Oy what a week.

What a week. A week of great triumph, great pain and disappointment, and me questioning whether I should remain on the Internet. Heavy I know. I apologize in advance for those who might be offended by this but I need to get this off my chest.

First, the triumph. My wonderful wife, Vanessa finally had weight loss surgery. She had Roux-en-Y and is healing quite nicely thank you very much.

Now for the disappointment. For me, other than the joy over Vanessa's surgery, it was a very bad week. I had seen videos and reports that the type of surgery she had would cure my diabetes. Despite the fact that the surgery could have been nixed due to my kidney issues, there was still the possibility. However, as it turns out, I'm likely ineligible for it because I had laproscopic surgery back in 1999 to fix a hiatal hernia, because the stomach had to be altered slightly. Guess I have to lose weight the old fashioned way. damn :)

Now for the real devastating part of the week. Some of you might be aware that an evil spirited amendment to the North Carolina constitution was proposed and put on the ballot on May 8th 2012. The amendment essentially allows discrimination and hatred towards certain people, to be the law of the land. It defines marriage, which is supposed to be the affirmation of love between 2 people, as only considered acceptable between a man and a woman. Despite the efforts of decent people everywhere, this amendment passed. The thing that hurt the most was all the so called Christian organizations that were so vehemently in favor of the passage of this amendment. Unfortunately, this should have come as no surprise to me, as so-called Christians throughout their history have used the name of Jesus Christ to do their evil against people not like them, for example the Jews, and for that matter, most indigenous people of whatever land they wished to conquer. Their treatment of the Jews is somewhat ironic since Yeshuah of Nazareth, the one they refer to as Jesus Christ, was not only a Jew but a rabbi. I call them so called Christians, or as I call them CINO's (Christians In Name Only) because even though I am a proud Jew, I don't believe Jesus would have found this type of hatred and exclusionary behavior acceptable.

Some might ask, “are you gay, is that why you support these people?” No I am Pansexual. Not many are familiar with the term. It essentially means that you can fall in love with and love anyone, be they male, female or transsexual. Vanessa is a Transsexual. To the ones who call us “gay”, you don't have a clue. You see, to me, it does not matter one iota what a person has between their legs. It's what's between their ears (mind) and shoulders (heart) that truly matters. It is said the the eyes are the windows to the soul. Well I looked into her beautiful blue eyes and saw the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. We had a Jewish wedding and have a Jewish marriage license. The puritanical theocracy of the US may not recognize it, but in my belief and in the belief of people who matter, G*D brought us together and we married in His sight.

Getting back to the amendment. There is no way the politicians who thought up this foolishness were being anything but hurtful when they proposed it. Their attitude had to be, “These people are different than we are, We must fear them. We must make it so that they don't have an equal right to what we enjoy. They are less than human. Our blood is redder than theirs.” To these politicians I say: Bullshit! Worse, when decent people tried to dissuade them, they pull out their favorite biblical weapon, Leviticus. Unfortunately, in this case they are Cafeteria Christians, because they pick an obscure part of Leviticus, a greatly misinterpreted section of Leviticus at that, and use it to spread their hatred. They ignore everything else in their bible. They seem like they can't get wrapped around the concept that G*D and Jesus just do not hate like humans do (are you listening, Fred Phelps?). G*D does not discriminate. G*D made all of us, not just white Conservative Republican Christians.

One thing the passage of this amendment did, was make me partly lose my sense that North Carolina was “home”. You may infer from all this that I despise gentiles. That is far from the truth. The people I despise are haters. People who cling to the old ideal that their belief system is the only one that can possibly be valid. People who will hate you just because you are different. Those are the ones that I despise. They are the ones who are not true Christians anyway.

The rare true Christians - know the true word of G*D. Love and respect for all different people. Let me give you an example of what I mean: One of those true Christians was Miep Gies. Don't know her? She hid several Jewish families including Anne Frank before they were betrayed by a neighbor (as I recall the story). Raoul Wallenberg was another great humanitarian. So was Oskar Schindler (yes, THAT Schindler, as in the movie). Another example of true Christians is the people of the town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in France that helped many Jews survive the Holocaust.

Now, here is the reason I almost left the Internet. I was offering my opinion on the Asheville Citizen Times, expressing my anger and disappointment with what happened. This one person suggests I should read the KJV. I told him in no uncertain terms to mind his own business. Then he says he will pray for me. That is one of the most irritating statements by one of these “born-again” people, totally disrespecting my belief system. Then he announces to me and anyone else listening that I am outright going to hell because I am not Christian. At that point I was done. Other than ignoring this type of person, what else can one do?