A Prayer for Justice for All

God of all humankind. God of many names, honored in many ways.

Your prophet Amos told the people of his nation, "Hear this, O ye who swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail. . . . I will turn your feasts to mourning and your songs to lamentations."

As your prophets long ago called their nation to repent of theirs sins against your justice, may our nation in our time hear the call for us to repentance of our sins against those most in need of justice.

Lord, forgive us.

For we have failed to pay many workers a livable wage, so they and their families, including their children, must live in poverty in our land of wealth and plenty.

We have treated health care, not as the human right it is, but as a commodity for our profit, making money from basic human needs, causing medical care to become so expensive that 40% of all American companies now offer no health benefits at all for their employees.

We have denied the workers of this great land their right to free association by allowing those in power to harass and intimidate workers who wish to form unions, even to the point of denying them their constitutional right to organize at all leaving them weak and vulnerable to those in power.

We have denied our fellow Americans their right to dignity. For Lord, when we try to call human rights, "special rights," we merely seek to justify our fears, our prejudices, and our exploitations.

Lord, forgive us our sins, for we have truly done what we ought not to have done, but, what is worse, we have left undone those things that we ought to have done.

May we not grow weary in our labors to brings about your justice and mercy to our land. For in these times, your work must truly be our own.

Amen

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage Is Wrong

1) Being gay is not natural. Real people always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in the world.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

An Elegy for Former Oklahoma State Rep. Opio Toure

Opio Toure

Opio Toure, champion of social justice, has died, age 53. Though a small man physically and always s gentle soul, Toure was a giant and a warrior for the rights of the dispossessed in Oklahoma. He first drew attention when he and a group of fellow Langston University students led a sit-in at the governor's office in the 70's. The reason for their non-violent action was to head off an attempt to close Langston. Some members of the legislature had proposed turning the historically black college into a prison!

While in the legislature, opposed the "Right to Scab" state constitutional amendment. He fought for the rights of Oklahoma's workers to receive notice before being terminated from their jobs. Currently, workers in our state can be fired without notice or reason given. He was the driving force behind a bill that prevented the execution of the severly mentally handicapped. He repeatedly called for a moritorim on the use of the death penalty in Oklahoma.

After his retirement in 2006, Opio worked for Langston University developing a program to increase minority entrollment in law schools. He also served as professor of pre-law at his Alma Mater.

Opio's wife, Linda Toure, is an adminstrator in the Oklahoma City School District where she serves as academic director for the Frederick Douglass Learning Community.

Opio was a good man with a heart that yearned for justice. He will be greatly missed.

OK GOP Plans to Abolish the OK Human Rights Commission

The Oklahoma GOP House(Oxymoron Alert) leadership has proposed abolishing the Oklahoma Human Rights Commission as a "government efficiency" measure. Their plan would to turn over all duties of the HRC to the Attorney General. This would insure that enforcement of human rights in Oklahoma would be a political football. Imagine any politician wanting to get on the bad side of the so-called "special rights" issue.

Abolishing the Human Rights Commission is a sure way to tell businesses that their employees will face bigotry and discrimination in this Oklahoma. Intolerance is the most anti-business condition ever conceived.

House GOP consolidation plan outlined