Until She Quits, Kim Davis Is A Paid Civil Servant

"There ought to be enough space for her to act on her conscience and for gay couples to be able to get married." 

That's what Jeb Bush is now saying after previously standing with the crowd of candidates who understand the importance of the rule of law.  Tapping into that vein of Christian conservative angst that wants republican candidates to understand their pain is  pretty predictable . Laws enacted by Supreme Court intervention can produce protest behaviors, and gay marriage seems to have a strong wave of opposition.

As understandable and expected as Kim Davis and other contrary clerks who will do this are, these are also the people we expected to be throwing into jail because of inevitable protest against this new law. 

 Lawyers who make money at these moments have long since positioned themselves for this opportunity and now its time to go to work. Davis' seemed fully equipped with lawyers (hard to say for how long) who knew very well what the judge would be forced to do regarding this case, although they probably anticipated a hefty bail for their sacrificial lamb to help encourage that "Go Fund Me" page and raise major loot from sympathetic supporters.

Feeling a little raped by conservative GoFundMe causes, GoFundMe has altered their policy to counter against such calculated cash raising. Yet, that will only hamper the effort to get rich off of the gay marriage protest, not stop it.  With no bail set and no GoFundMe page for Davis, staying in jail could be her back door to martyrdom that fulfills this protest mission with Davis as its face.

SCOTUS Laws Come When Congress Collapses

It would be so great if this conversation REALLY had something to do with gay marriage, but capitalism is a predictable opportunist and the Supreme Court only cares to direct America when Congress Does Not. Enough on that.

Conservative Governors have long since wondered how much they could test the power of Federal control over state laws.  With the end of pot prohibition in a couple of states, and undocumented workers having sanctuary states, even liberal leaders are testing a Federal willingness to enforce certain laws exactly as they are written on the books.

Whether these pokes at the Constitutions perimeter have created the leaks in law enforcement that makes Kim Davis wonder if she is duty bound to sign marriage licenses for gays is truly a worthy debate too, but not this time.

This time, we have to point the questions and the fingers at each of the presidential candidates that don't have the integrity or the sense to defend the rule of law at least until after they become president like Obama did.

How any member of congress could find the audacity and verve to complain about a Supreme Court decision given their power to define or redefine law is interesting. How any potential president who is expected to uphold the rule of law would equivocate on such an issue is eye blinking.

Go take your judicial branch Quiz (send a copy to Kim Davis)

4. True or false? State courts must follow the holdings of the Supreme Court of the United States. Your answer: True False The correct answer is "True". State courts as well as federal courts must follow the Supreme Court of the United States.

5. A Supreme Court decision that a law is unconstitutional can be invalidated by (Choose two) a. a majority of district and appeals court judges’ rejection of the decision, with a showing of why it was erroneous b. a later decision by the Supreme Court c. a new law enacted by Congress upholding the first law d. an amendment to the Constitution e. a motion by a majority of the justices to rescind the decision f. Kim Davis. Your answer: a b c d e  f The correct answer is "b and d". All federal and state courts must follow the Supreme Court’s decisions, and Congress may not strike down its decisions. The Supreme Court can overrule its own decision only in a ruling on a new case. Constitutional amendments are rare.

In the absence of any reasonable alternative to support Kim Davis and her decision to disobey the law, many candidates have chosen the kind of politics that you only do when you know you can't win and you never intend to run for president again.

Either Davis must follow the law as Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham and Hillary Clinton and every lucid candidate has declared, or sit in jail until the statement she's making has been made to her satisfaction (ie., rot in hell if you so choose).

Those who are supporting the actions of Mrs. Davis are either way too low in the polls  or way too angry about OPS (other people's sins) for the repercussions to matter much in their calculations.

But they are wrong and waving the white flag on the presidency at the same time.  This matters because this is the same rule of law as women's suffrage was or interracial marriage became which both were once illegal because God didn't used to like women or folks with jungle fever.  Now, God has reduced his list to disliking only gays who want to marry and maybe people who get abortions- rape exception excluded (I think).

I absolutely agree that God's law supersedes man's laws forcing each of us of faith to draw this line at times. I'm still not sure how I even finished high school science with my big bang skepticism.

Whenever principle forces you to challenge Supreme Court decisions, prepare yourself and your principle to sit in jail (or the principals office) for as long as principle remains your key motivation. Long long ago, America chose it necessary to separate Church from State , and the State won that war of hierarchy.

