WHO WE ARE THIRTY-FOUR

I, Matthew Lucas Beckett, am a Homosexual. I am Gay. There are those in the Homophobic Community who say that I should be put to death and will face eternal damnation simply for saying that. They claim that THE BIBLE is full of passages that back them up on this. But, I quickly add, I am abstinent. So what? They ask. So, I reply, all of the six or seven passages in Scripture that discuss that matter only refer to actual sexual acts, none of them say that just being attracted to members of ones own gender is in and of itself a damnable sin. So, if I am an abstinent Homosexual, how am I any different than an abstinent Heterosexual? The answer, of course, is that I no different. There are also those that say that it is a Sexual Preference, rather than a Sexual Orientation, that it is a choice. Those people I would ask why, particularly someone born into a Homophobic Congregation and or Community would CHOOSE to be Gay? The answer, obviously, is that they would not. So, therefore, we are what we are or at lest become what we were meant to become, and it is NOT a choice or in any way something that we can control. Which, of course, leads to the obvious question, if it is how some of us are made that brings this about, immediately with Sexual Maturity or over time with the same, are those that say being Gay alone is in and of itself evil saying that GOD created something Evil, or are they attributing Creative Powers to The Destroyer aka Satan? Just some things Homophobes might want to think about before they go spouting their message of Hate in the name of The GOD OF LOVE.

I STAND CORRECTED

I in the last post implied that everyone goes to a bar to get drunk. I realize that that is not the case and that there are many that do go to bars to drink one beer slowly over several hours, but even that could make people more volatile than they would otherwise be, which could still lead to the problems described above with allowing guns in bars. Plus, even if the are in minority, some people do go to bars to get drunk, and the fact remains that an angry drunk with a gun is still a lot more dangerous and deadly than an angry drunk without a gun. So, while I was an error to say that all bar patrons are drunks, the fact remains that guns in bars is the STUDIST idea that The Nut Case Rebellious Anarchists have ever had, bar none, PERIOD.

DRUNKS WITH GUNS THIRTEEN

This week, The Republican Governor of Georgia signed a bill making it legal to carry guns virtually anywhere, including into Churches and Bars. Particularly the last is the STUOIDIST idea that The Nut Case Rebellious Anarchists have ever had, and they heave had some doozies. When people go to bars, their goal is usually to get drunk. You do not go to a bar for one beer, drunk slowly over two hours. When people are drunk, they think less clearly and tend to be less inhibited and at least in some cases far more aggressive than they would be sober. So, if you've got a group of drunks who are not thinking clearly, less inhibited and more aggressive than usual already, you've already got a severely increased likelihood of fights breaking out, which I know they often do. But if all they have are fists, at least injuries sustained in such fights may not be life threatening. If you've got a bunch of drunks with all three of the above already in a fight and then several of them pull out guns, any intelligent person, actually any person with any brains at all, can easily foresee that there will be a blood bath. I know Republicans think any government at al except to run the military is too much, but this is going completely overboard, off the deep end and into sheer idiocy. Of course, since you are required to completely extract and completely destroy your brain and replace it with a computer chip controlled by The Conservative Central Computer before you are allowed to even sign the paper to register as a Republican, perhaps it is not surprising that they would take this type of action, particularly since computers do not care about people. But, it is still odd and even hypocritical for a party that calls itself "Pro Life" to support the idea of DRUNKS WITH GUNS.

OW SEVEN

If Republicans have their way, someone like me, even in the amount of pain that I am currently in, would not be able to see a doctor or get whatever further medical procedures may be necessary, all because when I was an eight year old child I made the mistake of running out into the street in front of a car. I can hardly stand or sit, depending on which position I am in, without pain almost beyond enduring, and even though I am currently operating on less than two hours sleep, laying down or even just putting my head down on the desk is agony past my ability to endure, even with the Advil I took around an hour ago. But anyone who opposes even one comma of the PATIENT PROTECTION and Affordable Care Act for any reason at all, whatsoever, period, says that I should just be allowed to die of whatever this is and then that everyone should cheer at my funeral. I have to say, with the pain I had trying to lay down just now, maybe dying would not be so bad, except that I do not want to give people like that the satisfaction. To put it bluntly, Conservative/Republican opposition to Justice In Health Care is Wicked and Evil, but then I guess what can one expect from people who willingly completely extracted and completely destroyed their brains, their consciences, their hearts and their souls and then replaced their brains with a chip controlled by The Conservative Central Computer and their hearts with money and left the other two places empty in order to register to vote, since they would not have even been allowed to sign the paper to register to vote as a Republican otherwise. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but at some point the truth must be spoken, and since the doctor may tell me this afternoon that I have two weeks to live, I needed to get this down first. If I die, though, I'm going down swinging and I will take as many of them down with me as I can. OW! SEVEN INDEED.

