Just a short one today, because the one I was going to put up needs to step aside for now.
Her daughter disappeared in Aruba in April 2005. She has worked tirelessly to find her each and every day since then. The strongest potential suspect has never been able to be charged but has in another country been found to be the prime suspect in the death of another girl and this time the authorities have been able to hold him.
It's reported in the news today that this grieving, searching mother found enough strength to go to that jail and visit that man, knowing he probably wasn't going to give her any answers.
Today's woman of character is Natalee Holloway's mom, Beth Twitty.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Today's Woman of Character
...is someone I have admired, literally as long as I can remember. Today is the 13th anniversary of the death of Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu who was a Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India in 1950. For over 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries.
Today's Woman of Character is Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Today's Woman of Character
...isn't actually a woman at all. On today's date in 1912 forward thinking men in Ohio gave pause to the idea that their wives, mothers, and daughters should be allowed to vote.
So let's give it to the men, today!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Proposition 8 overturned!
It's never been okay to have a hierarchy for citizens of this country. It flies directly in the face of why it was founded. It's not okay to discriminate against a person who cannot help who they are, and cannot change what makes them "different" and did not make a choice to be who and what they are. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area so there is a denser population of gays and lesbians and gay rights has been a local issue for longer than I've been alive. Most people I know have a homosexual in their life, personally or professionally. I am blessed to have quite a few. It's uncomfortable to me to type about "my gay friends", because I don't think of them that way. I am excited that they have been given the right to marry. I'm not sure that growing up I ever grasped the idea that they did not.
However...I don't see this as a "gay marriage" issue. This is about fairness and reaffirming that no one in this country is better or more deserving of a right or a privilege than any other person. The Constitution guarantees that to every citizen. After slavery was abolished, the lawmakers voted the 14th Amendment into law saying that there are not different classes of citizens in this country, and that what was in the Preamble was really what was meant. ALL men are created equal. In 1920 (on my birthdate!) they finally caught up to it with women.
Sexual orientation is not a choice. There have been so many who wished, prayed, tried to fake it til they made it for it to be different, that they could make themselves pick. Many of these tortured souls were shunned because of something they could not change and ended their lives because of it. I did not choose my sexuality. Believe me, if I did, it would be WAY more orderly.
Also, and this may make a few people grumpy, here's the thing-I agree that marriage is a religious institution and a contract between those taking their vows and God. If we could take the legal rights, privileges and responsibilities that are under the umbrella of "marriage" and call it something else, and make that what is available to everybody then it would be acceptable to not allow anyone to marry unless they meet the criteria for the religious institution they belong to. However, that would cause more problems than it solves, especially in the global society in which we live. Civil servants LOVE their descriptive, important sounding words. Other, older countries and languages would have no way to adapt. The word "marriage" is in every language. "Registered domestic partner"? Not so much.
I fail to see how allowing people to love who they love and partner with who they choose in ways that protects them causes harm to anyone. Don't support gay marriage? Don't be gay, or if you do, prepared to be a celibate confirmed single. No one's children are going to be sent down the path to hell by witnessing love. They just might go down that road witnessing hate, though.
Food for thought on an early Thursday morning.
However...I don't see this as a "gay marriage" issue. This is about fairness and reaffirming that no one in this country is better or more deserving of a right or a privilege than any other person. The Constitution guarantees that to every citizen. After slavery was abolished, the lawmakers voted the 14th Amendment into law saying that there are not different classes of citizens in this country, and that what was in the Preamble was really what was meant. ALL men are created equal. In 1920 (on my birthdate!) they finally caught up to it with women.
Sexual orientation is not a choice. There have been so many who wished, prayed, tried to fake it til they made it for it to be different, that they could make themselves pick. Many of these tortured souls were shunned because of something they could not change and ended their lives because of it. I did not choose my sexuality. Believe me, if I did, it would be WAY more orderly.
