usvi-on-line
Iowa is a surprising place
Iowa is a surprising place
I've never been to Iowa, but I think maybe I should go and have a look. Things seem to happen there that don't match up with the picture that I have of Iowa. Obama won the caucuses and now same sex marriages are legal. I wonder what the next surprising development will be there? Was that baseball field real?
Last edited by Lex on Sat Apr 04, 2009 3:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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chicagoans
- Posts: 1586
- Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:51 pm
- Location: IL
Lex if you like bike riding (like it alot) and your butt can take 500 miles in a week, you should sign up for RAGRAI. Happens every July. Huge bike ride across the state of Iowa, from the Missouri River on the west (dip your rear wheel in the river when you start) to the Mississippi River on the east (dip your front tire at the end.) You will experience a lovely ride through a great state full of kind and generous people. The ride draws thousands of people from all over the world, and goes through little towns where the population is multiplied by 10 when RAGRAI comes through. It is a blast!
I was a big city snob when I did RAGBRAI 3 years in a row, and I can say with no hesitations that I love Iowa!
I was pleased when I saw the news too. Good news for tolerance and equality.
I was a big city snob when I did RAGBRAI 3 years in a row, and I can say with no hesitations that I love Iowa!
I was pleased when I saw the news too. Good news for tolerance and equality.
"Iowa" didn't do anything. Their Surpreme Court did. The people of Iowa haven't been given the choice - it's all been at the beauracratic level. It hasn't gone to a public ballot, so I understand. Just a law enacted by State Government then overturned by State Supreme Court.
Please forgive me if this is incorrect (and I apologize profusely if it's wrong) - I'm going off of recollection of articles in national publications - I don't live there.
VI
Please forgive me if this is incorrect (and I apologize profusely if it's wrong) - I'm going off of recollection of articles in national publications - I don't live there.
VI
Small world...Mrb Senior...my dad...does RAGBRAIchicagoans wrote:Lex if you like bike riding (like it alot) and your butt can take 500 miles in a week, you should sign up for RAGRAI. Happens every July. Huge bike ride across the state of Iowa, from the Missouri River on the west (dip your rear wheel in the river when you start) to the Mississippi River on the east (dip your front tire at the end.) You will experience a lovely ride through a great state full of kind and generous people. The ride draws thousands of people from all over the world, and goes through little towns where the population is multiplied by 10 when RAGRAI comes through. It is a blast!
I was a big city snob when I did RAGBRAI 3 years in a row, and I can say with no hesitations that I love Iowa!
I was pleased when I saw the news too. Good news for tolerance and equality.
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chicagoans
- Posts: 1586
- Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:51 pm
- Location: IL
Well, it seems that soon same sex marriage will be permitted in Maine, New Hampshire and D.C. That will make six states and the District. Not that long ago I might have said that it would be more likely that a black man would be elected president than same sex marriage would be legalized. These are remarkable times. The next generation will have a very different view of things. But then there are still countries, some of them in the Caribbean, where homosexuality is illegal.
Until I hear someone seriously talking about making divorce illegal, I can't take any of the sanctity of marriage argument seriously. Considering same sex marriage is forbidden in the majority of the country and very newly allowed in the states that have legalized it, I would say it is hard to come to a definitive conclusion about the divorce rates. That said, 50% of marriages end in divorce. Since most end in divorce maybe we should just do away with the practice as a whole. No?
A world that accepts loving adults as individuals who deserve equal rights is a better world. No more than I can make myself gay do I believe a gay person can make themselves straight. If a nation who talks so much about personal freedoms is going to deny such a basic right to a subset of its citizens it better have a REALLY good reason. I would like someone to articulate what that reason is? I would love to specifically know how this is going to erode our moral fiber or undermine our society. Some would argue text messaging, the internet and rap music are the end to all civilization ... with such a fundamental right at stake I feel that there really needs to be more than a "feeling" that its wrong or a religious argument in a county that is not a theocracy.
I can't believe it is even an issue in this country. But then again a short 40 years ago I could not have married my husband in the state of Virginia. That is now seen as wholly back-ass-ward. I hope it doesn't take another 40 years for same sex couples to have the rights I do because I happen to be heterosexual.
As a result of the controversy over the current Ms. California's beliefs about marriage - which she ABSOLUTELY has the right to express - I thought another former Ms. CA made a compelling statement.
