From the Deepest Frustrations of My Heart
So I am taking this Ethics class for Nursing school. The class gives us really grey area cases and we are supposed to use principle ethics from socrates and plato to make a determination. For instance, a man has Hiv, is getting married, and does not want to tell his fiancee he is infected. Does the doctor tell her anyway? Now, in my heart I want to say, "of course he does!" but when you weigh out the ethical issues, he really has no right to give that information to her. This is all being said to show you how serious I feel about gay marriages. Really, honestly people, I don't care what your Christian bible says about this or that or how you or your church interprets it. As far as I know, our Constitution and a part of being an American is believing in it, states there HAS to be a separation of church and state because ultimately Christianity does not rule the U.S. I grew up a devout Catholic. I went to church 3 or 4 days a week. I also was a History major. I know my Bible pretty damn well. And from what I know of the Bible is that it is a really badly outdated book. If you REALLY look at the Bible as a guide, you will see that divorce was not accepted. Women had no power. People "owned", beat, and raped women without any second thoughts. Over the last 250 years we have constantly changed what we feel is right and wrong. Black people and women were fighting the same battles that gay people are fighting today. Go outside and yell at the top of your lungs that you hate black people. Call them the N word. See how far that gets you. It is NOT accepted in our society to mistreat people that way. But it IS o.k. for us to turn around and tell gay people that they don't count? They count in terms of income, as tax payers, voters, vehicle drivers, citizens. They just don't count in LOVE? Say what you will about them not knowing what love is or they are confused or whatever. What I know is that love is KIND and love is acceptance and love is colorblind and genderblind. If you think that people are unable to establish this union because it is not real love between two people of the same gender, then do you really love your sister or your brother or your mother or your father? because chances are at least some of them are the same gender you are. Gay marriage is not taking away from your own vows. It has nothing to do with your vows. If you say your vows and believe they mean something, how is that any different from two other people saying their vows? If you say vows, I say vows, and then I get divorced...does that do anything to your own vows? We are in the same place we were back in the sixties when interracial relationships came about and people freaked out. How could a black man marry or love a white woman? Love is love, is love, is love. People who really get to me are the god damn Christians that sit there like they are high and mighty. "I go to church and I believe this and that, THEREFORE IT IS MY RIGHT TO JUDGE EVERYONE ELSE." I know this is not ALL christians. In fact there are a lot of christians that are not this way. Generalizing would just be ignorant of me. But there are those christians that they because they show up to church every sunday they have a God given right to hate on everyone else. In all the time I spent in church the one thing I took away from it was this, "Beloved, let us love one another. For he/she who loves knows God, for God is Love." How can you spend so much time hating everyone and call yourself a Christian? If you REALLY hear God's word you would hear that HIS BIGGEST message is TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. And that means ALL your neighbors. Gay or straight, black or white, asian or mexican, woman or man. It does not say anywhere love only the people who think like you do. Acceptance and love. How can we sit here and allow other people to scare us into thinking that suddenly our kids will be taught about gay marriage in schools? How can we sit here and DENY someone their constitutional rights and turn around and say we are PROUD to be AMERICANS? America was build on the notion that perhaps the King's religion was not for everyone. America was founded by people who took risks, who believed in CHANGE, who believed there had to be a better way of doing things. We nominated the most unlikely candidate to change things, to provide us with a better future, and we turn around in the same moment and deny someone else their constitutional rights? Listen to me people, in my 33 years of life there is but one thing I can honestly say that i know. Loving people and surrounding yourself with love is the only way to make it in this world. Haters, gay bashers, conservative assholes that think your ways is the ONLY way, you just wait till your dead ass is at the gates of heaven and you stop and think to yourself, "what was MY life about? Did I do the best I could? Did I love enough?" and when you find that you cannot decide if you have or you know you have not, you tell me then what YOUR god will think of you. Ask yourself every damn day, "did I love enough?" before you turn around and take another civil right away from someone else just because they LOVE.