Let’s Focus On Working For Positive Change

Caterpillars, moths, butterflies, and all creatures great and small,

I have read your comments. Our hearts are revealed. We are sick of hatred, wrongful judgment of people, victimization of the innocent, unequal justice, racism, stereotyping.

There is a fear across America that our children will grow up not being able to go out in the sunshine for fear of someone with a gun.

We have to worry when we go shopping that someone will shoot us for stepping on their foot and defend themselves by saying they were in fear.

We have to worry about people who don’t like texting, loud music, or seeing a person with Alzheimer’s in their front yard and because they have a gun, act on their dislike.

Terrorism on America’s soil is here – we now share in the trauma with those countries where suicide bombers walk the streets.

There are times we feel hopeless and helpless.

Love Conquers All – Waiting A Decade For The Court’s Decision

In 2013, a federal Judge cited the Loving case in his ruling when striking down Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban. The Loving case has become the foundation in which other courts are striking down bans against same-sex marriage. How did it come about?

Loving — The last name is so appropriate.

Mildred and Richard Loving

In 1957, Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter married. They met and lived in Central Point, Virginia, but married in Washington, D.C. because in Virginia, it was illegal to marry a person of another race. Richard, White, and Mildred, “colored,” fell in love at first sight.

At about 4 a.m. one morning, the local police came to their house and arrested them. It wasn’t just the law against interracial marriage that the police was going to arrest the Lovings for violating. They were hoping to catch them in the act of making love, because there was also law against interracial sex.

Mildred showed the police their marriage certificate, but that marriage certificate became evidence for the criminal charge of “cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.”

On January 6, 1959, the Loving’s pled guilty. The law they were charged with violating was passed in Virginia in 1924. It was the Act for the Preservation of Racial Integrity. That law set forth that any trace of nonwhite ancestry (the infamous “one drop” rule) defined someone as ineligible to marry anyone defined as white.
The court found the Loving’s guilty and sentenced each to one year in prison, but suspended sentencing for 25 years if they moved out of Virginia.

They moved to Washington, D.C. and could only return to Virginia separately, not together, to see their families. The Loving’s were unhappy in D.C. and in 1964, Mildred wrote to Attorney General Robert Kennedy. He referred her to the ACLU. Two attorneys with no prior experience, but believers in equality and the constitution, went to work.

Open Discussion – Inspiration

Each month Blackbutterfly7 will post something in honor of Bloggers for Peace. This is a bit early because it’s not February yet, but when is it ever a bad time to inspire?

I would like to present a person who is truly inspiring.

Nicholas (Nick) James Vujicic was born on December 4, 1982 in Melbourne, Australia.  He was born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs.  Born without arms and legs, Nick has one small foot with two toes.

At the age of 10, Nick tried to kill himself by drowning, but discovered that in spite of not having arms and legs, that he could swim.  At the age of 17, he started Life Without Limbs, a non-profit organization.