Mother Of Exiles

The New Colossus:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

-Emma Lazarus

Most people may be familiar with at least a part of this poem.....Yes, I know...it's a sonnet...but let's not get technical. For many of us, it was required reading in elementary school when learning about civic and American history. It's a text heavy with meaning for us as a nation. While on the surface it gives person hood and meaning to the Statue of Liberty, it also serves as a call to the outcasts and disenfranchised of all nations that America would accept and be a safe home to all who embraced her. In addition, this passage... just as Lady Liberty herself...became personifications of the meaning of our founding fathers when they authored the words..."We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

How sad then to see that only a few generations is all it takes to forget this important part of what it means to be American.  We were meant to be a land of opportunity and a safe haven for others and yet hatred, bigotry, and ignorance have again gained favor as the path of the patriot. Often  practiced by those who wish to claim a moral and patriotic high ground.

Today I came across a video that has turned my stomach and made me truly sad. In a YouTube video I positioned after the jump, you will see a group a people holding a charity benefit in support of women's shelters and the homeless in Orange County, California. The event was protested by local tea party conservative groups and a handful of elected officials who's behavior included inciting violence and the murder of the charity events attendees. Watch the video and then see if you can tell me just what the hell is going on with our country?!

Foster Diaries...Laying Your Heart On The Line

When I used to look forward to the future and wonder what my life would be like, one of the things I NEVER saw myself doing was foster parenting. First and foremost I was scared of having to face the way hurting kids can act out that hurt. I imagined kids having raging tantrums and screams of, "Your not my parents! I hate you!." I imagined kids who were sad and lost in a world of bewildering adult goings on, with hearts full of hurt and minds full of questions with no easy answers. If I am being totally honest, I need to admit that I was afraid....afraid to face the pain of others and all the emotional messiness that I knew would come with trying to help another hurting soul make their way through the world. I just did not feel I had what it took to do that....Yet here I am.

like most things in life, it's not as scary as I had projected it to be. BUT...sometimes a crisis can make us stand back and reevaluate our lives and how we got were we are. I was having one such crisis the other night in the form of one very cranky baby...

The President and DoJ Decline To Further Defend DOMA...Time To Celebrate?

Some Days I log on to the Internet and simply can't believe what I read....and todays news has totally left me gobsmacked. Chief Attorney General Eric Holder has released a statement that the Department of Justice will no longer defend DOMA's section three. In addition, this means that President Obama has taken the official, public stance that he believes DOMA to be unconstitutional. You heard that correctly. The same president that has been ducking and weaving around taking an official stance on the Defense of Marriage Act has not only come out against it...but come out swinging.

The details of this announcement are still emerging and are still somewhat subject to the fog of war. While the news is on almost every site imaginable,  the discussion and analysis of the President and DoJ's move is still somewhat conflicting. However, while this may not be the killing blow to DOMA it definitely removes it's bullet proof vest. but what does all this really mean in a practicle sense?

The Supremes Take The Case

...The California Supreme Court that is..not the bouffant becoiffed divas of Motown....though it sure would make this trial alot more bearable.

When last we left Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the ninth circuit court of appeals could not..or would not...tackle the issue of whether the individuals at protectmarriage.com had legal standing to defend Prop 8 in court if the Governor and Attorney General would not. This leaves many of us wondering...where did our love go? Why could they not answer this themselves? Instead of coming to their own determination, they elected to send a certified question back to the California Supreme Court to get their official opinion on what state law says on the matter. Your may remember that they were same court who's tragic love child was upholding Prop 8 in the first place. My reaction to this was one of frustration and my reasoning for this is twofold: