Tea Party anyone?

Lately the Tea Party and its whacked Congressional members and Presidential wanna be crowd have been all over the news. Now while I find their misquoting of historical facts, making up words and the like amusing they are beginning to scare me a bit. Michele Bachmann now has some of the more traditional members of the GOP convinced that nothing will happen if the country's debt ceiling is not raised. Now people in the financial world say that is untrue. Standard and Poor has said they will reduce the country's credit rating. As anyone who has ever suffered a "ding" to their credit knows, this means higher interest rates and difficulty obtaining credit in the future. What troubles me the most is the order in which payments are to be made if this does indeed happen. First in line, interest only payments on the nation's debt, after that if there is any money left payments will be made to Social Security recipients, then Medicare claims, then federal employees. Now when the money runs out at any given time, that's it. Finis. It's done. So let's see. Will those on Social Security be expected to pay bills with IOUs? I am sure that landlords, mortgage companies, utility companies grocery stores and the like will say "Sure". Are Medicare Part D providers going to continue to provide services without the monthly premium being paid? I doubt it, besides nobody really needs medicine anyway,right?  Yet the people this will affect the most are behind the Tea Party almost one hundred percent.
These people buy what the Tea Party says hook line and sinker. Wonder how they will feel when grandma gets booted from the nursing home for non-payment because Medicare can not pay.
     I am also sure that all the thousands of federal employees will be happy to show up and work for free. After all who would not gladly watch air traffic, insure the safety of travelers, or dodge bombs in the Middle Eastern wars for free? Sign me up!
     Yet the folks in Washington are going to take a ten day break, I guess it is hard work not taking care of the nation's business, arguing about  DOMA, and figuring out how to erase the line of separation of church and state.  Hugs-Garry

a big hairy smelly word-HATE

How can people who do not even know me hate me? I am not a bad guy. I do not steal, I do not generally lie, I do not want to recruit little boys. I am just a normal, whatever that is,man who happens to be gay. Yet all of these "Christians" say I am out to undermine all that is American. Really? Some even say that God will damn the United States because I might fall in love with another man. Again I say-Really? In the translation of the Bible I have it is written "judge not least you be judged accordingly". Christ says that "the greatest commandment is that you love one another". I guess King James, the translation these people believe is the only "authorized version" does not have those two verses. By the way, authorized by whom? God? Christ?
I hardly think so as Christ did not speak English, even the "Kings English". Christ spoke ancient Hebrew because-GASP!- He was a Jew. All I want is to be able to love whomever I choose and be able to have that man visit me when I am in the hospital, leave my stuff to him if I want too and not have my family be able to decide otherwise. If that takes a marriage license, which by the way are issued by the states, so be it. But to hate me for it?  I do not understand it. Hatred is an evil thing not born of the very God these people claim to follow, but born of Satan. Hatred destroys, it does not build up. Hatred will consume your very soul. Hatred causes wars and senseless acts of violence. So when did hatred become a Christian value?

Cheers!

Cheers to my friends in New York. What your state government did was indeed a mile stone in the Gay Movement. How fitting to celebrate at the Stonewall Inn! Those of us in the Bible Belt envy you, we will never have that privilege as our state governments added bans on Gay Marriage/Civil Unions to the state constitutions. Some by popular vote and some by legislative vote. Either way it is banned. The backward and hateful Evangelicals have won once again. Move you say? Well for some of us that is not possible for we are on ADAP, at least for now, and can not pull up stakes and move. For me it really does not matter as I do not want to marry anyway. I would loose or have reduced some of my benefits and I really can not afford that. Living on Social Security, especially without a C.O.L.A. for the past three years, is hard enough. I can not afford to loose one single dime.
     A good friend from New York called and asked me what would happen if a Gay couple decided to get divorced. Really? What does he think will happen? We will no longer be able to walk away without any consequences. Yes, the whole 50/50 thing is going to apply to us too! All I want to know is "Who gets the cat?". I guess you need to be careful what you wish for.
No, I am not bitter. Just practical.   Hugs to all!  Garry

Remembering...

Recently, mostly because of the 30th anniversary of AIDS I have been remembering people.
There are my three exwhatevers, Lem who committed suicide about twenty years ago. He was a twisted soul, but since he is no longer here I guess it would be rude to speak ill of him. So I won't. Then there was Shawn, gold digger number one. He thought I could just pull money out of thin air. Now I was still working back in those days and making a damned good salary for the early 1990s. I owned my house, well the mortgage company and I owned it. I had a brand new car, once again the bank owned more of it than I did. We lived rather comfortably. Shawn could never be happy. If it was not the biggest,latest, or the best he would have no use for it. Ungrateful ass, especially since he was making a career of being employed part time at a tanning salon. WOOHOO big money! (not) The day after I came home and told him I had to retire on disability as my health would no longer let me work, he said good bye. He finally found a Sugar Daddy, or Sugar Granddaddy depending on how you look at it.
  The third gem of a man was a drunkard that was completely allergic to working. Once I thew him out of the co-op apartment that I had bought but I mistakenly let his mother talk me out of that. I guess she did not want to support him either. This leech still thinks I owe him something. I think very differently.
     Lastly come those dear friends who have gone on. During the spring of 1993 through the summer of 1994 I went to a least one funeral a week. Sometimes more. By the time I was 36 I had buried all of my close friends and one sweet man destined, or so we thought, to be my partner. When in the right mood to dwell on this I tend to come unglued. OK, I cry a lot.
Eventually I come around and realize as long as I remember their faces and their names they are not truly gone. Just for a while. As corny as it is, I often wonder if some day, ala the movie Long Time Companion, we will once again laugh and joke and hug. I sure hope so. I can hardly wait!    Hugs-Garry