Kim Davis and Kim Davis alone was elected to fulfill a PAID civic duty. Once Kim Davis is tired of the statement she's making in jail, she must either return to sign every marriage license expected of her according to Kentucky law, until her term is over, or go right back to jail. In her new career after civil service, Davis could become an organized protester since she's getting some background in the work and her jail time should provide a little protester street cred.

Hobby Lobby's Impact On Baker In Lakewood, CO

Just Married...But No Wedding Cake?

Corporate freedom or corporate responsibility and the shades of grey between.

This is the question at hand when dealing with the religious freedom that spawned this nation. Freedom that we hold near and dear in our home has spawned religious freedom laws, a personhood freedom of sorts that some believe should extend to corporations.  The most famous example of such freedom is Hobby Lobby, who finds working with people that don't want babies but might have sex problematic.  The Supreme Court determined that Hobby Lobby, being a "Closely Held" corporation, does have the right to at least avoid ObamaCare's mandate that companies support family management by paying for things that limit procreation during intercourse.  The fact that pregnant women are also regularly discriminated against in so many work environments forces a reluctance towards child bearing in the first place, but that's another blog for another day.

Companies who thought to follow suit with Hobby Lobby probably were smart to wait and see what the backlash would be first.  For the most part, the original "Closely Held" company has weathered the storm from their decision against providing birth control access for their employees. Hobby Lobby is not a publicly traded company so stockholders could not weigh in on their "Closely Held" convictions that found their way to the Supreme Court.   The Court's decision and  "Closely Held" description could be considering another shade of grey soon as appeals courts in Colorado recently ruled against a Lakewood baker who refused to make a gay cake. The baker intends to press his argument against gay cakes all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court and beyond if he can.

If you walk outside and listen very closely, there is this resounding echoing sound of "I told you so" reverberating across hills and plains of America. The lead voice in that echo might be Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  Ginsburg anticipated this slippery slope when her comrades on the bench voted against her  and in favor of Hobby Lobby during the ObamaCare mandate ruling. In her dissenting opinion, Justice Ginsburg wrote: 

"Although the court (lead opinion) attempts to cabin its language to closely held corporations, its logic extends to corporations of any size, public or private," she states. "(There's) little doubt that RFRA claims will proliferate, for the court's expansive notion of corporate personhood — combined with its other errors in construing RFRA — invites for-profit entities to seek religion-based exemptions from regulations they deem offensive to their faith." 

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20150222/NEWS/302229997/hobby-lobby-ruling-left-wiggle-room-over-definition-of-closely-held

As I listened to a local news interview this morning of that Lakewood, Colorado baker who is trying to test the limits of Colorado's law against businesses that attempt to establish social category bans such as "No Gay Cakes", he suddenly appeared introspective when he claimed that the court was wrong to violate his right to freedom of religion.  I don't want to assume that he isn't particularly religious if he claims he is, but he immediately refocused his gaze back on the interviewer after making his freedom of religion comment, and then he expanded his argument to "freedom of speech". While following this case, many of the baker's public statements have been about artistic expression versus religious freedom. My assumption is that this baker from Masterpiece Cake Shop can't build a masterpiece under the oppression of gay love, though I imagine every freedom of speech baker has unknowingly done a masterful gay cake or two in the past, discreetly purchased by friends so as not to create gay cake discomfort for the baker.

The truth is that gay people have long since learned how to fake straight to get into the military when draft requirements demanded it during Vietnam, or fake straight to fit in the locker room when homophobia demands it still.  Discreetly buying cakes for weddings without offending bakers who feel their cake might solidify the union and bring damnation to a baker who wants no part of it is nothing new either for gays. Homophobia was and is more life altering to the homo than the phobic. When finally it appeared that the laws of America have found homoempathy, a few gay people dared to venture out and get married, and double dared to do it with a professional wedding cake as part of the celebration. Laws against bigotry exist because bigotry has existed for so much longer and in so many various forms. In other words, the challenge of dealing with gay love isn't new for gay's.  It's new for US.

