Undesirable

I just got done reading an article linked to me by trillsie yesterday. trillsie is a veteran of the USAF and yesterday, for that one day, I thanked her and all like her for their service. Truth is, I thank you everyday, because you and your predecessors have given me something I completely take for granted, something so precious, so deeply rooted in my being, it's like breathing. I can put pen to paper and speak my mind about politics and religion without fear of retribution. (There was a few months there, living under the Bush Administration, when I wasn't so sure, but we have HopeChange™ coming, and voters everywhere reminded me that we are Of The People, By The People, For The People.)

The article trillsie linked was was about Anthony Acevedo, a US Army medic who served in WWII, and who was among a small group of POWs who were taken to Buchenwald during the final days of the war. You can read it here. This story seems unequivocally knitted with today's headlines, as protesters of Prop 8 continue to spread their fight right to the steps of the churches that supported that heinous screed.

We hold these truths to be self-evident...

The government is not in the business of deciding who is desirable and who is undesirable. We do not separate citizens according to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, ability, sexual preference or political beliefs. We do not govern along lines of skull shape or skin color, hair color or eye color, For every new way in which our evolutionarily hard-wired brain can come up with to divide "Us" from "Them", we have a doctrine that wipes away that difference.

...that all l men are created equal...

The moment you give the government the right to sort us into buckets of "Acceptable" vs "Unacceptable", you begin handing out armbands. The moment you let one religion drive policy, and use its standards to decide our "morality", you begin laying the rail. The moment you let rage and pain and fear become your guiding influence, that's the day you start stoking the ovens.

...that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights...

I am one hundred percent serious folks. I do not dispute your right to your religious beliefs. I would protect you just as vehemently if your rights were threatened. But you need to remember, the moment you start labelling people as "Undesirable", you step on a path. And there may be a day when that path arrives at your door.

...that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Life. Liberty. The Pursuit of Happiness. There is nothing about being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered that makes a person sub-human. And if you do not believe these people should share the same rights and responsibilities that you have, the same rights and responsibilities that come with marriage and family, you are defining them as sub-human. If you do not fight for their right to stand beside you on the platform that is American Freedom, the platform that so many good men and women have died defending, you are defining them as sub-human.

And if you dare define them as sub-human, remember, you leave open the possibility that someone will define you or your children as sub-human, according to their own dictates.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Harvey Milk
Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan
Anthony Acevedo, may he live a long healthy life.

I invite you to add a name to the list of people we should never forget, for the struggle, for the sacrifice, for the lesson to our basic decent humanity they have given us.