On Marriage and Justice
from a good friend of mine who knows whereof she speaks
Hello all,
I have to add my voice to the No on 8 campaign in this election. Please consider this - especially if you are heterosexual:
How would it feel if you were married, your church community and family celebrated that marriage, but two months later the state sent you a letter annulling your marriage?
How would you feel if your spouse of twenty three years died and, in front of you, the hospital staff turned to her parents as the next of kin to ask about burial plans?
How would you feel if, after her death, you called the insurance company and were told you were not considered an eligible beneficiary to your spouse's/partner's insurance policy?
How would you feel if you found out that you are not eligible for the pension your spouse created through years of hard work - because of a state or federal law?
How would you feel if you received NO social security benefits from the feds when your spouse died?
All of these things happened to me. Even though Mary and I were registered domestic partners! Separate is not equal.
Luckily, the union Mary worked for had sense of justice enough to CHANGE their by-laws to retroactively give me spousal benefits. The State Teacher's Retirement System did not do the same.
No on Proposition 8 is about equality under the law. It is not about religion. It is not about education. It is about justice.
The campaign is very close - all it takes is 50% plus one vote to change the constitution of our state - and the rest of the nation is looking at what we do here. Regardless of what happens in Tuesday's vote, I will not be eligible for Mary's social security benefits because that falls under federal law...but defeating this proposition is the biggest single step we can take toward the day when federal law also changes and equality is reality for same-sex couples.
I've never given to a political campaign before - and I am giving a second time this year (or is it third?). I hate that we have to spend so much money to assure equal rights - but that is the reality of politics in the 21st century.
If you have the wherewithal to give - the link is below. If you don't - please do what you can to urge others to vote NO ON 8. If you have already voted - good for you. Go to Equality California to donate:
http://www.eqca.org/site/pp.
I'm attaching (link below -ed.) one item. It is a detailed refutation of the lies being spread by the Yes on 8 campaign - written by a Mormon lawyer who is unhappy with his church's involvement in the lies. Food for thought. http://www.noonprop8.com/downloads/Thurston-Memo.pdf
I'm sending this email to most of my current email list - in and outside of California - because what's happening here affects us all. If you got this far - thanks for reading!
love and peace,
Judy
PS - feel free to send my message on to others - esp. California voters
Labels: justice, marriage, polis, society, vote
| posted by Unknown @ 10/31/2008 10:08:00 AM
[13:16] iwantacomputer: how's you?
[13:16] bdwilliamscraig:
[13:16] iwantacomputer: ah
[13:19] bdwilliamscraig:
[13:21] bdwilliamscraig: Sayest thou so? Aye verily, and forsooth.
[13:22] bdwilliamscraig: Or (A merkin translation), Fuck Yeah!
[13:22] iwantacomputer: ah, those wacky Merkins
[13:23] bdwilliamscraig: Gets pretty hairy.
[13:43] bdwilliamscraig: I find myself wishing for a ghost to return and swear me unto vengeance, or pinochle, or a hermit's life, or something else straighforward.
[13:43] iwantacomputer: I didn't hear about the Registry Fraud thing, that sucks. Money / income worries are always troublesome. That would make things easier, it's true.
[13:45] bdwilliamscraig: Ah, well. I'll probably copy this into a blog entry, ifn you don't mind.
[13:45] iwantacomputer: I don't.
[13:45] bdwilliamscraig: Sorry to be so freakin heavy.
[13:45] iwantacomputer: blogaway! or should I say Blogs Away!!!!
[13:46] bdwilliamscraig: Heave to 'er lee, prepare to cast the grapplers and fire the main blogs!!! AAAarrhhhrrrr!!!
[13:48] iwantacomputer: It's understandable, and I can't give you the time, here at work. My brain must needs be focused elsewhere.
[13:48] bdwilliamscraig: Focus 'em, if you got 'em! Some other time. perhaps.
[13:49] iwantacomputer: yes, I'll be busy at work for the next couple months, but pop up on the chat window now and then.
