Speak Out 6/21/12

Shopping mall

on East Side?

Yeah, I would be glad to build a shopping center over on the east side with all those blighted houses if I could get the city council to pay for it. Thank you, Ryan Kizer.

Don't pick and

choose sins

The Gay Sin: Between you and God and you and the government

I'm a 32 years old woman, married once to a man for five years. We had a normal life: a house, child, dog, white picket fence, church every Sunday and Wednesday. But behind closed doors was verbal, emotional, and physical abuse. We eventually divorced.

I am currently in a relationship of two years to a woman, also divorced from the same type of marriage of 10 years. We have a normal life: children, cats, no white picket fence, and no abuse. For the kids': school functions, sports games, birthday parties, dentist appointments. Normal. For us: two jobs each, unending bills, holding hands at the movies, card and flowers for anniversaries, and family get-togethers for the holidays. Normal.

My decision to have relationship with her was not based on anatomical reasons, but because I found she is an intelligent, hardworking, funny, loving and beautiful person.

I have found that most people who disagree with same-sex relationships do because of religious reasons, and are strongly moved to get legislature and government to regulate activities of people like myself and my partner. Why, because of what happens behind closed doors? Benefits and needful things that are available to others are not to us. Such as family health/dental/life insurance, social security, FMLA, and other "traditional" family based programs. Our decision to love, protect, respect, and be faithfully committed to one another for the rest of our lives is not viewed equal to a "legal marriage", but in some states we can get a knock-off general version called a domestic partnership. Call it what you like, a marriage license is still a piece of paper in a frame, the acts and words between two people are what makes the relationship meaningful and real.

So to respond to the well-versed religious finger pointers, I totally agree, homosexuality is a sin in the Bible, but the list of sins doesn't stop there. Let's not pick and choose which sins YOU have a personal problem with, because GOD has a personal problem with them ALL. Here are a couple popular ones in America:

Greed: from the unsuspecting small-town secretary to Wall Street, people steal, swindle, and destroy other people's life-long saving for more wealth of their own.

Gluttony: Two-thirds of Americans are unhealthy and inactive, overweight and overindulgent. Why walk when you can ride a motorized scooter? Why eat less when the U. S. A. is a 24-hour buffet.