Saving Marriage

by R.B. Jones
Baltimore Times

If the religious right and its political mouthpieces were merely hypocritical they
would be worthy of contempt, but their machinations and interference in government
in the name of bigotry and idol-worshiping the rich and the superrich make them
dangerous too.

They are yelling and screaming and frothing at the mouth because some local judges
have made the perfectly logical decision that in a secular society in terms of
government, the state can muster no reason against same sex marriage except
religious prohibition. There is no biological reason and no health reason why two
same sex adults should be prevented from marrying. The Old Testament says that
same sex lovemaking is an abomination. It also says that witches should be put to
death. It also sanctions incest since Adam and Eve's children procreated with one
another.

The Old Testament is not used as a guide in medicine or geography, so why should it
be a guide for marriage in a civil society that says the church and state should be
separate. The religious right feels that this country should be a theocracy as long as
the churches remain untaxed. On that front they are vehemently in favor of
separating church and state. Does someone else smell hypocrisy in the air?

The Republican Party under the leadership of the presidential appointee George W.
Bush has tried to rally his voters, not with appeals to reason and fierce oratory about
the victorious conclusion of the war in Iraq, but through the visceral disdain many
fundamentalist Christians and right-wing zealots have for same sex couples. Since
the wheels have come off the cart in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the GOP and the
religious right have to find some way to rally their troops. That is why George Bush
the pretender to the presidency has raised the issue of a constitutional ban on same
sex marriage.

Bush's flunkeys in the U.S. Senate introduced the constitutional amendment against
same sex marriage recently and it failed to even win a majority of yes votes. It
needed two thirds to go to the House of Representatives for a vote that would make
it an amendment that would be sent out to the states for ratification. If 38 states
approved the amendment it would become part of the constitution. The proponents
could not win a simple majority.

The argument for the ban is a flimsy one at best. Proponents say that traditional
marriage is under attack by same sex marriage advocates. Call me simple-minded or
naive, but I have never heard of a marriage being destroyed because the neighbors
down the street have a same sex union. I have known of marriages destroyed by
infidelity of one or both parties with members of the opposite sex. I have known of
marriages destroyed by domestic violence, money troubles and the sad realization
that fiery sex wears off and one is confronted with being married to a person one
neither likes nor finds compatible when the sexual intoxication wears off at long last.
I know I am not well- traveled and I am not a social butterfly, but I have never
known a heterosexual couple to run shrieking from each other when they discover a
same sex couple living next door.

Same sex marriage is a non-issue except for the couple and their families. To use it
as a political rallying cry is dishonest and shows a contempt for the intelligence of the
American voter-well the American voters did elect a senile mediocrity in Ronald
Reagan, a brilliant carnival shill in Bill Clinton and a poorly educated, semi-literate,
drunken frat boy George Bush II-so contempt may be justified.

Raising the same sex marriage issue is the desperate act of an unholy alliance facing
mid-term election defeat. If the GOP could point to some real successes other than
lifting the feather-light tax burden further off economic elite shoulders, they would
be running on them. They and their democratic co-conspirators are running the
country into the ground with astonishing speed. Even those deluded enough to think
that this empire can last indefinitely are getting anxious as the middle-class
computer jobs go overseas where many blue collar jobs went earlier. Economic
uncertainty is all around and the GOP and their co-conspirators in the Democratic
Party recently passed a bankruptcy law that will return indentured servant and
debtor's prison to every day usage in the American language.

To the black clergy members who I see in the photos of George Bush when he rants
against same sex marriage, I would say only this-there is a lot I could say about
them but this is a family newspaper they tell me-I hope you have as much fervor
against educational systems shortchanging our children, racist adult and juvenile
justice systems that disproportionately incarcerate black people, job discrimination
that is rampant in society, and unjust wars and outrageous military appropriations
that take tax money away from domestic needs to serve the interests of the oil
companies.

Where is the fervor of some of these black clergy who rail against Satan on Sunday
and appear in photo-ops with his North American representative George Bush on
Monday? Instead of grinning and posing with this man who is drenched in the blood
of Iraqi and Afghan civilians who never harmed him, some of these sanctified clergy
men should have rebuked him or cast out his demons into swine. That could have
caused a constitutional crisis because of the uncertainty of Vice Ridden President
Dick Cheney's status under such a scenario.

Don't be bamboozled, as Malcolm X might put it

For those looking to cleanse their mental palates of the phony same sex marriage
controversy, go see Crumbs from the Table of Joy at Center Stage. It is a wonderful
story of two African-American girls coming of age in 1950s Harlem. It is a family
drama about religion, anti-communist hysteria, and interracial marriage. It is
thoroughly enjoyable.

President Bush seizes the moment with the NAACP

by Valenzia Campbell
Baltimore Times
Bruce Gordon, president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) welcomed the President of the United States to the groups
97th Annual Convention taking place at the Convention Center in Washington, D.C.
The President delivered his address at the groups Thursday mornings plenary session
on July 20, 2006. Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP Board of Directors, Mel Watt,
Congressional Black Caucus chair, Donald Payne, Congressional Black Caucus
member, Isaiah Washington, actor, Roslyn Brock, vice chairperson of the NAACP
Board and several other board members were among the top dignitaries seated on
the dais. A sizable contingent of Congressional Black Caucus members were seated
in the audience, i.e., Congresswomen, Diane Watson, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Sheila
Jackson Lee and Congressman John Lewis. Comedian and activist Dick Gregory and
Reverend Jesse Jackson were in attendance as well.

President Bush attempted to create rapport with the audience by joking about his
absence from previous NAACP conventions when he said, Bruce is a polite guy. I
thought he was going to say, Its about time you showed up. That remark brought
laughter and a round of applause from some NAACP attendees.

I see this as a moment of opportunity, the President said.

I have come to celebrate the heroism of the civil rights movement, and the
accomplishments of the NAACP. The President used the opportunity to share his
beliefs about how his administration and the nations oldest civil rights organization
can work together. He pledged to work with the group on:

*Helping citizens along the Gulf Coast recover from Hurricane Katrina. (We
committed over $110 billion dollars to help the people of the Gulf Coast. That money
is going to build new homes and good schools. He added that his Administration
would make sure that minority owned-businesses are beneficiaries of some of that
money).

*Helping seniors sign up for the Medicare drug benefits, while acknowledging some
differences with the civil rights group and

*Challenging the lingering racism in America, starting with education. The President
spoke in detail about his No Child Left Behind Act. He also spoke about his support
for charter schools. That point received mixed reaction with some in the audience
applauding and others expressing their dissatisfaction.

Other key points of the Presidents address focused on giving Americans more
opportunity to pass on assets to their children through home ownership, expanding
his faith-based initiatives, and making some inroads with the HIV/AIDS crisis.

On the latter issue, Bush said wants to see Congress reauthorize the Ryan White Act
and provide funding to the states to reduce the waiting list for AIDS medications in
the country.

Perhaps the most anticipated issue he addressed was his support for renewing the
Voting Rights Act. He said that he expected the Senate to pass the Act without
amendments so, I can sign it into law.

Senators Edward Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had talked with NAACP
attendees on the preceding day, Wednesday, about the role that they would play in
pushing for reauthorizing key provisions of the Act. The House of Representatives
had already voted to reauthorize the Voter Rights Act. Hillary Shelton, the director of
the civil rights groups Washington Bureau, moderated the Wednesday session.
Although the Senate had not completed its work on the Voting Rights Acts before
President Bushs appearance on Thursday morning, by days end they voted 98 to 0 to
reauthorize the Act.