While cake is a much anticipated part of many important celebrations, some cakes are awful and only serve the function of fulfilling a sweet tooth or smashing on a face when it comes to weddings. They are much more symbolic and traditional than artistic necessities with spiritual undercurrents. As our initial homophobic questions around gay marriage arose, it was only a hypothetical example to ask, "what if a baker doesn't want to make a gay cake?". Why some bakers are actually jumping on that hypothetical argument and leading the charge against gay marriage is peculiar. Is business that plentiful?   Many of these patriots of principle might in fact be biting off their nose to spite their face like that pizza place down south that wanted to declare themselves against serving their pizza at a gay wedding (who does that anyway), and is no longer serving their pizza to anyone anymore. Hobby Lobby nearly risked their existence too for the sake of something that the ACA already had a work around for.


That's right, the ability for individual employee's to get birth control insurance benefits when companies morally objected was already foreshadowed and written into the ACA before Hobby Lobby inspired the little bakery in Lakewood to also test the size of corporate personhood and the power of government mandates such things as serving the public without unreasonable biases.  No shirt, no shoes, no service is still deemed a reasonable bias.  but No Gay Cakes is not a sign or a practice that we can allow in America.

Should this be a required sign for Hobby Lobby applicants?

Shouldn't Hobby Lobby, however, have to now post a hiring sign that says, "God Hates Contraception and So Do We" or "No Birth Control", just so those people who attempt to apply for employment, but mostly have sex for fun, can be forewarned?

Defining religion is a slippery slope and all speech is a right connected to our practice of religion.  It seems to me, however, that when you start to add freedom to the practices of "religion and speech",they should always prescribe to decent behavior. 

Does Cosby Deserve The Same Grace That Roof Got?

For the sake of argument, let's agree that being gay and monogamous, maybe even loving one person of your same sex enough to possibly commit yourself to them forever, is a sin even though the bible warns about same sex, not same sex marriage exactly.

So many of the people who invoke the Holy Bible of Christianity for the sake of rebuking abortion and homosexuality reject the rest of the same bible when it focuses on the call of Grace and forgiveness.  For a simple minded person like me, that means to think on Grace and focus on forgiveness before judgment finds me needing them for myself.

If you were one of those people who came to the rescue of America's former favorite father Bill Cosby like R&B singer Jill Scott did, you are likely to be needing Grace and forgiveness from the claimants who've called themselves Cosby's victims for a long time since they are looking more like victims than opportunists with each passing day.

I have chosen to refrain from detailed contribution on this topic because accusations are a really sad reason for adding to the destruction of a human life.  Guilty or not, Cosby deserves the same march towards conviction, settlement or absolution that every other accused universally beloved date rape drugger deserves. When you say that out loud, it sounds like the reason we don't want to touch this one. If not guilty, we are disrupting our own childhood by destroying Bill.  If found guilty of this, Cosby at least deserves what that Penn State rapist, Jerry Sandusky got- or what we wish we could give to all of those Catholic ministers who  got away with abusing young boys.

I just angered myself with the thought of these forms of hideous sins and our relative lack of unified outrage, which reflects as denial to me.  Are we really more agitated by the marriage commitment of homosexuals than we are with Bill? Based upon our opening agreement, sin is still sin for now, however, rape like Bill is accused of doing feels like a lower form of  sin when I imagine the outwardly destructive things man does towards man versus the personal sins we do to ourselves or with consenting adults. This Cosby crap is upsetting like child molestation but maybe even more sadistic when you imagine someone willing to incapacitate and then violate an unconscious person.  While also distorted,  necrophilia seems more dignified in that the corpse doesn't have to live with the pain of the violation forever.

Grace and forgiveness are screaming in my ear to relax and release.  Take a few deep breaths. Wait on a firm conviction first.

Terror at a Boston marathon, a Colorado movie theater or a South Carolina church service are horrific sins, but  are also NOT UNworthy of forgiveness. Since the Bible declares that all do sin and fall short of the glory, it indirectly suggests that we all have an equal need for His Grace. Human guilt has a way of creating a barrier between the forgiveness we desperately need because all of our guilt gets manifested when we approach that final crossing towards the Grace for an overcoming life, not just for salvation when we die.  Its at this moment when most people look down  at the tattered bridge before them and don't trust it enough to step out towards living Grace, afraid that it might give way on them before they make it across.

Crossing the bridge of judgement requires forgiving yourself.

Those who step out  eventually recognize that they are traversing across the bridge called Guilt that separates man from the sin we do and the forgiveness that fixed it all.  If you focus on the judgement beneath you and not the Grace before you, you will fall, prey to your own sins and be forced to climb your battered body back to the top complete with your new found fear and scars, just to rejoin the increasing crowd of the fearful.

