"Progressive Christianity"

[panthera]

Twice a year

I experience the delightful difference:
I get on the airplane in The Netherlands or Germany and am a full-citizen, a recognized human being with complete civil rights, including the right marriage.
I get off the plane in the US and I am a second-class citizen and sub-human.

If we don't fight for our rights, we won't get them. It is that simple.

 

[sudsman]

If you dont think one person can make a difference

Then look what at what Miss Rosa Parks started! A poor old tired colored lady refused to give up her bus seat for gringo. May she forever be remembered!

 

[rapunzel]

If you dont think one person can make a difference

That is true to a point. One person, with courage and conviction, may start the ball rolling. Though, it ultimately takes more than that. When Mrs Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, there were other people prepared to offer their support. Had it not been for the Montgomery bus boycott nothing much would have changed.

Poor Claudette Colvin also refused to vacate her seat for a white person, almost a year before Rosa Parks, but because she was only 15, dirt poor and became pregnant out of wedlock, she was seen as a liability by civil rights groups.

There had been previous attempts by (African-American) civil rights groups to challenge racial segregation on busses, going back to the mid forties. People organized themselves to protest these laws by breaking them, so that they would be arrested and charged. There were a number of supreme court decisions that declared racial segregation on interstate busses illegal. Yet, nothing much changed until the 1960s.

Now, Rosa Park's case gained public notoriety and had the support of a fast-growing movement behind it. I also think that the advent of television helped a great deal. Though, I surmise that previous acts of civil disobedience ultimately paved the way for success.

Olav

 

[rapunzel]

Keven,

I do find it interesting though that Germany has not yet gone beyond civil unions for same sex couples. There are also limitations to adopting children.

I believe that a survey, conducted some years ago, showed overwhelming public support for same sex marriage and adoption. Yet, German politicians have not moved on this issue to give gay people full and equal status the same as their heterosexual counterparts.

Olav