Back Home in New England

Sunday was quite a long day, even for me. I got up for the second day in a row at 7:30AM, which is basically my equivalent of getting up at midnight. The second day of the Marty McGee Bennett workshop was as productive and useful as the first, and I feel like I got a lot out of it.

After that full day, though, I still had a lot left to do. I left the host farm, which is just outside of Princeton, and drove almost an hour south to the edge of the Pine Barrens region to pick up young Millicent and bring her back to the farm in New Hampshire where she'll be boarding for the foreseeable future. She managed the 7.5 hour drive well, but she definitely found it stressful and spent most of the time kushed. I finally got home at about 3:30AM.

I was hoping to get back to the farm today to see her, take a few photos and have a look at Madelyn, who is due anytime within the next month. Instead, I slept until about 1:30 in the afternoon, then spent the rest of the afternoon helping David with a photo shoot for his 2006 line. Rosa also volunteered to help out.



And before it got too dark, we took a little family portrait.



On our way back to the car from the beach shoot, Rosa was attacked by a much larger dog. She doesn't appear to have any bite wounds, fortunately, but I did call the police to file a report. There are few things that piss me off more than people letting their aggressive dogs off lead, especially in public places. The beach in question is very popular with dog owners, and most of the dogs are fairly well-behaved, even if they're not all well-trained. I see the consequences of dog fights far too often, though, and find it frustrating that people aren't more responsible with their pets.

Hate-mongering Bastards

This week the US Senate is once again supposed to take up the matter of the "Marriage Protection" Amendment. And yet again, this piece of right wing nastiness has been sponsored by my colleague and evil prick, Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado. While the general expectation is that this proposed constitutional amendment will go nowhere, even with W's support, I still took a bit of time this evening to hash out the following e-mail, which I sent to both of Maine's senators - Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.

I am writing to ask you to vote against the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment sponsored by Senator Allard. As I am sure you are well aware, this proposed amendment does nothing at all to protect marriage. It doesn’t address any of the relevant economic and social issues underlying the high divorce rate in this country. The only thing that it does is create a diversion from the real issues facing the nation in order to single out and deny basic rights to a minority group of people. I find this to be highly offensive, both as a gay man and as an American. As a fellow veterinarian, I feel that Senator Allard’s actions and stance in this regard do nothing but bring shame to our profession, which is supposed to be one of caring and concern for all.

The history of this nation and of our Constitution has traditionally been one of expanding rights and freedoms. Should this amendment succeed, it will be our first step backwards from a constitutional standpoint and, I fear, the beginning of a slippery slope down from the high democratic ideals we hold dear. The current buzzword being used by Sen. Allard, the President, and others – “activist judges” – to me smacks of contempt for our constitutional form of government and its three equal branches. The judiciary does not exist to rubber-stamp decisions of the executive and legislative branches, and were it not for so-called “activist judges”, many of our advances forward would likely not have taken place.

And although I am of the opinion that basic rights should not be subject to majority rule, I would point out that this amendment does not enjoy the support of a majority of Americans. A survey last year by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that only about 15% of those surveyed were in favor of amending the Constitution in this way. This small minority recognizes that attitudes towards same sex marriage are changing in much the way that attitudes towards interracial marriage have changed over the past four decades. Fearing a repeat of Loving v. Virginia – an unlikely occurrence given the current makeup of the Supreme Court – they wish to impose their will on all Americans and enshrine their beliefs in the Constitution.

It should be patently obvious that this proposed amendment does nothing to promote the democratic ideals of the Founders or advance the principles upon which this nation is based. It is nothing more than a divisive election year machination, and I hope that you will take a principled stand against this fearmongering and vote no.

I would urge anyone else in this country who isn't a crazed religious fascist to write or call your senators, as well. The sooner people start standing up to the Religious Wrong, the faster we can get them back to minding their own damned business and keeping their noses out of politics and other people's lives.