Nicole Lamarche, Miss California 2003 and now an ordained minister:
"As a pastor and a former Miss California, I am often asked to interpret what the Word of God has to say on a particular subject. I am quite confident that God prefers that we human beings stick to speaking for ourselves. And yet there are occasions when God’s Word is used as a weapon, and I feel compelled to speak.
In the past few days, much has been made of the words of Miss California USA, Carrie Prejean. She stated that marriage is between a man and a woman. I write not in response to her opinion, but rather about her comments that followed: that the Bible condones her words. She said, 'It's not about being politically correct, it's about being biblically correct.' While this sentiment is shared by many who seek to condemn gay people and gay marriage, citing pieces of the Bible to further one’s own prejudice fails to meet the Bible on its own terms.
Most people seeking to condemn gay people point to the Book of Leviticus, where we read that men lying with men is an abomination. However, we rarely hear of other verses found in the book of Leviticus that are equally challenging. For example, Leviticus also tells us that eating shrimp and lobster is an abomination. And that a person should not wear material woven of two kinds of material—an impossible mandate for a pageant contestant!
The truth is that it is difficult to know for sure the intentions of the biblical authors, but we do know something about God. Those of us who know God through Jesus of Nazareth know that he went to great lengths to express God’s love to people who were labeled as outcasts. He spent time with children, prostitutes, and lepers, all of whom were labeled as outside of the grasp of the Holy. As we continue to seek God’s vision for us as a nation grounded in a love for justice, I pray that we might move closer to the cause of grace.”
Fortunately, in my opinion, this ship has sailed, the train has left the station, it is just a matter of time.
A world that accepts loving adults as individuals who deserve equal rights is a better world. No more than I can make myself gay do I believe a gay person can make themselves straight. If a nation who talks so much about personal freedoms is going to deny such a basic right to a subset of its citizens it better have a REALLY good reason. I would like someone to articulate what that reason is? I would love to specifically know how this is going to erode our moral fiber or undermine our society. Some would argue text messaging, the internet and rap music are the end to all civilization ... with such a fundamental right at stake I feel that there really needs to be more than a "feeling" that its wrong or a religious argument in a county that is not a theocracy.
I can't believe it is even an issue in this country. But then again a short 40 years ago I could not have married my husband in the state of Virginia. That is now seen as wholly back-ass-ward. I hope it doesn't take another 40 years for same sex couples to have the rights I do because I happen to be heterosexual.
As a result of the controversy over the current Ms. California's beliefs about marriage - which she ABSOLUTELY has the right to express - I thought another former Ms. CA made a compelling statement.
Nicole Lamarche, Miss California 2003 and now an ordained minister:
"As a pastor and a former Miss California, I am often asked to interpret what the Word of God has to say on a particular subject. I am quite confident that God prefers that we human beings stick to speaking for ourselves. And yet there are occasions when God’s Word is used as a weapon, and I feel compelled to speak.
In the past few days, much has been made of the words of Miss California USA, Carrie Prejean. She stated that marriage is between a man and a woman. I write not in response to her opinion, but rather about her comments that followed: that the Bible condones her words. She said, 'It's not about being politically correct, it's about being biblically correct.' While this sentiment is shared by many who seek to condemn gay people and gay marriage, citing pieces of the Bible to further one’s own prejudice fails to meet the Bible on its own terms.
Most people seeking to condemn gay people point to the Book of Leviticus, where we read that men lying with men is an abomination. However, we rarely hear of other verses found in the book of Leviticus that are equally challenging. For example, Leviticus also tells us that eating shrimp and lobster is an abomination. And that a person should not wear material woven of two kinds of material—an impossible mandate for a pageant contestant!
The truth is that it is difficult to know for sure the intentions of the biblical authors, but we do know something about God. Those of us who know God through Jesus of Nazareth know that he went to great lengths to express God’s love to people who were labeled as outcasts. He spent time with children, prostitutes, and lepers, all of whom were labeled as outside of the grasp of the Holy. As we continue to seek God’s vision for us as a nation grounded in a love for justice, I pray that we might move closer to the cause of grace.”
Fortunately, in my opinion, this ship has sailed, the train has left the station, it is just a matter of time.
