Wednesday, November 29, 2006

And the beat goes on

Not a whole lot to update lately. I'm still working a lot at the office to get everything going on Blackboard and everything. I seem to have about 5 projects going at once and not enough time to do any of them.

I'm hoping to get my Christmas tree sometime this week or next. I can't wait.

To answer people's questions, yes, I get called Tommy by my aunts and some other family members. :) And if any of you try it, you'll find that you no longer be living. hehe. VERY few people get away with calling me that.

Still searching for a roommate, so if you know of anyone, let me know. Room is available starting Jan 1.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

In full bloom

Last year at Christmas I was at my Grandmother's and I got two cuttings of Christmas cactus. One was I think 2 links long, and the other 3 links. I planted them and over the course of the year they grew a lot. There's now at least 20 links in each of the pots. Its to the point that I really should re-pot them since I can see the roots coming up in the soil.

I've been a bit remiss lately in watering my plants so today I made extra sure to water them and I noted new leaf buds coming out of the links, which has happened at least once every month or so since I've had them here at the condo. Upon closer inspection I realized that these were different. These were round and oval instead of the flat growth of a leaf. As it turns out, my cactus is flowering! This is the third plant that I've gotten to flower since moving into the loft. The first was the moonflower vine (which unfortunately has since been thrown out - it was dying and the soil was really bad), the second was my aloe plant, and now my Christmas cactus is flowering. I don't know where my green thumb came from, but I like it!

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Do I Dare to Dream?

Well today the MA Legislature voted to recess the Constitutional Convention until January 2, 2007, the last day of the legislative session. They did this after over 2 hours of debate on the anti-gay marriage amendment without voting on it.

Theoretically the legislature could convene on January 2, but the thinking is that that is unlikely.

Personally I'm not going to rest easy until January 3, 2007 when the session is over and any bill that wasn't dealt with is dead.

Some people say "Let the people vote". I can see the rationale behind that argument and on the surface it seems very logical and the right thing to do, but scratch a little deeper and you see the fullness of the issue.

Is it fair to ask a majority to vote to take away civil rights of a minority? What if desegregation has been put to a vote? Inter-racial marriage? Women's suffrage? Would any of these have passed? Does anyone today think that these are bad things? Would anyone today suggest we remove those rights?

If you don't want to go the route of civil rights and protecting the minority, let's look at the fact that this was put up by the legislature 2 years ago and defeated. Let's look at the fact that the process of getting signatures was a complete bastardization of the petition process. There was a sickening amount of fraud associated with the processes of bringing the petition to the legislature. Why is it that anti-gay forces excused and dismissed the fraud and deceitfulness of their process but then deigned it appropriate to hold everyone else to do "what is right" or what "the constitution intended". My mother always told me that two wrongs don't make a right, so how does pulling fast ones on unsuspecting citizens to get them to sign it then make the anti-gay groups have the moral authority to decry the gay rights groups' intentions to defeat this amendment by any means necessary?

Additionally, bills die all the time in various parliamentary procedures when lawmakers don't want to deal with it or don't want to be on the record as opposing it. How often do we hear about a bill being "sent back to committee" with everyone giving each other a knowing look because everyone knows that means the bill is dead. What makes this bill different? Only that they anti-gay forces want to be viewed as the moral high ground defending the noble process of our states vaunted constitutional process. Bullshit. All they want is this bill to pass by any means necessary.

I'm exhausted with this battle. It has been raging since 2001 when the first voter initiative was started. That sought to declare marriage as being between one man and one woman only. In the fall of 2002 it was brought to the legislature. That was defeated by adjourning the convention without voting on it. I was elated when new year arrived, the session was over and the initiative was dead.

The next 4 years were a rollercoaster of elation, excitement, frustration, disappointment and anger. It was a rollercoaster of emotions that I don't wish on anyone. Here's a timeline of events to give you an idea of the stress level that's been a constant in my life.

May of 2002 - there was a push for a federal amendment to the US Constitution to ban gay marriage across the nation. This thankfully was defeated but not before raising my blood pressure and stress level.

