When I was growing up in Danville, Virginia, decorating for Christmas was always a very big deal.
My Mother’s goal in life, for several years, was to win the Temple Terrace Women’s Club Home Decorating Contest. Even though she was President of the Club, for several years, she still never won. And she was not above “putting in the fix” if she could have figured out how to do so.
I was never quite sure what the Temple Terrace Woman’s Club did. All I know is my Mother was inordinately proud of the fact that they once voted on something by placing their ballots in one of her bronze trash cans and everyone commented on how clean it was. Thanks to the maid, I might add.
They also had a dish towel sale one year. I don’t know what it was supposed to benefit, but we had several cases of dish towels in our basement for several years. Some are still there even after 45 years…
Anyway, the whole production always began with her moving the previously mentioned cardboard fireplace into it’s place of honor in the basement. After she meaningfully told my Father that she hoped one day she would have a real fireplace, she would make him haul out all the other stuff.
December 1st is World AIDS day and I feel like I need to comment on this…
The AIDS epidemic was one of the defining events of my life. It all began when I was in my early 20′s and no one, who was not there, can imagine the fear and confusion, the hate and the love, that resulted from this health crisis.
People forget, that in the early days, no one knew what was causing it or why Gay Men were suddenly getting sick and dying.
All of us were wondering who was next. Would it be one of our friends? Could we get it ourselves? How were you exposed to it? What was our personal risk level? Were our young lives going to be cut short before we even figured out who we were?
AIDS blew open a lot of closet doors. Not the best way to “out” people. No one could have wanted that result, but it did make a lot of people face the fact, for the first time in their lives, that they actually knew Gay people.
I think this must be the basis for the Dr Laura Schlessinger post about Leviticus and Homosexuality that went viral all over the web. When I quoted it, Dr Laura’s “people” did write me to tell me she never said it…but it remains one of the most popular posts on this blog with several “hits” almost every day even though it’s a fairly old post.
One of the few things I’ll never forgive England for is driving out all the Puritans and sending them here…
And I’m so tired of “Christians” saying love the sinner but hate the sin. Then patting themselves on the back for their “tolerance”.
This position still reflects hate.
And judgement.
My response is: “Who do they think they are to even think they are allowed to consider judging me or my life?”
Frankly, they should just mind their own business and worry about their own lives and their own “eternal salvation” and leave us alone. Completely. They should not even speak about people they will never allow themselves to understand.
I’ve always believed faith is a private, individual journey and that it’s a little bit tacky to carry on about it too much in public.
And very dangerous to try to impose your religious views on others to drive political and social agendas.
There is something called the Separation of Church and State in the Constitution…
The Founding Fathers realized you had to protect people from the Puritans and the Puritans from themselves.
And if “Christians” actually followed all the biblical laws cited in the Bible, they would all be in jail…
Instead, they all seem to be rather selective in what they choose to follow.
In other words, don’t speak to me about Homosexuality being condemned in the Bible as long as you are eating shrimp cocktails…
Let me be clear: I respect your right to believe whatever you chose to believe. Just keep it to yourself. I’ll try to do the same.
You stay out of of my bedroom and I’ll stay out of your Church.
Why don’t we all agree to just mind our own business and try to get through life with as much grace as possible? Christians shouldn’t talk about Homosexuality and, frankly, I would love not to have to talk about Christians and what I think they should be doing. Let’s just agree to live and let live and leave each other alone…
Great perspective on voting. Thanks to Sheila for making me aware of this article.
Please read it and go vote!
I don’t often agree with the Pope. But when he recently characterized voting as “a moral act with spiritual consequences”, I have to agree with him–although I could hardly disagree more with his vision of morality.
I vote because my Pagan spirituality is rooted in this world and my morality is about defending a broad definition of life. I respect that others have views that differ from mine, and acknowledge that just and moral candidates can be found in every party and every end of the political spectrum. But in this election, we also see many campaigns and issues that pose clear moral choices. Bill Mollison, one of the founders of the permaculture movement, defines evil as “stupidity, rigorously applied”, and never has that definition seemed so apt as now.
New Post up on my other blog. Link to full post at the bottom:
I’ve thought a lot about this over the last few days as we head to another election. For Progressive’s like me, it’s forecast to be a rough one who’s results may lead us backward as opposed to foreward.
And, once again, the South will lead us there. We’ve always been good at looking fondly backward in the South–whether the facts support it or not.
That got me thinking. Why is it the South is such a stronghold for the Republicans? Here are my thoughts:
Another wonderful column from one of my favorite columnists:
Actually, old times there are forgotten quite a bit.
For 145 years, ever since a grim-faced Robert E. Lee rode away from Wilmer McLean’s house in Appomattox, Va., where he had surrendered his army, apologists for the South have been trying to induce the rest of us to forget the causes of the Civil War, to imbue an act of treachery and treason with a nobility of purpose it did not, in fact, possess.
“State’s rights,” they say. “State’s rights to maintain a system of human slavery,” they do not say.
It is the social and political equivalent of an extreme makeover. The thinking seems to be: when history collides with cherished self image, change history.
Something very similar seems to be afoot with regard to a related event much closer to us in time: the civil rights movement of the ’50s and ’60s.
Just a few months ago, we saw conservative activist Glenn Beck claim ownership of that movement, in defiance of historical memory. “…[W]e were the people that did it in the first place!” he cried.
Last week, in an essay in the Washington Post, University of Virginia Professor Gerard Alexander analyzed voting trends from the civil rights era to bolster his thesis that social conservatism is not intolerant. Somehow, he never got around to explaining how it is, then, that social conservatives were always the ones standing in schoolhouse doors, blockading polling places, burning buses, and cracking skulls.
Margaret, the problem with Populism is that the population includes asses like Sarah Palin and her Tea Party. Someone needs to remind them that this is America. The government is elected by the people. Questioning your government is patriotic. Hating your government, one the other hand, is simply a form of self loathing.
And let’s talk about that hatred. It seems so at odds with the supposed Christian morals they so proudly espouse. They hate big government but instead of taking issue with the largest part of that government – the military – they take issue with healthcare. They hate big government in healthcare but they have no issue with government being big enough to intervene in the private health decisions of a woman seeking to end a pregnancy or the private decisions of a husband wanting to end the decade long sufferings of his wife. They hate big government but they don’t seem to hate using government to legislate hate against homosexuals. And they hate big government, but they don’t seem to hate it when they can use it to fuel their hatred. Gosh I hate that…
And now those morons in Washington with the “R” after their names have made another pledge to America. I guess it’s just one more thing they can do today and then ignore tomorrow . A Contract With America. A Pledge to America. Mission Accomplished. For goodness sakes how many times are we going to fall for this prank? They spend years screwing everything up and then eventually pledge to not do it again. How about not doing it the first time… or the second time for that matter?
Lost in the 21st Century 
My Southern Gothic Life | Trying to Stay Sane in a Crazy Southern World…
New post up on my other blog:
MORE: My Southern Gothic Life | Trying to Stay Sane in a Crazy Southern World….
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