For years, the so-called National Organization for Marriage, the anti-gay group at the helm of many campaigns opposing the freedom to marry, has made it their focus to “drive a wedge between gays and blacks,” a strategy specifically outlined in a series of classified documents that came to light earlier this year. The organization has tried desperately to pit minority group against minority group in its efforts to push its agenda.
But in recent months, we’ve seen time and time again that NOM’s efforts are failing. African-American support for the freedom to marry is at an all-time high, and it continues to increase steadily as we approach the November 6 election. Our first African-American president also became the first sitting president to announce his support for ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. And the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a longtime supporter of the LGBT community, adopted an official resolution in favor of the freedom to marry back in May of this year.
Today, Julian Bond, chairman emeritus of the NAACP published an editorial about why the marriage campaign in Maryland matters.
Posts published in “Politics”
Newark Mayor Cory Booker wowed ‘em at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday when he offered the party’s 2012 platform to delegates. Here are a few excerpts:
“Our platform emphasizes that a vibrant, free, and fair market is essential to economic growth. We also must pull from our highest ideals of justice and protect against those ills that destabilized our economy – like predatory lending, over-leveraged financial institutions, and the unchecked avarice of the past that trumped fairness and common sense.”
“When your country is in a costly war, with our soldiers sacrificing abroad and our nation facing a debt crisis at home, being asked to pay your fair share isn’t class warfare — it’s patriotism. But we all know – it’s common sense – that for an economy built to last we must invest in what will power us for generations to come.”
“This is our American mission. These are the dreams of our fathers and mothers. This is the demand from the next generation, who call to our conscience in a chorus of conviction, in classrooms from coast to coast, north to south, when they proudly proclaim with those sacred words from our most profound pledge, that we are a nation with liberty, and justice, for all. And this November, with the reelection of President Barack Obama, this generation of Americans will ever expand upon the hope, the truth, and the promise of America.”
He got a standing ovation and there were people wiping tears from their eyes. Booker clearly liked being in the spotlight.
by Bob Ingle via blogs.app.com
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTPdKUA9Ipg&w=560&h=315]
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu called Sunday for Tony Blair and George Bush to face prosecution at the International Criminal Court for their role in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Tutu, the retired Anglican Church’s archbishop of South Africa, wrote in an op-ed piece for The Observer newspaper that the ex-leaders of Britain and the United States should be made to “answer for their actions.”
The Iraq war “has destabilized and polarized the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history,” wrote Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984.
“Those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague,” he added.
Tutu, the retired Anglican Church’s archbishop of South Africa, wrote in an op-ed piece for The Observer newspaper that the ex-leaders of Britain and the United States should be made to “answer for their actions.”
The Iraq war “has destabilized and polarized the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history,” wrote Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984.
“Those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague,” he added.
“There’s a great difference between being concerned and being committed. When you’re concerned, it’s negotiable. When I went to Washington, I was committed. And what I was about was not negotiable.”
— Jocelyn Elders, the first African-American U.S. Surgeon General
“Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes. Keep hope alive. Don’t you surrender! Suffering breeds character, character breeds faith. In the end faith will not disappoint.”–Jesse Jackson, civil and human rights activist
GBN Quote Of The Day: “When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
–Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from his “I Have A Dream” speech
“I have a lifetime appointment and I intend to serve it. I expect to die at 110, shot by a jealous husband.”
–Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice and the NAACP’s chief counsel on Brown vs. Board Of Education
In this Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012 photo, female opposition leader Isabelle Ameganvi calls on Togo’s women to observe a one-week sex strike beginning Monday, in Lome, Togo. The female wing of a civil rights group is urging women in Togo to stage a week-long sex strike to demand the resignation of the country’s president.(AP Photo/ Erick Kaglan)
LOME, Togo (AP) — The female wing of a civil rights group is urging women in Togo to stage a week-long sex strike to demand the resignation of the country’s president.
Women are being asked to start withholding sex from their husbands or partners as of Monday, said Isabelle Ameganvi, leader of the women’s wing of the group Let’s Save Togo. She said the strike will put pressure on Togo’s men to take action against President Faure Gnassingbe.