Let It Be

After the long and winding road toward health care reform came to a hopeful end this week, Ted Kennedy's son, Congressman Patrick Kennedy, visited his father's grave on Monday and left a note:

"Dad, the unfinished business is done."

So, let's once again honor the man, for whom health care for all Americans was a priority and simply move along. Millions will be insured and millions will no longer be denied coverage because of some arbitrary insurance company ruling.

Let the unfinished business be done, and let Ted Kennedy rest in peace.

In Memorium

We've Also Lost A Friend Of The LGBT Community

Oh, sure, there will be detractors of Senator Kennedy's in the days when his passing becomes a distant memory. There will be rehashing of stories forty-some-odd years old. But what you won't hear from those people who would seek to throw dirt on his name is how the man acted in government. How he set aside the teachings of the Catholic Church in which he was raised, and sought to make changes so that we are all equal.

No one, no one, knew more about Separation of Church and State than Edward Kennedy.

While he leaves behind a legacy on a number of issues, from education to health care, his contributions to making the world better for the LGBT community cannot go unnoticed. He has fought for us in times when no one else dared lift a finger, making him a friend of the LGBT community, and an ally in government.

In 1993, Edward Kennedy replaced the retired California Democratic Senator Alan Cranston as the chief sponsor of the “gay rights bill” that was then being introduced in the Senate.
By 1996, Senator Kennedy was one of only fourteen votes--fourteen--to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act, proving that he was not only willing to put himself out there for LGBT rights, but be one of the few to do it and say it before most others in politics.

It's a simple case of civil rights, and Senator Kennedy knew that.

Kennedy also fought to block a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, championed by a number of conservative Senators. Way back in June 2002 Senator Kennedy supported adding sexual orientation and gender identity to federal hate crimes laws.

Simple civil rights.

When Massachusetts became the first state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage, Kennedy didn't back away from commenting on the historical impact for civil rights that this decision had. he said:

"The nation’s eyes were on Massachusetts today, and they saw a triumph for civil rights and fundamental fairness. Today’s historic vote will have a national impact on civil rights for years to come. Massachusetts has led the nation in education, in health care and in biotechnology, and today Massachusetts renewed its commitment as a proud leader in civil rights."

And this year, even as he battled cancer, Senator Kennedy was one of the leading co-sponsors of a Senate 'Employment Non-Discrimination Act' (ENDA), saying:

"Ensuring equality for all Americans is the least we can do in living up to the standards of inclusion that this nation is built upon. There is no place for discriminating against any of our citizens for whatever reason and I commend my colleagues for their willingness to champion equal rights for every American."

So, as you remember Edward Kennedy, and remember his flaws as well, because we are all only human, and filled with failings of our own, also remember that he was a fighter for the LGBT community, a fighter for civil rights, a fighter for all of us.

if you're so unlined, go HERE and sign a petition to make Health Care Reform happen in this country, and fulfill Senator Kennedy's wish. It will go to your U.S. Senator, urging them to make sure that quality health care is a fundamental right in this country, and not a privilege.

Let's See If We Can Do It For Teddy

Ted Kennedy on Health Care Reform:

This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver—to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, "that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American...will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege." For four decades I have carried this cause—from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society. Now the issue has more meaning for me—and more urgency—than ever before. But it's always been deeply personal, because the importance of health care has been a recurrent lesson throughout most of my 77 years.

The Lion Has Passed

"We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever.

We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all."

Edward Kennedy

February 22, 1932 - August 25, 2009

Sound Bites

I honestly didn't think this would happen but it did.

Yesterday, Scotland released Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan agent jailed for life for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, most of them Americans, because he is dying of cancer. He was returned to Libya to live out the three months he supposedly has left.

I am with most people on this. Howsabout looking al-Megrahi in the eye when he asks to go home to die and tell him he should have thought about that before he took the lives of 270 other people.

He was shown compassion after he chose not to show compassion.

Big mistake, Scotland. Big mistake.

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Senator Edward Kennedy, terminally ill with brain cancer, has asked state legislative leaders to change the law and let Governor Deval Patrick appoint a temporary replacement upon his death.

As it stands now, Massachusetts would hold a special election months after Kennedy dies to elect a replacement. Kennedy would like the transition to be much quicker because he wants Massachusetts to have full representation in the Senate during that five-month period.

Until 2004, state law called for the governor to appoint a temporary replacement if a Senate seat became vacant, but when John Kerry was running for president that year, the Democratic-controlled state legislature wanted to deny the governor at the time--Mitt Romney--the power to name a successor if Kerry won.
In his letter, Kennedy says that he supported the 2004 law, but added, “I also believe it is vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election.” he also asked that Governor Patrick “obtain, as a condition of appointment of the interim Senator, an explicit personal commitment not to become a candidate in the special election.”
Edward Kennedy does not want a temporary appointee to run for his seat because he wants "to ensure that whomever received that appointment did not have any head start or advantage in the special election.”

Sounds like a reasonable request. of course, the Republicans aren't going to like it, but then they apparently don't like anything except for adultery.

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Out there in the wild, wild west, round Nevada way, the secretary of state's office will begin taking applications from couples who wish to register as domestic partners.

Same- and opposite-sex couples who apply soon will receive their certificates of domestic partnership on October 1.

That's the day a new state law goes into effect extending rights similar to those held by married couples to cohabitating couples, whether gay or straight, who register with the secretary of state's office.

I don't get Nevada. They legalize prostitution. They have gambling and drinking and organized crime and $1.99 All-You-Can-Eat buffets, but they don't like the idea of the gays getting married. I mean, the domestic partnership thing is nice, but it's 'less than' and I don't like it.

See, it's like this, without the gays, who'd wait on all those tourists in all those restaurants; there'd be no bellhops and room service attendants; who'd sew the sequins on the stripper's G-string? Back-up dancers and chorus boys? Not any more!

Nevada needs the gays and should give them whatever they want to keep 'em happy.

Just sayin'.

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Michael Moore: "I'm still in a stupor of stunned ecstasy that Obama won. And I approve of most everything he's done, from apologizing to the Iranians for America overthrowing their democratically elected president in 1953 to appointing Kumar to a White House position. He is doing the best he can with the mess he inherited, and I and millions of others are counting on him never to forget that he came from the working class and that his people need him now more than ever. As for the congressional Democrats, what a bunch of losers -- weak, scared, stupid. They had better get a clue pretty quick or the Dark Forces will return."

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The Iowa Civil Rights Commission, a seven-member bipartisan panel whose duty is "to enforce state and federal statutes that prohibit discrimination in employment, public accommodations, housing, education and credit by investigating and litigating civil rights complaints," voted unanimously yesterday that it would formally oppose any effort to overturn any constitutional amendment that would overturn the state's same-sex marriage law. In addition, the panel also voted to formally support the decision of the Iowa Supreme Court in allowing same-sex couples to marry.

You know, for one of the squares states in the middle, Iowa sure is progressive.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: I Heart Iowa!