These are the forgiven believers that stand fearfully frozen by guilt while screaming judgement's at those who chase onward because they are afraid to chase for Grace themselves.


Unbelief Is The Worse Of All Sins

Faith is a Grace journey that junctions at this cross bridge where fearful believers gather for forgiveness. No one whose courage carries them to the other side will ever look back on those yet to make it and find the heart to judge the rapist or the raped; the terrorist or those damaged by terror. His open arms of Grace usher us to step out in faith viewing all sin as nothing more than guilt's burden strapped to the back of the redeemed,  Standing next to Him on the good side of Grace compels us toward this same view one to another.

So fret not Bill Cosby and those who falsely judge him before time.  Judging and date rape drugging may never outrage like gay marriage does, and are also not the worst sin of them all.  Unbelief (atheism, agnosticism)is the one sin you don't want to die with.

By faith- everything else is forgiven.

SCOTUS Victimized By "Do Nothing" Congress

I was listening to a radio segment from the Christian group Focus on The Family as they expressed obvious disappointment with the Supreme Court's decision on gay marriage.

I keep hoping for someone, anyone, who can offer a measured dissent that doesn't describe the majority opinion as mysticism or applesauce. What I really don't want to hear is another Supreme court justice crying about living during these days of Do Nothing.

If the founding fathers can be credited for one very important thing, it's having the wisdom to recognize the wicked heart of man. By virtue of their recognition, disagreements by moral compass and disagreements by political tactic are masked motives that don't have to cripple our democracy. According to justice Antonin Scalia, "Any country that lets 9 unelected officials create laws, hardly deserves to be called a democracy". Would that be the case if the 5-4 decision was in your favor Scalia? Was it the case when that same nine sided with you in deciding that a cruel and unusual lethal injection capital punishment is now nothing more than "we know its bad, but do you have something better?"

A few of us out here had questions about America's democracy label long before the recent decision on marriage, but I can feel your pain Scalia. I would like to ask, how can the congressional representative's in our republic consider themselves caretaker's of democracy while way too afraid to do their jobs in fear of adding to Obama's legacy?

Inaction from Congress has catapulted Obama into the hero republicans hoped to avoid instead of sharing some good stuff with the current Congress, which just so happens to be a majority republican.  Something similar is happening to the judiciary branch who showed their hands long ago when initial concerns over the ObamaCare, "established by the state" language first arose, and the SCOTUS worried that Congress would quibble instead of do the normal work of clarifying laws with language adjustments and amendments.

Somehow, the SCOTUS was supposed to pretend that political forces weren't trying to use them and a loophole to circumvent a law that congress can overturn with their current majority.  It would require an override of Obama's certain veto, but it would also signal to America that Congress understands and intends to use the fullness of their legislative powers: power that the Supreme Court prefers in the hands of legislators, a loose description for America's current Congress.

Did anyone notice that Congress isn't threatening to override the Supreme Court's decision on marriage the same way that they threaten ObamaCare? They could if they thought that the Supreme Court went too far. Focus on The Family think so. They teased that aforementioned program so well, that I couldn't wait to hear why the rule of law had truly been compromised instead of another angry dissent. Ten seconds into the program and the host says this:

"First of all, it doesn't matter what the Supreme Court recognizes as marriage. What matters is what God recognizes."

End of story. I changed the radio station to a baroque symphony so I could post this reminder that executive orders and Supreme Court laws supporting same-sex marriage come when civil, productive congressional discourse doesn't. 

And that's all by design.

Socialism Always Fixes Capitalism's Mess. I'm Just Sayin'

Did you happen to notice how those proud republican capitalist pizza shop owners declared their free market right to refuse their pizza to a gay wedding (does that mean they didn't already serve a single slice to a gay each day?)- but the voice of the free market has forced them to be saved by a virtual "Will Work For Food" sign, the most desperately socialist measure known to man?








   -Just Sayin'

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WHAT THE HELL IS A REAGAN REPUBLICAN ANYWAY? I hate labels...all of them.

Has The Supreme Court Already Decided On Marriage Equality?

The tea leaves told me that Immigration would be the next great big shoe to drop in American culture when firm legislation is finally established to deal with it nationwide. 

