Historical Conservative!

I believe in as little government intrusion into our lives as possible. I believe this war should have never started and that it should end. I believe that our troops should come home because they need and want to, and because we need them. I believe that we will have need of them soon. I think we should take care of our own problems here before we try and help the rest of the world. i do not believe in political parties because they are all unpatriotic. I do think that hate crimes legislation are important. while i do not think we should tell people what they can and can not say, I do think that chronic harassment needs to be stopped. and i also think we need to tell them where they can and can not say it. you should say what you want in your home, in your church, and in your personal life and space; but we have social rules that prevent us from saying hurtful things in the workplace and i think we need to extend that idea into other parts of life. I was one of the kids who was harassed at nauseam in school and it leaves scars on your heart, mind, and soul that never fully go away. I don't think preachers should be stopped from teaching what they see fit from the pulpit, but I do think that preachers should be focused on God instead of sex. i also think that they need to realize that outside of church and their own homes and personal lives they come into contact with the rest of the world and that they need to respect that everyone is different. I also think that all these stupid pretend churches should stop standing on the side lines of the pride parades, and funerals spewing out their hatred and their filth. they should be ashamed of themselves and sit in judgment of themselves and stay home. Or better yet they should stay in church and read their bibles because obviously they are missing the point of most of it. now while I do love certain politicians like Ron Paul; there are two major points that I vehemently oppose him on. one is the hate crimes legislation because I think people have the right to go to school, work, and walk down the street with out being verbal or physically attacked. secondly I oppose him on the issue of same sex marriage laws. there should absolutely be a federal law passed that makes every state recognize same sex marriages. every state already recognizes hetero sexual marriages and I think gay people deserve the same right as any other citizen. it is unconscionable that any American citizen does not have basic equal human and civil rights as every other citizen. racial slavery was ended, subjugation of woman was ended, political injustice based on religious bias was ended, and yet there are two sets of people in this country who have little to no rights or have been denied certain rights that are theirs by divine providence and those two groups that are still under social enslavement are children and homosexuals. I urge Ron Paul to reconsider these issues and see that despite his religious beliefs what is best for this country is freedom and justice for all. there should be a constitutional amendment which redefines marriage for all American citizens as a religious, spiritual, and legal institution, union, and a certain type of social contract between two or more consenting adults.
and if you can read between my not so subtle lines you will see that I am also in favor of polygamists being able to get married as long as they are consenting adults. a minor issue i disagree with Ron Paul on is the secession of Texas from the union. i do not want to see this happen. however on almost all other issues i agree with Ron Paul. i think he is the least of all political evils and that he should have been the president.
I hate that marriage went from being a spiritual union to a legal issue, but we have made it so. therefore we need to allow same sex marriage to protect the rights of gay American citizens. because of political, health, and legal issues it is important that we give people a way to defend themselves. For instance; hospitals should not be allowed to arbitrarily dismiss a gay mans lover and give only his blood relatives legal rights and authority over him. His partner should be the one making those decisions. Or in the case of lesbian mothers, the hospital should not be allowed to tell them that only the birth mother is allowed in the room. These are ridiculous situations that have happened. There are also tax breaks that should apply to gay married couples and not just heterosexual couples. We need to do something about this injustice! We also need health and religious freedoms for all people in this country, that we dare to call the land of the FREE and the home of the brave. Exactly how is turning a blind eye on social injustice bravery? And just how are we ALL free. Only some of us are free! We say FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ALL; well lets put that not only into social practice but into law! In this way we can ensure that we are not being hypocritical.


A new American pledge of allegiance:
I wrote this because the original pledge is not a real American document but came from a boy scouts of America magazine! It doesn’t make sense to me, and it has many flat out lies in it! So I rewrote it as a pledge that I as a Christian, an American patriot, and someone who has many friends who are gay and bisexual, as well as friends from all walks of life can say and I don’t feel like a hypocrite, as well as an idiot! I do not think that we should pledge ourselves to a flag or to a dream that espouses to be a reality! I think that we should pledge our allegiance to our country in its reality! If someone asked me to say the national anthem I would, and proudly but I will never again utter the first pledge of allegiance for all the afore mentioned reasons! We have a separation between church and state! This was not only to protect the state from the church, as many seem to think, it was also intended to keep the governments nose out of religion where it does not belong! I pray that leaders get wisdom, commonsense, and good judgment! I pray that they get courage! And I pray that we get through this national growth process in one piece! As shakkera said “love is lacking leaders, and leaders are lacking love”! This new pledge was inspired by two things! A designing women episode where Julia ran for office! I think the episode is called I pledge allegiance! It is one of the greatest political speeches ever written in my opinion (at the end of the show made by Julia)! Also I saw an advertisement for a documentary where a Muslim baseball player got suspended for refusing to say the pledge of allegiance! I too have refused to say it, back when I was in school. I refuse to do so till this day! I have the greatest respect for our flag as a symbol be it whole, or burning, but I find no merit in pledging my allegiance to a flag instead of our country.


The new pledge: I pledge allegiance to the country; the United States of America, as it stands; one nation some of whose people are under God. I pledge allegiance to this nation that longs to be indivisible, and who hopefully one day will bring justice and freedom to all of its citizens; and who hopefully will continue to fight for the basic human rights for all people on this planet! Long live the government who was and maybe one day will be again a government of the people, for the people, and by the people! May our beloved country grow to its full potential, and may all of those who make themselves our enemy’s parish into the passing mists of memory! To this reality who holds a sacred dream, for the equality of all people; to this country I pledge my allegiance!
Rev. Loush M. O’Raven Oct. 2nd, in the year of our Lord 2006