Sometimes Life Gets So Fun!! (page 2)

Sparkplug

Auldsoul- Now that is so sweet. The secret anniversary.

Actually, I do understand the Federal Government's interest. I just don't think the Federal Government should be in the business of moralizing its citizenry.

Right. Because what is moral here is not moral elsewhere. Who sets up the standards? We were reading tonight how here in TX it was just overturned in 2002 the case of homosexual acts being illegal in ones own home. So who actually made the moral call there? Just because it may be two men, then an act of sex is illegal...but if a man and woman do the same thing...It is ok. That makes no damn sense to me.

Then too, what is deemed moral elsewhere is deemed unacceptable here. So does geographic location on the planet entail what constitutes morality? It is kind of nonsense how this government can control the well being or not of a persons estate (in regards to marriage of gay and lesbians) due to sexual preferences. To be gay and have limited rights to how you can use benefits and moneys you have earned, the same as the rest does not seem fair. Health insurance will pay for myself and a husband and as many kids as I should so want…but if I were in love with a woman….well even if I never added another person but one onto the plan, it would be unacceptable. It is odd to me a bit, gay marriage, but I have seen many couples who are closer than most straight couples I know. It is not good for populating the planet…but I think the rest of us have it under control. Life will find a way to continue whether a gay couple is married or not. It does not change the fact that there have always been such couples throughout history. People are just more open about it now.

Spectre

Here in California, 95% of the class would be for gay marriage and one redneck would be all, "god created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve." Everyone would turn to him and say, "SHUT UP!"

Sparkplug

spectre-

Yeah, but we are here in Texas with "Bush"man...his name says it all. I work for a company that will let you add your registered domestic partner, but I may be nieve in thinking that if you earn a benefit, You should get to add one person on even if they are not your lover, or spouse. Like a child that is in need that you know. It seems like a bit discriminating that only the married folks can utilize this benefit. What if I don't want to marry someone? I work with a woman who is raising her grandchildren, but legally they are not under her. So she has no insurance on them. Even though she earns the benefits.

AuldSoul

I actually never thought of him as a racist, until he started in on the old debate as to if there should be African American Scholarships and magazines with the name of Ebony. I was so spiting mad. (And embarrassed) Because he spouted of the perpetuation of racism by the black man lies therein the mentioning of it now. That people just need to get over it...blah blah. I really used to feel like that until I realized that my mom even lived segregation. She also lived with the stigma of having a mixed race child. 1970 was not that long ago and even more so, I see that 11 or 12 years prior there were major upheavals. We in my age group missed a lot of that. But to see kids now, and the place that different races hold, you would possibly not suspect that it has all changed just in these 30 or so years.

My wife (a JW) feels exactly the same way as your friend. I understand the recent advent of a concept that there should be racial equality, but that concept has been present and actively worked toward throughout her entire life.

BTW, my wife is an African-American, so...I'm not so sure your friend's comments are racist as much as they might be generationally reflective. I would err on the side of not labeling people as racists, I find that people tend to live up to (or down to) the expectations others have of them.

My wife has a project in mind of a book entitled "The Regression of the Black Race" that will chronicle the stirring calls for equality, the march toward freedom to pursue the dream of equality, the various daring acts of legislators and community leaders to help ensure that the dream of equality was acheivable, and the squandering of that opportunity by a LARGE segment of the current black youth.

She is deeply pained to know (pre-JW) the thoughts and sacrifices of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglas, so many of the black entertainers who really paved the way to mainstream acceptance of blacks alongside whites, and the many, many individuals (white and black) who risked their lives and livelihoods fighting for a dream that barely seemed possible and to compare this history with the latest hip-hop videos, rife with an education for black youths that enslaving themselves to material goods (primarily white-controlled) and denigrating women is what these people sacrificed for.

I wonder if they would have risked it if they knew...

Respectfully,
AuldSoul

Sparkplug

BTW, my wife is an African-American, so...I'm not so sure your friend's comments are racist as much as they might be generationally reflective. I would err on the side of not labeling people as racists, I find that people tend to live up to (or down to) the expectations others have of them.

**noted and pondering on that thought.

I have to say that it is truly amazing how far the eqaulity issues have brought us all. I am sure the people before us did not envision this for the African American Race. But with equal rights comes the chance to be equally degrading... I guess it can be compared to the same with all the white entertainers that squander the power they have on uselessness. ? You think? Equal opportunity.

Spectre

Well Sparkplug, that just opens up a whole other can of worms. Should an employer pay benefits for a workers roommate? Lots to debate.....

Sparkplug

Yes and as hyped as I am about this class spectre, I have to sit back and shut up because my head is whirring about with all the things I never thought of before. I am trying to formulate an idea of where I stand on things. But for each idea I think I have in play.......as you said.............there is another can of something opening up.

My teacher cracks me up. she is a Canadian white woman teaching American Constitution in the US all the while having gotten her doctrine (I think) in Black history and is bound to her Spanish lesbian Lover. I love America.

Just for the fact that I can be:

mixed race,

ex jw cult member,

earning a living,

and owning a business,

while raising three kids by three different fathers,

Of three different races.

and am not stoned for showing my butt,

all the while learning to vote

and cook while

bringing home the bacon

and debating the legalities of interracial and one sex marriages

When right before I was born, not but over ten years back...I would have been sent to the back of the bus. And my Indian son would be stuck on the reservation. My daughters would be looked down apon, and I could not have my home or property, credit in my own name.

What a life!

AuldSoul

I agree, Spark Plug. Very . That is why she is approaching the subject from the standpoint of squandered opportunity. The image people in other nations have of US African-Americans is largely shaped by imaged broadcast to them via satellite. This includes the impressions gathered by African peoples. Images of videos and movies that emphasize a reality that does NOT represent the potential of African-American youth, it represents the failure of many to reach their potential.

From teasing of intellect in the classroom, to shaming as uncool any attempt to lift oneself above their beginnings—the African-American youth of today are by-and-large victims of their oppression of each other.

It is little different with white America, though. Jessica Simpson is a joke, and considered very powerful and very influential. Who grants her power? Fans. Without them, she would have to depend on her own ingenuity or the kindness of strangers. She wouldn't live long. But she is a role-model for teens. Paris Hilton? If I needed a toothpick I might borrow her elbow for a few minutes, but she is an icon. Why? What does she contribute to society besides incredibly poor quality porn videos and sexually degrading nicknames for her girlfriends?

I enjoyed the movie "The Shape of Things" and I also like Pink's song, "Stupid Girl." I think they both made the same point crystal clear. As a culture, we are obsessed with the appearances, the external, the surface, and our cultural obsession drives out our conscience and intellect. I think that it is a rather recent development (1950s). Prior to that time, there was an avid appreciation for the surface but no pronounced obsession with the surface.

I hate posting dilemmas with no solution ideas, but I don't really have any ideas beyond discussing it more often. If our children are aware that the media is attempting to shape their concepts of success and fame in warped ways that will prove very lucrative for the sponsors of media content, maybe they will be armed to combat it in future generations.

Respectfully,
AuldSoul

Sparkplug

I hate posting dilemmas with no solution ideas, but I don't really have any ideas beyond discussing it more often. If our children are aware that the media is attempting to shape their concepts of success and fame in warped ways that will prove very lucrative for the sponsors of media content, maybe they will be armed to combat it in future generations.

I don't like to do it either, but sometimes awareness is a powerful thing. Just look at this site!

Sometimes Life Gets So Fun!!

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