Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Via Luminous and Healthy / FB: The Precious Jewel Within...

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food.
The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.

"I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Please give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone."
The Precious Jewel Within...

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. 

The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. 

"I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Please give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone."

Via JMG: Prop 8 Backers File First SCOTUS Brief


 
Today the legal team representing Protect Marriage, the backers of Proposition 8, filed their first brief at the Supreme Court. Chris Geidner has the story at Buzzfeed:
Arguing that the case brought by same-sex couples seeking to marry was unlike past gay rights cases where the court struck down anti-gay restrictions and also unlike Loving v. Virginia, in which the court struck down bans on interracial marriage, the proponents of Proposition 8 argue that there is no historic reason "for invalidating marriage as it has existed in California for virtually all of its history, as it was universally understood throughout this Nation (and the world) until just the last decade, and as it continues to be defined in the overwhelming majority of States and Nations."
Geidner clips this passage from the brief:
Our Constitution does not mandate the traditional gendered definition of marriage, but neither does our Constitution condemn it. This Court, accordingly, should allow the public debate regarding marriage to continue through the democratic process, both in California and throughout the Nation.
Arguments in the case are scheduled to begin on March 26th.
Among the numerous articles listed in the "authorities" portion of the Protect Marriage brief are two essays by homocon writer and marriage equality supporter Jonathan Rauch.  From a December 2012 article penned by Rauch for The New Republic:
I tell my gay friends: imagine if the Supreme Court had ordered gay marriage this past June, at the end of its 2011-2012 term. November’s game-changing electoral victories would never have happened. Gay marriage advocates would be forever stereotyped as political losers who won by running to mommy. Our opponents would mock and denigrate our marriages as court-created, legalistic fictions. The country would never have shown how much it has changed.  If we have come that far in five years, imagine where we might be in five more. Imagine, then, the opportunities to extend and consolidate support that we will lose if the Supreme Court steps in now. Strange but true: a favorable Supreme Court intervention next year would make us weaker, not stronger.

posted by Joe

JMG HomoQuotable - Frank Bruni


"Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall. The alliteration of that litany made it seem obvious and inevitable, a bit of poetry just there for the taking. Just waiting to happen. But it has waited a long time. And President Obama’s use of it in his speech on Monday — his grouping of those three places and moments in one grand and musical sentence — was bold and beautiful and something to hear. It spoke volumes about the progress that gay Americans have made over the four years between his first inauguration and this one, his second. It also spoke volumes about the progress that continues to elude us. [snip]

 "Despite our strides, gay and lesbian couples even now can marry only in nine states and the District of Columbia. The federal government doesn’t recognize those weddings, meaning that in terms of taxes, military benefits and matters of immigration, it treats gays and lesbians differently than it treats other Americans. It relegates us to an inferior class. The Supreme Court could soon change, or validate, that. There are relevant cases before it. For his part Obama could show less deference to states’ rights, be more insistent about what’s just and necessary coast-to-coast, and push for federal protections against employment discrimination when it comes to L.G.B.T. Americans. His actions over the next four years could fall wholly in line with Monday’s trailblazing words. My hope is real, and grateful, and patient." - Frank Bruni, writing for the New York Times.


Reposted from Joe

Via LifeBetweenTheEyes / FB:


Via JMG: SF Gay Bar Gains Landmark Status


San Francisco's Board of Supervisors last week voted unanimously to grant landmark status to the Twin Peaks bar in the Castro. Here's a reminder of why Twin Peaks is so historic:
In 1972, when Mary Ellen Cunha and Peggy Forster threw open the doors and uncovered the windows at Twin Peaks Tavern on the corner of Castro and Market streets, they didn't know they were making history. But four decades later, the bar that has sat both literally and figuratively at the center of San Francisco's gay rights movement and community is now a historic landmark. Twin Peaks Tavern, which first opened in 1935 but was purchased by Cunha and Forster in 1971, is believed to be the first gay bar in the nation to feature full-length, open plate glass windows that let its patrons look out, and more importantly, the public look in. The lesbian friends, known to most regulars as "the girls," opened the bar to the world at a time when many gays still feared losing their jobs or being socially ostracized if their sexual orientation was revealed. It has now survived for 40 years as one of the Castro district's most memorable and welcoming establishments.

Reposted from Joe

Via ॐ Blue Buddha Quote Collective / FB:


"Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone."
 
 ~ The Dhammapada

♥lsh

Image Source: Bing‎"Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone."

~ The Dhammapada


Image Source: Bing

Via Gay Politics Report:

  • Gay poet followed by pro-gay priest at inauguration: Openly gay poet Richard Blanco mentioned Americans “arrayed like rainbows” in his official inaugural poem. He was followed by Washington, D.C., marriage equality champion the Rev. Dr. Luis Leon, whose benediction prayer included a reference to gays. Washington Blade (Washington, D.C.) (1/21) LinkedInFacebookTwitterEmail this Story
  • Lesbian and Gay Band Association marches in Inaugural Parade: About 240 musicians from 32 LGBT bands across the country marched past President Obama's reviewing stand at yesterday's inaugural parade. Towleroad (1/22) LinkedInFacebookTwitterEmail this Story

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma January 22, 2013

Transcending our own Views

If we take something to be the truth, we may cling to it so much that even if the truth comes and knocks at our door, we won't want to let it in. We have to be able to transcend our previous knowledge the way we climb up a ladder. If we are on the fifth rung and think that we are very high, there is no hope for us to step up to the sixth. We must learn to transcend our own views.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, “The Heart Sutra”
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through January 23rd, 2013
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member

Read Article

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:


Daily Buddhist Wisdom






It is hard to be born as a human being and hard to live the life of one. It is even harder to hear of the path and harder still to awake, to rise, and to follow. Yet the teaching is simple: "Cease to do evil, learn to do good. And purify your mind."
- Dhammapada