LET THE HEALTH CARE INJUSTICE RESISTANCE BEGINN FIVE

There are those who would say that the pain in my back and elsewhere that I am currently experiencing I should just endure, since they believe that the prospect of the death of someone like me, with a preexisting condition, is a cause for which to cheer. There are those even in my own so-called family and so-called friends that would ascribe to this opinion. There are those who believe that a mistake that I made when I was an eight year old child should define my life forever, and others who have conditions which they acquired later in life, earlier in life, or were even born with, should also just be allowed to die and that all of these deaths are causes for cheering. There are those who believe that a Health Care System that left some people out because they did not fit the very narrow definition of who was in and who was out should have absolutely nothing. There are those who believe that a preexisting condition, whether acquired after birth or something that someone was born with, should define the course of our lives and define our destinies forever. There are those who believe that all of us with preexisting conditions should just willingly succumb to the shadow of death when it comes for us, even if there is much yet which we are intended to do in this life. These people are known as Republicans and Conservatives. But there are others, who resist this Shadow of Death as it tries to retake the world until recently held tightly in its grip. There are those of us who WILL NOT be silenced or ignored. There are those of us who will fight these forces of DARKNESS to the end, if necessary to the death, but even if we must die, we will go down swinging and take as many of them with us as we can. There are those us who WUILL be heard and recognized as full human beings at last, and will fight until all acknowledge our right ti be treated this way. There are those of us who have heard enough of "repeal and replace" and WILL NOT hear that any more, EVER. We are known as The Injustice In Heath Care Resistance, and while we have long been dormant in preparation,we shall now awaken and arise, and those that would re-chain us will soon wish that they had never tickled this sleeping dragon, but it will be too late. So, I say to all those for whom Profits Before People did not work as a Health Care System because it did not care for us and any who care about as family or even as just a friend, about any of us, AWAKE, ARISE, AND LET THE RESISTANCE AT LAST TAKE SHAPE AND TAKE A STAND. A STAND FOR TRUE JUSTICE,IN ITS TRUE SENSE.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, THE FIRST RUMBLINGS FOUR

It seems that there are some who have finally woken up to the fact that THe NUT CASE REBELLIOUS ANARCHISTS (what NRA truly stands for) has way too much power. After I've lost track now of how many mass shootings we have now had when bills were put forward in an effort to curb gun violence and The Nut Case Rebellious Anarchists bullied and frightened enough members of Congress into opposing them that they went nowhere. BUt finally, it seems, there have been enough mass shootings that people have said "enough is enough" and begun to organize a counter group. The Nut Case Rebellious Anarchists have dismissed it out of hand, but that's what the drunks did with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and while that is not gone, there has been a major difference since then. What The Nut Case Rebellious Anarchists may find they have done is tickled a sleeping dragon, and the trouble with tickling a sleeping dragon is that you never know what it might do, because dragons are unpredictable. But the first rumbles of change have at last begun and come into earshot, and when the change comes, it WILL NOT be denied, and so politicians that want to keep their jobs would do well to take heed. Do not forget, a man who began his political career as a community organizer has now been elected to two teems as President of The United States. When moms get tother, a whole bunch of mother bears are a force to be reckoned with. The cry goes up: "ENOUGH IS ENUGH" and THE FIRST RUMBLINGS at last begin.

BEING GAY WITH GOD IS QUITE OKEY

This morning at my Church's Men's Breakfast, there was a man there who was saying, regarding those of us who are Homosexuals, essentially, hate the sin-love the sinner. If that is as far as he has gotten right now, that is certainly better than many Conservatives, particularly those of the Fred Phelps ilk, who think our deaths are causes for celebration and our Funerals should be protested, along with the Funerals of those who laid down their lives fighting for this country simply because this country does not as a whole support their ideology of 'Kill all the Gays', which is what they really want, whether they say those words aloud or not. The trouble is, all Homophobes, of both attitudes, are completely missing what those passages in THE BIBLE are really talking about. In Genesis, it was not the fact the crowd wanted to rape men that was the problem, it was that they wanted to rape guests. Under Jewish Law, guests were to be treated with such hospitality that one was not even allowed to ask how long they planned to stay until they had been there for three days. Obviously, having such rules, handing guests, male or female, over to a crowd to be raped would have been a wicked act, and even asking for it an Evil deed. So that is what is going on there, and any who doubt me can look up and study the Jewish Laws of Hospitality for themselves. The fact that Lot addresses the two new arrivals as "My Lords" not yet knowing that they are angels, is further proof of these rules. In ancient times, a common military practice by a conquering army was to rape the soldiers of the conquered army, humiliating and degrading them by turning them into women, as they saw it, by penetrating them. That id what 'Thou Shalt Not Lay With a Man As Thou Layeth With A Woman' is about. So, sex, in that time and sense, was all about domination and power, men dominated women, and so one man penetrating and thus dominating another man was the same domination matter and was thus used to humiliate and denigrate the conquered army, and that is what that Commandment is forbidding. Obviously, these days, most of us, accept for The Southern Baptists, have a much different view of male- female relationships, and it is HIGH TIME that our understanding of Homosexual relationships caught up. One thing is true throughout all of the above sited passages and the discussions in Paul and maybe elsewhere. Sex was seen as a tool of power and domination. There is no sense, in Scripture, of a loving, mutually Affirming Relationship between two people of the same gender, and it seems to me that that was not even how male and female relationships were for the most part understood. So, now that our understanding of male-female relationships has changed and evolved, unless we're Southern Baptists, it is well past time that our understanding of same sex relationships of a loving, mutually affirming nature, between two consenting adults (forced and children are obviously still beyond unacceptable) caught up and we all realized that, in and of itself, BEING GAY, WITH GOD IS QUITE OKEY.

AT BREAKING OF THE DAY OF GAY

The two men sat chained within the cell,' They had been told that by nightfall next they would be burning in Hell. But they themselves just could not see, How they should be damned for being who and what they were born to be. The High Priest had called their love an abomination, and said that they were beyond salvation. They trembled in the Darkness Deep, And did not get a wink of sleep. Then they heard their cell door creak, And their heartbeats became very weak. But then, from the darkness a light did shine, And a Voice froom above said "You are Mine." Then the dark walls fell away, And they stood in the light of day. And so at last had come the day, When none were condemned or damned just for being Gay.

CHOOSE

In response to the recent Fort Hood Shooting, John Boener said on the 10:00P.m. News on Thursday, April Third, 2014, and I quote "There's no question that those with Mental Health Issues should be prevented from owning weapons, or being able to purchase weapons." Funny, since every time there is a mass shooting and the subject of closing the Gun Show Loophole comes up, it is his party that fights tooth and nail and everything else to make absolutely certain that that does not happen. I will agree that closing this loophole would not prevent EVERY tragedy involving guns, and that some of those that do have the issues that The Speaker of The House sighted may not have shown them until they committed a violent act with a weapon purchased at such a venue, but it would have and in the future still could prevent SOME, and some is better than none. Some people say that how we define "Gun Show" is an issue and what about sales between two people done in a driveway. This is a red herring thrown out by The Nut Case Rebellious Anarchists (what NRA truly stands for) to prevent anything from getting done. A GUN SHOW is not something done in a driveway and everyone knows it damn well. While one might well question the wisdom of a person selling a gun to a friend they know has a record of mental health problems and or criminal activity in this way, what goes on in people's private homes is their business and no one else's. Everyone knows Damn Well that a "GUN SHOW" is an officially sanctioned, exhibition style event that takes place in a public venue with many merchants plying their wares, in this case, firearms. Some people also say that gnu stores that sell at such venues already do background checks and that doing so would be cost prohibitive to private dealers. To these people I say, if you have enough money to pay for a booth in a stadium, you have enough money for a machine that can run criminal and mental health background checks. So, MR. Speaker, if you are serous about preventing those with mental health 'issues' from owning weapons or being able to purchase weapons, let's end this silliness about venues and money and everything else once and for all, and close the gun show loophole. If you are not serious about preventing this because it would damage your sexual relationship with The Nut Case Rebellious Anarchists, do not say things that makes it seem like you are serious. Take a side, you and everyone else, and stick to it, thick or thin, because it is time for everyone to find and take their stance on this issue, before there is another tragedy and Republicans retreat to Charlton Heston's old and tired line: "From my cold, dead hands." I will close with a one word ultimatum to everyone with regard to this issue, for the time for indecision on this issue is past. CHOOSE.

