Thursday, November 10, 2016

Via JMG: NOM Issues Plan To Work With Donald Trump For “Inevitable Reversal” Of Same-Sex Marriage Ruling

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And pretty much every other LGBT advance achieved by the Obama administration. From hate group leader Brian Brown:
Donald Trump has won a historic election, an unprecedented victory that has turned the establishment upside down. We heartily congratulate him and his team on their incredible win. President-elect Trump will now turn his attention to governing, and NOM is committed to working with him. We are confident that our voice and our views will be important in a Trump administration.
Here is our plan:
We will work with President Trump to nominate conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, individuals who will adhere to the words and meaning of the constitution. Such justices will inevitably reverse the anti-constitutional ruling of the Supreme Court imposing same-sex ‘marriage’ on the nation in the Obergefell decision, because that decision lacked any basis in the constitution.
We will work with President Trump to rescind the illegal, over-reaching executive orders and directives issued by President Obama, including his dangerous “gender identity” directives, attempting to redefine gender just as he sought to redefine marriage.
We will work with President Trump to reverse policies of the Obama administration that seek to coerce other countries into accepting same-sex ‘marriage’ as a condition of receiving US assistance and aid. It is fundamentally wrong for a president to become a lobbyist for the LGBT agenda, and we are confident that will end in the Trump administration.
We will work with President Trump and Congress to pass the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), which Mr. Trump supports. FADA is critical legislation to protect people who believe in marriage from being targeted by the government for persecution.
This is a bright and exciting time for NOM, and we are committed to taking full advantage of the opportunity we have. Our voice and our views matter to the incoming administration, and that means your voice and views matter.
To make sure that we can influence the policy debates that are coming, we need to step-up our communications. The first step is to grow our presence on social media. Please act today to follow NOM and me on Twitter, and to like us on Facebook.
It only takes a few seconds to follow us on Twitter and to like us on Facebook, but doing so will help us increase our ability to educate and mobilize our supporters.
We’re excited about the future, and we are looking forward to work with the Trump administration to restore marriage, uphold gender, protect religious liberty and promote families.
NOM remains the sole national hate group to support the First Amendment Defense Act. The Family Research Council, the Liberty Counsel, and the American Family Association all withdrew their support after new language was added which would also legalize discriminating against married straight couples on the the basis of “sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.”

Make the jump here to read the original and more at JMG

Via Sri Prem Baba


Via Daily Dharma / November 10, 2016: Learning From Anger

When we approach our feelings of anger with awareness, with mindfulness, it becomes a productive part of our practice. We find, after all, that anger has something to teach us.

—Jules Shuzen Harris Sensei, "Uprooting the Seeds of Anger"

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Charter for Compassion
 
the invitation has arrived
to step into our courage
and our full humanity
 
from this day forward
the harm can only unfold
and multiply and spread
 
with our silence
with our consent
with our participation
 
we will not be silent
we do not consent and
we will not participate
in legitimating violence, lies and division
 
the love that we are
the love that connects us all
the love that bends history
even in this dark moment
towards liberation 
 
We are one 
we are many and
we are one
it is time 
dear friends 
the revolution of love
must be completed 
 
And it is only possible 
if on this day
we commit our lives 
to walking the hard road 
because there is now only one way forward 
 
adapted from work by Taj James, founder and Executive Director of the Movement Strategy Center
Join us for a Special Charter for Compassion Conference Call: After the Election
 
 
A discussion about compassion and how we are called to act following a US election season that has brought out strains of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and bigotry. How can we heal? How are we called to action? What can we bring to the mission of making compassion a luminous force?
 
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
 

Via Ram Dass

 

The enlightened being, or the person that’s awakened, realizes that the game is to walk through the path and leave no footprint. Leave no footprint because whatever footprint you leave is just more karmic stuff. Do what you do, but do it so purely. They say in the Tao, “The leader who leads best leads so that at the end, you think you did it yourself.” The next best leader you admire, the next best you fear, and the worst leader pays you.

Via Sri Prem Baba


Via Daily Dharma / November 9, 2016: Anger, Sans Storyline

When you feel the fear and you feel the rage in meditation, there’s no storyline. There’s just the experience of the arising and passing away of the emotions and the sensations in the body, and seeing how they relate to one another.

—Gavin Harrison, "Lotus in the Fire"

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Via Sri Prem Baba


Via Daily Dharma / November 8, 2016: The Buddha’s Ballot Box

If Buddha had added a ninth practice to the Eightfold Path, it might have been Right Voting. Voting is a manifestation of the law of interdependence: Each of our actions, no matter how small, affects the whole cosmos. Our votes count.

