So, as mentioned in the previous post, today is my Mom’s birthday. So, I called to wish her a happy birthday, and we had a lovely chat. My stepfather learned enough piano playing to pick out "Happy Birthday" which was a surprise and which really touched Mom as very sweet. So, he probably will not be playing Carnegie Hall in the foreseeable future, but it was incredibly nifty of him to learn something new. Sometimes, the simplest gifts are the best!
We also had a nice chat about my brother and the recent Koinonea weekend that he had. It sounds like it was absolutely super and something that made him very happy. Yay! Karen is also going to be going through it. My brother is thinking of going to other weekends to help out. Great for him!
Mom also asked if there was some kind of bill about anti-discrimination that was up for a vote. I explained the current status of Pennsylvania HB 300, which would amend the PA Human Relations Commission to include sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.
It turns out that someone at Mom’s church slipped in some kind of pamphlet calling for folks to oppose this. (Apparently the person opposes discrimination, but not enough to think that anything substantive should be done.) Mom felt really riled up because of knowing the Drenched Fur committee member who goes to her church (I don’t think that he is out to the congregation, and Mom felt worried that he might have seen the pamphlet and felt hurt, since he had already expressed about it being hard to feel accepted) and because of having a gay son.
I think that’s part of the reason why I reacted the way that I did about the spam email about writing In God We Trust on envelopes that I thought slammed atheists and agnostics. It was sort of the same deal: someone assumes that everyone that they are sending a message to is part of a majority and that the rights and dignity of a minority are not worthy of protection, and they can pretty much be slammed as a threat with no defense expected from anyone.
Mom said that she was going to talk to the pastor about the bulletin. With that as an example, how could I fail to speak up for my friends who are not believers? It really bugs me when someone is only concerned about the rights and dignity of the minority that they themselves belong to, but don’t make the connection to standing up when it isn’t about self-interest.
So, very glad that I have such a cool Mom! I am lucky to have been raised by someone who has such great values.
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