ASSAULT & BATTERY

Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.

“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!" He said. 

 
So, I'm reading this article in the Washington Post about Willard's roommates recounting this incident that happened with him and this free spirit puff. Obviously an effeminate fellow student that didn't quite fit in. What is a well-to-do, self inflated bully like Mittens to do? Well, beat up on the guy of course.
 
The story just makes me reflect on my youth as well as the generations before and after me enduring those troubling High School and College years. Granted I went to SUNY Ulster so I never faced the drama of dorm life, but I can imagine what the underclassmen must go through elsewhere. It's a formative period in our lives. Fun and exciting, but also very scary.
 
By today's standards, the holding down and cutting someone's hair would be considered assault. Perhaps in the 60's on a campus like Cranbrook, it was probably expected. I don't know, I wasn't there. But fast forward to today. Now we are faced with the possible leadership of our country with a man who thought traumatizing an assumed homosexual classmate through public haircutting was no big deal. I suppose, anyone other than the fella on his back probably walked away without so much as a care. (OK, so I was wrong)
 
The point is, this blast from the past probably wouldn't have even come back to haunt Willard had it not been for the recent Same-Gender Marriage conversation occurring at every dinner table this week. Yes, Obama has finally admitted that everyone should be treated as equals. Don't you just hate this shit? Just when so many of us were getting used to living as second class citizens, the President throws us into some kind of "I'm worth living" sense of righteousness. Ugh. Now we have to contend with the mobilization of bigots across the nation spewing the same hysterical nonsense we've heard for decades. It's so tired.
 
Saddled with the task of weeding the grounds with my co-workers this afternoon, I mentioned how some of my friends feel we are educating and changing minds every year. I continued to tell them that no, they aren't changing, they are simply being replaced. It's a generational thing. People who harbor the darkest thoughts passed on from our parent's era are simply growing old and passing on. Those of us who feel all humans are simply people worthy of equal rights are replacing them both in the home and in position of influence. Simple.

 
So I see it as some kind of evolution too. Like the President and the general public opinion that's shifted toward equality for everyone. Who knew.
But for all you faithful out there, here's to another baby step toward a better America!

ARKANSAS CLOSURE NOTICE

It's official. Racism is now dead.
You may now go about your business in a post-racial Amerika. That is all.

All sarcasm aside, this was actually posted in all state buildings in Arkansas. Makes you realize that we are truly sheltered here in the North East.

SAME GENDER COUPLES: HOSPITAL RIGHTS

It has taken a little time for the news to sink in. The President issued a memorandum Thursday evening declaring that persons hospitalized for any reason have the right of visitation by anyone of their choosing. Why does this matter?

There are institutions out there that would prohibit not only the visitation of a non-blood related partner, one who has power of attorney over their well being simply because they refuse to recognize the relationship. Example: Same Gender couples.

The rule change will make it easier for gay men and lesbians to make medical decisions on behalf of their partners. The president said the new rules would affect any hospital that participates in Medicare or Medicaid.

The AP printed this quote from Thursday's press event: “Every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindness and caring of a loved one at their sides. Gay men and lesbians are “uniquely affected” because they are often barred from visiting partners with whom they have spent decades."

I know I join a growing chorus of people who feel Obama could have made this effort shortly after he was sworn in. It may be a little late, but at least it's here. All to often, same-gender partners have been denied access to a patient's bedside when you'd expect it to make the most good. White House personnel are in the drafting stage of this change, so it wont happen this week, but I have to say the idea of equality in the hospital sounds sweet.

HRC's VP David Smith, was quoted in the New York Times: “It’s a huge deal! Nearly every hospital in the country will now be required to provide hospital visitation rights to LGBT families. It’s an enormous step. In the absence of equal marriage rights in most jurisdictions, this step provides an essential right to LGBT families for a gay person or a lesbian person to spend time with their partner in a critical situation.”

What prompted me to feature this topic was the AC360 story where Cooper interviewed the widowed partner of a patient in a Florida Hospital. Ms Langbehn was prohibited from the bedside of Ms Pond who suffered a brain aneurysm. Living together for over 20 years, she and their kids weren't allowed to see her until her death.

This would be a state faced with Crist & Rubio as potential republican candidates for Governor. One was comfortable with this prohibition, the other willing to roll back any resemblance of equality in the sunshine state. Now, neither will have the ability to stop unmarried, non-blood relations from visiting their loved ones at hospital bedside. Almost diminishes Rubio's reason for running.

Thank you Mr President.

FARM WORKERS RIGHTS

Tonight, I visited the Economic/Tourism Committee of the Legislature. I am not on the committee, but you all know how I love attending meetings.
One of the final issues addressed was [get this] a memorializing resolution! Yes...another one.

I know, they are warm and fuzzy toothless memorandums that we send to other elected bodies across the nation. We usually spend more time on them during caucus and session than the $6 million Bonds, but another one goes through committee anyway.

This one? Asking the Assembly and Senate to reject the Farm Workers Rights Bill.
This bill would amend the labor law by removing farm laborers from the list of workers excluded from coverage under the New York State Labor Relations Act.

What does this mean? Farm laborers are currently excluded from the protected categories of workers covered by the Labor Relations Act, they are not guaranteed the rights given to other workers by section 703 of the Act. These rights include “the right of self organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities, for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, free from interference, restraint, or coercion of employers.”

A YES vote for the resolution is to be interpreted as pro farmer. Subsequently a NO vote would be the opposite. I don't see it that way. Neither do several of the Democratic Caucus members. Maybe we should amend it to read as an endorsement of the Bill; see how many votes we get. That would be fun.

Farmers are not happy with the direction the State Legislature is heading on this one. So why bring the issue back to us by having this on the agenda?

One friend on the Committee mentioned that a portion of the workers dont want the bill either. We later agreed that the two factors that may drive that little anecdote would be pressure from the farmers who are threatening their jobs and the fact that many would have to provide documentation if this were enacted in order to be eligible for the new labor regulations.

I just shake my head and chuckle.

CONGRESSMAN MURPHY ON DADT

Congressman Patrick Murphy speaks at the Human Rights Campaign’s press conference urging repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as part of HRCs citizen lobby day.