Throwing Stones

What a mess. What a total, complete, unadulterated, absolute MESS. It's hard to come up with anything more descriptive to say about the debacle that is the Republican temper-tantrum, i.e. the current government shutdown, which officially began at midnight. (I keep thinking of the Grateful Dead song that is the title of this post.) Of course, we talked about it at length on Occupy the Microphone today.

The puzzling thing, to me, is that Republicans don't seem to mind being perceived as the party that prefers the American people stay unhealthy and uninsured. "Anything to keep people from having health care!" is how most of the GOP congressional representatives sounded, proudly venting on various news shows late last night. It's worth it to STOP OBAMACARE! Do they know how they sound? Or is their own re-election the primary factor in their decision? Robert at Blue Heron Blast sums up a lot of my thinking:

The problem is that the House Republicans have all gerrymandered themselves into safe seats in safe districts. Any flak they will receive will be from their right in the primaries. Although I am sure that many are concerned with the health of the nation, at least I hope so, the overriding motive has to be getting re-elected. So there is really no hope for common ground.

The optics of this debacle are pretty clear. A CNN/ORC poll found that Republicans in Congress would shoulder more of the blame for a shutdown. Forty-six percent of Americans said that Republicans on Capitol Hill would be mostly responsible for a shutdown, versus 36 percent who would blame Obama and 13 percent who would blame both.

So 25% of Americans polled will blame you more than the other guy and you don't care, because it will play so well for the folks in your district and frankly, what else matters? Bravo!

I went to the outfitting store to get some straps to hitch my borrowed monopod to my camera pack this morning. The vacation to the National Parks between Wyoming and Montana that are scheduled to be closed at midnight tonight barring an unforeseen stroke of sanity barreling down on the beltway, which you should certainly not hold your breath for.

I will make do, lots of nice state parks I am looking at in the area, there are worse prison sentences than spending a week on a bar stool in Jackson Hole. But it sucks. And it even sucks worse for the man helping me in the store, who is in the naval reserve and ferries Navy Seals around on missions. He is now on no pay as are many of the private contractors who aid our defense effort. Awful thing we are doing to them, not to mention furloughing 800,000 civil servants and leaving millions without pay. Oh, I forgot, we hate the government and the people who work for them.

Yes. The party that loves war, does not want to pay their soldiers. Irony!

And such a depressing, demoralizing spectacle.

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While waiting for Republicans to come to their wacked-out senses (might be awhile), we can work on getting us some gay marriage rights, and thus, continue to drive (some of them!) crazy.* From the Advocate, here is a great piece by Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, whom I was fortunate to meet during our local Campaign for Southern Equality demonstration in January.

Op-ed: How Resistance Will Change the South:

Growing numbers of people across the South are finding the courage to stand up to such laws by taking public action. Since the We Do Campaign launched two years ago, I have stood with more than 80 LGBT couples as they have requested — and been denied — marriage licenses in their hometowns across the South, from small rural towns in Mississippi to cities like Charlotte, N.C. To watch LGBT people stand at the marriage license counter, many with their children at their side, is to witness courage firsthand. In the face of a legal system that denies our humanity and tells us we have no right to even approach this counter, these families are expressing powerful truths: We are human, we are equal, this is our home, and we have a fundamental right to marry.

As we continue to grow the We Do Campaign, we are now actively seeking a public official in the South who will stand up with us and issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple as an act of conscience. Marriage license offices in New Mexico and Pennsylvania have recently started doing this, and in years past it has happened in California and New York as well. In Pennsylvania, Montgomery County Register of Wills Bruce Hanes has said of his choice, “I firmly believe that I’m on the right side of history.”

Can this happen in the South? We have contacted marriage license offices in more than 600 counties to pose this question. There may be a Bruce Hanes somewhere in our region. Or it may well be that the power of these discriminatory laws is so great that even those public officials who support marriage equality — and they exist — feel that the risk of acting on this belief is too great.

It's an interesting strategy, and I will be watching carefully to see how it goes.


*I acknowledge there are SOME Republicans who are in favor of legalizing gay marriage, foremost among them Cindy and Meghan McCain.

Campaign for Southern Equality

The "WE DO" demonstration was today in both Greenville and Asheville... and we had a pretty good-sized group for the upstate. Over a hundred folks; I am SO proud of us!

And only one lone heckler, who instructed us to read Romans Chapter 1. (I guess the rain was a mixed blessing.) There were five Greenville Occupiers in attendance.







We started at the Warehouse Theater and marched over to Greenville County Square. Six couples attempted to get marriage licenses as we quietly witnessed outside; some prayed. When the couples emerged, we applauded and cheered.

At least one couple was already married in their home state, but are not regarded as legally married here in South Carolina, where they currently reside.

It was invigorating! Hope you like my photos (at left and below) of the demonstration; the last two were taken inside the Warehouse Theater. (As always, you can click to enlarge.)

Gay, lesbian couples denied marriage licenses in Greenville
Written by Ron Barnett
Greenville News staff writer

More than 100 supporters turned out on a drizzly morning to support half a dozen gay and lesbian couples who attempted — and were denied — to apply for marriage licenses at Greenville County Square.

The event was aimed at drawing attention to South Carolina’s marriage laws, which allow only heterosexual couples to marry.

“In May of 2011 we were able to go to Washington, D.C., and get married,” Ra’Shawn Barlow-Flournoy told marriage license clerk Elizabeth Robinson. “And we just wish that we could be able to come back home to South Carolina and be able to have the same rights as everyone else.”

The event was organized by the Campaign for Southern Equality and was the fourth of nine stops at courthouses in six states. The group was headed to Asheville after leaving Greenville.

The Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, executive director of the organization, urged the group which gathered at the Warehouse Theatre on Augusta Street afterward to continue to work to change people’s minds in a nation that allows gay marriage in some states and not in others.

“It’s immoral and it’s illogical and it’s unsustainable, and it’s got to change,” she told the cheering group.

Ongoing YouTube account of the Southern Campaign here.

Please check them out on Twitter and elsewhere on the net, and lend your support. The South needs you!

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