Jpatrickm

A friend of mine sent me one of those standard form-emails soliciting money and asking me to support the McCain campaign. As I started to politely reply back to him with a “no thanks”, I started to get more and more mad at just how ridiculous and frankly saddening it is to see educated people support McCain. Yes, I said educated. If you support McCain and you consider yourself educated and take offense to that, then I say… clearly you are not educated enough. Go back to school. Take some history classes, take some military science classes, take some leadership classes, take some finance classes, take some political policy classes, take some foreign policy classes, take some religion classes, take some constitutional law classes. But don’t just sit there and blindly follow along because you go to church every Sunday morning and you think God and country will make everything ok in your life.

Here is my reply to his email:

No thanks. I do like John McCain as a person but there is no way I’m supporting the Republican party running this country into the ground any longer. You know, I was president of the Republican club in college for 4 years… but Republicans are completely off track, ruining this country, hiding behind the bible and hate. God and country doesn’t pay the bills. Bush has killed more Americans then Osama… and don’t give me that crap that it’s about Terrorism. Anyone with a high school diploma knows Iraq is about Oil. Saddam hated Al Qaida too… no reason for us to have gone in there. As a former Army Captain, I respect your military service, but to support the policies of McCain… well it’s almost too ridiculous to even write an email about. Patriotism is fighting for what you believe in, not blindly following the flag.

Good luck with the campaign none-the-less

Some say we are entering the age of enlightenment; that mankind will begin to govern itself based on fact, science and proof in the theories that work and that make sense. Not blind faith in religion, segregation, hate, isolationism and ignorance. That as the human race begins to become more and more educated, they will see that we are all part of something larger then ourselves. That we are smart enough to see there are 2 sides to every issue. That there is a cause and effect and sometimes we are the cause not the answer.

Religion is not policy. Hate is not peace, capitalism is not crushing the poor, diplomacy is not weakness, and equality is not fear.

I’m so unbelievably mad at the state of our country. I’m so mad that we have allowed Americans to die because of ignorance and failed politics. When George Bush was younger, he was an alcoholic, cocaine snorting, failure of a son who squeaked through school with a C average. And I’m supposed to follow him? When I was 13, I was in the Air Force Auxiliary; when I was 17, I left for Military college.  I didn’t have a damn drink until I was 20 years old. I was an honor student and was actually president of our college republican party for 4 years and worked on the campaign of a state Senator. I was a police officer at age 19. I was an officer in the Army until 30. No drugs, no smoking, no cocaine, no nothing. I believed in service and country and I spent a year in Korea. And now I see this country falling apart at the hands of George Bush and a Republican party trying to keep things just as they are. Well Fuck You. I didn’t bust my ass serving my town, my state and my country to have a government of idiots. They basically just pissed all over what an entire generation considered to be loyal service and everything I ever believed in.

And on top of all that, guess what, I’m gay… and they say I can’t have equal rights or get married. Apparently their god says marriage is between a man and a woman. Apparently their definition of religion dictates my freedoms and my taxes and my rights. Apparently, the separation of church and state only applies to everyone else’s church but theirs. If I was a straight atheist I would be allowed to marry without any problem. The republican party is now a party of convenience and contradiction on a crusade to rid the world of anyone different from them in the name of freedom.

I would say to them, tread carefully. In the age of enlightenment and education, they will be the minority and their policies and beliefs and hate will be their prison.

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I  am so very sad today to learn that Del Martin died this morning at the age of 87. Del Martin and her partner Phyllis Lyon, captured our hearts recently by being the first couple to be married after San Francisco Mayor allowed same-sex marriages in 2004 and again on June 16, 2008 after the California Supreme Court ruling legalizing it.

Del and Phyllis were together for a life-time – 55 years! They met in1950 after college in Seattle when both worked for the same company. In 1955 they moved to San Francisco and bought a small house that they lived in together ever since.

I can’t even imagine how hard it must have been to be gay in the 50’s. It was hard enough for me in the 80’s and 90’s. When I saw Del and Phyllis on TV in June getting married, I was in awe, captured by their strength and resolve and love.

I feel that I have been fortunate enough to be in love myself and can’t imagine the sorrow and loss that Phyllis must feel today – her partner, her conscience, her best friend and her love is gone.

We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to those like Del and Phyllis who fought the brave fight before us and allowed us to live and walk free in a mostly accepting society.

Her life wish was to finally be allowed to marry her partner and in June she was granted this wish. Let’s hope that Proposition 8 on the California November ballot fails and we can all continue to chase our dreams and live and die in love.

Gifts in lieu of flowers can be made to honor Del’s life and commitment and to defeat the California marriage ban through the National Center for Lesbian Rights NO on 8 committee at www.nclrights.org/NoOn8.

To read the obituary for Del Martin at Equality California click here.

For more information on Proposition No. 8 and how you can help, click here.

Rest in peace Del. Your work is done here.

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I am a big fan people who speak their mind and raise a little hell for what they believe in. I think all too often, elected officials bite their tongue and lose their fight for fear of being beaten down by public opinion or controversy.

It’s nice to see someone just tell it like it is. Dennis Kucinich’s speech at the DNC tonight reminded me of Howard Dean.

If America was a middle eastern country with Bush as the leader and he acted the same way and did the same things he’s doing now… the free world would have stomped his ass.

WAKE UP AMERICA… Kucinich is right.

Here is his full speech in case you missed.

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How can you not just love Olympic swimming now with Michael Phelps everywhere you look.

He’s featured on the cover of next week’s issue of Sports Illustrated, due out on August 25th.

What an amazing athlete and just all around cool, down-to-earth guy. His interviews were very personable. I couldn’t care less about most of the Olympics, to be honest. I use to watch it as a kid and I thought growing up that it represented some common good greater then ourselves and our governments. But now it just seems commercial, over-priced, and full of propaganda that has more to do with the host city, the politics and the sponsors and less to do with the sports and athletes themselves. Maybe I’m just being cynical. But, it’s nice to see role models like Michael Phelps emerge from the huge Olympic Borg… that and also cause he’s hot

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Andre and I took off for a long weekend down to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We just went from Friday morning until Tuesday night. It was an awesome trip and we had a lot of fun. It’s not really tourist season right now, so the weather was extremely hot and the humidity was almost overwhelming, but it was tolerable if you could hide inside the A/C or in the pool every once in awhile. We mostly just lounged around the beach or pool, went out for drinks and dinner and relaxed. On Monday we took a horseback riding adventure up into the mountains to the rain forest jungles. I haven’t been on a horse before (once when I was about 7, but only for a minute), so it was a ton of fun. In fact, I think I might buy one now lol. The entire time I just pretended that I was a cowboy or old Army Cavalry Officer, which I’m convinced I was in a former life haha

Here are the pictures… click the collage below for the slideshow at Flickr. I also took a few short video clips of us horseback riding, so I’ll try to organize and get those posted soon.

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