I'm going to the organic food store to get some new tea leaves because Marriage Equality might win the race.  Healthcare seems deeply enough entrenched to not worry about its future anymore, so the checklist of social ills in America has both check marks and eraser smudges all over it these days. Education is sadly sliding all across the land, but stubborn states who demand autonomy will force another run at federal legislation, such as No Child Left Behind, or an acquiescence towards our current endless cycles of research and development (see; trial and error) in education.  

Thanks to the forward thinking of our youth, and an extreme ambivalence towards marriage in general, America might finally realize that love is WAY too complicated to try and force it into our social engineering machine, which breaks as many things as it holds in place.  Do you recall that joke that heterosexual liberals would use saying, "homosexuals deserve to be just as miserable as the rest of us"? When you look at marriage statistics and America's lack of affinity towards getting and staying married, it makes the humor of that joke lose its punchline.  Marriage used to get easier from the outside looking in perspective of our married grandparents lives.  In hindsight, grandpa was just a whole lot better at ignoring my restless grandma than modern day grandpa could ever be.  Watching today's old couples getting a divorce, or chasing after love in their latter years tells you all you need to know about the evolution of modern marriage.

Now, even the highly esteemed justices of the American Supreme court are angling towards granting gay couples the misery that hetero couples have free access to.  While several states have already fixed the disparity in marriage, many other states are currently fighting tooth and nail for the right to insure that only hetero couples ride the roller coaster we call modern marriage.  Time and time again, heterosexuals are proving to be just as utterly dysfunctional with love as their homosexual counterparts, so the sacred right of exclusivity is losing its reason.  Biblical morays used to rule the day, but even spiritual leaders have come to accept that, even if homosexuality is a sin, it can not be treated as a sin more extreme than the other sins from the bible, which does not assign a stack rank to human behavior- or misbehavior if you will.

The final analysis of marriage is that the paper will never insure love and the love will never be defined by a piece of paper.  What defines a marriage is uniquely special for every couple, and the strength of the unity defines the family units that contribute to the society we enjoy.  Homosexual couples are a real and significant part of society and our best hope that they "get over it" has been insulting to gays and embarrassing for any forward thinker.  My gay family deserves love just as much as my non-gay family, but sometimes we (especially black families) give more love to our jailbirds than our gay boys- as though being gay is worse than a crime.

It should be enough of a sign that the ultra conservative state of Alabama has given in on gay marriage, but  those in Alabama against gay marriage quickly objected to the will of the people, forcing the issue to be addressed by the Supreme Court of the land.  The Supreme Court refused to block Alabama's law prompting conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to clarify the message behind the message.  AP reports that, "He (Thomas) criticized his fellow justices for looking "the other way as yet another federal district judge casts aside state laws," rather than following the customary course of leaving those laws in place until the court answers an important constitutional question.", suggesting that the forward movement on gay marriage needs to wait for the Supreme Court to decide.  Justice Thomas seems unclear that 37 states have already legalized gay marriage as he tries valiantly to create a short-term out for the remaining holdout states of America.  

What they are buying time for is an inevitable course that the Supreme Court has essentially taken action on by their inaction (just as Thomas suggested in his dissent).  What has been determined is the standard even while the process of standardizing rages on.  What we have concluded is that being gay is hardly the worse sin on the planet and might be under re-evaluation as a sin at all with a closer examination of human hormones and human nature overall. The genetic design of procreation only tells about how we are to maintain human population, not the love story that sustains human families- and nothing seems to suggest that homosexual parents will automatically have homosexual or imbalanced children.  In fact, studies show that there is no social disadvantage at all to being raised with gay parents .

I personally had to come to grips with my own homophobia that was most likely rooted in my religious upbringing.  Other religious folks have done the same, and these days churches don't have to be exclusive to gay christian's because more and more regular churches are accepting gay members. Since the blood of grace covers all of our sin, even the concept of sexual sin should not compel us to expel our gay brethren from their rightful place in society and from the necessary legal standing that allows families to live and love equally. 

Marriage equality is about Family, a word that is forged in love and forever bound by its power.

Michael Sam Signs Secret Doc' Deal With OWN Before NFL Draft Began

I realize that life is not quite an episode of South Park, even if it pretends to take place in my beloved home, Colorado (Southpark, not life). However, the recent episode of Michael Sam has me imagining an old episode of South Park.

"South Park Is Gay" is an extreme exaggeration of the popularity of gaydom...... but is it?

Ellen started it all and now it feels like everyone wants to be the next Ellen in their chosen field of expertise.  Was it right for Michael Sam to come out to the world but remain quiet about his intention to let Oprah tell his story?  It was not only right, it was the only way to accomplish his mission.

