Mar. 09, 2002 - 21:21 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Whats The Call ?

I watched the Laramie Project tonight. HBO, the show ya' know. To me it brought to the fore once more how violent, bigoted acts can tear up the operation and well being of a whole town.

Mathew Shepard, I think is an example of the thinking when I was a kid, all too many years ago. The favorite Friday night battle cry for the high school boys was, "Let's go down town and beat up some queers." And I guess that feeling is still around. Laramie, Wyoming, cattle country, once part of the Wild Wild West, where every man had the right to choose his own poison and only suffered if he harmed someone. I didn't go on those expeditions as I had found from personal experience that gay people didn't try to force themselves on me -- they didn't seem a threat as far as I could see. I have been hitchhiking to town a time or two when young and got picked up by a man, and in the course of the ride I was propositioned, but I said no and was dropped where I was going.

Are humans like the chickens in a chicken coop? They tend to peck at a bird that is different and a wounded one is pecked to death.

Just because I am different from you, and vice versa, while I think your way is distasteful and again vice versa. Does that give either person a right to greviously injure or kill another? I think not.

Maybe I have misunderstood what little of the Bible I read, but I have seen nothing in Jesus teachings that encourages one man to harm another. Self defense of course is another matter to me, if it is true self defense when life and limb is threatened.

It seems that because someone has a different lifestyle it is considered by some, justification to injure them. Supposedly that difference allows some one who feels differently to be the judge, jury and executioner. Hah, yeah right.

In some ways we are acting silly, using euphemisms to say something without really admitting something really exists. Dammit, I am crippled - not handicapped like a horse or a golfer, I have a close relative who is fat - not horizontally challenged, I know one person who is retarded - not mentally challenged and a friend who is short - not vertically challenged, hell there is nothing there to challenge in either of the last two cases. We seem to pretend that there is nothing wrong by using euphemistic words thinking that the whole thing will go away. Political Correctness.

Bill Johnson a columnist for the Rocky Mountain News makes some sense this morning (as he usually does) bringing up something to think about.

In Denver now, "Under HB 1311, parents who drop their newborns at a firehouse or a hospital and skeedaddle out of the child's life wouldn't have to worry about their names ever becoming public."

To me that makes a lot more sense than abortion by a darn sight - or murder - or desertion. Gives a newborn baby a decent chance at a good life right from the start. Of course it depends on how the welfare of the child is overseen by ha, ha, the authorities (if they are not bigoted) too.

Then Bill brings up. "HB1356. This measure would prohibit two adult human beings, who decide to bring a child into the world, public acknowledgement of their parenthood on a birth certificate. That is if the couple happen to be members of the same sex. Oh, let's just say it: If they're gay. Homosexual.

Bill has no objection to HB1311, seeming to think that is better than the things I mentioned. But he says about HB1356 the following, "What I'll never understand is this trembling fear of, paranoia or outright hatred some in the legslature appear to have for same sex partners. Say it again for me, Gays. Homosexuals. In almost every session they attempt to stick it to this group, be it hate-crime protection, employment benefits, recognition of their emotional commitment to each other. Now they're coming after their kids."

Mr. Johnson goes on to say. "In Colorado now, two people who have no biological connection to a child can under law assume parental rights and be listed on a birth certificate. State health officials have sought to change this in numberous court cases, all of which failed, even thrugh appeals to the Colorado Supreme Court."

Rep. Pam Rhodes, R-Thornton, and her HB1356 wants to change all that." She is saying, "Obviously two women can't be the natural mother of the child. We need to go back to the original intent of a birth certificate," Rhodes has said of her bill. "A mother is a mother and a father is a father and a birth certificate should reflect one of each." ( my note, what I consider a sin is between me and my God and I don't think anyone else should be required to live up to my creed ) Bill says, "Ah, if the world operated in such absolutes."

So now, let me get this straight, if the father of the child is unknown in a case such as rape, or by the refusal of the mother to divulge that information (cases of incest) this baby shall be forever damned in a society that requires a birth certificate for such things as driver's licenses, attendance at public schools yadda, yadda, yadda and most everything else such as employment. Criminy they won't even be able to get a Social Security number and card.

The stigma of a child born out of wedlock - being called a bastard and made a second class citizen is for the most part in the past the way I feel.

If M. Rhodes wants to go back to the way things were, would she be willing to be a pregnant, barefoot housebound wife to someone, or an old maid relying on family to begrudgingly support her? Or is she like so many of the present generation bound and determined to have it both ways? Jeepers, the kid is already born, there are two people who guarantee that the child will be taken care of.

Its a crazy world now, so on this What's The Call ? . . . . . . . .

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