All Men Are Created Equal... oh, wait, we lied.

I know that this is tired, old subject, not to mention extremely controversial and everyone is tired of talking about it. Unfortunately it's not something you can just wish will go away. It keeps popping up in the news and will continue to pop up until everyone is represented equally.

Gay marriage.

Say what? If I scared you, I'll say it again. Gay marriage. Two words that should be able to go together without someone in the crowd screaming something obscene or a right-wing fundamentalist having a heart attack. It's a simple phrase, really, but has led to such a ridiculously un-simple debate.

Not even all gay people agree on the notion of gay marriage. To me, this is a travesty. Why would you not care about a basic freedom for everyone, especially that of your own "kind" to enjoy along with everyone else? Many straight people don't agree with even regular marriage, and yet you don't see them trying to tear down the right for their kind to marry.

Let's hit on a few key, common arguments here.

1. "Homosexuality is unnatural!" Well, Pastor Fred, so are those animals you're eating, pumped full of antibiotics and hormones. So are computers, plastic, bowling balls, pieces of furniture, your church pews, cigarettes, prescription drugs, prosthetic limbs, cosmetics, the fur coats of dead animals, sex for pleasure, masturbation, guns, torture, nuclear warheads, electricity, airplanes... you see where I'm going with this. Man has evolved to be privy to a whole host of unnatural things. What's natural anymore? I can walk into a Wal-Mart and pick up what claims to be "All-Natural Eggs." What the hell is all-natural? We created these things, and have adapted to them as long as they don't destroy the entire population. Does homosexuality destroy the population? Straight people are still breeding like rabbits. Our world population will be reaching 9.2 billion in the year 2050. I hardly doubt that a few queers in your neighborhood are going to seriously put a dent in an already over-populated world. How do you know that, like some animals, we're not becoming homosexual "naturally" to control our desire to breed, breed, breed? Do we really need more people on this planet?

2. "Marriage should be between a man and a woman!" According to whom? God? I believe I remember a certain Amendment to our United States Constitution that stated something about freedom of religion. If I don't believe in God, why should I have to follow the rules of some guy I've never met? Even if I did believe in God, who dictates what I think God wants? The Bible? OK then, let's use the Bible as my reference. The Bible also tells me that I'm unpure when I'm on my monthly cycle. Sure, I may be a raging bitch, but I don't think that makes me any less of a person. The Bible also tells me many other interesting laws and facts that I'm sure you've all heard in this endless debate. So tell me, why do we get to pick and choose what we want to follow from the Bible? Also, with the whole freedom of religion thing, why are we governing our government-enforced right to marry? I thought we had freedom of religion in our government. Why is "God's Rule" included in this? If marriage is dictated by the word of God, why do we let Atheists marry? Why do we let Pagans and witches marry? It sounds to me like this whole "man and woman" thing is less about God and more about being stubborn and childish in getting one's own way.

3. "If we let gays marry, we have to let people marry their cousins/dogs/cars!" This is the most ridiculous argument I've ever heard.  Who cares if Johnny wants to marry his sister Sally? If he loves her that much, let him. As long as its consensual. You want to talk about natural? Animals all over the world will occasionally shack up with his sister, cousin, or even mother sometimes. People breed dogs within bloodlines to keep genes strong. If you're going to use the natural argument, at least apply it to everything. Is marrying into and procreating with your own blood kind of gross? Sure it is. But it's only taboo because we were raised to think so. It's not really any of your business, why do you care who marries who? And even if they DO get married, who's to say they'll even have kids? Everyone thinks that marriage = kids. But even straight marriages, several of them, don't always have kids. OK, don't let them marry. What's going to stop them from doing anything anyway? Marriage isn't some secret passageway to the world of sex or breeding. It's a status, it comes with some pretty random benefits. This goes for gay people. Just because they're marrying, doesn't mean they're going to get artificially knocked up or adopt (even though they should adopt, since the world seriously needs less kids). And hell, you should support that more, since they won't be putting recessive genes in the pool. As far as animals and inanimate objects... seriously? Can a dog give consent? Can a vehicle give consent? Last time I checked, that was physically impossible. Please stop using ridiculous arguments to prove a seriously flawed argument. "Oh, but based on this logic, polygamy should be legal too!" First off, polygamy is pretty rare. Yeah, I'm sure it involves a lot of manipulation on the established wife's end to allow her husband to marry someone else, but isn't it usually consensual? Forgive me, my knowledge on the subject of old Mormon tradition and polygamy itself is little, so I'm only going off what I know. But from what I gather, polygamy is already done in some areas, and I'm sure it can be regulated somehow, even though it is a pretty rare situation.

