My sister-in-law sent me an email today. This of itself is no surprise, she emails me most days; funny stuff, videos, Obama slamming (really, I am over it let's let it go ;o)), random images, things of that nature. But today was different. Today she sent a letter expressing her dismay over a certain "military discount" that many restaurants extend. I'll let her explain it here:
So I had a little chat with the manager afterwards. I told him that he ought to re-do his sign out front to read "Active Duty military members only" because it was a slap in the face when a retired military member is told his time in service to our country don't qualify him for their discount. He said as far as he was concerned, it should be all military members but that it wasn't his decision, it came from above him. He then said to me that when they called other businesses in the area, that most restaurants don't give discounts to retirees. I can't begin to tell you how untrue that is. I can list many that indeed do so. Granted some don't do a discount for anyone, and that is fine. To me this is being blatantly rude to our retirees, and if I ever hear of another restaurant pulling the same stunt, they too shall loose my business.
I won't be eating there again. It's not about the money, we can afford the extra buck or so. I just can't imagine the 36 year old guy that had his leg blown off in Afghanistan and was therefore medically discharged and/or forced into early retirement, that his sacrifice and service don't qualify for a lousy 10% military discount at the local Golden Corral."
Really? Really? "Active"?
You know this really bugs the shit out of me. I will admit that I give my friend Tanya a hard time whenever she trots out her ID card and checks if there is a discount, but it's all in good fun. I completely respect the fact that these people have risked their lives to maintain our way of life.
I did not serve in the military, and it's not because I had to serve in a mission or something along that line. For myself, and many others, I felt that military service was not for me. But thank you all the people that do feel that it is something they should do. I think that a discount at restaurants and other businesses is the least we can do as a civilian society to help support those people that have risked their lives for ours.
Would it be that much of a hardship to extend that benefit to ALL military personnel, active, retired or just former (not sure what they call that when you simply serve your 4 and get out-- I say simply, but I don't mean it that way, there is nothing "simply" about losing a limb, a spouse or a life, or their sanity. And ALL our service personnel risk that, be it in a year or a decade of service.)?
I hope that, had I been there, I would have ponied up to pay for him just to appreciate him for the sacrifices he made with his family and his freedom (let's face it, service is hard, you are separated for months or years from your family, and of all of us, soldiers have the least amount of freedom- they have to to protect ours). I say, I hope, because I honestly don't know that I would have been self-aware enough to have really understood the implications at the moment that reflection offers us hours later.
It's all well and good that we have a day to remember our vets and to appreciate them. But they are veterans all the time 24/7, shouldn't we try to put in just as much time to appreciate them?
I want to take this time to thank all the people I know personally who have served, my family: my father, Tom Holland; my brother, Chris Holland; my extended brothers-in-law, Craig and Chuck. My friends: Brandon and Cora Jones, Tim Mutton, JonasWare, and all the other people I am probably forgetting, I promise, it isn't intentional.
Robin, I shall take up your cause, though admittedly, I never go to Golden Corral so it's not that much of a hardship. :o) But I do owe Chris a beer or 20.
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Salt Lake City has become the first city in Utah to afford rights and protections to Gays and Lesbians against discrimination by employers and property managers. In other words, a gay could not be fired simply because he is gay, nor can he be evicted for it.
But of course there are some lame ass naysayers who have twisted this into a foot in the door for gay marriage. How the hell does this go into gay marriage? Which of course begs the question of how my marrying some dude can possibly affect some breeder's marriage. Something tells me my fabulous brother and his marvelous wife would continue to be married and would not sense a tremor in the force were I to miraculously find some guy to take the vows with. No tremor beyond the idea that I actually had a date at some point anyway.
This does not keep the religious right from coming up with some cockamamy protest against this "attack" on marriage. Yet again. sigh. People are Stupid.
I have issues with the whole idea behind marriage being ordained of God in the first place. It is no wonder that I am not a religious person. With all the bullshit people claim in the name of God it's a miracle that anyone can do anything without burning in hell.
I started doing research into marriage to get a little fodder for the canon that is my blog and I got overloaded. (Did you know that up until the 60s blacks could not marry outside of their ethnic group and during slavery they could not marry at all?) There is so much information out there that directly contradicts this concept of religious (or at least Christian) ordination of marriage. The Egyptians married, Native Americans married, Greeks and Romans, Mesopotamians (the commonly held "cradle of life") married, and none of these groups were "christian".
Many of these groups also had no problem with same-sex marriage.
But these are Christians we are talking about (not ALL Christians mind you, I know many of you have no problem with this) and they are probably the same group that think the dinosaurs are a fallacy. They have no room for science; 20:20 vision down a 1/2" pipe.
So they hold fast to the idea that Marriage (with a capital M of course) is Sacred (same thing with the S, you can hear the capitals when they say it). But never mind the whole argument about how Brittany Spears' 50 hours of wedded bliss (as well as the nightmare year she was with Kfed) did more damage to the Sacred Marriage then gays ever could. Let's look at a few others, shall we.
A Polish couple who had their nuptials annulled after 3 hours.
Scott Peterson, his marriage was so Sacred he killed his wife.
Phil Hartman and Brynn Omdahl, she killed him; their marriage was so precious.
Glynn Wolfe aka Scotty Wolfe, marriage was so sacred to him he only married 29 times.
One was for 19 days, the longest for *gasp* 7 (!) years.
Elizabeth Taylor, 8 marriages, 7 husbands. hmmm. But she was a piker compared to...
Linda Lou Wolfe (recognize the last name?) she was married to the guy above as well as 22 other guys. The longest was 7 years as well (is this a pattern?) the shortest, 19 hours. Why so many? She gets, "Lonely"
With just a short trip to our local arrest bookings website I could find husbands and wives arrested for domestic violence. I'm sure a few a day, and those're the ones where an arrest was made because someone actually reported it.
So all those right-wing, Marriage is Sacred, dumb asses should shut the fuck up.
There is no way a couple of fags could possibly taint the "sanctity" of marriage any more than a handful of rednecks could (and do) on a daily basis.
Learn to cope. Some day we will be able to marry, and what a wonderful day it will be, when two loving people regardless of race, creed, or sex can be together in matrimony, legally.
Until then, we will be happy that someone cannot arbitrarily fire us or evict us simply because they don't like "the gays". At least in Salt Lake City. (for now)