Also, and this may make a few people grumpy, here's the thing-I agree that marriage is a religious institution and a contract between those taking their vows and God. If we could take the legal rights, privileges and responsibilities that are under the umbrella of "marriage" and call it something else, and make that what is available to everybody then it would be acceptable to not allow anyone to marry unless they meet the criteria for the religious institution they belong to. However, that would cause more problems than it solves, especially in the global society in which we live. Civil servants LOVE their descriptive, important sounding words. Other, older countries and languages would have no way to adapt. The word "marriage" is in every language. "Registered domestic partner"? Not so much.
I fail to see how allowing people to love who they love and partner with who they choose in ways that protects them causes harm to anyone. Don't support gay marriage? Don't be gay, or if you do, prepared to be a celibate confirmed single. No one's children are going to be sent down the path to hell by witnessing love. They just might go down that road witnessing hate, though.
Food for thought on an early Thursday morning.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
My first woman of character.
Today she'd be considered "just a girl", but she lived a whole lot in a short life. On this day in 1944, at age 15, was arrested along with her sister, parents and four other people after they had spent two years hiding from the Nazis in a building Amsterdam.
Her diary became a famous account of the Holocaust.
I know it's considered a young person's book, but if you haven't read it, I don't care how old you are, go to the library and borrow it. You'll be changed. Trust.
Today's Woman of Character is Anne Frank.
Her diary became a famous account of the Holocaust.
I know it's considered a young person's book, but if you haven't read it, I don't care how old you are, go to the library and borrow it. You'll be changed. Trust.
Today's Woman of Character is Anne Frank.
A Newer Me
I have a couple of friends who have a "second birthday" because of something happened to them-good or bad-that made them kind of push the reset button on their lives. This is a bit of that for me, plus it's going to be the first time I put all of me on one blog, instead of this blog for these people to read, and that blog for those people to read, because I was overconcerned with upsetting the sensibilities of others.
I have friends who are very religious and I adore them and I read them daily and write to them occasionally...but they don't know me. Some of them are pretty darn holier-than-thou..and I can't stand that. I just take a deep breath and stay away from their blogs. Many of them I don't even have a typing cordiality with and clearly there a reason for that.
I have friends who are not religious to the point of physical revulsion at the idea that any englightened and intelligent person believes in a mainstream religion, and if you are any flavor of Christianity, forget it. They will never say a word to you about it, and they'll nod and make the right noises...but you know who you are. I see you do it. Sooo afraid someone is going to witness to you. Don't stress, that will never be me. My speech to persuade in college forensics tanked more than it won. I'll never be that.
There are others for which my religion is not an issue. They grew up the same way I did, or in a similar way or just don't see any religion as an issue. However, there are other aspects to my life they probably don't know because I tend not to talk about some of the things I do with my days that are not palatable for one reason or another, and I'll be talking about those things too when the urge strikes.
...and for the 10 or so of you who know me as well or better than I know me, who will go "yeah...and what else is new", to you guys, go do something else. :)
I have friends who are very religious and I adore them and I read them daily and write to them occasionally...but they don't know me. Some of them are pretty darn holier-than-thou..and I can't stand that. I just take a deep breath and stay away from their blogs. Many of them I don't even have a typing cordiality with and clearly there a reason for that.
I have friends who are not religious to the point of physical revulsion at the idea that any englightened and intelligent person believes in a mainstream religion, and if you are any flavor of Christianity, forget it. They will never say a word to you about it, and they'll nod and make the right noises...but you know who you are. I see you do it. Sooo afraid someone is going to witness to you. Don't stress, that will never be me. My speech to persuade in college forensics tanked more than it won. I'll never be that.
There are others for which my religion is not an issue. They grew up the same way I did, or in a similar way or just don't see any religion as an issue. However, there are other aspects to my life they probably don't know because I tend not to talk about some of the things I do with my days that are not palatable for one reason or another, and I'll be talking about those things too when the urge strikes.
...and for the 10 or so of you who know me as well or better than I know me, who will go "yeah...and what else is new", to you guys, go do something else. :)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)