MS SB2681- Not Just Against the Gays

The Mississippi legislature is in the process of enacting SB2681, a so-called Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This law is not just about shop owners being able to discriminate against homosexuals, lesbians, transgenders, and bi-sexuals. It's an open assault on everyone's civil liberties.

 Look at the wording in this section:

 58         (c)"Exercise of religion" means the practice or
 59 observance of religion. "Exercise of religion" includes, but is
 60 not limited to, the ability to act or the refusal to act in a
 61 manner that is substantially motivated by one's sincerely held
 62 religious belief, whether or not the exercise is compulsory or
 63 central to a larger system of religious belief.

This is going back to the times when hospitals could refuse treatment of blacks.  This is going back to a time when businesses had signs hanging in their windows that Jews were not allowed.

The Founding Fathers knew what great harm religions could do.  I believe they wrote the 1st Amendment because the US was a haven for those who could not practice their religion freely in other countries.  Baptists, Quakers, Calvinists, and other Protestant sects flocked here.  So did Jews and other non-Christians.  They wanted people of faith to be able to worship as  they wanted without interference from the government.

This intended law can have dire consequences and to me is a danger to all.  This law can be used to discriminate against Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, and others as long as the person doing the discriminating is acting on "the refusal to act in a manner that is substantially motivated by one's sincerely held religious belief".

My grandfather at the age of 10, with his family, immigrated to this country because of real persecution and not the made up persecution of Fox News .  As Jews living in Ukraine they were unable to hold certain jobs, land, etc.  They faced pogroms were their villages were burned to the ground, women were raped, and all could be killed.  It was especially bad around Easter.

They came to this country because they knew that there was freedom.  There was religious freedom and they didn't have to worry about government interference.  There was bigotry.  Jews were not allowed in certain places but it was not government sanctioned discrimination.

This proposed law would allow government sanctioned discrimination against the LGBT community, non-Christians, non-whites, atheists, and even against Christians.  It must be stopped if the US is truly to be the Land of the Free.

Self-hating Jew?

Someone, an anonymous person from Littleton CO, has accused me of being a self-hating Jew because I support President Obama.

There are many reasons I support President Obama. He is not out to get Israel. He is not a Muslim. His policies on Israel are about the same as past presidents. Unlike some past presidents such as George W. Bush, he did not promise to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

All presidents from President Truman to President Obama have supported Israel. Some have offered better support than others. Both Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon both Republican, withheld timely help when Israel desperately needed it. Just look at the Yom Kippur War and contrast it with President Johnson's, a Democrat, response during the 1967 war.


I cannot support any of the current Republican candidates for president. Newt Gingrich has openly advocated jailing judges he disagrees with. Mitt Romney actually thinks that a corporation is a person. Santorum seems to want to establish a theocracy and do away with our representative democracy.

All of them seem to have a singular disregard for a actual, breathing persons individual rights. All of them seem to morbidly interested in women's reproductive rights than in looking at ways to help the unemployed. Some of them openly embrace endorsements from those that say homosexuals should be killed. Most of them show a contempt for science.

Here's a good example of Republicans in action:It's an anti-bullying law but states that a person with deeply held religious convictions can make a statement for those beliefs. The bill was aimed at gay kids who were being tormented. But it would have helped other kids who were being bullied. I guess it will be okay for those with deeply held religious beliefs to call Jewish children "christ killers" or kikes.

These Republican contenders all show a tendency toward fascism.

Just look at this:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

From Liberty Forum

The Republicans, to me, already have the first 13 points locked in. All across the nation, Republican controlled states are attempting mass voter suppression by various laws.

No, I'm not a self-hating Jew. I'm just one who remembers where great-great-great-great grandfather came from: Tulchin. I also remember a conversation I had with my Grandfather about the US. I told him we are so lucky to be living here and would never have to worry about being prosecuted because of religion. He said it could happen here and that we must be on guard. Read the above 14 points again.

American Fears

I've become very disheartened in the direction the United States has been going since President Bush was president. At the time, I agreed with some of his policies. I did protest the invasion of Iraq but once troops were on the ground, I fully supported them. In an effort to understand the Islamic faith I began reading a website by Robert Spencer. He equates all Muslims with the radicals. I stopped reading after I had emailed him a question regarding Muslim prayers. In it, I said you gain a lot of understanding by a faith's prayer. I never received a response from him and this led me to believe he really wasn't really an expert on Muslims.

After 9-11, Americans, myself included, seemed content to just forget about all the things that used to make us a beacon of freedom for those oppressed by intolerance because of religious and political beliefs. One good President Bush did do was state over and over that the vast majority of Muslims do not believe in the cause of the radicals who flew the planes into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

However, because of fears of another attack some of our most cherished principles have been submerged. It didn't start with the War on Terror. It started with the War on Drugs. With those laws, our 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th Amendment rights have been encroached upon. With the War on Terror, even more encroachment has been seen.

These laws can be changed. What cannot be changed is the torture that was employed in order to gain information from captives. It used to be that the US was the one country where torture did not occur. Fears led us to torture and the imprisonment of detainees.

Now fears, anger, and hate-mongering are being fueled across the country by those who do not believe in the 1st Amendment. Protestors in California, Tennessee, and New York are protesting the building of mosques and religious centers. I try to be understanding of those who are protesting the Islamic center close to Ground Zero. There is a mosque already there. But I think a lesson can be learned from the Pentagon. A prayer chapel was built in the Pentagon in the area where the plane from that awful day flew in. Different religious use the chapel including Muslims.



We can keep the above image in our mind as standing for the ideals of our country or we can be:



and willing to deny follow Americans their rights:



We are the United States of America. Let us remain the home of the free and the brave and not let our fears get the better of us.

Real America

The very first Admendmnet listed in the Bill of Rights is this:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

There has been a growing trend in our country to call it a Christian Nation. This flies in the face of ideals and principles our founding fathers had in mind when this amendment was added to the Constitution. It was a very radical idea at the time for there not to be a state religion. Great Britain's state religion was the Anglican church. Many European countries state religion was Catholicism.

When colonies were first formed in this country, many of them were founded by those who were fleeing persecution. Our country has long served as a beacon of freedom for those who just want to be able to live their lives peacefully and to worship in freedom.

Even here in Gulfport and Biloxi Mississippi, this tradition continues. The Buddhist temple is just down the street from the Korean Baptist and Catholic churches. Beth Israel Synagogue is across the street from the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Muslim women wearing hajib mingle, Christian fundamentalists women wearing long sleeved shirts and skirts, and those in bikinis all mingle at the beach.

These images are at the very essence of religious freedom granted in this country. Sure, I've had those who tell me to get out of store when my Magen David is seen. But those instances are few and far between.

I believe that this is what the founding fathers had in mind when freedom of religion was guaranteed as a right.

I believe that efforts to bring prayer into school or forcing school children to sing Christmas carols eats at the heart of our personal freedoms.

If we were to reinstate school led prayers, which prayers would be chosen? Would it be the Nicene Creed? Would it be the Shema Yisrael? How about the Hindu morning prayer to Saraswati? Or the Muslim fajr? Or the Wiccan prayer of daily thanksgiving? Or how about an atheist stating there is no god? To make it fair, wouldn't each child of each religion or non-religion have to be given a turn?

Religion or lack there of is one's personal choice on how to live. The majority of people who live in the United States consider themselves to be Christian. They are free to worship as they choose. So is everyone else. It is in the Constitution and the separation between religion and state must be preserved so that everyone can continue to have religious freedom.

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