Holocaust

Religious Right Wing Christians Join Russia, Uganda, Saudi Arabia And Other Nations In Advocating Persecution Of Gays And Lesbians!

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As Gay Rights advance in 13 states and nationally in America, and also in much of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and parts of Latin America, we also witness the horrible persecution going on in Uganda and other African nations; Saudi Arabia and other Middle East nations; in much of Asia; and sadly, in Russia, which will be hosting the Winter Olympics in February 2014, threatening athletes, journalists, coaches, visitors, as well as victimizing Russian citizens on the basis of their sexual orientation.

This reality brings back memories of gays and lesbians being the second largest group of victims in the Holocaust during World War II, with only Jews surpassing the number of victims of the Nazis under Adolf Hitler.

As terrible as this persecution and discrimination is, the fact that the right wing Christian conservatives in the United States are very willing to endorse this persecution, and claiming to follow the teachings of their Jewish icon, Jesus Christ, is infuriating, and makes one wonder how anyone who studies the teachings of Jesus could possibly be for persecution, and even worse for gays and lesbians in America and world wide. Their ability to promote such hate and to use poisonous invective against gays and lesbians is mind boggling.

What hypocrisy, what immorality, what lack of ethics, what sick minds would advocate violence and mistreatment of people based on their sexuality!

Vladimir Putin’s War On Gays A Threat That Requires Olympic Boycott On Basis Of Human Rights Violations!

Ronald 7 Comments

The Russian government under former KGB head Vladimir Putin has taken a step which, regrettably, requires an Olympic boycott by the United States and other Western nations on the basis of human rights violations that are unconscionable!

Putin has declared war on gays and lesbians in the following ways:

Russian born children cannot be adopted by gay couples or by any couple or single person living in any country that promotes gay rights, including gay marriage.

Russian police can arrest any tourist or foreign national they suspect of being gay, lesbian, or having pro gay sympathies, and detain them for 14 days for questioning.

Any Olympic athlete, trainer, family member, reporter or fan who is gay, suspected of being gay, or accused of being gay, can be sent to jail.

Any teacher, parent or anyone who makes pro gay statements, or argues that being gay is normal behavior, and any lawmaker, lawyer, or judge who has an open mind on the subject of homosexuality, is subject to arrest and fines.

Any couple accused or suspected of being gay could have their children taken from them by the state, whether adoptive or biological parents, as unfit to be parents.

This set of laws and restrictions are a gross violation of human rights, and totally unacceptable, no matter what a person’s viewpoint on homosexuality, as gays and lesbians are human beings who are entitled to the same treatment under the law as straight people are!

This situation reminds one of the campaign against gays and lesbians by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, and the mass murder of this group on a level only second to Jews!

Just as Western Europe and Canada and even the United States and portions of Latin America are moving ahead on gay rights and gay marriage, we see Russia moving in the direction of much of Africa and Asia and the Middle East in demonizing gays!

And joining with them in this regard, sadly, are the Catholic Church and many evangelical Christians and Mormons, who are not teaching the vision and tolerance of Jesus Christ, and are now “bedfellows” of oppressive governments, including Russia!

The United States and Western European countries should make it clear that unless these anti gay laws and restrictions are repealed, that they will boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia!

This would be a sad event for the athletes of these nations, but this is a question of basic human rights that cannot be overlooked by any decent government or any tolerant, open minded people! And remember that Olympic participants could become victims under these Russian laws, as well! So there is no choice but to boycott if nothing is done to repeal these laws!

Return From Vacation To Horrible News! Mitt Romney, And The Ugandan Catholic Bishops!

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Having just returned from vacation in Charleston and Savannah, and only having contributed one entry about the Wisconsin recall election results while on vacation, the author returns to horrible news, making one wonder about humanity!

Mitt Romney has made it clear that if the Supreme Court rules against the Obama Health Care law later this month, he will not protect the millions with preexisting conditions, who would, effectively, left out of health care by such an action.

Romney has also made it clear that he feels the message of Wisconsin is that the American people do not wish to fund more jobs for badly needed teachers, firefighters, and police officers, an unbelievable conclusion based on one state’s results, and a slap in the face of the American people, and the honorable professions that are so essential to the nation, and are being treated as if they are “servants” who can be hired and fired as Mitt Romney loves to do with everyone, due to his obscene wealth, greed, and selfishness!

Mitt Romney is becoming worse by the day, a true monster who comes across as the worst GOP nominee in American history, with his lack of humanity or concern for the needs of the American nation!

The thought that this man without a conscience could actually become President is totally sickening!

But then, the news gets worse, as we learn that in Uganda, the Catholic bishops are endorsing legislation to kill gays or put them in prison for life, a bill already promoted by the evangelical Christian movement, and setting up a situation that would lead to a Holocaust not that different than the one in World War II against gays, as well as Jews and other groups, which was ignored by the then Pope Pius IX!

Pope Benedict XVI needs to condemn this endorsement immediately, and crack down on the Catholic bishops of Uganda, but will he? He is condemning the “radical” statements of nuns who are promoting a open mindedness on many issues within the Church, so can one be assured that he will take steps to crack down on the hate of the Ugandan Catholic bishops?

This is just more proof how organized religion has lost its humanity, and is about to make gays the new victims of a modern day Holocaust in the name of God!