—Susan Moon, "Ten Practices to Change the World"

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Via Liberal America / FB:


Via JMG: Frank Bruni: The Ugliness Is Far From Over

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“Tuesday nears, after such epic ugliness. ‘It’s almost over,’ friends say. ‘We’ll finally be done with this.’ What a lovely thought. What a naïve fantasy. There’s no end here, just a punctuation mark, a measly comma between the rancor that has built until this point and the fury to come. And there’s no way to un-see what all of us have seen over these last 18 months, to bottle up what has been un-bottled.

“Election Day will redeem and settle nothing, not this time around. No matter who declares victory, tens of millions of Americans will be convinced — truly convinced — that the outcome isn’t legitimate because untoward forces intervened. Whether balloons fall on Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, there will be bolder divisions in America than there were at the start of it all and even less faith in the country’s most important institutions.

“The person taking office will do so not on a wave of hope but amid tides of disgust, against fierce currents of resistance. Tell me how she or he moves forward. Tell me how America does.” – Frank Bruni, writing for the New York Times. The full piece is worth your time.

Via Huffington Post: Please Protect My Marriage: Vote For Hillary

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Marriage Equality has changed my life. And it’s on the ballot.

When I was in college I met my first love in Paris and he moved to Boston to be with me. It was a nightmare because he couldn’t work, we constantly struggled with visa issues, and with time, it was too much to handle and we separated, young hearts broken. I swore no more international boyfriends! Of course, I met a guy from Montreal and that too ended, but years ago. 
And then I met Giovanni. I was much older and long-single, so I didn’t say no. And at first, it was casual and I didn’t really think about him being Colombian. I first really felt it when I went to Africa and he stood by me every day from home, but he couldn’t come to my graduation. He couldn’t fly or leave the country. 
I came back and we moved in together. I started to see him talk to his family back home, and hear how being apart for 17 years broke his heart, especially when his dad got sick. His pain was too much to bear. So for him, for us, I took on marriage equality in NYC. 
My focus was on the Equality Bill - but I was determined to free him, so I added this to my plate. I took on immigration reform too. We had two pathways to freedom from DOMA. The Supreme Court. Or Congress via Comprehensive Immigration Reform. I couldn’t affect SCOTUS, although I did resort to prayer, organizing a sunrise prayer service in D.C. the morning of the hearings. 
But I worked deep in the trenches in immigration reform. There I learned that straight immigrants suffer the same horrible fear and closet that gay people do. Who knew. And bringing gay relationships in to that forum with the Catholic Church & Evangelicals in the room was hard stuff. 
Fortunately, the SCOTUS came through on Wednesday, June 26, 2013. And on the following Sunday, NYC Pride Day, Giovanni and I got married and paraded down 5th Avenue with the sign “Just Married Today” — as the liberation joy of millions poured forth. It was incredible and our faces hurt from smiling. 
Then came the immigration process, extremely stressful and frightening as we revealed our lives. But we got through that process. And the boot lifted. He flew home finally. Although we were afraid he might not actually get back in. He flew home again. Okay. Relief. We got his social security number - a huge deal. Health insurance. He could join our apartment lease. We finally got on a plane together and had our honeymoon in his country. 
But most of all we were free. Free from watching other people get married when we couldn’t. Free from feeling like a second class citizen in my own country. Free from all the heart-wrenching stories from other bi-national couples with whom we are forever bonded. 
Amidst all of this, there was one incredibly painful and also happy day I’ve not talked about.
Two years before DOMA was overturned we won Marriage Equality in NY. Soon there was a big gay wedding day at the marriage bureau when they opened just for us on a Sunday to issue licenses. 

Seeing all the couples together was incredible. Marriage ceremonies going on all over. Old, young, all colors. Our tribe was on parade and it was beautiful. 
But I almost didn’t go down because my heart was so heavy. We could still not marry. DOMA remained. Our suffering remained. And a huge battle loomed still ahead, an overwhelming battle in Congress or the Supreme Court to overturn DOMA - a tall order. 
But it’s gone now. DOMA is dead. We’re free & equal. And Hillary will make sure the SCOTUS keeps it that way. 
Please protect our “hard fought, hard won” progress, as Hillary rightfully calls it. Protect Marriage Equality. Protect my marriage. My husband. Our lives and freedom depend upon it. 
#ForwardTogether #ProtectOurProgress #Hillary4President2016 #VoteEQUALITY

Via Ram Dass



You are constantly going to sleep and waking up. All you can do is keep searching for the clarity and quietness amidst the confusion of your melodramas...

Via Sri Prem Baba