Lessons Learned About Protesting

It took me about two years before I started blogging about my religion. It took me four years to blog about my politics. What is that old saying...don't talk about money, politics or religion? Normally I stay very neutral and in fact I am a peace maker, mediator and often counselor. Getting to know William and Jim through our church NOT as the "two gay men" but as "Fleven Seven" a FAMILY of two fathers with five children has been eye opening. They are loving to their friends and children and both incredibly intelligent. We have great discussions about parenting in faith during Sunday school class. 

I have seen protests before and watched on the sidelines as folks ask for changes in the cause that they are fighting for. Nothing has moved me enough to get involved until now. When William did ask for support via Facebook, the people that came and supported him were there as his extended family and friends.We were there as parents too. And this is how the protest went down!

1.) A super cool person takes on the task of organizing the time and place. Then create an event and post it on Facebook and invite your friends.

2.) You need something that will stand out and get you noticed. Flowers! Yea, flowers that's it. Then you need someone to get flowers and a business that will give you that many flowers. Then you need another super cool person to be in charge of them and pass them out when it's time. That super cool person gets creative and prints the family photo and ties them to each flower.
- What did we miss? We should have printed a url that had the story and a url to sign the petition on the back of the picture. We had lots of people stop and ask what it was about. We could have asked them to take a flower and it would have had the information to look up and spread the word to friends.

3.) You need some really cool poster board signs! What do you put on the sign? It has to catch people's attention. Oh I know! How about "Republicans Love All Families!" Well that worked because you had some very snippy Republicans asking about that sign. ROFL!

4.) You need your friends to email local news stations. Those who can't be there physically to protest can turn to the virtual community and share the story using social media.

5.) You have to have that person that is willing to challenge your thoughts creatively. Personally I love the shirt. When I read it I thought, Joseph and God! That was it. There is power in numbers. There was extra security in the courtroom. Full dressed SWAT team just to be sure all these flower folks didn't get out of hand.

6.) And then your efforts could result in this -




My understanding is that the ex-wife did not ask for all of this but rather Judge Prine took it upon himself to make the rules. What's the next step? Appeal. Here is the kicker!!!! As much as I want to think, you know this really is crazy because you can't leave them with a man or a woman not related by blood or adoption, what a parenting nightmare! It's not - as I sit here not wanting to focus on the "gay" part, it's true, like the giant elephant standing in the room. Maybe the judge put the women part in after the fact because he thought they would leave the children with a bunch of gay women? I mean really doesn't this hit at the heart of William's judgement? Judge Prine is putting his own values in this ruling. That really makes me sad. Am I for gay marriage? Do I believe in it?

Here is what I do know - they are loving men, with loving hearts and they are good fathers to all of their children. That is what I have seen with my own eyes. That is what I know in my heart. It would be nice if any of the jurors would speak up in this case. I wonder if they even know what has happened.

And to top it all off there was this man (a bum?) who was asking all of us for money. I didn't give him any because I just spent $7 in parking! We gave him a flower and he took it and put it in his hat. I watched him from the corner of my eye and there he was counting his change. He had one dollar, a few pennies, one nickel and one dime. He was talking to himself and he collected his things and moved on. As I was leaving to my car I saw him with a coke and some chicken. In my head I had this conversation....
Give him some money.
No, I only have $40 in my purse. I'm suppose to buy clothes with that.
You have enough. He bought food and who are you to judge what he does with the money?
Are you really going to give this guy $20?
Yes!
Why?
I don't know but it's in my heart to do it so I have to go with that.
He sits on the bus bench with his coke and chicken and he reaches out his hand as I say good afternoon. I place the money folded in his hand. He looks at me and says something unaudible. I just say have a good day, take care of yourself and walk away.
I'm including this story because I don't know what happened. Maybe I just needed some good to come out of that moment. We couldn't make the judge change his mind which is a helpless feeling I might add. The only good I could control came out of that very moment with this man sitting on the bench. Amen.


Click on those "Like" and "Retweet" buttons to share with the online community. For current events see the side bars and click on the "Add Me" tab above to connect with me using other social media services.