Fear

Two days ago, while riding the train in a foreign land I encountered a woman who was in awe of me traveling alone in a foreign country to destinations to be determined. As we were talking I expressed to her that I think when we 'fear' things they come to us. I explained how as a 21 year old I hitchiked a good part of the western US.

I didn't share this part with her but I had two incidents that could have gone wrong but I handled them both by being assertive and they obviously weren't ready for that. One guy groped my breast within 30 seconds of me entering his vehicle and I told him to pull over and he did and I got out. The second one was a trucker who I had been traveling with for most of a day and he had told me I could get some rest in the sleeper compartment. He attempted to join me about 20 minutes later. I crawled out of the compartment and out of the truck, it was 2 a.m. about 10 miles south of the Wyoming border but I didn't care.

I didn't fear much at this point in my life and I still don't to this day. Yesterday I met a really nice guy on the train and we started talking and he was really helpful. I had found myself very depressed the day before and I was trying to figure out why. Was it the lack of human contact or maybe too much free time (I tend to work 7/12 but currently am on a 12 day vacation) We talked about a lot of things and one of them was fear and I shared w/him my epiphany from the day before.

During the interim of speaking w/the lady and him I was thinking about fear and about my brother (the lawyer) who had spent years molesting me. Maybe it was the fear that he would do it, brought it to me and maybe when I asked him for sex it showed I didn't fear it any more and that is why it stopped. I am sure it also scared him a bit too because in a way it took away his power. I would love to know what you think???

Health Care Reform

The other morning I was listening to Hillary Clinton talk about her health care plan and I remember when she tried to push it through in the early year's of President Clinton's administration. Today I was reading how Mrs. Edwards was stating that she is using John's plan and how Hillary gave up so easily on the effort back in '93 or '94. I have always felt that we need a national health care plan and it didn't seem to me that she gave it up until she was derailed at every turn. A lot of people tell me to choose my battles and I think that is what she did. Sometimes, in fact often times - big $$$ wins out.

One of the reasons I believe we need a national health care plan is so people like me can go to a doctor when we are ill without having to worry about how we are going to pay for it. I am a disabled veteran and even if they do get lifetime health care for those veterans that are disabled it won't help me because I was discharged in '97 and they want this to date back to '01 or 02 -so I will still be w/o health care. The company I currently work for has a horrible health care plan as did the last company I worked for. Now on the other hand, many single mothers and families on welfare get assistance either through WIC or various other medical programs. I have seen this be abused by acquaintances and even friends of mine. I am not judging as I grew up within the system myself and spent most of my life as a foster child. I just think we need a better system.

Now my plan may seem outlandish to many but I believe these are some good ideas. Of course as all good plans this will need some tweaking but this is just what I have been thinking.

To begin with I feel that we should decriminalize drugs. Now I have had this conversation with a few people and they say that it is the same thing of legalizing it - which may well be the case - but there are limits to it. For example it should not be sold in stores as liquor is. I think just about every study on alcohol vs. marijuana will show that a lot more people die from alcohol related deaths than marijuana related deaths. In fact there are no known deaths directly from marijuana. My brother Charles died from alcohol induced asphyxiation. My brother Jack for as long as I can remember was a peaceful dope smoking man but once he started drinking he bacame abusive toward his wife. There were reasons he started drinking - he hadn't drank much in almost 20 years - but once he started he couldn't let it go. He was drinking everclear the morning he took his life with his 308 hunting rifle. So I am quite close to the harsh reality of it.

I don't think drugs are a good thing but I know that people are going to do it whether it is legal or not. Now if we decriminalized all drugs the price of drugs would plummet because there is no risk involved. So the cartels and insurgents would have to find another way to fund their activities. Also drug dealing, prostitution, armed robberies and burglaries would decrease because the last three are often done to get money for drugs and dealing relies on drugs being illegal. We also could free a lot of people that are in prison for petty drug crimes and that would cut back on how much we spend every year on convicting and then imprisoning them. Also they could be out in the work force paying taxes as well. It would also help with the problem of overcrowding in prisons and jails.

Now just like every plan there are catches. I believe that it should still be a crime to aid, abet or give anyone under the age of 18 drugs. Of course kids will still be kids but if the adult is held accountable I think they will be a little less reckless about it. I also think that 18 should be the legal drinking age. If you can die for your country, vote and be tried as an adult, then you should have the rights of one. I don't like the fact we try juveniles as adults at all but that is another debate.

Now I know it seems that I have gotten off topic but here is the bigger catch. If you do drugs for non-medicinal purposes then a $ amount can be imposed against you because you are putting yourself at greater risk - just like smokers - that have health insurance - have to pay higher premiums.

The money that we would save in the criminal justice system (policing, judicial process and imprisonment) would be put to paying for health care. It would also make it more competitive for doctors, clinics, hospitals, nursing care etc. Competition brings down cost - plain and simple. Unfortunately they would try to find a way just as the big oil companies have to work together so they can get maximum amount from their product. Another source would be taxes - quit giving corporations tax breaks and that would bring in a lot of revenue. My next rant will be on a tax system that I think would benefit the poor and middle class and wouldn't hurt the wealthy.

XotiqueJaz

Marriage - Religion & The Law

THE GREAT DEBATE

For many years now the debate over the "right to marry" has been a hot topic for politicians, religious leaders, the ACLU and GLBT advocates. It seems that most of the liberals who speak on it are weak in their arguments. Many don't seem to have the passion that the religious right do - so I, who considers myself a "conservative liberal", am go to expound on it to the best of my ability. I want to begin with the argument that marriage should be defined as strictly between a man and woman.

