Thanksgiving 2006

Americans are truly a fortunate people to live in a country where freedoms and rights are guaranteed in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. We are blessed with an overwhelming majority of good solid citizens who form the united strength that has held our country together in the past and who hold out the hope for its future. There is much Americans should be grateful for on this Thanksgiving. Hundreds of things we take for granted are still unattainable dreams for millions of people on this tiny planet. In addition to our health, our families, our friends, our prosperity, our country and our rights and freedoms we should be especially thankful for:Parents who care for and inspire their children;

Teachers who are devoted to training our youth;

Doctors, nurses and other medical workers who care for our sick;

Policemen, firemen, and other public employees who risk their lives in service to their communities;

Members of the military who protect and defend;

Religious leaders who give comfort and encouragement and who strive to instill and preserve moral and spiritual values;

Political leaders who seek serve their fellow citizens;

Public spirited individuals who donate time, energy and financial resources to the less fortunate.

Yes, there is much to be thankful for, but we do not live in an earthly paradise and we face continuing challenges. We have a responsibility to take up our God given blessings and use them to make life richer and more meaningful for ALL human beings. We live together; we must work together;

To end war, eliminate prejudice in all its forms, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and create jobs for the unemployed.

Rid the country of corruption and scandal, improve educational opportunities for all peoples.

Eliminate the pollution of our natural resources and reduce global warming.

These are but a few of the challenges that await us this Thanksgiving. The resolution of these and many other problems require our finest efforts if we are to fulfill the dreams of our founders.

Finally, let us strive to achieve peace in our world. Peace in Asia, peace in the Middle East, in Europe, in Africa, in South America, in our country, our state, our towns and cities. Peace in our families and in our hearts.

This is a large order, but a necessary one. There is no better time to start than this Thanksgiving.

Equal Rights for ALL

Wirt & King: Local politicians and the gay marriage question
By Tobin Wirt and Robert King/ Guest commentary

Joe Burns, columnist for the Upper Cape Codder newspaper, per usual was right on the mark when observing the absurdities of the Romney Administration and those who do his bidding. The Liberty Sunday gay-bashing rally in Boston that Joe wrote about (“Who Cares,” Oct. 19) for us is just another example of the blurring of lines between church and state.

Thomas Jefferson is widely quoted on civil and religious matters. In the preamble of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, Jefferson proclaimed, “Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry.”

The fact is, where there is more religious freedom one finds a society withmore religion. The Romney style of civic government would seem to curtail religious freedom by narrowing the diversity of creeds (or no creeds) in civil society.

Given the recent allegations that Romney is using his Mormon connections in Utah to advance his presidential aspirations, we hope that timing will ultimately derail his hopes for the presidency. Americans seem to be reaching an end point with awareness and alarm at the religious overreach into politics. We feel Romney fooled and misrepresented his views to the voters in 2002 and postured himself a moderate on most social issues but then swiftly moved to the right when the corner office was secured and Iowa and New Hampshire became more important to his future. Bashing the Bay State on his many trips around the country does not endear him to many proud Massachusetts citizens.

Locally, our state representative, a nice guy with many supporters, does Romney’s bidding in lockstep. Rep. Jeff Perry has never met a gay-rights bill he could vote for except one. It funded elderly gays as part of a larger bill tied to funding elderly affairs. It was unanimously passed in both houses, hardly a leap of courage on his part. Perry has reassured gay groups and us personally that he is supportive but is beholden to the views of what he says is the majority of his constituents and therefore votes against any advancement of gay rights. Most troubling are Mr. Perry’s votes, which are consistently against funding programs that help teenagers deal with the ever-present difficulties they encounter in our public schools. While wanting to give Jeff the benefit of the doubt with his assurances of support, we feel his voting record speaks for itself.

A seemingly purposeful omission on Perry’s Web site under Political Philosophy, where all the perfunctory groups who are protected in this Commonwealth against job and housing discrimination are listed, there curiously is no mention of sexual orientation. When asked why, Rep. Perry claimed that he hadn’t updated the Web site since the gay marriage issue had come to the forefront. While believing him at his word, it seems odd since civil rights protections have nothing to do with the ongoing marriage question. Those protections have been on the law books since the early ’90s for sexual orientation. Why then didn’t he include sexual orientation with the others to begin with? Reason would bring one to question if he does indeed support the state-mandated protections in jobs and housing for gay citizens (let alone gay partnerships of any kind). Mr. Perry said he was thankful for having the omission pointed out and that he would “re-evaluate” his Web site after the election. However, a check of the Web site last week showed that on Oct. 2 the site was altered and the references of the aforementioned in the Political Philosophy link are gone.

Cape Cod has witnessed an odd juxtaposition of stances on gay marriage by three GOP hopefuls in elections this fall. You have Aaron Maloy, 4th Barnstable District, an openly gay man who is against gay marriage but for civil unions. You have to wonder how much this guy wanted to win when he is willing to throw his gay brothers and sisters overboard to solidify “separate but equal” status on them.

Next we have Rick Barros, running for the Cape and Islands senate seat, a decent, good man of color who also says marriage is between one man and one woman and that the people should be allowed to vote on it. In the not so distant past (in the ’70s) only one out of three Americans supported interracial marriage and it was the courts that ultimately ended that bigotry, not the voters. Mr. Barros acknowledges his engagement to soon be married and it will be an interracial marriage.

Lastly, Rep. Perry, a gracious and respectful man who speaks openly of a close gay family member, continues to do the work of the people who demonize gay people, apparently forsaking people in his district as well as those close to him. We feel he eludes accountability for this.

Mr. Perry will be asked to vote again on whether to advance the anti-gay marriage petition at the Constitutional Convention. And despite his past verbal assurances that he could probably not support this petition (which he expressed over a year ago to a small group of people of which one of us were in attendance) he has since backtracked and is on record already as voting to throw it to the populace for a vote.

We encourage all constituents to contact Mr. Perry’s office if you agree that he is wrong-headed on the matters of gay rights. Recent attempts by his office to poll citizens in his district regarding gay marriage predictably supported his anti-gay stances. We implore Upper Cape voters to speak up if you haven’t had the chance to do so thus far.