This news about Mitt Romney and the Ugandan bishops is enough to make one wish to go back on vacation, and shut out the cruel world we live in!

The Burden Carried Daily By Young Black Males In America: A Great Human Tragedy!

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We love to claim that there is equal opportunity and fairness of treatment in America.

But it is reality that anyone of us born white has a tremendous advantage at birth to live a good life, as compared to people of other racial groups, particularly the case with African Americans.

And the most dangerous life is faced by young black males in their teens and 20s and 30s.

Not only do young black males face the constant threat of violence and danger in heavily black communities in the cities, with the horrors of drugs, gangs, and poor slum conditions so common in America’s urban centers.

But even for those who are “middle class” or live in integrated communities, their daily lives are a nightmare!

It is hard to find work, hard to get a good education and go to college, hard to shop since they are constantly watched because of ingrained fears that they might steal items from department stores, supermarkets and other retail establishments.

But also, at a young age, they have to be informed by those who love them that they need to recognize that other people who are white, and sometimes even Hispanic or Asian ethnicity, may look on them as suspicious, simply on the basis of how they dress, how they walk, how they speak, how they behave, and if it is felt that they are in a neighborhood that arises suspicion as to their intentions.

This is what led to the murder of Trayvon Martin, ironically by an Hispanic man, George Zimmerman, who thought 17 year old Martin was in the “wrong” neighborhood, and was up to no good, and therefore, was perceived as a threat that allowed Zimmerman to “stand his ground” and use his firearm to end the life of a young man, who if he was white, would not have faced the death penalty issued by Zimmerman on his own decision, as if he had the right to be an executioner and claim self defense.

This situation involving Trayvon Martin is a great human tragedy, but for more than Trayvon Martin himself. It is a warning to every young black male that he is part of an endangered species that can become hunting material as much as a deer, a bear, or any other animal.

It cheapens the value and worth of human life, and it sets up a potential for a never ending Holocaust, which may likely also cause a counter reaction of response, which can only bring about a civil war, which could make our official Civil War seem trivial by comparison!

Commemoration Of Two Events On November 9: One Wonderful, One Tragic!

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Today, November 9, marks two events, both in Germany, which changed the world–one in a positive way, the other in a very tragic way!

On this day in 1989, the Berlin Wall, which symbolized the horrors of Communism, came down spontaneously in East Germany, leading to the downfall of the Soviet Union two years later, and the end of the Cold War between Russia and the United States led alliance of NATO.

The collapse of the wall gave the world hope for a peaceful future, no one being aware that the Persian Gulf War just over a year later helped to lead to the new age of terrorism, which had already begun, but accelerated after US forces were stationed in Saudi Arabia, the home of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in the Islamic faith.

Fifty one years earlier, in 1938, in Nazi Germany, we had the tragedy of Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass, when the Nazis unleashed an attack on Jewish citizens and property, including synagogues ransacked and set on fire, along with businesses, shops, and the destruction of cemeteries, and the arrest of thousands and the death of many Jews in a vicious manner. This is now seen as the beginning of the Holocaust, and sadly, while there was condemnation of the actions on November 9 and 10, the international community did little more than condemn verbally.

So the later date marked the end of Communism in Eastern Europe, while the first marked the growing menace of Nazism and anti Semitism, and the horrors of anti Semitism are still a reality in the world today!

The Obama Doctrine: Uphold Values Of Human Life By Intervening To Stop Massacres Overseas!

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President Obama tonight gave a speech at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, DC, justifying American intervention in Libya as part of an international force to prevent a massacre of civilians in that civil war.

Obama called it a basic principle of the United States that we should oppose all violations of human rights when it involves the likelihood of mass murder by a deranged dictator who does not value human life, and is only too willing to conduct mass operations against civilians in large numbers.

This is a direct contradiction of what the United States did in the past: failure by Woodrow Wilson to intervene in the Armenian Massacre by Turkey in 1915 during World War I; failure by Franklin D. Roosevelt to step in during the mass Holocaust by Nazi Germany against Jews, gypsies, and others during World War II; refusal by Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter to intervene during the holocaust in Cambodia in the late 1970s; and failure by Bill Clinton to step in during the massacre that went on in Rwanda in 1994.

All of the above are seen as moral failures by the United States and the world, but this new doctrine, while admirable and principled, does bring up the issue of how the United States and NATO are supposed to afford the cost of constant interventions all over the world!

What if similar massacres are imminent in Syria, Iran, and other unfriendly nations in the Middle East? Why should not the United States step into the situation in the Sudan, the Ivory Coast, the Congo Republic, Zimbabwe, Myanmar and elsewhere?

Are we to be selective in where the US and NATO intervene? And what about the deaths in Bahrain, where the US Naval Command in the Middle East is situated, and in Yemen, where there are dangers of Al Qaeda influences that could affect world wide terrorism?

And how in the world are we to afford more defense and war spending long run, as we cut ruthlessly into education, health care, and other public services all over the country? How much longer can we tolerate the worsening of our every day lives and commit ourselves to reforming the world of its evils?

It is hard NOT to agree with the purposes of the Obama Doctrine in theory, but in practice, it seems impossible and a losing proposition politically for Barack Obama to seem to commit us to never ending intervention in the name of human rights and decency!

This is a torment for those of us who consider ourselves progressives and liberals, as even the best intentions cannot be fulfilled within the budget constraints the country faces in the short run and the long run!