This will be rather brief to say the least. I recall several years back when two big corporations merged the press wrote of the "marriage" of these two giant companies. Not once did I hear any objections from the "right" that they should not use this word to define the merger of these two companies. I also remember during the trial of Scott Peterson that he was "married" to his statement. Imagine that - a human married to a statement. I also recall that after the announcement of John Edwards becoming John Kerry's running mate the term "marriage" was used to describe it. So now we have two inanimate objects that can marry. We have a man, who now is a convicted murderer being "married" to something he said, and we have two men, who are both already married, being "married" to each other, not because they love each other but because they are running "mates". But don't we dare allow two people of the same sex - not necessarily the same gender - to "marry" because that word should be used only to define the union of two straight people - even if they don't love each other. Things that make you go hmmmmmmmm..........

My next topic is the argument that many use to support the idea that marriage should only be between people of the opposite sex. This argument is based on the fact that marriage is about family and about children. Well to get stupid for a quick minute - should all women have to get divorced after their child bearing years are over? Okay, even I think that is stupid. The couple that raised me from the age of six have now been married for 55 years! Congratulations Mom & Dad! Back to my point. If a woman is barren or a man sterile then neither of them should be allowed to get married. Everyone should have to take a physical exam to ensure they are capable of producing children. Also - and I hate to sound cold but what if the woman can't carry a child to full-term, should she not be allowed to get married or stay married? How about the couple that doesn't want children? What about women who are widowed or divorced after their child bearing years? The ones who seek companionship, they can't have children so why do we allow them to get married? Could it be because they have the God given right and also the Constitutional right for, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". Are gay Americans some how not American? Do we not have the same Constitutional right as everyone else? I don't understand why this is anyone's business - and please don't tell me about the man-boy love thing or the bestiality thing - that is just stupid! We are talking about two consenting adults - humans! This should not be a right we should have to fight for - it is our right already to get married - it just seems that not many in Government want to recognize it for what it is. All we really should be fighting for is the right to be recognized as married.

Now let's talk about the whole biblical thing! Just a little background on me first. I was raised in the church, not just any church where we go on Christmas and Easter and other holidays or for weddings and funerals but a church that had morning and evening Sunday services, girl's sewing for the younger girls, youth fellowship and youth prayer groups for the teenagers - Friday's and Wednesday's! We were very involved in church and I had to wear dresses all my life going to school! Why? Because in the Bible in states that women should not dress like men. Of course, in the Middle East most men wear robes, so maybe we should have worn the pants and let the men wear the dresses since the Bible is a history about people from the middle eastern part of the world.

Sodom and Gomorrah - Genesis 20: And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

Where do we get the idea from this King James Version passage that Sodom was a town full of people practicing homosexuality? If this were true, why would Lot offer up both his daughters to a bunch of men who wanted to have sex with men or in this particular case - they wanted to "know" Lot's guests, which just happened to be Angels and I am quite sure they could protect themselves. In fact, that is what they did when they closed the door on them. Two Angels against a town full of raving hormonal homosexual men! Now I don't doubt that this story is true, what I question is why so many Christians want to say it is about homosexuality - thus the word "sodomy". This is not the only town God destroyed by fire and brimstone but the other town didn't elude to any "homosexual activity" and I am not sure that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah does either.

In Leviticus it states that it is an abomination for a man to lie with another man.

Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

This is not one of the Ten Commandments but what is recorded as a law that God spoke unto Moses.

Of course another law in Leviticus, Chapter 11: 9 " 'Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams, you may eat any that have fins and scales. 10 But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to detest. 11 And since you are to detest them, you must not eat their meat and you must detest their carcasses. 12 Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be detestable to you.

There goes your Shrimp - I don't hear anyone from the "right wing" condemning everyone for eating Shrimp or other tasty dishes, lobster, crab, etc. It is all in the same book in the Bible - I am not making this up! I do believe that if God felt this was a sin He would have surely remembered to make it the 11th Commandment! I think God had it right - don't you? Of course if you read Leviticus Chapter 11 - 21 or so you might find a lot of laws that seem ludicrous by today's standards. Please feel free to check it out. You can easily click on my "Bible" link and read it for yourself.

Don't take his name in vain, Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy, Have no other gods before Him, worship no graven images, obey your parents, do not covet anything of thy neighbors, do not bear false witness against thy neighbor, do not steal and do not commit adultery! I think that is the ten. I have met many "Christians" and I am not judging but just stating a fact, that have never even read the Bible, they just believe what they heard in Church or what they have been told and then want to judge others. Here is one for you -

Matthew 7:1 "Judge not, that ye be not judged."

That was something Christ said, remember Christ, the Son of God, Who died on the cross to forgive us of our sins? Thus the word Christian - we are to be followers of Christ.

Off topic - sort of - These last couple of weeks there has been the "Larry Craig Scandal" and I don't know what he did or didn't do but I do know that one Congressman made a statement that what he did was "unforgivable"! Who is he to forgive Craig, his wife? his children? If even they have anything to say about it. God forgives, not some congressman! It seems every time one of these guys start judging another one for his infidelities or mistakes that God has a way of "outing" that person's faults as well! I wonder what they will come up with on the Congressman who said it. I don't know his name and I honestly don't care to.

Well enough of my rant for today - luckily for all of you I have work to do! If you read this and want to share it through email or paste it on your page feel free!

XotiqueJaz