Pray cooler heads will guide America in the dialogue and decision-making over Iran’s position in the world. Iran does not have nuclear weapons, and there is no certain evidence that such a program is under way. Certainly Iran has the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and the interests of world peace demand that these issues be resolved without military action that could launch a catastrophic war.

Another war would destroy America’s painful recovery from the indebtedness of two wars and the 2008 economic crash.  Gasoline prices would probably go up another dollar per gallon. The Iraq and Afghanistan war’s final costs will exceed $2 trillion. Some estimates say $4 trillion, or even $6 trillion, including lifelong care for veterans physically or emotionally disabled.

Iran has four times the population of Iraq, many times the military capability, and would seek support from other nations like Russia and China, possibly sparking an unpredictable regional war.

Political hawks and shock-jocks on talk radio condemn calls for negotiations and dialogue to resolve such matters without military action as weakness. The U.S. spends as much on military preparedness as the rest of the world combined, so no one can doubt America’s capacity to wage war. It is shocking that the theme song of one national talk show host states,” We’ll put a boot up your ass, it’s the American way.”

The world does not find this amusing or appealing.

More than six thousand American families grieve the deaths of sons and daughters in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. More than 30,000 U.S. troops have been physically wounded in action, and untold numbers have returned home emotionally and physically disabled.  Suicides of war veterans each month exceed combat deaths.

Official estimates of some 100,000 deaths in Iraq and 20,000 in Afghanistan are considered low by other calculations.The British polling group Opinion Research Business (ORB) has estimated Iraqi deaths at closer to one million, with some 5 million becoming displaced refuges who are homeless or have left the country.

Many believe our wars in the Middle East are breeding resentments that will last lifetimes.

War brings big profits to military contractors and oil companies that simply raise their prices. Everyone else pays dearly, in dollars, lives and blood.
The people of Iran are not well served by having a bellicose posturing leader in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Cowboy professions of toughness are usually hot air, appealing to the pride of some, but are not helpful to the interests’ of peace. The vast majority of humanity desperately hopes for negotiated resolutions to political tensions to avoid war and its deaths and destruction that ruin lives and wreck economies.

The United States must lead the world in calling for cooler rhetoric and civil dialogue by all nations in the Iran discussion. Israel particularly must relax its rhetoric, confident that its close alliance with the United States and its own arsenal of some 600 nuclear weapons renders it a muscular regional power whose sovereignty is unquestioned.

War truly is hell, as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan remind us too well. Let’s remember that the terrible attacks on America of 9/11/01 were not from a nation, but from an alliance of individuals from many nations, most prominently Saudi Arabia. The U.S. attack on Iraq is now admittedly blamed on “faulty intelligence,” misinformation and miscalculation. Vice President Dick Cheney predicted that the Iraq war would last six weeks and that U.S. forces would be welcomed with flowers as liberators.

All Americans opposed to another war must stand behind leaders seeking nonviolent resolutions to world situations that could blow up into wars that would wreck our economy, raise oil prices, profit only a few, and cause incalculable suffering everywhere, while we taxpayers foot the bill.

Nathaniel Batchelder
2912 N. Robinson, OKC
batchokc@gmail.com

When it comes to beliefs regarding acceptable sexual orientation, people generally fit within two categories:  visceral reaction or knowledge.

Visceral reaction involves those who have borrowed their beliefs by accepting generalizations handed down to them by parents, mentors or peers. Borrowing generalizations can create deep emotions that relieve us of the effort of thinking on our own.
The second category is comprised of those who own their beliefs. They have looked into the generalizations, questioned them, searched out factual information and come to conclusions that they own as occurred recently in the Oklahoma City Council vote to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation for city employees. When enough of a group dwells in that second category – good, informed, accurate decisions can come from a majority. It’s just that second category is not yet as heavily populated as it should be.

Core issues of social norms based on generalizations  weighed upon me heavily as my partner and I were in the middle of  an issue which never would have been given a second thought had either of us been of the opposite sex. However, this circumstance brought forth an excellent learning opportunity as to how we process such an experience.

There are two powerful dynamics intertwined – one is the learning about oneself which can come about as a result of such dilemmas and how it is decided to react to them. My reaction showed me an element of my maturity which needed growth.  We can learn a lot about ourselves in moments of stress and conflict.

The other dynamic, of course, is the current perspective of those who depend on generalizations to feed their fear and discomfort level relating to same sex relationships. Should my partner and I hide our affection and simply not be seen together in certain situations or does our acquiescing to that social stigma simply make it more powerful and perpetuate it?

I choose to believe that when enough of the current scientific information relating to genetic brain hardwiring is brought into public discourse, then generalizations relating to same sex relationships will be put aside and accurate information will become the basis for educated understanding.

However, such paradigm shift will not happen until it becomes socially acceptable to think for oneself and not move with the herd. Actually, society should be coming to us in the LGBT community for wisdom. While we are statistically a small percent of the population: because of the unique issues that we face in building and maintaining relationships, there is much we learn about love and emotional stability just to swim the currents of social displeasure. And when we swim up current we develop strengths from which conventional society can glean important lessons to nourish their relationships.

Gay or straight, we are not in competition with each other. When we learn to listen and not fear, when we open our arms and share life experiences – we will find that we have vastly more in common than what we possess in differences. In the act of understanding and acceptance we do not contaminate one another. Far from it, we will enhance the journey of each of us being human with unique and valuable perspectives.

Robert C. Grupe, PhD is the author of the autobiography “A Baby Boomer’s Journey to Self- on the Road to Sexual Identity” available on ebook through Barnes & Noble. 

