Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates this day. Whether it is just for the turkey or the tradition (or both), enjoy your day. If you are travelling be sure to be travel safe.
I’m not a big fan of email forwards. I tend to research them on Snopes, or other urban legend sites, and politely tell the sender that it’s a hoax or something to that effect. I got this one sent to me from a former work colleague, and while it is not completely true, I liked the message it had. So I’m not going to forward or delete the message, but rather post it on my blog for anyone to view that chooses to. I am posting it because it made me feel that sometimes people can be kind, and can make a difference.
At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: ‘When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other chi ldren do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?’
The audience was stilled by the query.
The father continued. ‘I believe that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.’
Then he told the following story:
Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, ‘Do you think they’ll let me play?’ Shay’s father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.
Shay’s father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, ‘We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.’
Shay struggled over to the team’s bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt . His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father’s joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay’s team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.
At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.
However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing t hat the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay’s life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.
The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.
Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman’s head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, ‘Shay, run to fi rst! Run to first!’ Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide- eyed and startled.
Everyone yelled, ‘Run to second, run to second!’ Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball … the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher’s intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman’s head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.
All were screaming, ‘Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay’
Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, ‘Run to third ! Shay, run to third!’
As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, ‘Shay, run home! Run home!’ Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.
‘That day’, said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, ‘the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world’.
Shay didn’t make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!
AND NOW A LITTLE FOOTNOTE TO THIS STORY: We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate. The crude , vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.
If you’re thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you’re probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren’t the ‘appropriate’ ones to receive this type of message. Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference. We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the ‘natural order of things.’ So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?
A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it’s least fortunate amongst them.
You now have two choices:
1. Delete
2. Forward
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. federal court ruled on Thursday that a 1998 law designed to block children from viewing Internet pornography violates the U.S. Constitution’s free speech protections.
Read the article here.
It appears that Mr Humphries (John Inman) has died from complications of Hepatitis A. Andy over at Towleroad provides a summary and links to articles relating to this.
It will be sad not to have another “Are You Being Served?” reunion or panto with John in it.
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged on what others are blogging about, and what is in the news (that interests me). So I’d thought I’d waste a few moments of Labor Day labouring away at the keyboard regurgitating what others have written.
First. Steve Irwin, the Australian Crocodile Hunter is dead. Irwin died while filming a segment in the Great Barrier Reef, and was attacked by a Bull Ray (otherwise a Smooth Ray) – one of the largest rays in that part of the world. It seems that the ray reacted and drove his poisonous barbed tail into Erwin’s chest, piercing his heart. Read Animal Planet’s tribute to Irwin here.
Tom Cruise apologized to Brooke Shields. This is news, how?!?!
Saturday night, we went to see Another Gay Movie. It was freakin’ funny as hell. If there was a boundary to be crossed, it was crossed! It was fun to see references to other teen movies that have been done over the years, with a very gay twist. The boys in the movie are worth watching (especially the very cute Jonathan Chase, pictured), and there are plenty of cameos by people that we would recognize from various TV shows and specialized films. The parts with Graham Norton are enough to make you go “ewww” and laugh at the same time. A definite must see, and DVD acquisition.
Andrew Sullivan reports that conservative Judaism will soon end its ban on gay ordination and same-sex marriage.
In the September 11, 2006 edition of Newsweek, three scholars argue that atheism is smarter. The article features commentary from Sam Harris, Daniel C. Dennett, and Richard Dawkins. A good read for the current thinking on atheism, and the role of God in America.
Well I thought I might do a weekend recap.
Friday night I did the usual coffee gathering with Frisco Pride members, and was suprised to see six new members in attendance (the largest we’ve had in a long time). Later we did a salad at Cotton Patch Cafe and then headed home to watch Boys Briefs 2, which was hosted by Danny Roberts. It was really enjoyable. Sometimes with these short films, you can get some depressing movies that overwhelm you. This series of shorts, didn’t have any of those.
