October 2005 in Connecticut

Beginning on October 1, 2005 any same sex couple can stroll into their local city/town hall and apply for a civil union. Quite the victory many would say. Our relationships will be legally recognized by the state government. One little snag …. Justices of the Peace and Clergy can refuse any couple … at their discretion. Yes, yes the clergy part is not much of a surprise but the JP part is shocking to me. Pardon me, but isn’t a JP where a couple goes for a civil ceremony that theoretically eliminates religious references? Then what the hell is the problem with these people?

The Connecticut law does not require justices and clergy to perform civil unions, and some said they won’t because of their religious beliefs.

Carmela Apuzzo, a justice of the peace in Orange, did not plan to perform civil unions until a priest told her she would simply be performing civil ceremonies.

"This has nothing to do with religion," she said. "It’s a contract. I will definitely encourage other people to think of it like that."

Source: http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/09/092605conUnions.htm

If religious beliefs are so imperative to a group of these Connecticut elected officials then how can they perform civil ceremonies for different gender couples? How can they remove God from the ceremony for some people and not for others? Reeks of hypocrisy. Some think we (the gays) should be happy with Civil Unions, this is a victory. A victory with built in homophobia?

Edge of Seventeen

Packaged as entertainment
Celluloid truth in just under 2 hours
Not this writer’s truth, but surely someone out there

A school system
In the conservative Cincinnati area
Seeking to go unnoticed
Ridiculed, finger pointing a daily occurrence
Sub-level humans to avoid at all cost

Wasted time
Time forever lost
By ignorance, bullying and homophobia

Grade school
A white line painted across the playground
Boys on one side
Girls on the other
Gender identity brings a painful path
Yet another place
Of impossible hope

Punishable time
Thankfully passed
Adults unavailable, a child alone

Junior High
A private school
Hopes for the soul stains to disappear
A sledgehammer to a jewel of innocence
Cruelty in abundance
Humiliating episodes performed daily
Skits without lines for the injured
Self preservation believed to be a coward’s title

Time without indignation
A portrait painted by self-hatred

High School
Whispers loudly spoken
Cringing jokes
Laugh along, maybe you’ll belong
The clock runs down
Must escape

Wasted time
Time forever lost
By ignorance, bullying and homophobia

September 11, 2001

Catherine P. Salter
Aon Risk Services, Inc.
2 World Trade Center (South Tower)
Floor 101

Government keeps on rolling

A broken heart
A nation cries

A man sits in his office
Even in the face of
death and destruction
He manuevers
He plots
He puts in place
The arm of his foolhearted self

Chief Justice John Roberts?

Stop the liberal Justice John Paul Stevens
From making the decisions
Keep the government running
Forget the people
Particularly the poor and dying

Government just keeps on rolling

Unable to mobilize

Have watched in shock
Mind unable to grasp

Richest nation
Unable to mobilize

Bodies floating
Old man dead in a chair
Stuck on rooftops for days
Hospital staff long forgotten
Decide who will live

A mother cries
A father asks why
Children without parents
Parents without children

Richest nation
Unable to mobilize