July 17, 2002 - Thomas Birmingham adjourns, with a vote of 137-53, the Constitutional Convention (ConCon) without voting on the first anti-gay marriage voter petition. Jane Swift asks, but does not require, the Legislature to come back to vote on the amendment. On December 31, 2002 at 11:59 pm any bills left on the table by the Legislature, including this amendment, is dead. The other side vows to resubmit.

June 2003 - the US Supreme Court decides Lawrence v. Texas which nullifies anti-sodomy laws which decriminalizes homosexual sex as well as of course any sex more adventurous than your basic missionary position given that sodomy not only includes anal sex, but oral sex and can include any sexual gratification (such as vibrators) that is not achieved by coital sexual intercourse.

November 17, 2003 - the MA Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) decides that there is no constitutional basis for denying same-sex marriage and proceeds to give a 180-day stay until their decision takes effect. Begin the countdown to May 17, 2004.

March 29, 2004 - the Legislature passes the first round of a legislative amendment to ban gay marriage. If passed in 2005 again this would end up on the 2006 ballot. Obviously since you didn't vote on it, it failed.

May 17, 2004 - Gays get married and the world doesn't end. Amazing.

September 14, 2005 - the legislative amendment is voted down 157-39. There was much rejoicing then immediately everyone got into battle mode again as a new voter initiative had already begun.

December 7, 2005 - the signed petition was presented to be voted on at the next ConCon.

November 9, 2006 - the legislature recesses without voting on the amendment.

January 3, 2007 - the day after the legislative session ends. Hopefully I can relax at this point.

So at the moment I'm not celebrating or breaking out the champagne. I barely even want to take a sigh of relief for fear of yet another shoe to drop. I probably won't rest until the tide starts to turn on a national scale so that the national religious right wing "family" organizations stop funneling all their efforts at turning back the victory we won in Massachusetts in September of 2003.

To those of you who got this far, thank you for reading this through. I know this was a long post but it had to be written and it had to be put out there.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Remeber to Vote

Just a reminder to everyone to please remember to go out and vote today!

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Looking for a room to rent?

So my roomie just let me know he'll probably be moving out by Jan 1. He's got a potentially great opportunity for a residency spot that will require him to move out of state.

Anyone know anybody that's looking for a place to live starting January 1, 2007?

Friday, November 03, 2006

Love that dirty water...

Its good to be back in Boston. As much as I loved DC, its good to be home, and yes I know that in actuality that Worcester is home and not Boston, but when travling around the country or the world, its Boston that I consider my home. Its nice to come back to a familiar city and a familiar airport.

I'm currently on my way home from Logan right now. Having a data enabled cell phone rocks! :) I took Worcester Limo Shared Van service into and out of Boston to save the hassle of driving myself and the cost of leaving my car at Logan. On the return trip I have lucked out. They transferred me to a private limo towncar for the return trip. SWEET!

I have to say that two of the things that really struck me about DC was the driving and the homeless people. The homeless seemed to be everywhere. It was rare to go more than a few blocks without seeing someone sitting or sleeping on a park bench, on the side of a building, or on a window sill of a building. I know that Boston does have its share of homeless, but it didn't seem to be so prevelant.

Then there's the driving. I know people give a lot of grief about "boston drivers" but the DC drivers were crazy. They'd honk and cut people off a lot worse than in Boston. At least in Boston, most people seem to know what they are doing. They are VERY agressive but it seems like people understand and expect it. In NYC most of the drivers on the streets are cabbies, and they are all used to each other anyway. In DC, though, it seemed like people were just erratic and didn't know from one minute to the next what they were doing.

The flight home was less rocky and bumpy than the flight down which is always a plus. I was worried about getting my ride home since we took off about 10 minutes late from Dulles, but we seemed to make up about 15 minutes in the air and actually arrived early. I have to say I'm impressed with JetBlue. Its pretty good service for the price. The only thing I miss about the regular airlines are the larger planes, because they, like larger ships, seem to be less affected by turbulence and changing currents.

All-in-all it was good training and a worthwhile trip. I'm looking forward to going back in December.