In short, I have yet to see a serious, realistic argument against gay marriage. Sure, I may be a hypocrite when typing this, but it's very wrong to project your morals and values onto a different group of people. Especially in a country founded on freedom, it's is extremely hypocritical and immoral to press your judgment onto others for no reason than your own. Gay marriage does not hurt you, and it does not hurt society. Tell me how gays marrying directly affect you and I'll listen to your argument. Otherwise, I suggest you stop meddling  in the affairs and businesses of others and allow them to experience the same rights as you. They're people, just like you and me. Allow them to live like people.

Reborn

I think getting into the spirit of creating a blog to record my dreams snapped my unconscious into doing something incredible. I had the most vivid dream last night (or, this morning I suppose). I fell asleep at about 1am and woke up at 3am exactly with a dream that felt like it had gone ages. Let me recount it for you.

I am in a non-descript room. It simply has four walls and random possessions littered among it. Are they mine? I don't know. However, suddenly the entire room breaks apart, and I plummet into a watery abyss positioned somehow below this room. I begin to sink immediately among the wreckage of the now-destroyed room. I know I am doomed. I inhale water in panic, and know I'm going to drown. I prepare for my inevitable death.

Suddenly, I am pulled from the water by an unknown savior. But am I really saved? I wake up, in the dream, to find myself severely mentally incapacitated, brain damaged somehow by my near-drowning, as I finish living as a drooling, mentally retarded mess of a person around other people. I vaguely remember being teased by a cruel man and doing things for him to the best of my ability, like fetching him a drink. I have absolutely no control of my body but feel every droop of my face, the drool falling from my open mouth across my lips. I'm a pathetic excuse of a human being and wish I had died rather than suffer this.

Suddenly I find myself in the room again. It looks exactly the same before it broke apart, and I am normal again. However, as before, the room breaks apart again and I plummet into the water again. The whole scene reminds me of deja vu as I nearly drown, am rescued, and live the rest of my life as the creature I was before.

Again, I find myself in the room. This exact scene plays over and over in exact sequence for what seems like dozens of times. I perhaps spent an eternity reliving everything in that short span of time.

Finally, after perhaps the hundredth time, no one saves me as the room breaks apart. I am pulled into the abyss as the debris creates an undercurrent. I attempt to fight the current but it is a losing battle. I am exhausted, and accept my fate. With much reluctance and fear, although ready, I give up and voluntarily inhale the water into my lungs. It's as terrible as I expected, and my lungs fill with water as my body gasps and convulses in hope for air, but finds none. Soon I have sunk to the bottom of this strange body of water, and am still alive, but dying. Finally, hoping to rid myself of the torture and pain of drowning, I inhale and release the last bit of air, and expire.

I wake up, in the dream again, and am standing in the grass in front of a sidewalk. Chad stands there, as if he were waiting for me. Notices me. A huge, friendly, excited smile crosses his face as he runs towards me.

"You did it? Finally?" he asks in excitement. Chad is dead, like me. I know this somehow.

I nod.

"Sancti?" he says incredulously. "Me too! I can't believe you got it! Well, I guess in your case, it's Sancta," he adds, noting the feminine placement.

He leads me towards a place at the end of the sidewalk with what looks like several life-sized mobiles (you know, like those things that hang above baby cribs?), all suspended in mid-air, each mobile a different color and dangling with different shapes.

"Now you have to choose one," Chad says, indicating the mobiles.

I notice that each shape represents something. I see a blue one that says (in magical floating text) "Guidance." Do these shapes represent reincarnation? I wonder. I know that these representations are what fit us most and it is what we are tasked to do to the living but I do not know the details of how.

Chad informs me that my sister, Laura, failed to receive the title of Sanctus, and therefore was not eligible to follow this esteemed path. I do not know where she is now, or if she exists at all anymore.

My friend Stacey sees me and Chad. She is not dead. Immediately I realize that I can see everything about her. How old she is, her habits, little details- but most importantly, how many days she has left before her demise. I know that this is some unwritten code to keep that detail a secret, but as she has plenty of days left to live, I make a joke to Chad about our ability to see such things and not be able to do anything about it. Stacey does not look amused at this fact as we laugh about it. The dream ends in a light, happy tone after this, and I wake up, feeling like the top of the world.

The First

I purchased my first laptop yesterday, finally. I decided to join the bandwagon and keep a blog. I've done the old-fashioned paper and pen(cil) journal before, but it's time I joined the digital age in the world of personal memory-keeping.

I will probably be dedicating this blog mostly to my dreams, which I am extremely fascinated by; my experiences at Free Again, a wildlife rehabilitation center I've been volunteering at for close to two years now; and rants on the environment and the world in general. I expect to seldom dwell on the goings on of normal life, as there isn't really much to tell in that area!

For now I will be going to sleep, but I already have a few things I plan on blogging about starting tomorrow. Ciao!