a bit over an hour from the triangle and about three from Wilmington and Charlotte which are the better areas for LGBT. Asheville which is terrific for LGBT is about 6 hours away.

[Robeson]

12. That was powerful, dsc. Very powerful...

... and I am continually stunned at the depth of ignorance in this country.

[Jokinomx]

13. Exactly!!

As with shraby, I am happily married, in our case 23 years. Thank you for pointing these points out. Hopefully, we will get our country back after the dust settles and people start zeroing in on the incompetence from the top down.

:kick:

[proud patriot]

17. well said

:loveya:

[rbnyc]

18. Fuckin' A!

:thumbsup:

[ohtransplant]

19. Anyone who voted for him

for any reason should be feeling a deep and haunting sense of shame. There's really no way to "justify" this administration any more - for any reason. It just makes them look more foolish.

The world is watching and the dim son is wearing no clothes. He never really had any. It was all smoke and mirrors. It was all vitriol and misdirection. Too many were fooled. Too many have died and suffered at the hands of an careless, arrogant prick.

For those of you lurkers who voted for him, it's on you. Remember that when you see the guy/gal in the mirror.

dsc - no need to wait. It's way past time for a wake up call.

Hey freeps - let's cut the estate tax! - Morans!:grr:

[Warren DeMontague]

21. I agree, except for one thing:

While it seems inconceivable to me that more than a "small slice" voted for Bush based on issues pertaining to Gays & Lesbians, it also seems inconceivable to me that sentient people could vote for the fucker AT ALL. And we were told, repeatedly, by the MSM (as well as by some know-it-alls here) that it was the "values voter" (hint hint) who put Bush back in the WH; therefore, our support of equal rights for GLBT folks, our support of reproductive rights, our support of separation of church and state was all so much, according to this narrative, bad ballast that "we" needed to jettison overboard.

(To which many of us replied, "Fuck That Noise")

And you make a wonderful point. Just last month a lady wrote Bush in the congressional quarterly, or some such place, and pleaded with him to re-instate her husband's disability payments; after all, she was a "good christian", like Bush- she voted for him because of "moral values", cough - you know what that's code for- cough, and then she couldn't understand, then, why her husband's checks stopped coming.

What can you say? Karma can be a real bitch sometimes.

[dsc]

24. It probably was a small slice and might have been enough

to swing the election. That doesn't mean we should jettison those issues though it does mean we should be more forthright in our support of them and give values voters economic values to vote for. I would imagine that some of those Mississipians voted Bush and yeah Karma can sometime be a bitch.

[nashville_brook]

22. right on! we got your downfall of society...

right there in the white house.

[Mutley]

25. Very well said dsc.

It has always made me very angry that people would let an issue that has nothing to do with them dictate the way they voted. Now we are seeing the results of that very poor decision some made during the election. They will rot in hell right along Bush and his ilk.

[WilliamPitt]

26. Bang on

Recommended.

[dsc]

27. High praise coming from you

[dsc]

28. kick

[DemReadingDU]

29. Excellent, thanks

[Solly Mack]

30. It's not churlish . It's just being truthful

How you vote IS a matter of life and death.