Let's think about this.

Who in the hell was going to make sure they tuned in to see the first openly gay college/pro potential athlete if Michael Sam did not do the first wave of publicity, coming out to the entire world.  If he had not announced himself as being gay before he announced his documentary deal for the OWN network, we would have had to discover Michael Sam and his story all at the same time. He would probably not have fallen to the last man in the 2014 draft if he chose to keep his mouth shut, but in the bigger monetary reality, Michael Sam had to do advance marketing for this joint venture with Oprah or the success of his documentary would have likely mirrored that of Oprah's struggling network; watched by some, but largely ignored by most.

When was this deal actually signed is the question of the day?

To the credit of Oprah and Michael Sam, the move was absolute brilliance.....as it relates to business.  It also might not turn out to be so bad for the business of being gay.  Of course being gay has nothing to do with making money or exploiting business opportunities.  The fact that so many television shows seem to wish to explore gay sexuality on camera is simply a sign of the times.........right? The fact that Oprah decided to delay the documentary until Michael Sam actually makes the team is as unusual as the undisclosed deal for the last pick in the draft.  This is as much about being gay as it is about being able to see opportunity when it presents itself.

The recent college basketball player who decided to come out had to be inspired by Michael Sam or by Jason Collins of the NBA.  He had to find fear in his decision but liberation in his courage to tell the world......right?  There isn't a chance that he is the evidence of another twisted episode of Southpark .......right? Could the popularity of those who have come out be creating a magnet for others to do the same?

Could we be witnessing the beginning of a nearly fad like wave of gay declarations from the world of sports?  Like afro's and curly afro perm's, or daisy dukes and rap music, being gay is growing to a dimension of near distortion.  We are entering a realm in which it is hardly clear whether or not one is "Really" gay or really interested in profiting from the popularity of being openly seen as gay.

If you need a real life example of what I am talking about take Michael Sam as exhibit A.  Sam realizes that timing is not only important in football, but it is also important in pre-documentary introductions.  If he did not tell you that he was a gay man, then his Jackie Robinson of gay people status would not have come to be.  Yet, saying that you are gay and really being gay is starting to be as hard to determine as it was for the South Park kids in the gay episode.

Part of the marketing of Michael Sam included another interesting first.  During draft announcements over the years I have seen heterosexuals do a lot of interesting things upon learning that they have been chosen.  Some cry and then kiss their mom, others kiss their mom and put on a hat and cry.  I might have seen a few girlfriends get camera coverage during a draft party, I may have even seen a few get and give a congratulatory kiss from time to time, but in my mind, this is not a common thing for college players to do on camera.  I have NEVER seen such an orchestrated embrace for the LAST pick in the draft.

To me, this was nothing more than further marketing of his true gaydom.  A joyous man,especially an Italian one, might kiss his dad on the lips when receiving such incredible news.  I would imagine that metro-sexual Carpman from the "Southpark is Gay" episode found man pecks to be the newest fad as well.  The Michael Sam kiss was more than a simple expression of joy, it was proof of being gay; something that never mattered back when no one wanted to be called gay or had the courage to come out prior to the NFL draft and an Oprah documentary.

I am not mad at gay's for being the new black.  For a good little while, being black actually got a bunch of black guy's hired in the NBA, a league of mostly black guys.  Among the most recent NBA hires, black coaches have not done well.  The much beleaguered Donald Sterling (owner of the LA Clippers) actually hired one of the few black guys that the NBA hiring system hasn't run off, even though Sterling is considered a shameful racist.  The NBA may not be the worst of the professional leagues relative to race, but they certainly are  not without racial blemish. My hunch is that Sterling's comments had more to do with the person that they were leveled at (rich, beloved black man, Magic Johnson) and less to do with the shock and awe of the utterance.  These days it is becoming more dangerous to be found homophobic than racist.

Gay is the new Black, and just as it was cool once upon a time ago to be Bill Cosby and have a bunch of smart and proud black kids doing regular American stuff on T.V., now it is cooler to be proudly gay.  Not that it doesn't demand a lot of courage to live your truth. It does. Somehow in today's world, such bravery is beyond liberating.  It potentially comes with tangible rewards, and being the first gay......"whatever" is easily worth a television show, a sitcom or an LGBT lifetime achievement award.

