No on Hate

During this time, its hard, it is a challenge for me to not hate...

Yes it bothers me every time I see another "Yes on 8 - We need to Protect Marriage"

From what? I really wonder.

Even a co-worker asked me the other day (Straight, Catholic) what the big deal was, he didn't get what needed to be protected - He could not understand how allowing gay men & women to marry could run his or any one else's marriage.

If we really wanted to protect marriage, we should restrict anybody from marrying, until they can pass a test that makes them understand that communication, acceptance, and forgiveness makes a marriage work.

That sometimes, no matter who we are, we fail to live up to another persons standards, and that most of the time we fail to live up to ours, and that forgiveness starts with ourselves, and we sometimes project ontothe other person our own fears or shortcomings.

It is fear, or the inability to place yourself in another persons shoes, that makes people seem to hate so much.

It is hate that does not want our kids to learn not about " doing gay slurs, racist slurs or sexist slurs " It is hate (or laziness) that does not want our kids to learn to treat each other with respect, when we don't understand that we have differences.

And it is fear (or hate mongering), when you say someone is not Patriotic, just because they have a different opinion than yours.

I can understand that people might fear that our country is on the decline, but, silencing all discussion about what path to take is not the answer.

My Boss, who is a republican, didn't know what to say the other day , when I told him that he was not an evil person just because he was republican, that he had some good points, but just silencing the opposition did nothing to help his cause.

It is through dialogue that we can come to a place where we all, we may not be happy, but satisfied with where we are at.

And sad to say, but sometimes, there are people, they will not come to the table in a spirit of compromise.

I believe that there are somethings that should not be compromised, such as the rights of the individual.

It is one thing for that individual to make a sacrifice for the greater good of his fellow people, it is another thing to take away the rights of another individual to make yourself more comfortable.