Zorra
Zorra's JournalHere's my "so gay" day.
Today I am making bread, making homemade pasta sauce for tomorrows lasagne, and hooking up a large solar panel to my home.
Making bread requires attention to detail, ingredients must be correct, measurements of ingredients must be exact, the dough must be kneaded to proper consistency, ingredients must be used when they are the correct temperature, the kitchen needs to be kept near 72 degrees, and timing is everything.
Making great pasta sauce is not as detail demanding as making bread; still, the difference between great homemade sauce and generic corporate schlock are the correct ingredients, sauteing certain ingredients together at the proper heat for the proper amount of time, adding ingredients to the saute/sauce in the right order and at the right time, simmering the sauce for hours at the right temperature, and then monitoring frequently after a few hours to remove it from the heat when it is perfect. I prefer to let the sauce sit sealed overnight when it is for lasagne.
It's science, definitely chemistry, but it's also art/craft ~ intuition, feel, knowledge, and experience.
While the sauce is simmering for the first few hours, I plan to wire a solar panel to a charge controller, then wire the solar panel to a battery bank, then run wires through my bedroom wall, from the batteries outside to a 500 watt DC to AC inverter in my bedroom. With this system, I will be power my computer, my audio and video systems, my little music studio, my rehearsal gear, and the lights in my bedroom, at an average cost of pennies per day. (I've had the panel and inverter for 13 years, and the batteries are several years old and normally used to run the DC system in my little motorhome, which I am not using right now, so the point is, all of the aforementioned solar energy related equipment long ago paid for itself, and much more).
I'm LGBT female, and that's gonna be my gay day, some "traditionally girl stuff", some "traditionally boy stuff" ~ lol. I'm not hung up on/by any of that.
There is no "kinda gay" or "so gay" ~
it's all "gay".
~
I believe the policies of the Westboro Baptist Church are deplorable.
The leaders (notably Rev. Phelps) of the Westboro Baptist Church, promote hatred and bigotry toward the the individuals who comprise the LGBT community, and discrimination toward all women, contributing to and furthering cultural and legislated persecution of both groups.
This hateful mindset leads to LGBT persons being politically targeted, and subsequently having their equal human rights denied them by action of legislative process. This mindset causes many LGBT persons, particularly LGBT youth, to take their own lives in despair at living in societies where religion inspired hate and bigotry plays a huge part in maintaining the culture of hatred toward LGBT persons. This religion inspired culture of hate is partially responsible for deranged conservative individuals attacking, maiming, and murdering LGBT persons on a daily basis.
The Westboro Baptist Church even goes so far as to blame LGBT persons for the deaths of soldiers in wars, and for basically all natural disasters.
The Westboro Baptist Church also promotes a policy of subjugating women through using religion to legislate women not having a legal right choose what they can or cannot do with their own bodies.
It is my humble opinion that churches such as the Westboro Baptist Church, that continue to promote these policies of hatred and bigotry, are doing a huge disservice to the entire human race, not only those who are injured by their promotion of persecution.
It is my humble opinion that we, as liberals/progressives who have the self awareness to think and feel and believe and do the things necessary to finally end the misery caused by bigotry, have a responsibility to point out and work to end these policies of hate and bigotry toward innocent persons who comprise persecuted minorities, in order that we may curtail, and hopefully eventually end the pain, suffering, and destruction that these policies cause.
"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it". ~ Reverend Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.
Ya know, it's strange, but I've yet to see any of the laity here express any overt dismay over the
fact that their new leader is a flaming bigot who would be banned from DU in a shrews' heartbeat for blatant unabashed homophobia.
Is it because Catholics are forbidden to, or are afraid to, criticize their leaders, or something like that?
Geez, if I were a Catholic, my humble little flaming liberal yellowdog Democrat self would first be apologizing to those who will most certainly be harmed by the new Pope. Then I'd be kicking ass, taking names, and attempting major house cleaning over this horrendous choice for God's highest representative on earth.
You can bet your life that if some LGBT leader came out and said that Catholics were evil and not deserving of basic human rights and should not be able to get married that most LGBT folks would be screaming bloody murder right along side the victimized Catholics.
Honestly, the roar of the crickets here on DU is very unnerving for me as an openly LGBT person. I know for an absolute fact that there are many awesome good hearted Catholic folks here who dearly want to see LGBT persons achieve the equal status with straight people that we fully deserve as equal human beings.