Thanks to the confession of Michael Sam, we all know him to be a proud gay man.  His college transcripts say he has the mettle to be an NFL player and possibly deserved to be drafted higher than the last pick in the draft.  Most importantly, we have discovered that Michael Sam (and Oprah) is no fool, and maybe a shrewd businessman in addition to the other things we know about him for certain. If Michael Sam turns out to be the kind of football player he (and the film) says he can be, then his business moves will be an asset to his career and to the furtherance of gay rights.

If Michael Sam can't live up to the hype that he has created, his business moves will be his death nail. After all, he is the last pick in the draft.

Black History Month Is About Courage. Courage Like Jackie Robinson, Michael Sam, Jason Collins

Jason Collins and Michael Sam and Jackie Robinson and Brooklyn are emblematic of the courage that is the story behind Black History Month.  I could indulge in the morality of homosexuality as a significant aspect of this post.  If so many did not consider this a moral issue, this would not be a story.  Stripping away the morality divide we find an opportunity to see this story through the lens of history's example.

There was a time when black American's found themselves enraged by the notion that my skin color is an equivalent to your sexual inclinations. Now, the debate over our ability to choose our sexuality is also insignificant with the perfect clarity that we gain from hindsight.

In hindsight we know that my nature, whether chosen or not, is no match to your preconceived bigotry.  When Arizona decides to legislate the right of any business in its state to refuse service to gay people, then we return to the day in which restaurants and water fountains have "straight only" signs instead of "white only" signs.

If that doesn't reinforce the importance of legislation against such laws, than I won't try any longer because this post is about the courage of being your authentic self, whatever that may be.  Jackie Robinson is more than just an historic figure for integrating baseball.  Robinson was the best of his era and one of the best of all time.  He could have relegated his talents to the confines of the Negro leagues as other all-time greats had to do. It would have certainly meant less death threats even if less income potential as well. Yet, his risk was a two-fold investment.

The Brooklyn Dodgers and legendary Branch Rickey had to accept the business risk that Robinson represented.  The Brooklyn Nets had to do the same with Collins recently as they signed him to a 10 day contract to see if he can help them through a run of injuries. Reports have surfaced that several teams were interested in bringing Collins in during preseason, but were afraid of the media impact.

What very few people knew is that Collins apparently had similar hesitation and refused to go to any team that did not have a serious interest in giving him a REAL chance.  Brooklyn reprented the first chance for him to work within a clear professional basketball agreement.  Collins made it clear that evern if he never got a job again, he declared, "life has been so good for me since coming out".  Onlookers were watchful to see if  Collins had gained a couple of extra inches in his vertical jump with the reduced weight on his shoulder.

How you feel about homosexuality should not impact your opinion of Jason Collins the basketball player.  If you cheered for his efforts before you knew his truth then keep on cheering.  In the end, his game is all that will keep him employed anyway.  Jason Collins is not in the NBA to be a pioneer of gay rights.  Michael Sam has a similar sentiment.

Like Jackie Robinson, they just need the "You're Not Allowed" signs to be removed.

NFL Has The Rooney Rule Already. Is The Michael Sam Rule Next?

If acquired in the spring draft, Michael Sam
will be the first NFL player to be openly gay.

There was a time in American history that a black man had a difficult time getting an opportunity at an NFL head coaching job, even though hundreds of black men had long since dominated on the football field.  During the era of affirmative action, it became clear that our efforts to balance the scale may have some impact over education and scholarship opportunities, but there is nothing in the world that can force a person to hire any person that they are not comfortable with hiring. Sorry Michael Sam.

Society has established anti-discrimination laws in so many areas of our world because we need them.  Legislative equality doesn't really work as well as we would hope, but it does acknowledge the truth that no person declares while brushing their teeth in the morning.  We are all racist.

We are all racist, or sexist, or homeless-ist, or handicapped people with disabillities-ist, and age-ist as well.  Many of us are a combination of them all and can hardly stand to be in the presence of anyone that doesn't conform to our world view.  We are all well conditioned by-products of the world that created us, even those of us who fight the right to stereotype.

My white friends who were raised in the mostly black and hispanic neighborhoods of my youth had to notice, as we all took the same history class, that history mostly depicted white man as Abraham Lincoln or George Washington and mostly depicted blacks as slaves or entertainers. Asians and Hispanics and every other race also get characterized by stereotypes that play out (often negatively) in how we deal (or don't deal) with one another.  If our hearts were inclined towards seeing the best in humanity, our stereotypes would be just that.  Unfortunately, our victimizer or victim way of life can easily uncover evidence of man's inhumanity towards man, especially our ism's.

