To My Sister

You say you don't read my blogs. That's cool. I don't care who reads my blogs. They are my way to get my words out of my head before I explode. And the neat thing about them is that I can say whatever I want and no one has to read them. I'm not forcing them down your throat by arguing them at a family dinner. I'm not constantly emailing them to you. I'm not shouting them at you in the street. They just sit quietly in this corner of the 'net, ignored unless you choose to read them.

And yet you made a point of claiming that I was forcing my beliefs on you. Funny that. I don't recall even talking to you more than a couple of times in the last ten years, and that was mostly to say, "Hi, how are the kids?" And I have worked to keep my politics off the family blog, because I know you disapprove of my opinions. Pity you don't have the same respect for me.

You claim I insulted your beliefs. You claim I insulted the military. Show me where. Please, by all means, e-mail me and quote me exactly what I said that's so insulting to the military. I'm angry at the military's mission, I think our armed forces have been misused and abused by the current administration, but I don't recall ever insulting the military the way you imply I do. Frankly, I'm offended by your implication. Apparently any questioning of the current political policies is offensive to you. THAT is offensive to me.

You claim I have venomous hatred. Excuse me? What was that comment you made toward me if not "venomous hatred"? Pot. Kettle. Black.

As for Proposition 8, which started this whole argument... I think I know plenty more about it than you do. For instance, I know B and J, two gay men who have been denied the basic right to "the pursuit of happiness" because religious people have decided that B and J are perverse and that any attempt on their part to get the same rights as other married people is "inflicting their perversions" on the rest of society.

Frankly, sister, get a clue.

There are real people being affected by this. Proposition 8 is based in hatred and fear of the unknown. If God didn't mean for people to be homosexual, he wouldn't have made them that way. It's not a choice. Do you really think anyone would CHOOSE to be gay, knowing he might be beaten and killed for it? Seriously? If you do, you need to get your head checked. Homosexuality is genetic. And if God made the Earth, he also made homosexuality. So, what, exactly, was His intentions with them? A loving God wouldn't torture his children, but your beliefs say that that's exactly what he's doing. I don't worship that God. I never will.

Proposition 8 is the Anti-Miscegenation Law of the current century. And it's exactly as moral as those previous laws. Perhaps we'll need another Loving v Virginia to clear this up, but I hope the people of California have enough love of the Constitution of the United States and the rights of people to live their lives that they soundly defeat Proposition 8 at the polls. It is an attempt to constitutionalize hate. That's ALL it is. Any freedom-loving person will vote against it.

You claim that Proposition 8 will prevent some horrible scenarios of churches being forced out of tax exempt status and your children being indoctrinated in schools to accept the gay lifestyle. You are attempting to prove a negative. By banning gay marriage, you plan to prevent these future things which may not happen at all. I have an idea! Let's ban having children! That will prevent war! Your logic is the same. You've set up a strawman... things that haven't happened yet... and are telling everyone that those things will happen if Proposition 8 isn't passed. BULL. Stop lying to yourself and everyone else.

Churches will go on as they always have, and court decisions will protect them as they always have. Parents will always have the right to teach their own children what to believe, and children will pay attention or ignore as they always have. Teachers will go both ways, and the arguments will always be there. Gay marriage isn't the end of the world, anymore than interracial marriage was. Did the world end in 1967? Perhaps it did, for you.

Whatever. I'm done with this topic. If your state chooses to pass this hate law, then I'll be severely disappointed in the state and forever disgusted by the church that poured so much money into supporting a hate law. You can celebrate that future children will be "protected" from the evil gays, but I'm guessing that it will all be there anyway, just hidden away and forbidden... more enticing to examine, more painful to endure if genetically inclined. I can only imagine the number of people who will be hurt by this abomination if it passes. I suspect you don't care at all about them.



Lastly, I don't expect you to read this. It's here, on my blog. I'm not going to direct you to it, I'm not going to force you to read it. If you read it, it's your own lookout. If you get angry, tough. I didn't make you read it. Unlike you, who posted your hate in a family blog that I thought was supposed to be about family events, not politics. At least this blog has the distinction of being the place where I spew most of my "venomous hatred", so you should know better. I didn't expect to get slapped across the face in the family blog. Perhaps you should get your own blog to post your politics in, huh? Unlike you with my blogs, I would probably read it even though I suspect I'd mostly disagree with you. Because, unlike you, I actually DO respect other people's opinions enough to listen to them.

Just leave it off the family blog, ok?