If any Catholics truly feel victimized by criticism of other DUers over their church hierarchies' heinous choice for leader, please keep in mind that it is only a very minute fraction of how LGBT people work so hard to resist feeling every day of our lives.
We have done absolutely nothing to deserve the hate and persecution that many cultures and societies have laid on century after century.
It would be constructive for everyone if lay Catholics and some of the awesome parish priests out there took it upon themselves help lead their leaders into the light, cuz they are very obviously in serious desperate need of enlightenment.
Good post, and good on the OP as well. What you both say is very true, judging from my experience.
I travel abroad every winter, and have many good friends from all over the world who hang out at the same tropical beach (not a tourist trap) that I do most winters. These folks are generally well educated, multilingual, very liberal/progressive, and wonderful conversationalists.
I have often had long political/social discussions with these folks, individually and collectively, about US politics/society "well into the night" 
. Many of these folks have a clearer big picture of the US than many US conservatives, and often even have a better grasp of the English language than many conservative Americans.
These folks are almost universally wary of Americans, and the US government, and in particular the US media.
The US is indeed a general joke to many people the world, and Americans are often viewed as provincial and ignorant. Part of the reason for this is the "Ugly American" traveling abroad. Conservatives with money who are rude and ignorant, and intrinsically believe they are superior to everyone else in the world because they are Americans.
American conservatives often refer to their "specialness" as American Exceptionalism.
They definitely help to further the image that Americans are exceptional ~ exceptionally rude, ignorant, and provincial. (I am often tempted to claim that I am Canadian, because I can speak Canadian so well, eh?)
My darker skin color often shields me from preconceived prejudice while traveling, and I totally look like an indigenous American, so I am a "novelty item" for many folks from other countries at first, and being a musician helps also, music is a universal language. But still, when I (usually grudgingly) confess to being from the US, and say "no, I'm not not Canadian, I'm American", I can sense/see the immediate disappointment, contempt, and disdain. However, because I am a reasonably well educated liberal, and have the certain aforementioned intrinsic pluses in my favor, once people get to know me, they often tell me this:
"Wow, you're really alright, for an American!"
The sad truth is, the OP is definitely spot on; conservatives, and their media, and their American exceptionalism/imperialism, have made the US an enculturated joke throughout the world, and the target of much anger.
Harken, and be amazed, oh unbelievers.
That's what a real, honest to goodness sincere and genuine Democrat acts like. Let's fill Congress with Democrats like President (whoops) Senator Warren.
Thanks, marmar. I wrote this song almost thirty years ago ~
Industrial Disease
I must be living in a dream
how can this be reality?
Nightmare of our own creation,
some destructive inclination
All around me, stacks are smoking
and the trees ain't got no leaves ~
You call this progress? You must be joking ~
It's Industrial Disease.
Vultures on my young friends veins
she's going down with the price of heroin and cocaine
Mom and dad can't figure it out
two years divorced, and still they shout
People lying dead in the street
missile strikes are hard to beat
Red and white, black and blue ~
It's all here for me and you.
© 1983, 1999
What is, to say the least, extremely disturbing is that, right at this very moment, right on the first page of GD, we have posts here at DU expressing concern over climate alteration resulting from planetary abuse by humans, deaths caused by heroin overdoses, and drone missile strikes. Almost thirty years after that song was written in a fit of despair, after a satellite error had almost led to nuclear war, and while observing the oil refineries somewhere around Elizabeth, NJ, during the dark, hope crushing years of the Reagan era.
In my humble opinion, it is time for all of us to stop with this silly childish fantasy that these problems can be solved through the system. They can't be, and they won't be, at least not until Mother Nature solves them for us with some seriously catastrophic tough love that will kill off many of us and make the rest of us very uncomfortable. and make us wish we had done something to try to prevent the catastrophe. We must grow up, and take responsibility upon ourselves, instead of depending on a system primarily run by sociopathic, insatiable, greed driven ego/megalomaniacs to fix it for us.
Hopefully, it's not already too late to take our planet back from these insane bullies, but it's surely at least worth the effort.
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Gender: FemaleCurrent location: Earth
Member since: Tue Sep 23, 2003, 11:05 PM
Number of posts: 27,670
