A New Dominion .... Maybe Someday Soon

Warning:  The following is political.  I try to avoid that, but some things are too important.  Feel free to just skip this and come back another day.   But, you were warned.

Yesterday was historic - at least in this little part of the planet.  The U.S. District Court for the 4th Judicial Circuit struck down Virginia's law prohibiting the marriage of people of the same gender.  Wow!  Hurrah! Dancing in the streets last night and all that good stuff.

Of course, it will be appealed and a Stay will begin today, but it's a huge step forward for this state which is perhaps the most purple in the nation. 

If you are still reading, I have only three points:

1) After 30+ years of marriage (to a person of the opposite gender), I can think of no way that the marriage of two women or two men would challenge my marriage in any way.

2) Children need two (or perhaps more) loving parents.  The pieces parts don't really mean anything ... just the love. 

3) As a nation we need to separate the legal and religious components of marriage.  A close friend of mine is a Methodist minister.  When he performs a marriage he ends by saying, "By the power vested in me by The Commonwealth of Virginia, I now pronounce you man and wife."  All the ceremony that comes before may be the "church part" but the power comes from the state.  That's what we need to change.  We need to provide a way that a couple - any willing adult couple - can go to a state-sanctioned official to be united legally and then they can deal with the church in the way that is right for them.  Some states provide that - one can get married by a clerk at the courthouse.  But many others - including Virginia - do not.  It needs to be the standard.

This change is coming and we need to just get over it and move on.  Next stop ... the Supremes! 

"Someday, we'll be together!"

Olympics - week one

You'd have to live under a rock to be totally ignoring the Summer Olympics, but I do understand that everyone is not as avid a fan as I am - or would like to be!

There have been exciting moments in the pool, in the gym, on the soccer fields, in the skuls and just about everywhere else - with more to come in track and field this week.  So, it seems to me that it is time to take a moment and  talk about what really matters - the U.S. uniforms. 

[In the Olympic spirit, I am not in the business of dissing the uniforms of other countries.]

Actually, I have been totally impressed with the high quality - read that as "good looking" US uniforms.  Love the bright reds and the good dark blue.  

How can you not like these rowing team uniforms?

 Or ladies' tennis?

 Or, gymnastics - men's ...

 or women's ...

or swimming - they all wear the same thing ...

 or track and field?

 even trampoline (who even knew that was an Olympic sport?) ...

or volleyball ...

 or, soccer ... [They have navy uniforms and white, too, but I love these with the broad stripes!]

 

I do have a question, tho.  Who thought that gray warm-ups would look nice for the medal ceremonies?  Could they have made a worse choice?

 

Yes, they could have - and they did.  The folks in the shooting sports are wearing brown.  Yes, brown.  That sure is the the color I think of first for the U.S. - well, right after gray.  

 

What were they thinking?

New Dominion?

Today in Richmond about 1,000 people - some men, but mostly women - descended on the State Capital Grounds to silently protest the a law passed two weeks that restricts a woman's ability to make decisions for her own reproductive rights.

I wonder if they covered their faces so that their mothers wouldn't know what they were doing?

The law requires that any women seeking an abortion have an abdominal ultrasound - which she must pay for - prior to having the abortion.  The original bill required an ultrasound to determine the gestational age of the fetus.  Apparently the proponents did not know/understand that in the first trimester a traditional abdominal ultrasound does not work to determine fetal age.  The only way to accomplish that is a trans-vaginal ultrasound.  That is, an ultrasound probe that is inserted thru the vagina.  After a demonstration last week, that requirement was dropped, and the abdominal procedure ("jelly on the belly") specified.

A second law that would have given "personhood" to a fertilized egg was tabled until next year.

Apparently those protesters who were arrested had seated themselves on the steps of the Capital - silently - and failed to leave when asked by Capital Police to do so.  At that point riot police with tear gas and rifles were called in to establish "order".

I thought we fought these battles in the late 1970's and early 1980's.  I'm sorry I didn't know about the rally in time.   I would have been more than willing to be arrested for this issue.

Update:  I have now seen some film of the event and learned that the protesters were not silent.  They did not appear to be putting anyone in danger; merely shouting slogans and chanting.  They have been charged with "unlawful assembly".  Isn't there something in the Constitution about a "right to assemble"?

Today's thought From the Garden Bench is that this is a clock that we do not need to turn backward.