Monday, August 13, 2012

Kelly urged to do his job

I recently had a letter to the editor published in my local newspaper (Erie Times News) regarding Congressman Kelly's reference to the Affordable Care Act being a "day that will live in infamy." Enjoy!

"A day that will live in infamy?" Are you kidding me? Our congressman, Mike Kelly, said that Aug. 1, 2012, will be such a day because that is when the contraceptive portion of the Affordable Care Act went into effect and the attack that it presents on religious freedom.

I criticized Erie County Executive Barry Grossman a couple of years ago about using that phrase in regard to the community college being voted down and when I saw that the congressman said it, I was appalled. There are many facets to that statement that are wrong.

First is the use of that hallowed phrase. It is used to describe horrific events that have great loss of life and change the way we think and act as a community or country, like the attack on Pearl Harbor, 9/11 attacks, Columbine, Virginia Tech and Aurora, Colo. The implementation of a law is not a horrific event on this country, especially one like the Affordable Care Act. That brings me to my next point.

Congressman Kelly said the law is an attack on religious freedom. I did not realize that companies and businesses were suddenly people with constitutionally protected rights. Businesses can't impose their religious beliefs on their employees and should not deny their employees access to certain types of health care. And it does not force anybody to get the coverage, just makes it more widely available.

I have a piece of advice for Mr. Kelly: Rather than make these outlandish false statements, do the job that the people of the Pennsylvania's 3rd District elected you to do. I have yet to see a jobs bill, legitimate budget and a plan to get the country back on track. Instead, it has been endless bills about abortion, giving the wealthiest more tax cuts and threatening to push the country to the brink of economic collapse.

Congressman Kelly, do your job!
 GoErie.com

Monday Memes


Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The CRA: Christian Republic of America


(Disclaimer: I am a Christian and this is in no way supposed to generalize all Christians, but rather point out and criticize the radical factions on the Right and the implications they could have on the country.)

Welcome to the Christian Republic of America, or at least that’s what the conservative Christians on the right want to have. That’s right, a theocracy where the law of the land is based on Biblical law, much like the Islamic Republic of Iran and their Sharia Law. But Robert, you’re thinking, that’s crazy talk. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment separates church and state to prevent such a thing from happening. But’s that not what the Republicans are saying. Sarah Palin said back in 2010, “Go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant -- they're quite clear -- that we would create law based on the God of the bible and the Ten Commandments.” Rick Santorum earlier this year advocated for Judeo-Christian Sharia Law saying, “our civil laws have to comport with a higher law: God's law.” What Palin and Santorum don’t realize is that the Founding Fathers did not want religion and government to mix. Their beloved Thomas Jefferson, one of the most brilliant men this country has ever seen was in fact an atheist and advocated strongly for the separation of church and state. The Constitution in fact makes no reference to God or Christianity except the reference to religion in the First Amendment, giving everyone the freedom to practice as they wish and the government cannot establish an official state religion. Simple enough, right? Apparently not. Republicans use religion as an argument for banning same-sex marriage, and somehow get away with it. Their justification for banning it is that it protects the sanctity of marriage. Except sanctity means holiness, which means religious. Therefore their argument is unconstitutional and those laws should be stripped from the books, except they won’t be. And that puts us one step closer to a theocracy, the Christian Republic of America