"C" for Capitol

Center couple: Earl Ball and Tim Hare, flanked by friends

Our sign says:

"33 Years in Love

yet

Legal Strangers in USA -

FED UP!"

The White-Haired

Harbinger of Gratitude

Tim Hare

Copyright HARE 2009

All Rights Reserved

"Shining the Rainbow Light of Gratitude

from the historic West Ward neighborhood

of Easton, Pennsylvania"

I’m grateful for the unique qualities of life I find in abundance in the West Ward,

where I live each Today.

In this Blog, I shine the light of Gratitude on some specific reasons,

per letter of the alphabet, why the West Ward is an ideal place

for me and my husband Earl to live, love, and thrive.

"C" for Capitol

I'm grateful our home in the West Ward is conveniently close to our country's and commonwealth's capitols, where legislation is created, and yet, too often, where injustice happily and very profitably dwells.

Ben Franklin once said: "Where Liberty dwells, there is my country!"

Patrick Henry once said: "Give me Liberty or give me Death!"

Marching on the capitol demanding liberty, so that America could become "my country" for all, is often the only way it is finally achieved.

America had originally been the land of full liberty - but only for those born white, male, rich, heterosexual (or pretending to be), and for those who found a way to not age without dying young, or for those who found a way to get sick, or slip on a banana peel, without going bankrupt.

But for the rest of us Americans, we've must fight our own government for legislative guarantees of our shared birthright of Liberty.

Since the time when we moved to our home in the West Ward twenty-five years ago, it feels like we've had too-many occasions to march on our capitols.

The most recent day dawned last Sunday, October 11th, when we joined the National Equality March on Washington, D.C.

Another recent event, when we left the West Ward to put the pedal to the metal, was July 8, 2009.

That fine day, we gratefully accepted the kind invitation of Senator Daylin Leach. We traveled to the capitol rotunda in Harrisburg to share our love story at the press conference launching his historic and unprecedented Marriage Equality legislation in Pennsylvania. We do love to tell our love story, it's so romantic - what happily married couple doesn't?

Coincidentally, that very day was also Heritage Day in Easton - when the Declaration of Independence was bravely and publicly read in Centre Square in 1776.

Earl and I are simply American citizens who are willing to depart our cozy West Ward comfort zone to travel to our nearby capitols to demand justice for ourselves and others.

The way we figure, if not us, who? We often wonder, if not now, when? We also often wonder, at our age (124 people-years between us) do we have the stamina this time?

Over the past nearly five decades, I am grateful to have found the courage of my convictions to also have joined the many to walk that walk.

Perhaps some blood and Spirit of my ancestor, Patrick Henry, runs through my veins? I tried channeling his Spirit while sitting in his pew in Williamsburg, VA, but the frequency seemed to have been jammed, or hijacked by Lady GaGa!

Perhaps patriotism is genetic? Nature vs. nurture? Does it really matter how or why we're patriotic Americans? It just matters that we are, which includes demanding better than we're getting. We want the best, especially when everybody else has it by now.

I'm filled with gratitude to be living in an evolving democracy where I have the inalienable right to storm our nation's and commonwealth's capitols demanding our legislatures to end injustice and inequality.

Over the decades, I've marched to end white-racism; I've marched to end wars; I've marched to end sexism; I march now to end heterosexism.

I've shown up for myself and my country whenever needed, demanding our legislature end their unprovoked, undeclared, and/or declared wars that America wages on other sovereign countries, whether those unprovoked invasions were based on lies or not.

So last Sunday, we pressed our pedal to the metal and our feet to the pavement, storming our capitol for our federal civil rights.

We demanded federal legislation to end, once and for all across the entire USA, the ugly, unAmerican, and harmful, prejudice and discrimination against Americans who are created, just fine, like me and the love of my life, Earl.

It was inspiring to witness many tens of thousands who were willing to travel far, from north, south, east and west, demanding federal equality legislation in a land where we pay our full share of taxes without getting any federal representation. Just like every American created heterosexual (or pretending to be), we want our money's worth!

We met a full array of Rainbow citizens, and our supportive allies, from California, Florida, New York, Ohio, Illinois, and countless other states.

When asked where we're from, we proudly answered, "Easton, Pennsylvania, the West Ward!" We are grateful that we're so near our capitol, compared to their vast and expensive journeys.

Being part of that huge wave of humanity claiming our American birthright was empowering and deeply gratifying.

Here we all were, arriving as the very last group of Americans still denied basic equality.

Here we all marched in the sunshine, human beings who have been greatly despised and discriminated against since the beginning of time.

Here we all shouted, proclaiming "Enough!"

Here we healed. Here we were, recovering from the great harm created by inhumane and unChristlike prejudice so deeply taught and eagerly learned.

The Spiritual illness of prejudice against us is deeply rooted. It is alive and sick in our own parents, our grandparents, their parents, our siblings, our aunts, uncles, cousins, distant kin, our youngest and oldest family members, our own churches and other institutions of faith-choice, our own schools, our next-door neighbors, our federal, state, and local laws.

For centuries, people born like us are denied every basic federal protection and civil right - thousands of them -yet here we boldly and bravely stormed our capitol, demanding equality.

Here we became a huge sea change, roaring for America-wide full equality under the law, our denied birthright guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

We were so grateful that, from back home in the West Ward, we could read e-mails from our neighbors who couldn't be there with us. But they sent their joy, their tears of happiness, and their loving support, while they watched the event unfold on TV.

Thanks to my new iPhone, I could experience and share their neighborliness in real-time. Thank you Apple, for being a company that is friendly to us who are created non-heterosexual!

Online back home, I could revisit the wonderful day at the capitol. I could watch some news broadcasts, including a short interview by a Russian TV station (see link below - you might need to cut and paste it into your browser).

I'm very glad the Cold War is over! We'd have been sent off to some island in the Gulf of Mexico -without lawyers - though with free health insurance, finally!

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Back home in the West Ward, we watched our President Obama's landmark speech to the Human Rights Campaign's annual dinner in Washington, D.C., held the night before the National Equality March. HRC is the largest equality advocacy group in America. I gratefully listened to his hopeful words delivered with his very skillful talking the talk.

I now await his walking the walk. I will believe his words when I see him take action (and not a moment before). Like they say, if you want to see into a man's true character, watch what he does, not what he says.

Earl and I are the kind of men who have character that matches our actions with our words. We tend to say what we mean, and we mean what we say, and we try not to say it mean. But more importantly, we also walk the walk.

Our home in the West Ward is living proof of that character trait. We undertook possibly the worst house in Easton, and spent twenty-five years of back-breaking action, blood, sweat, tears, financial risk, and much more, transforming it to today's treasure.

Many proclaim, from outside the West Ward, what is needed here in our neighborhood. But do they put themselves where their words are? Do most who profit from the West Ward's abundant industries and enterprises, whether legal or illegal, actually live here?

Earl and I are almost finished with transforming our home, but we've barely begun showing up for ourselves federally! As always, the best is yet to be!

If our equality is much more delayed, they'd better consider moving the capitol very far away from the West Ward!