[13:16] bdwilliamscraig:
The Beginning: hic et ubique (here and everywhere)
The Middle: dread fardels
The End: the undiscovered country
[13:16] bdwilliamscraig: Obsessed with Hamlet, again, for the moment.The Middle: dread fardels
The End: the undiscovered country
[13:16] iwantacomputer: ah
[13:16] bdwilliamscraig: You?
[13:16] iwantacomputer: not so obsessed.
[13:17] iwantacomputer: busy as all get out, but good.
[13:17] iwantacomputer: and what's a dread fardel anyway?[13:16] iwantacomputer: not so obsessed.
[13:17] iwantacomputer: busy as all get out, but good.
[13:19] bdwilliamscraig:
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of despised love, the law's delay, the insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes, when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin? Who would fardels (literal burdens, more or less) bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, the undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveller returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of?
[13:20] iwantacomputer: that Bill. He shure kood rite.[13:21] bdwilliamscraig: Sayest thou so? Aye verily, and forsooth.
[13:22] bdwilliamscraig: Or (A merkin translation), Fuck Yeah!
[13:22] iwantacomputer: ah, those wacky Merkins
[13:23] bdwilliamscraig: Gets pretty hairy.
[13:23] bdwilliamscraig: How's married life treatin' ya?
[13:28] iwantacomputer: pretty darned good. Way too much going on these days, but overall, quite nice, thank you... And yourself? Where are you these days?
[13:37] bdwilliamscraig: it not so much "the dread of something after death", rather, the fairly certain conviction of there being no court of appeal, alternative, to ceasing, having to face (lying down if not face up) immense projects like dissertations and responding to global ecological meltdown, losing home, creating rehearsing and delivering my 4th dan demonstration, driving around for months with no certain income, needing to develop a next professional step that will result in our entire family income for the next year or two, recovering our domain names (abcglobal.net, processarts.org, etc.) lost to the Registerfly fraud, etc....[13:28] iwantacomputer: pretty darned good. Way too much going on these days, but overall, quite nice, thank you... And yourself? Where are you these days?
[13:30] bdwilliamscraig:
Short Answer: Fine (in the musical sense). Longer answer: struggling with living in a psyche and cosmos framed in terms of overwhelm and opacity.
[13:33] iwantacomputer: hrm... sometimes your phrasing is hard to parse, but I get the intent. Good to know that you are struggling. It's much better than the alternative.
[13:34] bdwilliamscraig: I wonder.
[13:34] iwantacomputer: better than not struggling? there's a vivacity in the struggle that seems important to me
[13:34] bdwilliamscraig: I wonder.
[13:34] iwantacomputer: better than not struggling? there's a vivacity in the struggle that seems important to me
[13:36] bdwilliamscraig: I guess, at the moment,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.
[13:43] bdwilliamscraig: I find myself wishing for a ghost to return and swear me unto vengeance, or pinochle, or a hermit's life, or something else straighforward.
[13:43] iwantacomputer: I didn't hear about the Registry Fraud thing, that sucks. Money / income worries are always troublesome. That would make things easier, it's true.
[13:45] bdwilliamscraig: Ah, well. I'll probably copy this into a blog entry, ifn you don't mind.
[13:45] iwantacomputer: I don't.
[13:45] bdwilliamscraig: Sorry to be so freakin heavy.
[13:45] iwantacomputer: blogaway! or should I say Blogs Away!!!!
[13:46] bdwilliamscraig: Heave to 'er lee, prepare to cast the grapplers and fire the main blogs!!! AAAarrhhhrrrr!!!
[13:48] iwantacomputer: It's understandable, and I can't give you the time, here at work. My brain must needs be focused elsewhere.
[13:48] bdwilliamscraig: Focus 'em, if you got 'em! Some other time. perhaps.
[13:49] iwantacomputer: yes, I'll be busy at work for the next couple months, but pop up on the chat window now and then.
Labels: busy, daily, ecology, Hamlet, kith, opacity, overwhelm, psyche, society
| posted by Unknown @ 4/09/2007 01:49:00 PM
