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Pure Moods, Vol. I
By Various Artists, Adiemus, Angelo Badalamenti, David A. Stewart, David Byrne, Deep Forest, Enigma, Ennio Morricone, Enya, Eight Others
Adiemus
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This is a heartwarming post from my friend Milo. As an avid equality activist, thought I should do my due diligence in disseminating the posting.###
In
Loving Memory of Mildred Jeter Loving (1939-2007)
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Today
at 2:26am
"When
any society says that I cannot marry a certain person, that society has cut off
a segment of my freedom,"
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1958
* * * *
In July 11, 1958, Mildred Jeter Loving and her husband Richard Perry Loving
were arrested for violating an anti-miscegenation law in their home state of
Virginia, one of the last 16 states in the union that outlawed nuptials between
whites and persons of color at the time. Mildred (who is of African American
and Native American decent) and her husband of five weeks were charged with
felonies, sent to jail, and then forcibly removed from the borders of Virginia
as part of their sentence for violating the statewide interracial-marriage ban.
Although Mildred and Richard simply affirmed their eternal love and everlasting
commitment to each other, they were treated as criminals because of a law that
did not treat everyone equally—a law that held separate and unequal standards
of what is acceptable based on the color of a person or their significant
other's skin.
Despite the cruel reprimands and harsh banishment, Midred and Richard Loving
remained determined and resolute. The couple continued to challenge Virginia's
unfair and bigoted anti-miscegenation act all the way to the Supreme Court and
eventually come out victorious. The Supreme Court Justices ruled unanimously in
favor of the Lovings and then Chief Justice Earl Warren went on to asserted
that:
"Marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our
very existence and survival…"
The ruling on Loving v. Virginia made history on July 12, 1967 (only 41 years
ago!) by effectively invalidating all remaining laws that banned
interracial-marriage across the United States and granting all heterosexual
couples the freedom to marry whomever they wish, regardless of their or their
partner's racial background. For Mildred and Richard, the ruling meant
deliverance and vindication that concluded a 9 year battle.
Mildred recently passed away in May this year at the age of 68. However, before
she departed, she spoke on the 40th anniversary of the Loving vs. Virginia
ruling and voiced her support of same-sex marriage. On June 12, 2007, she said:
"Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day
goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how
much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me,
even if others thought he was the "wrong kind of person" for me to
marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no
matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry.
Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over
others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights. I am still not a
political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case
that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family
that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in
life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving,
are all about."
Although self-described as a humble housewife and never considered herself as a
heroine, Mildred did something heroic throughout her lifetime; she relentlessly
stood up for something unjust and discriminatory. She continues to be a source
of inspiration and hope for many who believe in and dream of equality.
* * * *
By now most people have already heard about Proposition 8 (http://www.noon8.com), which is
intended to amend the California constitution to eliminate the ability of
same-sex couples to marry. While I’m not going to dictate how anyone should
vote, I urge everyone to think about what’s at stake when they make a decision
on this proposition. I firmly believe that Democratic societies should create
laws that will promote equality and fairness and ultimately improve the quality
of human life. Legislation should not be used to endorse hate, and deny
fundamental rights. If you feel that same and want to take a stand against
bigotry, intolerance, and discrimination, please vote No on Proposition 8!!!!
And please tell your friends and family to vote No on Proposition 8. (And If
you're not from California, please tell all you Cali connections to vote NO on
8!)
Keep the Lovings' legacy alive, fight for civil rights and Vote NO on Prop
8!!!!
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| same o' tune, different day. sad.
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| In light of well earned summer off from my a long two semester in nursing hell... I realize that is another "stage" in life that I will have to face. Sadly, it's a question of WHEN and not if it'll happen. There are so much unknowns and things to really think about that I did not have to until now. I guess I'm really growing up. *sigh* In theory, when I finish my RN program, I should be making some decent money. Enough to begin a so called life that I've been yearning for in almost three decade of life. So, what better way than to do myself a favor and start educating myself in how to manage my own money... personal finance.
I took the liberty of signing up for a Persona Finance class from CCSF, the tuition and investment in my future was paid for by my dearest JB. (THANKS! ^_^) Along with reading, I thought I would add to my repertoire with videos =) For this... I'm going to start off with PBS' Suze Orman first DVD, The Laws Of Money. Interesting enough, I find her show quite interesting, and also amazing. I am shock that lot of what she preaches is really common sense, and what is more shocking is... I NEVER EVER thought of money in "that" way.
Well.. I hope by the end of the summer I will be hell of a lot better at managing my own money.
THE LAWS OF MONEY
Law Number 1. Truth Creates Money, Lies Destroy It.
Law Number 2. Look at What You Have, Not at What You Had.
Law Number 3. Do What Is Right for You, Before You Do What Is Right for Your Money.
Law Number 4. Invest in the Known Before the Unknown.
Law Number 5. Always Remember: Money Has No Power of Its Own.
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Today Apple just released it's much highly anticipated debut of the Apple iPhone 3G. I happen to be one of them. I've been waiting for quit a whiles for such a device to sprawl up from somewhere. I wasn't too surprised that Apple happened to be the developer of such a advanced and user friendly device.
I was thinking about getting up at 7am to try to get to an Apple store to one in my hands to play, but overslept til 11:30am. By the time I woke up, I was thinking "f*ck it, crowd's there, wait will be at least 2+ hours." Decided to call my my grade school friend AI from Oakland. I've known her since kindergarten. *sigh* (Those were the good years). We decided to make the Apple iPhone 3G phone an "our day." I haven't seen her in a whiles.