CIVIL RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE ALSO

This week we celebrated The Fiftieth Anniversary of The signing by President Lyndon Johnson of The Civil Rights Bill, legally ending Racial Discrimination in this country. It has been noted at the celebrations and commemorations that while there has been much progress in Race Relations, there is still a long way to go. It has also been noted that there are today many other groups whose Civil Rights have been and are being fought for, Gender Equality, Sexual Orientation Equality and Equality for People with Disabilities. There is, however, another group of us who are still fighting for equality, or at least to maintain our recent gaining of it. While I would not dream of comparing The Health Care Law to The Civil Rights Law because I would not dream of comparing my experiences as a White Man with a preexisting condition to the experiences of Black People in The South prior to the 1964 law, the fact remains that Health Insurance Companies refusal to cover those of us with Preexisting Conditions prior to the passage, signing and now full implementation of The PATIENT PROTECTION and Affordable Care Act was a form of discrimination. Therefore, this law is a form of Civil Rights Legislation, and those that will not stop talking about undoing it want to deny those of us with preexisting conditions Basic Civil right to be treated equally before the law with regard to decent, basic Health Care at an affordable rate. The fact that no detailed alternative that they have put forward even acknowledges that the term 'preexisting conditions' even exists is further proof that Republicans believe this form of discrimination was perfectly acceptable and should be allowed to continue. Therefore, I call on everyone with a preexisting condition or knows anyone with a preexisting condition to join the resistance to undoing or even bad mouthing this law and making sure those that do pay a heavy political price for their views, words and actions, particularly come November. There was a time when I could have been reasonable about this, but that ship sailed when the crowd cheered when one of the candidates answered yes when asked if those with preexisting conditions should just be allowed to die. Since no Republican I know has ever said to me those that did that did not speak for them, even though I know of at least two that I have told more than once that I have a preexisting condition, I consider all Republicans to hold this view and support this cheer. While the fight for Racial Equality and Civil Rights absolutely MUST continue to be fought until it is totally won, along with all of the other groups noted above, the Fight for People's Civil Right to decent, basic Health Care at an affordable rate, regardless of Health Status, must also be taken up and fought until the enemy is utterly obliterated, wiped eternallv clean from the face of existence. So let us fight ALL Discrimination until it is gone, by no means limited too but also not forgetting about those of us with less than spotless Health Histories.

THE QUEER UPRISING FOUR

THE QUEER UPRISING. Let all those who have hidden themselves in dark closets out of shame brought on by others or even from within beat down the doors and step into the light. Let those who have compelled us to be in the dark closets of shame hold their tongues, look into their hearts and realize that GOD is Love, NOT Hate. Let the doors of shame be beaten into dust. Let the messengers of Hate realize in whom they have truly placed their trust. Let the light shine on Queer and Het. Alike. Let us no longer at each other strike. The time has come for we Queers to Rise. And to be silent those that who we are would criticize. Let The Light before us go. That all nay see that we have a Right true love to know. Let the throne of hatred be throne down. And all remember who truly wears that crown. Let the Queer Uprising at last begin. For being who we were born to be is not itself a sin.

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH

This week there was a gun found somewhere on the campus of a school. Later in the week there was another shooting at Fort Hood. I do not deny nor in any way wish to diminish the tragedy of the latter, but in response to what some have said in light of it, there are a few questions that I feel must be asked and hopefully answered. Some have said in light of this tragedy that every soldier should be able to cary a gun on base. While the four lives lost are too many dead and the injured too many injured, the fact remains that this is far fewer than with the other shooting a few years ago, so the first question is doesn't that indicate that the security procedures put i place since that terrible day were at least mostly effective? And if so would not a better response be to tighten those procedures even more? The other question is, if everyone on that base had had a gun, then once one of them heard shots would not all or at least many have pulled out their own weapons and started firing in response, and then between shooting at the wrong people by accident and people getting caught in the cross fire, would not the death toll have ben much higher than four and the injured much higher than what it was? With regard to the school, whoever brought that gun to school was obviously planing some kind of violence, and only the brave actions of the student who reported it prevented that? The Nut Case Rebellious Anarchists (what NRA truly stands for) keep telling us that more guns would make us safer, yet history has shown time and again that all more guns equals is more shooting, more bullets flying, more cross fire and so ultimately more dead. So how many guns do they say or think there needs to b before everyone will be safe? And how many mass shootings do there have to be, how many guns found in places that are supposed to be safe, like schools, how many times must their theory be proved wrong, before everyone sees it for the heap of utter BULL SHIT that i is? In short, HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?

REPUBLICANS WERE WRONG IT SEEMS

It seems those who cheered at the prospect of those of us with preexisting conditions dying and said that Americans did not want The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act were wrong, factually as well as morally, the latter of which I at least already knew. By the end of Open Enrollment yesterday, at least Seven Million (7,000,000) that's seven with six zeros following it, for those of you Republicans unable to count that high, had signed up for Health Insurance through healthcare.gov. Some say that it is not clear how many of these people already had insurance. But that is COMPLETELY missing the whole point. If people could get better deals through healthcare.gov, it is still more affordable. I technically had Health Insurance through The Texas Risk Pool, but it was required by State Law to always be twice the rate of comparable, private coverage, which I'm sure put it out of reach for millions who have preexisting conditions but ere nevertheless not quite poor enough for medicaid, I had to prove every year that I was still ineligible for other coverage, still subhuman as it always felt like they were saying to me, and it ended at midnight last night, March 31st, 2014, since other options now exist. So, people that had other coverage but got a better deal this way count no less than those who had no options at all under a system that put making money ahead of making people well, and to suggest otherwise is simply absurd. Others say that it is unclear how many of those who signed up for coverage were younger, healthier people versus how many were older, sicker people. This is something that has driven me crazy for months. I am thirty-eight and so still consider myself relatively young, although I will be the first to admit that I can no longer keep the hours that I could when I was Twenty-Five. But since when I was eight years old I had what is these days called a traumatic brain injury as the result of being the pedestrian in an auto-pedestrian accident, for the past twelve years, since I became too old to be covered through my father, I have had the Risk Pool as my only option because Private Health Insurance looked on me as unhealthy, so it is not all one or the other. There are younger "sick" people too, and plenty of perfectly healthy older people, certainly including several that I know personally. But for me, with regard to The Risk Pool versus The Coverage I was able to get under what I call Justice In Health Care, it was never about the money. It was always about my Humanity. It seemed to me that under the old system, private Health Insurance companies were denying my very Humanity because they were denying my basic Human Right to decent, basic Health Care at an affordable rate, and in talking about nothing but undoing Justice In Health Care, Republicans are continuing to cast those of us with Health "issues" in that light. They say Americans do not want this law and think that opposing it will work well for them in November, but seven million plus Americans seem to feel differently, since that many have signed up for coverage, and that may not be substantial percentage of the population, but it is a significant number, especially since many of us have family and friends that we will NEVER speak to again unless they cast a straight Democratic Ticket in November. So the gauntlet is cast, and the battle is joined. PEOPLE LIKE ME WIIL BE TREATED LIKE HUMAN BEINGS, and even if we go down, we will go down swinging, and take as many of those who would deny our very Humanity with us as w can.