Saturday, as I was loading the dishwasher, I pulled a muscle in my back. Talk about a great way to mess up weekend plans. I tried to recover, but it gradually got worse, so I ended up laying down and napping. The worst part of this was the reality that I was not going to be able to head to a Frisco Pride cocktail event that evening. I’d been looking forward to it for a while, and here I was moving about like an 110-year old. I did manage to cook some pretty tasty fried rice for dinner, and then proceeded to watch the two remaining films I had from NetFlix: The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and FAQS.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye was really good, and actually quite educational. I was suprised to learn some of the history of evangelical television, and the fact that Jim and Tammy Baker were responsible for starting “The 700 Club”, “Trinity Broadcasting Network” and “PTL.” I was also suprised at the involvement of Jerry Falwell into the destruction of both Jim and Tammy’s lives, not to mention the apparent deceit that he manipulated to push Jim and Tammy out of PTL.
FAQS was less educational, however provided a great deal of eye candy … if you are into that kind of thing. Adam Larson (from MTV’s Road Rules) appears as a gay basher, who discovers his sexuality. The lead character, Joe Lia (India) is a little unbelievable, but has some cute naked scenes which make up for the mediocre acting. The ultra-hottie of the show is Spencer (played by Lance Lee Davis) … talk about a nice chest 
Most of Sunday, I watched mind-numbing television while trying to “click” my back into place. Sunday evening we had Bobby, Ian and Kean over for dinner, and enjoyed cooking some kebabs on the new grill (the old one needed a part replaced that didn’t seem to be availble *sigh*). Chris was very happy with the new acquisition.
We finished our weekend by watching Comedy Central’s roast of William Shatner. It was okay.
We’ve all said at some point in our lives, if only I were a fly on the wall. Normally, it’s referenced when we are interested in learning about things that you may not be exposed to if you were in the same room. Today, I was that fly.
Some of you may have heard of MySpace. For those of you who haven’t, it’s an online social networking site that has become a phenomena amongst anyone under 30, band/music types, geeky types that have to be on everything, and tramps (the category I fit into).
For those of you who have, you’ll understand – and probably seen – how those of us in this world are becoming even more closely connected. Which brings me to being a fly. Today, I joined Chris in meeting up with a guy he knew way back when (we’re talking elementary school) who now lives in the Dallas area. Chris “found” him on MySpace. A feature of MySpace is the ability to enter your high school, college or university education history and then click on that school name and find people who you may have gone to class with. Interestingly, this seems to work better than ClassMates.com; due in part to there being over 80 million accounts on MySpace (double that of ClassMates).
The evening was focused on catching up on the past (and Jeff – the MySpace connection – has a few good stories to tell about his), learning about the present, and developing (hopefully) an ongoing connection. I’m always amazed at how small the world has become, and feel great when it works out as well as it can.
So being this fly, I learned more about a guy called Jeff, I learnt a great deal about growing up in the small East Texas town that Chris and Jeff shared a history with, and I learnt what it was like being a fly on the wall.
Have the recent discussions about illegal immigration triggered a reaction from CCGLA’s board of directors that now has this community organization discriminating against immigrants?
Recently the CCGLA board amended its’ bylaws to prevent anyone who is not a registered voter to be eligible to be a director or officer of the organization. To become a registered voter, a person must be a United States citizen. People who can’t become citizens include temporary workers (H1-B visa holders), international students, green card/permanent residents, and undocumented immigrants.
This action reinforces the widely held (and destructive) view that immigrants are second class citizens. While immigrants may not have the same protections under the law as citizens, they deserve the same levels of dignity and respect. How can an organization that advocates equality, dignity and respect, offer none of these to a group of residents in Collin County? Isn’t this new bylaw in conflict with the values for which CCGLA stands?
One of the original purposes of CCGLA was to bring together a community that reflected the diversity of people and their backgrounds that lived and worked within Collin County. I believe the founding CCGLA board reflected this diversity. I also now believe that the current board does not.
It is a concern to me that CCGLA now appears to support what many of us on the founding board were fighting against: discrimination. Discrimination is not just a GLBT issue. Everyone can be discriminated against for any reason. It happens every day, but should it happen within an organization that’s purpose is to fight against it? As one of the founding board members, I am disgusted that the CCGLA board has written such a discriminatory rule into their governing documents. I am equally surprised that the only founding board member remaining on the board supported this change.
With the annual meeting only days away, let’s hope the membership of CCGLA hold this board accountable for their actions, and refocuses the organization on its core values of advocating equality, dignity and respect in our community.
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