Blood on Their Hands

Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage and Sean Hannity, if they had any sense of morality - or souls - should be hanging their heads in shame today - or arrested. They are direct accomplices in the deaths of two decent people. Two people died yesterday because some man twisted by their idiotic worldview that "liberals" are responsible for the sorry state of our Republican run world got himself a gun and opened fire on a group of people who would have welcomed him with open arms.

Adkisson targeted the church, Still wrote in the document obtained by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, "because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets."

Adkisson told Still that "he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them in to office."

Adkisson told officers he left the house unlocked for them because "he expected to be killed during the assault."

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

It is their continued language of violence against so-called liberals that put this man over the edge. He could not find a job and he blamed that on liberals - a group of people that has been effectively out of power for the last 8 years. It's not liberals who have shipped off jobs overseas and sought to destroy the middle class. It has not been liberals who cut off this man's food stamps. Liberals came up with this excellent ideas, and the Republicans who are now in charge, cut him off.

This continued ranting about some damn liberal media irks me to no end. Believe me when I say there is NO liberal media. There is CORPORATE media - and by it's nature it's very, very, very conservative. They are in love with John McCain and will do all they can to get him elected because they know their corporate tax lives depend on it. They don't want to pay more taxes under an Obama administration, so they'll fight it tooth and nail. Liberal media my left butt cheek. It does not exist. I worked in that field for 25 years and I know what I'm talking about.

I also know the gospel truth is that Sean Hannity will sleep like a baby tonight, untroubled by this news - simply glad this poor dolt shelled out the dough to buy his book and make him a little bit richer. It's just dead liberals, after all! I worked with Sean at WGST in Atlanta right before he hit the big time. He has no heart. Don't worry about him losing sleep over this. He'll blame the liberals for their own fates. If they were smart, they'd be selfish corporate Republicans too!

::deep breath::

This makes me angry. I know it's not obvious or anything. The violence of the language these right wing bigots spout caused this act. They are directly responsible for the deaths of these two people and the wounding of five others. They should be held responsible.

Odd Moment

Sitting in church yesterday morning, I had an odd and ominous feeling come over me. Service had already begun, we were probably about ten minutes in, when I heard our front door open and close and someone came in. Another late arrival - no big deal. But, just as the sound of the door closing hit me - so did one word: "Gunman."

As I sat in service I realized how easy it would be for someone with bad intentions to just walk in and set in on us. There are two doors to the outside on either side of the sanctuary. Too far for me or the choir to reach in time - there's no place for us to go at the back of the sanctuary.

It stunned me that the thought crossed my mind. I shook it off. Of course, it wasn't a gunman at our church - just someone running late. But, within the same time frame of my thought, a gunman did enter a Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, killing two and wounding several others.

Police are now saying the liberal stance of the church is what set the gunman off. Our church, along with the UU congregation here in Columbia, are probably the most liberal congregations in town. Our church has repeatedly been the target of vandals who have broken our front door windows, broken the fountain on our property, shot out the passenger window of one of our parishoners, and threw a brick through the back window of another.

I didn't read about the attack in Tennessee until late yesterday - well after my own thought about a church gunman crossed my mind. I told a good pagan friend of mine about my experience, and she told me I should continue to pay attention to those feelings, and not shake them off. My gunman premonition (had in the same time period as this actual attack) is evidence of our universal connection to one another, she told me. Somehow, my intuition knew a gunman was going to attack, or was in the process of attacking, kindred spirits - fellow human beings simply seeking to open God's arms to everyone, regardless of human labels or prejudices.

Some days the depth of human hatred stuns me - other days it doesn't. Today it stuns me, simply because after experiencing this deeply empathic moment across a time zone and state lines, I grieve that we cannot feel those moments of universal connection all the time. I grieve that we shake them off as nothing more than odd moments - then go right back to our feelings of disconnection. Being disconnected certainly feels safer - we're not responsible for anyone else when we disconnect. But, I think if we practiced that emphatic connection with all living beings - we would experience the freedom of love. We are responsible for one another. Instead of being afraid of that - and letting that fear fester and turn in to violence - we need to embrace that, heed those feelings of connection and continue to reach out - even if we only receive scorn and violence in return.

I hope this UU congregation can feel that connection to this disaffected gunman and find it in their heart to see their own failings in him, and forgive him.

Pimping My New Book

My book, Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians got a great review from Publisher's Weekly - not something all books get. My sales numbers at Amazon.com improved for a little while.

If you haven't gotten your copy - do so now, please. Help me become a well-fed writer.

Also, check out the official site for the book where I'll be posting all the news that is news (and even some that isn't news) about the book.

Just another &*!#ing politician

I've never had warm, fuzzy feelings for Barack Obama. I never quite understood the fuss about him, but of course, given my contrarian nature, anything wildly popular is immediately suspect in my book. Aside from that, in my gut, I've always had a nagging bad feeling about him - that he's not what he appears to be.

(For full disclosure - in the primary, I had the historic chance to vote for a black man or a woman and I voted for the white guy. John Edwards has always been my first pick - since Kucinich has no chance in hell of ever being nominated.)

Too bad I've been right about Obama all along. I would have loved to have been proven wrong, but it seems Obama is just another &*!#ing politician like the rest of them. He'll say what you want him to say when you stand him up at the podium but when the rubber meets the road, he's just like any other disappointing politician these days, voting for FISA, talking about expanding Bush's idiotic faith based initiatives, backtracking on Iraq, and generally retreating to the middle where all political cowards meet.

The only thing that keeps me in his voting column is the Supreme Court. Despite all my misgivings about this man, I'd still want him picking justices over McCain - who is a complete guarantee of Bush's third term.

I simply can't understand why Obama is pandering to the 29% who still love the president-select. Poll after poll shows that the public is fed up with Bush, his economy, his war and his idiocy. We know we're headed to hell in a hand basket and we want someone who has the cajones to move us in a different direction. Apparently, the "change" Obama touts is just a code word for "more of the same."

Meet the new boss - same as the old boss.

I'm disappointed, but I'm not surprised. No one of integrity can get nominated as a presidential candidate and that is a sad state of affairs for a once great nation.

Update: For more on how Obama's support of faith based initiatives hurts poor GLBT people, check out Irene Monroe's excellent column here.