86 yr old WWII veteran speaks about gay marriage

[SpeedRacer 1]

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/20/86-year-old-wwii-vet.html

Speed Racer
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[Lucky... 0]

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http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/20/86-year-old-wwii-vet.html

What a descent guy, understands what freedom means.

"Different but equal."

[amstalder 0]

Thank you for sharing
Very touching speech.

[funjumper101 15]

That is very cool.

Some of the folks in Maine have an uncommonly large amount of common sense. He's one of them.

[tbrown 26]

So what the fuck did he say ? Do I really HAVE TO go to the link, or is somebody here literate enough to paraphrase.....Jesus Christ already.....

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[jcd11235 0]

Nice find.

"The woman at my polling place asked me do I believe in equality for gay and lesbian people. I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that. It made no sense to me. Finally I asked her: what do you think I fought for in Omaha Beach?"

That's a man who understands that there is no need to make some people second class citizens just because they are different.

Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

[NWFlyer 2]

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So what the fuck did he say ? Do I really HAVE TO go to the link, or is somebody here literate enough to paraphrase.....Jesus Christ already.....

Oh quitcherbitchin! I found a transcript, though I'm also listening to the video. He can be tough to understand at times but hearing him make his point, in his own voice, is worth it.

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2009/10/what-do-you-think-i-fought-for-at-omaha-beach-a-veteran-speaks-out-for-marriage-equality.html

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Transcript:
Good morning, committee. My name is Phillip Spooner and I live ...in Biddeford. I am 86 years old, a lifetime Republican, and an active VFW chaplain. I still serve three hospitals and two nursing homes, and I also served meals on wheels for 20 years. My wife of 54 years, Jenny, died in 1997. Together we had four children, including one gay son. All four of our boys were in the service.

I was born on a potato farm north of Caribou and Perham, where I was raised to believe that all men are created equal, and I’ve never forgotten that. I served in the US Army 1942-1945 in the First Army as a medic and an ambulance driver. I worked with every outfit over there including Patton’s Third Army. I saw action in all five major battles in Europe including the Battle of the Bulge. My unit was awarded Presidential Citations for transporting more patients with fewer accidents than any other ambulance unit in Europe, and I was in the liberation of Paris. After the war, I carried POWs back from Poland, Hungary, and Yugoslavia, and also hauled hundreds of injured Germans back to Germany.

I’m here today because of a conversation I had last year when I was voting. A woman at my polling place asked me, “Do you believe in equality for gay and lesbian people?”

I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that; it made no sense to me.

Finally I asked her, “What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?”

I have seen so much blood and guts, so much suffering, so much sacrifice. For what? For freedom and equality. These are the values that make America a great nation, one worth dying for.

I give talks to eighth grade teachers about World War II, and I don’t tell them about the horror. Maybe I have to invite them to the ovens at Buchenwald and Dachau. I’ve seen with my own eyes the consequences of caste systems, and it makes some people less than others, or second class.

Never again. We must have equal rights for everyone; it’s what this country was started for. It takes all kinds of people to make a world. It doesn’t make sense that some people who love each other can marry and others can’t, just because of who they are. This is what we fought for in World War II, that idea that we can be different and still be equal.

My wife and I did not raise four sons with the idea that three of them would have a certain set of rights, but our gay child would be left out. We raised them all to be hard-working, proud, and loyal Americans, and they all did good.

I think if two adults who love each other want to get married, they should be able to. Everybody’s supposed to be equal in this country. Let gay people have the right to marry.

Thank you.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[Skyrad 0]

A great example of the last great generation.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[funjumper101 15]

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So what the fuck did he say ? Do I really HAVE TO go to the link, or is somebody here literate enough to paraphrase.....Jesus Christ already.....

Go listen to the man's words as he spoke them.
They are far more meaningful than a transcript.

Funny how the anti gay marriage righties haven't had anything to say in this thread.

I hope that they are coming to the realization that they are on the wrong side of this civil rights issue, thus the silence.

[warpedskydiver 0]

I still don't believe in gay Marriage, civil unions sure.

What the old guy failed to understand was that he did not fight so that the churches would HAVE to allow gay marriages.

If people want a civil union the can go to the JoP for all I care.

I don't dislike gay people at all, I just think that imposing their will on a society is not what the constitution was all about.

However, they are free to live happily and join themselves together is a civil union ceremony.

I hope they are happy.

[jcd11235 0]

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What the old guy failed to understand was that he did not fight so that the churches would HAVE to allow gay marriages.

The old man understood things just fine. No one is trying to force churches to allow same sex marriages. The controversy is about requiring the government to recognize same sex marriages.

Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

[vortexring 0]

I see his point - and I'm all for freedom and equality but where exactly do you draw the line? In my view homosexuality is abnormal - a species could never survive if all were homosexual. It's as simple as that. Should homosexuals be allowed to marry one another? No.

'for it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "chuck 'im out, the brute!" But it's "saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot.'

[Andy9o8 0]

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I see his point - and I'm all for freedom and equality but where exactly do you draw the line? In my view homosexuality is abnormal - a species could never survive if all were homosexual. It's as simple as that. Should homosexuals be allowed to marry one another? No.

Oh, relax. There will never be a shortage of motherfuckers in this world.

[vortexring 0]

Who's stressed?

'for it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "chuck 'im out, the brute!" But it's "saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot.'

[warpedskydiver 0]

Andy is

[downwardspiral 0]

Andy908 is one of the most level headed and reasonable members of dz.com in my opinion.

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[vortexring 0]

Fair enough; I still think homosexuality is wrong - for the obvious reasons. I'm looking forward to some debate on that subject.

'for it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "chuck 'im out, the brute!" But it's "saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot.'

[warpedskydiver 0]

I just like to give him shit, I think he knows that.

[BikerBabe 0]

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I don't dislike gay people at all, I just think that imposing their will on a society is not what the constitution was all about.

So? I don't dislike straight people, I just think that imposing their will on a society is not what the constitution is all about.

I don't dislike right-handed people, I just think that imposing their will on a society is not what the constitution is all about.

I don't dislike male people, I just think that imposing their will on a society is not what the constitution is all about.

why is it ok for a majority to impose their will on society? our country was set up in a way so that the will of the majority doesn't overwrite the rights of a minority. THAT'S what the constitution is all about.

Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

[mdrejhon 8]

Thanks for posting that. I'll forward it to a few.

You know, at Men's World Record at JFTC, israeli and arab jumpers existed, gays jumpers (3 of them in the complete 122-way) plus jumpers who came from countries where being gay is illegal. Jumpers from adversarial countries. America, Russia, Venezuela, Israel, Arabs, and more, all connected in the same formation. Jumpers of all kinds of opposing religions. I don't make a big voice out of anything or make a big fuss about these differences.

I know not all of jumpers may share the same ideologies (and I know lots don't like gays), but set that aside, and let's just focus on fun skydiving. That's all I ask for. Let it be.

[kallend 1,623]

Genuine question - what do you get in a marriage that you don't get in a civil union, except the use of an emotive word to describe it?

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[jakee 1,255]

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In my view homosexuality is abnormal - a species could never survive if all were homosexual.

Ok. So what?

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Should homosexuals be allowed to marry one another? No.

Why not? The first statement bears no real relation to the conclusion.

A direct analogy to your argument would be thinking that every woman should be forced to bear children, since a species cannot survive if none of it's females have offspring.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[vortexring 0]

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I don't dislike gay people at all, I just think that imposing their will on a society is not what the constitution was all about.

So? I don't dislike straight people, I just think that imposing their will on a society is not what the constitution is all about.

I don't dislike right-handed people, I just think that imposing their will on a society is not what the constitution is all about.

I don't dislike male people, I just think that imposing their will on a society is not what the constitution is all about.

why is it ok for a majority to impose their will on society? our country was set up in a way so that the will of the majority doesn't overwrite the rights of a minority. THAT'S what the constitution is all about.

How far will it go? Male people aren't fundamentally wrong. Neither are left or right handed people. Straight people are fundamentally right. You might as well support rather immoral people, who're quite rightly in the minority, if you're going to go down that road.

'for it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "chuck 'im out, the brute!" But it's "saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot.'

[mdrejhon 8]

This is the Speaker's Corner, so debate is likely to be ignited anyway. I stress I observe that many people who DO believe in allowing gay marriage, also is AGAINST forcing churches to do the marrying and instead letting the city hall do it. These are two different 'issues' in their eyes... I can totally understand; it makes no sense to let a church of a dramatically different religion be forced to marry a couple of totally different religion anyway.

Regardless of whether you don't believe in gay marriage which I understand many are uncomfortable with, it just bears worth pointing out many gays don't believe in forcing churches to do it, a separate issue altogether...

[jakee 1,255]

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How far will it go? Male people aren't fundamentally wrong. Neither are left or right handed people. Straight people are fundamentally right. You might as well support rather immoral people, who're quite rightly in the minority, if you're going to go down that road.

Once more, the first statement in no way leads to the conclusion.

Even if heterosexuality was the only natural sexual orientation, homosexuality would not be immoral, or equatable with being immoral.

A direct analogy with your argument would be thinking that people who live in the jungle foraging for berries are fundamentally right, so you might as well support immoral people as people who live artifically in the concrete jungle.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?