Large in the Sky / Milk

The largest and the shiniest full moon of this year can be seen. The sky-watchers living across the globe will be able to view this beautiful and unique sight. Seeing a full moon in the night sky is quite natural but the Friday night full moon will be a unique view because it will be fourteen percent bigger and thirty percent brighter.

And as you can see it was still pretty big tonight. I stepped outside the Lodge to see it and took this snap shot. Otherwise the day was pretty uneventful. The Lodge dinner (below) was the highlight. I spent most of the afternoon working on Lodge business (A Secretary's work is never done.) Jon was over to help bring up a few things from the basement so I could take my Santa's out for the Table decorations for the Holiday Party.

I went to Des Moines last night to see Milk. It was a wonderful movie. Harvey Milk's story is fascinating. Sean Penn and the others did a marvelous job telling that story. What Milk was able to do was to get elected as a Supervisor by putting a face on gay people and also by demanding that people recognize that "All Men Are Created Equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights." In the end he was murdered along with the Mayor by a man who was probably a repressed homosexual himself.

One of the sub-stories in the movie involved a young man in a wheel-chair who was going to kill himself. He called Harvey up and spoke to him. Because of Harvey and that conversation he did not kill himself. Milk became a beacon of hope for gay people everywhere.

Monday is the 206th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. It is well for people to recognize that those rights are for everyone.

The Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, the freedom of assembly, the freedom to petition, and freedom of the press. It also prohibits unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, and compelled self-incrimination. The Bill of Rights also prohibits Congress from making any law respecting establishment of religion and prohibits the federal government from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law {...} In addition, the Bill of Rights states that "the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," and reserves all powers not granted to the federal government to the citizenry or States

All of these rights are for all citizens of this country. We are seeing a vast number of people around the world demanding the fundamental right to marry the person they love. I attended the wedding of Terry and Mark during the brief window of time when Iowa allowed same sex marriage. These guys have been a couple for over 30 years. They have been together and run a business and they have raised children together. They want to be married. To validate that love. Unfortunately the ruling was put on hold and only one couple was legally married that weekend. Terry and Mark decided to hold the wedding anyway. The church was overfull and it was a wonderful ceremony. At the end of the beautiful service they kissed. Mark said later that it was the first time they had ever kissed in public. 30 years and they had never done it before.

The movement that Milk and his friends started has grown and finally there are more and more people who support their cause. I recommend that anyone who wants to get a better feeling for this should go see the movie.

And if you don't think that gay people are oppressed in this country and the world you just need to use google to find out. I saw a picture of young gay men hung from a crane in Iran. They were hung (killed) just because they were gay. In this country Matthew Shepherd and Lawrence King and countless others were also killed because they were gay. It is not right and the people who perform and encourage these crimes are surely deserving of our pity because they do not understand God's love for all that he has created. We have only begun to learn the lesson that racism is not something we want in this country. Homophobia is not wanted either. Milk begins to help us understant this and I recommend you see it.

Thanks for stopping by and ARTYAL, Bear Hugs, j