Gay Marriage Passes in D. C.

MoonHowler

Now gays get to be a miserable as everyone else is.  Just kidding, just kidding. 

The D. C. City Council predictably voted to legalize gay marriage in a 11-2 vote.  Couples should be able to tie the knot as soon as March.  Congress, which has the power over D. C. laws, could reject the action of the city council but the democrat-controlled congress has indicated it is reluctant to do so. 

Gays and gay rights supporters have suffered a series of defeats in recent months.  The latest defeats were in Maine and New York.  According the News and Messenger:

David Catania, who introduced the bill and is one of two openly gay council members, called the bill a “matter of social justice” before the vote.

Two members voted “I do” when their names came up, and when the vote finished a packed chamber erupted into cheers and clapping. The “no” votes included former mayor Marion Barry, now a council member.

If Congress does not reject the bill, the district will join Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. They will be able to wed in New Hampshire starting in January.

Gay marriage supporters have had less success elsewhere recently. Maine voters overturned the state’s same-sex marriage law last month. Earlier this month, the New York state Senate rejected a bill that would have allowed gay couples to marry. And New Jersey’s legislature, which had been working on a same-sex marriage bill, postponed a recent vote when the measure appeared headed for defeat.

Tuesday’s vote in the district came after several months of discussion, including two marathon council hearings at which some 250 witnesses testified.

Opponents included the Archdiocese of Washington, which said it might have to stop providing adoptions and other services because the law would force it to extend benefits to same-sex couples. But most who testified in this overwhelmingly Democratic city were supporters.

Is this a matter of civil rights and social justice?  Does gay marriage or civil union hurt those of us who are not gay?  Are there legal implications to being married that gays have not been able to partake of?  How will Virginia with its defense of marriage amendment react to having a gay marriage neighbor right across the Potomac River?

BOCS Meeting 12/15/09

MoonHowler
council_logo

The following  appears on the December 15 Agenda for the BOCS Meeting:  item A is detailed.  Item B is currently unavailable.

You may access the agenda at the following CLICK.  Choose current agenda.

 

 Sesquicentennial Celebration

A. RES – Transfer, Budget and Appropriate $77,353 from Non-Departmental Transient Occupancy Tax Funds to the Department of Public Works to Fund Expenses for 2010 Events and Programs to Support the 150th Sesquicentennial at County Historic Sites and to Match the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership’s STEM Educational Grant Request– Thomas Bruun – Public Works Department   

 

 B. RES – Consider Proposed Memorandum of Understanding Between Prince William County and Virginia Civil War Events, Inc. – Angela Lemmon Horan – County Attorney  

 

 Note: 

Item A deals with the Prince William County Committee.  It provides for  TOT funds to be transferred to Public Works and itemizes what each amount is allocated for. 

Item B is the Creston Owen group, Virginia Civil War Events.  No mention was made of a presentation.  The information appeared to be incomplete.

Interested parties should make every attempt to watch this section of the BOCS meeting.

 

Gangs on Tribal Lands

MoonHowler

Set aside the romanticized Quileute Reservation seen in the Twilight Series for a darker version of what is happening on some reservations.  Many native reservations are known for extreme poverty, poor living conditions, broken homes, lack of basic infrastructure, chronic illness, substance abuse, unemployment, and now gang violence.  Today’s New York Times featured some very troubling exposure to gang life style on the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. 

CLICK TO VIEW THE VIDEO.  (NYT video does not embed easily) 

Tribal leaders are attempting to combat  gang behavior that has existed since the 90’s when funds targetting crime were severely cut back.  Lakota cultural experts have been hired to work with middle and high school age kids in the tribal schools.  The students are taught the language and the culture.  Yet once they leave the school room, the gang is on the outside.  Gang members have adopted the style and behaviors of inner city gangs but they have different motivations. 

The tribal lands gangs don’t fight for turf or big bucks.  They fight over scraps.  Robbery, looting, general theft, burglary seem to be the gang crimes.  Goods are then sold.  All gang behavior is self destructive to any society.  On the  Pine Ridge Reservation , it is estimated that over 5000 youth are gang members or have gang affiliation.  In a land already fraught with too many of society’s ills, gang presence is just not needed. 

From The Ledger:

The Justice Department distinguishes the home-grown gangs on reservations from the organized drug gangs of urban areas, calling them part of an overall juvenile crime problem in Indian country that is abetted by eroding law enforcement, a paucity of juvenile programs and a suicide rate for Indian youths that is more than three times the national average.

While many crimes go unreported, the police on the Pine Ridge reservation have documented thousands of gang-related thefts, assaults – including sexual assaults – and rising property crime over the past three years, along with four murders. As federal grants to Pine Ridge have declined the past decade, the tribal police force has shrunk by more than half, with 12 to 20 officers per shift patrolling an area the size of Rhode Island.

Somehow this video of gang membership is more disturbing than city gang video.  Perhaps it is the sense of dispair already existing on many reservations where social problems are at their highest.  To see young people whose ancestors were Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other proud Native Americans emulating the dregs of society is just disgusting.

Arlington School Cancels Taliban Debate

MoonHowler

 

 

After a rash of parent complaints, a principal at Swanson Middle School in Arlington cancelled a debate assignment where students were asked to take the Taliban point of view during a mock UN Security Council session.   Principal Chrystal Forrester and 2 other teachers, presumably the ones who made the assignment,  have said the assignment was “clearly a bad choice for a debate topic.”

An email was sent out to the parents of the Swanson 8th graders with the following message, according to the Washington Post:

Recognizing the pain that has touched many of our families and neighbors due to the terrorist attacks on the United States and acknowledging the sensitive nature of the conflict in Afghanistan involving many of our dedicated members of the U.S. armed forces, we have eliminated this topic as part of the U.N. unit of study effective immediately,”

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