Ahh,change

Any one that has known me for more than fifteen seconds knows there is nothing I abhor more than change. I turns my little world upside down and inside out. This week is one of great change. I am Methodist and every four to six years the Bishop transfers a pastor and sends a new one. Methodists everywhere know this. That knowledge, however, does not make it any easier. We become attached to our Spiritual leaders. Sunday will be Mike's, our current pastor, last Sunday at First Church here. Monday he is off to his new assignment in Morehead City, NC. Today I will play a funeral at church, this will be the last time I ever play at Mike's request. Sunday the choir has a wonderful, but emotionally charged anthem prepared. Back to today. I will be sitting on the bench balling my eyes out. While everyone in the congregation will think it is because of the deceased, it will actually be because of Mike's leaving. I hate change, it is not my friend, in fact I am pretty sure that I am allergic to it. Do they make a pill for that? People say change is good, I tend to disagree. Well at least sometimes.  So long Mike, God Bless.  Welcome Joe Casteel.
Hugs!  Gary

WHAT?

I had a conversation with my sister yesterday about the danger that ADAP was going to go away. She asked me if that meant that the "innocents" or people who got AIDS from blood transfusions and children and infants of infected mothers would be cut off too. What, those of us who were not innocent deserve to die? By the way that includes your brother. Yet again I am shocked by a comment from my "loving" family. One would think that by now I would have learned otherwise. Not that long ago seated across the table from my mother after Sunday dinner I got the remark-out of the blue- well if you had made better decisions your health would not be so bad. Then there was the time-also out of the blue- that my mother informed me that she did not believe in Gay marriage. Ha, the joke's on her this time, neither do I. I do however believe in Civil Unions for us. I guess that because I am a 51 year old Gay man that I am not supposed to have any feelings. WRONG! These comments hurt Mommy Dearest! Yet I keep going back for more. Who's stupid now?
     The irony in all of this is that my sister is a Lesbian and lives with her partner of 10 years. Now this is OK with my parents,but just let me announce that I am in love with a man and watch the fireworks start. After taking quotations from the Book of Leviticus and the writings of St.Paul way out of context(I told you this is life in the Bible Belt) I get reminded of what horrible choices each of my past three partners was. Unfortunately I can not argue that point as there is much truth in it. But I was in love!(gag)
     Now the biggest rub. I am out,period. I do not lie, I do not hide. If you do not want to know the answer, then do not ask the question. I am guilty of being selectively out in the past but I am remedying that. My sister, you remember the lesbian, is not. I reminded her of that fact yesterday. Her response, "Mom and Dad know that there is only one bedroom in the house!" Oh Margaret! They also knew that about my houses, but I still TOLD them that I am Gay. A dear friend of mine says "You can't argue with stupid", Loren you hit that nail on the head. When will I take it to heart? One of these days, soon I hope, I am going to say to my family I am out of here, I am going to run not walk and never look back. Until then I guess I will still have to endure life in the Bible Belt.   Hugs to all-Garry

I am mad as Hell and I am not going to take it anymore

I am mad as Hell and I am not going to take it any more! All of my adult life I have considered myself out of the closet. Well, I was not completely out of it afterall. I would sit and wring my hands and worry while people who do not know me made decesions that affect my life. Not anymore. Yesterday I posted a reply to an article on Yahoo about Gay Marriage. While I would prefer the term Civil Union, leave God out of it, I am totally for it. Without this protection our partners can not visit us in the hospital, can not make decesions about our care, and we can not leave them our belongings when we die without the worry our families can say no. This is just flat out WRONG! Who the Hell do these people think they are that we can be treated as second class people? We are not second class people! We are doctors, lawyers, church organists(gasp!) and many other professions.
     Pronblem number two. I do realize that the federal and state government budgets are in crisis. Ido realize it can no longer be business as usual, I have to budget my money too. Why are the state and federal legislators taking it out on the ADAP program? The medicines that controll the AIDS virus are impossibly expensive. While I would gladly pay for my own were I able to, I can not. To make matters worse Part D providers are dropping the drugs from their formularies. I have written the President and my congressmen and senators. This will continue until one of them has the decency to respond. If not, the telephone calls will begin. We have the right to play with our lives, these assholes do not!