Where are We Going With Our Tolerances? Why Now? Why Not Sooner?

We can again say hello and goodbye to Scotty, until we meet again.

It is with joy and sadness that we live in a time when things move quickly.

Wrongs made right. Hatred revised into agape type love.

Religious persons encircle all people with love.

And miraculously; love them the way they are.

While at the same time there are those who are grieving still for life stopped

And four other lives ruined as well as stopped.

Would someone please tell them to stop?

Would someone please tell them to love their neighbors the way they love themselves.

Would someone please tell them to love one another?

This is a picture of a young man I knew only as Scotty. He worked at the Dollar Store in Bay Minette. My daughter in law was his friend. He was so cute when he would get really working hard his face would flush and stay that way...gave him a sweet caught on candid camera type of expression. My family and I didn't move to Bay Minette until 1995; we wanted to "hide" the kids in a small town.

A town you could walk outside after dark. A town you could go to church and not be starred down if you walked in wearing blue jeans or sat in someone else’s row at choir practice. A town where your teenagers would find that the important things in life are love, family, community, honesty, friendships.

In three days it will be July the 18th.

I cannot help but wonder what Scotty's Mother thinks of the NPR article:

"Lutherans Prep for Vote on Gay Clergy"

Would she be glad that other mothers may not have to face the same heartbreak or would she be going through some of the same emotions that I am going through? Does anyone wonder when this will end? This really is not about gay rights. It is about hate crimes. Alabama does not have a law against hate crimes. Yes, the children who murdered Scotty are paying with their lives but even that is not the point.

And I am not such a fanatic that I wish for a list of what would or would not constitute a hate crime or to what degree, or in what situation. I know that would only bog the issue and create more crimes in and of themselves.

What I really want is for it to stop. I had always trusted National Public Radio to deliver unbiased, facts. In fact, if a story could not be collaborated 100% it was not printed! No rumors, no opinions, rarely even the uses of personal pronouns! We, Saturday Morning notwithstanding. But today, of all days, three days before the day I remember because

1. My son had recently married his childhood sweetheart

2. She was pregnant with their first child

3. My son was to leave for Parris Island 092108

4. And I am ashamed to say I did not really know Scotty, didn’t even know he was gay, not that it mattered.

5. What really mattered to me was my daughter in laws grief and the helplessness I felt in not being able to comfort her

NPR surprised, disappointed and angered me. Their article starts out calling the issue of allowing gay pastors to be so common now that it is a humdrum issue. However, some of the adjectives used in the article would argue against that fact. I will lift a few out, yes, out of context, and allow you to link to the article and see for yourself. Some of the adjectives used in this NPR article area as follows:

· incendiary

· humdrum

· resign

· consequences

· filed charges

· rules

· kicked out

· debate

· smoldering

· bomb-throwing

· irregular pastors

There are several comments below the article, one even from the byline author! The one that I got a chuckle out of was the one asking if everyone else on the comment page would also get a personal apology :)

Somehow I find that unlikely

The shame is ours.

The grief is personal and also community wide

The three people involved we can only pray they will become enlightened and seek the path

We can again say hello and goodbye to Scotty, until we meet again.