Keep it Simple. Keep it Real.
Let Dignity and Compassion Rule the Day!

November 14, 2008

Tomorrow is a National Day of Protest and you are invited to Join the Impact!

Why Should We Protest?

If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves. We should, therefore, protest openly everything that smacks of discrimination or slander. – Mary McLeod Bethune (educator and advisor to FDR on the problems of minority groups)

Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing, and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages. – Coretta Scott King (wife of MLKJ)

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. - Thomas Jefferson

How Should We Protest?

Be the change you want to see in the world. - Gandhi

Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love. - Gandhi

The prize reaffirms our conviction that with truth, courage and determination as our weapons, Tibet will be liberated. Our struggle must remain non-violent and free of hatred. - Dalai Lama

If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, ‘There lived a great people – a black people – who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.’ - Martin Luther King Jr.

Oh Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on another. - Psalms 15

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemiesand pray for those who persecute you. – Jesus

Do onto others as you would have them do onto you. – Jesus

As we protest tomorrow let us go in the love of God. Be a light in the dark and peace in the storm. If we want to bring understanding where there’s ignorance and respectful dialogue where there’s been intolerant grandstanding then we have to treat others differently than we’ve been treated. Call no one bigot or hater. Do not shame or ridicule the faith or passions of another. Make no one our scapegoat. Shame no one. Return disrespect with dignity. Show love where there is hate. Declare the human worth of all people and the value of love wherever it may be found. Celebrate love. Celebrate relationship. Celebrate Equality.