Picked her up from the Daly City BART station, went to Stonestown's Apple store to see how long the line really is. Turns out that I was right about the 2+ hour wait. After learning such horrible news, we decided hang around, grab a bite at the food court and then do a bit of window, met up with my bff JB and then hit up an AT&T Wireless store to one of their two Apple iPhone 3G kiosk.
AI is a graphics art/design major at one of the more nortorously expensive art colleges in SF. Naturally, she's an Apple user, of course... lady's first. =) So I let her get her first dips into the iPhone, and then I got my turn. It sure got my jolly all up and around. :P I fell in love with it at first sight and experience.
One of the few reasons that my I wanted to replace my current AT&T HTC's 8525 phone with new Apple iPhone 3G is:
1. Battery life is anywhere between 4-6 hours.
It's so bad when I work in the SF/Daly City area on some day where there's spotty reception, the software or perhaps some sort of bad engineering design, that it keeps on searching for network sites and drains my battery within 4 hours (with an average 10-15 SMS messsages). That's ludicrous.
2. The internal storage capacity for the 8525 and any current WindowsMobile platform phone stinks, and it stinks to high heaven.
With the amount of personal contacts, and reference software, there's simply not enough space. Yes, one can argue I can get an microSD and solve it. However there are two medical references that I use that must be installed on internal memory. Simply put, capacity and UI design by MS sucks. I think I've moved on from a Microsoft hugging loving user years ago to an Apple convert.
On that note, I think Apple one of these days is going to raise up and take back more of the market. Quite frankly, I am sick and tired of Microsoft bullying around with their crappy WGA (Windows Genuine Authenticiation) protocols built into all the new products, and partially mandating it on many components in WindowsXP via WindowsUpdate. Ever feel like Microsoft is stick a gun to your head forcing to you make out with someone that's flat out dumb and ugly? (sorry, no pun intended)
With the huge millions of dollars and working from a way different paradigm (UI/experience) that Apple has been raving about. I will have to say to all those people who has given me grief about "oh, this is just like an iPhone and is better." Shove it, I've played with the device close to half an hour. Nothing out there comes close to the iPhone, not the Verizon Voyager or SprintNextel's new Instinct. That's why it's "like" an iPhone, cause it's NOT. User interfaces from all those knockoffs don't even come close with Apple's Cocoa Touch API. Being out of touch with IT and comp sci for years, I don't think I've totally lost everything. But I love how the iPhone UI and kernel are in sync with their powerful Unix-based OS debut of Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) and the much anticipated Mac OS X Snow Leopard next year.
The following is Apple's iPhone APIs and SDK 2.0 share extensively with those of Mac OS X.
Cocoa Touch - the object oriented framework
Multi-Touch Events, Muli-Touch Controls, Accelerometer, View Hierarchy, Localization, Alerts, Web View, People Pick, Images Picker, Camera
Media
Core Audio, OpenAL, Audio Mixing, Audio Recording, Video Playback, JPG/PNG/TIFF, PDF, Quartz (2D), Core Animation, OpenGL ES
Core Services
Collections, Address Book, Netowwkring, File saccess, SQLIte, Core Location, Net Services, Threading, Preferences, URL utilties
Core OS
OS X Kernel, Lib Sysstem, BSD TCP/IP, Sockets, Security, Power Mgmt, KeyCkain, Certificates, FS, Bonjour
3. Improved communications
SMS. Now threaded like conversation in Apple's iChat format. However and sadly, picture mail is not support, nor is voice dailing. Makes me wonder why Apple is not supporting that since California just passed handsfree law requirements.
Email. Supports Cisco IPSec 6, VPN, and other protocols. (Though I am not using these enterprise level security, but I can totally appreciate it). Creating accounts on the iPhone has never been easier. Touch and enter some information in the fields, and there you go!
4. A selfish and aestetic reasons, which quite the obvious. =)
What can I say, I love the Mac feel. F*ck Windows, I'm tired of their shit.
The reasons that I am hold back on purchasing this awesome device is:
1. waiting for the insurance company to cut me a check for it
2. waiting for compatibilities for the 2 major medical/nsg references
3. Apple and AT&T to work out the kinks in their back-end servers and whatever technical glitches they may have.
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Why does it make any sense to take AWAY rights from people?
I highly doubt Jesus would be penciling away at the polls trying to strip people of their basic human rights. A civil union IS NOT the same thing as a marriage. It IS NOT equal rights.
I'm sorry, but am I the only person who feels that gay people are not second-class citizens?
Remember, not long ago interracial marriage was banned almost everywhere ... I'll bet a lot of you would find that outlandish nowadays.
I'd like to end with this...
ALL MEN are created EQUAL and they are endowed by their creator with certain UNALIENABLE rights. Among those are life, LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.
In case you aren't familiar with that, it is from our declaration of independence from Great Britain.
I also find it ironic that the Supreme Court has the words "Equal Justice Under Law" inscribed at the top, yet we've decided the legislate and ban and control how people can love each other. It's so rediculous.
I believe that seperation of church and state was one of the ideals of our founding fathers. We should keep it seperated. Gay people, as American citizens, deserve the same rights as everyone else, because we wouldn't deny these rights to criminals, so law abiding gay people should not be denied them either. Taking away the legal rights of marriage is unconstitutional. If this passes, California will be the first state to use the constitution to take away rights. Homosexuals can have "legal unions", but they do not receive the same benefits or legal rights a married couple is entitled to.