Robert is the author of 6 other books available on ebook through both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. With training in the mental health and addiction field, he is a Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist and authorized through the Red Cross as an instructor in HIV Education/Prevention. He has been featured in Who’s Who in America.  He can be reached at www.drgrupe.com.

By her own words Oklahoma’s Bigot-in-Chief, GOPer House Rep. Sally Kern, has learned nothing in ten years.  Never missing an opportunity to step out from the shadows of desperation, Mrs. Kern is using the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to sing yet again her hit-single tune, “Gays are More Dangerous than Terrorists”. http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/as-911-approaches-sally-kern-claims-gays-more-dangerous-than-terrorists/politics/2011/09/10/26730.

A recent interview with her colleague, Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, to promote her new book, maudlinly titled, “The Stoning of Sally Kern”, has her singing the same lyrics in the same key as she did in 2008. http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/kern-doubles-down-claim-homosexuality-more-dangerous-terrorist-attacks.

Referencing her religion’s tradition of hyperbole and myth Kern claims a victim’s suffering without showing the wounds. That she would use such a description for herself when such a condemnation is still used in the world for capitol punishment, shows the lack of intelligence she’s so proud to display. People who are stoned do not live to write a memoir about it. She cries the crocodile tears to drum up sympathy and campaign dollars.

Intentionally making herself a celebrity, she disingenuously feigns amazement that anyone would call her out for the lies she tells, further adding to her self-proclaimed victim-hood.  Sally Kern never gives up about telling lies that represent her own twisted attempt at projecting her own fears.

If I were a fundie, preached Inquisitional nonsense, and in addition, had a possible gay/lesbian family member, I’d probably be doing the same thing she and her husband, Steve Kern, do.

Those who protest gay/lesbian diversity the loudest often turn out to have a big lock on their own closet. Why does private behavior and civil equality inflame the imagination of our worst enemies?

As the documentary Outrage http://www.gaylesbiantimes.com/?id=14917 shows, the wrath of our civil equality enemies goes past simple jealousy and entries on a score sheet.  I think genuine mental instability is on display.

Fundies don’t live in the real world of diversity and change. The Bronze Age was good enough for the invention of their religion and it’s good enough for them now. The tiny minority of registered Oklahoma voters who live in Kern’s Legislative District #84 have kept her on the public payroll since 2004. http://www.okhouse.gov/District.aspx?District=84.

I find it remarkable that despite good candidates running against her, this fearful majority in her district prevails.

What does this fact say about our efforts to elect reasonable candidates? What does it say about the power of ignorance and superstition?

Until we replace these sorely blinkered politicians through peaceful and legal means, we’ll be hearing more from lawmakers such as Sally Kern.

They must be drowned out by the volume of our speech, lost in the presence of our crowds, dissected by the precision of our words.

I’m sorry to say I have never seen such a collection of mixed nuts in either party in the time I’ve been paying attention to Presidential politics. So here’s my take on each of the major GOP candidates. I’m not going to comment on those no one has ever heard of, or those who aren’t yet running.

Michele Bachman
Bachman was a fruitcake when I still lived in Minnesota and she was working her way up through the legislature. She hasn’t improved with age. She was always anti-gay, but over the years has also become anti-science and anti-common sense. She thinks she’s a Tea Party leader; apparently even they don’t want her.

Herman Cain
Cain is a charter member of the “Not-Ready-For-Primetime Players.” He doesn’t know what he believes on abortion, doesn’t know anything about foreign affairs, and has a tax proposal that would bankrupt the government while doubling or tripling the tax paid by the middle class and the poor. And then there are the sexual harassment charges – not minimizing them folks, but he already wasn’t qualified when the charges surfaced.

Newt Gingrich
Gingrich revealed his true colors when he gleefully shut down the government rather than compromise with a Dem. president. Now he wants to run it. Really? A smart guy, but with three wives I’d ask “How’s that pro-family thing working for yah, Newt?”

Ron Paul
I’m not sure Dr. Paul believes government has a role in our country. His Libertarian ideas set him off even to the right of the usual ultra-right views of this crop of candidates. At least he understands that water boarding is torture.

Rick Perry
Poor Rick, he thinks Texas is the universe. It’s not. After his debate performances, and what most people thought was a drunken speech in New Hampshire, most people count him out. Would you elect someone who wants to eliminate three federal departments, but can’t name the three? Along with Cain, a member of the “Not-Ready-For-Primetime” crowd.

Mitt Romney
He was a good, moderate Republican governor of Massachusetts. Assuming he really believed in being a moderate or it was just to get elected. Romney can’t hold a solid position on anything for 24 hours – he’ll say anything to get elected. Do you really want a President who has no solid political beliefs?

Rick Santorum
Come-on. Rick was so extreme that he got defeated last time he ran for Senator. A one trick pony who wants to beat women into submission through anti-abortion laws.

Jon Huntsman
I saved Huntsman for last. He is the only one of the pack that I think would make a good President. Looks and talks Presidential. Wants to end our wars. Won’t take the extreme views of the Tea-Party or his fellow candidates, at least for the most part. A great world view, with a sound understanding of China, which is going to be important in the next decade. And there he sits, at the bottom of the polls. Which says a heck of a lot about the Republican Party these days, and the base that they have to appeal to when they try to get the nomination. I wouldn’t vote for him, but I wouldn’t be packing my bags and applying for a Canadian visa if he won.

By Rob Howard
Gayly Political Columnist

Register to vote. Get excited about the election. Support Democratic candidates that support you. Vote for Democrats! And get your friends and families to do the same. The freedoms you save, the jobs you help create, the education you support, will be yours!

By Rob Howard
Gayly Columnist