Nothing will change after elections
We're at the beginning of summer and this would be a good time to take a mental break by actively avoiding the Obama-Romney campaign noise machine.
I can guarantee that you won't miss a thing.
Barry, Mitt and their respective spinmeisters and toadies will still be yammering on and on and on come September, so why pollute your summer with the stench of their self-serving pap?
Reality dictates that there is no lesser of two evils this time around. Mitt Romney is a disaster in waiting, and Barack Obama is disaster in action. This election will resolve nothing. No matter who wins, all "we, the people" can look forward to is another endless round of partisan recriminations until 2014, when the pap is likely to hit the fan.
So, lighten your load, brighten your days, and muster up some good times by reveling in hot nights, cold drinks and a campaign-free summer.
Walter F. Wouk
Summit
'Queers United' battle cry must be heard
June is Pride Month, during which time we celebrate our individuality and the differences in people.
With the arrival of another pride month, I have made a re-commitment to my queer compatriots to continue to fight for equality. No longer can we tolerate injustice, bigotry and the disenfranchisement of certain individuals simply because of who and what they are.
This year has brought major victories with the decisions declaring the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional as well as a federal appeals court upholding the unconstitutionality of Proposition 8.
Both of these issues will land at the doorstep of the Supreme Court.
Despite the right-wing tilt of the current court, it will have no choice but to strike down DOMA and thus legalize same-sex marriage throughout America.
It is reprehensible to me that the rights of a minority are being put up to a vote, over and over again. Assuredly, the prejudiced majority would have denied equality for this nation's African-American citizens, interracial marriage would still be illegal and segregation would be the law of the land.
The queer community needs to take a much more aggressive stance. "Queers United" should be the battle cry while rushing into the streets, plazas and public spaces all across America. We must have militancy and urgency for equality, as our black compatriots and others had during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
We shall overcome the hate and injustice that has infected this country like a poison, relentlessly ravaging healthy tissue until it kills the whole.
We must not allow it to kill the whole. Negate the poison by working toward justice and equality.
Equality will be ours.
We must stake it into the ground so very deeply that it will never be taken away.
James R. Koury
Oneonta