Title 9, which seeks to insure equality in college athletics for women, is our acceptance that we have mistreated women. This law will be a token of our shame for as long as we need it.  Affirmative action, in its many forms and fashions is a similar admission of shame.  In the NFL, this shame is called the Rooney rule.

According to the Rooney rule, black candidates have to get an interview for open  head coaching positions before they are filled.  Undoubtedly, this has given one black coach or another an opportunity to secure a position that they may not have secured otherwise.  Undoubtedly, the Rooney rule has also made each black coaching candidate think twice about the real opportunity of a token interview.

Michael Sam should get a job without a difficult challenge.  He is a natural leader, a naturally hard working athlete who's reputation for making plays is a significant part of his value to NFL teams.  Michael Sam had to realize that he was taking a chance when he decided not to go back into a closet just for the sake of more money.   In fact, if he is given a fair shake, he could be the Ellen of the NFL; that gay guy who is the best of the outed world that gains a mega-following as a result.  Sam could, and just might spearhead a revolution in sports that allows for others to follow as he gets branded as the poster child for social change.  Michael Sam might  have already changed the gay pro sports world as we know it because of his daring move.

As long as he gets a REAL chance to make an NFL opening day roster.

After the Tim Tebow media circus, will Sam become the gay equivalent?  Will the potential for a media circus either scare teams from taking a chance or scare them from keeping it alive when the circus comes to their town?  Michael Sam could easily be the unfortunate victim of gayism, or homophobia since gayism is not yet a word, but it is one of our other ism's.

Before the NBA came up with a reasonable option for women's basketball, they continued to linger on the edge of that first discrimination suit from that one woman who played way too good to be denied a chance at the league.  Ann Meyers got a look and so did Brittany Griner.  Cheryl Miller probably could have tested the limits with the mad game that she possessed, but she probably knew the reality of a legitimate chance. Who is to determine what is a legitimate chance, and how do we force a team to take that chance with their franchise at stake?  Michael Sam is facing a similar hurdle in the long run, and only his excellence on the field will make this a moot point.

There is something about Michael Sam that tells me he expects such excellence from himself, or he would have never gone down the road that only pioneers (insert excellence) travel.

Michael Sam Announces He's Gay. Why Did Michael Sam Avoid The Easy Way Out?

Michael Sam is a really good linebacker who just graduated from the University of Missouri.

He is gay.

Apparently his team has known for some time now, but the world at large is getting this announcement now because Sam is preparing for the draft and he is likely to get a real shot at the league.  In reality, this is exactly what we have been waiting for in this journey.  A gay man that is both out and elite at his craft.  Jason Collins (the NBA center who came out last year) is an okay player, but not worth the risk of an uncertain locker room.

Michael Sam could be good enough for gay not to matter.  For certain some team will take a chance to find out, but has he hurt himself of helped himself with this revelation?

The obvious answer is both.

Michael Sam has taken advantage of an evolution in the world landscape.  The time is ripe for those who have lived within this lie to find their truth.  Sam would be smothered to pick back up the heavy weight that he dropped when he informed his Missouri Tiger team that he was gay.  He is unafraid to declare his truth because he has seen the dark side already, and it is not in the realm of truth.  With all of the difficulties of living in a world still so intolerant, living a lie is worse.  To this end, Sam has helped himself.

He has not helped his marketability much at all.  This guy plays like a ferocious beast and when the highlights of his exploits on the field started to accompany his announcement to the world, I thought about my Broncos and their upcoming need to improve the defensive front 7. Michael Sam is not Tim Tebow, but he might draw a similar interest soon.   Probably one that John Elway would rather do without.

If other GM's and owners look at the tape and say yes, but think about their immature locker room and say no, that will cost Sam in the pocketbook.  Some marketing executive could look at the way he performs on the field and think he would be a great spokesperson......if he weren't gay.  The truth is that Michael Sam made a decision that he knows, more than anyone, will cost him some loot.

That is what makes this declaration more impressive.  This young man had the opportunity to take the easy road and get his money first.  He had a chance to make a name for himself and then be the face of the big named gay athlete later.  He could have chosen the easy way out.

Just as long as he carried that thousand pound weight around along the way.
Yeah.  The easy way out.