Friday Funday: Reasons To Applaud

If you'd told us a year ago that - in an non-election year - we'd be as busy as we've been this past week, most of our staff would probably have looked at you with a good bit of skepticism.

If you'd told us Priscilla in the mailroom was going to win this year's NCAA office pool? That we'd believe.

It's been anything but a slow news week, and the next seven days also look busy, both personally and professionally. The Supreme Court will be taking up the arguments next week against both DOMA and California's Proposition 8. The President will return from his Middle Eastern trip - which seems to be going impressively well - and begin finalizing the White House's version of a budget.

Congress? Well, they'll be on vacation again, for another two weeks - their annual 'Spring Break' recess - when they'll return to take on the fight over gun safety laws.

We suppose we can't just make fun of Congress today, even if it is easy and fun. After all, both the Senate and the House passed a Continuing Budget Resolution this week, which will keep the Federal government from shutting down - at least until the end of September. It may not be much - but considering Congress' recent track record of getting less than nothing done, we'll give them a small measure of applause today.

Large sweeping applause is certainly due to the Colorado State Legislature. Just this week, the Colorado legislature passed three gun safety laws, including a universal background check law - all of which Colorado's governor has already signed. The Colorado legislature also passed a law legalizing civil unions for same sex couples on Thursday, which deserves even more applause.

Speaking of applause, we're certain to hear a bit of that this weekend, when we attend one of the performances of of the play we wrote about on Thursday, The River And The Mountain.  If you're in the Washington, DC or Baltimore areas, we highly recommend you come see the show at some point this weekend.

While Mother Nature's recent performances haven't exactly been getting rave revues, the calendar does officially say that it's spring, so even if it feels a bit nippy at times this weekend, remember - this too will pass.

Frankly, we're ready for a thaw, both in the weather, and in politics all over the country.

As evidenced by Sen. Harry Reid's overnight turnaround on gun safety legislation, it now seems even some of the most cynical members of our government, at all levels, can be pushed to do the right thing by the voters. When enough Americans work together to push our elected officials to get something done - like the 91% of Americans who want universal background checks - almost anything is possible.

If you want to know the best thing about spring, it isn't the return to warm beach weather in South Florida, or Husker spring football practice in Nebraska, or even the cherry blossoms blooming in Washington, DC.

It's the return of the feeling that once again, anything is possible.

Hope springs eternal.

Equality Takes The Cake

"Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law - for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. " – President Barack Obama 

With the President in Israel, and Congress potentially about to actually get something done, before they go on vacation for another two weeks, we’re looking ahead today – both to this weekend, and to the upcoming Supreme Court arguments next week, on DOMA, Prop 8, and the overarching topic of same sex marriage in America.

One of the most joyous - and historical - moments in President Obama's second inaugural address may have been his call for equal rights for LGBT Americans. By mentioning Stonewall in the same breath as Selma and Seneca Falls, he stated clearly to the world that gay rights are civil rights, that gay rights are human rights. Unfortunately, there are many places in the world where LGBT people are fighting an even more difficult fight for their very right to exist.

In Uganda, sexuality and sexual identity can literally be matters of life and death.

In 2009, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill – better known to many as the “Kill The Gays” bill – was introduced before the Ugandan Parliament. Contrary to some reports, the proposed bill still mandates the death penalty for homosexual acts, and prison sentences for persons who fail to report known homosexuals to the authorities within 24 hours.

Into this dangerous nation, playwright Beau Hopkins introduced The River and the Mountain,  the first play ever produced in Uganda that featured an openly gay character. Its run in Kampala last August was successful, though not without hardship. The play’s run was cut short by Uganda's Minister of Ethics. David Cecil, the play's producer, was arrested and deported. Keith Prosser, an actor who performed in the show, has been arrested multiple times because of the show, and is also currently facing deportation.

These attacks on civil rights and the play itself caught the attention of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in 2012, and in turn, caught the attention of Sarah Imes Borden, an adjunct professor of theatre at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln and a personal friend of our staff. Sarah felt that the play and its message was too important to be allowed to die, so she decided to bring the play to the United States.

After obtaining funding through a Kickstarter campaign, and a practice run in Lincoln, Sarah is producing the show for a series of staged readings in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore area this weekend, hopefully just the first stop on a national tour. Sarah even obtained a visa for Ugandan actor Okuyo Joel Atiku Prynce to come to the D.C. area and reprise his history-making leading role.

Unfortunately, just as Mr. Prynce was to have left for the United States, he was denied permission to leave the country of Uganda. Thankfully, a last-minute replacement will allow Borden to work around the absence of her lead actor, and the show WILL go on. However, our thoughts are with everyone involved in the Kampala production, as are our hopes for their continued safety.

The main plot of the play concerns the problems that the main character, Samson, must confront after he comes out as gay to his best friend and mother. Corrupt characters in the play do not hesitate to capitalize on religion and anti-gay bias in order to further their own ends and hide their corruption.

This is an interesting parallel to the actual situation in Uganda. Jocelyn Edwards of The Daily Beast suggests that it is no accident that the “Kill The Gays” bill has remained in legislative limbo for so long. Edwards claims that the decision to keep the bill perpetually pending but never passed is a deliberate smokescreen to distract from the very real corruption that continues to plague Yoweri Museveni's government - corruption that has direct links to American right wing politics and media. Meanwhile, gay people continue to be scapegoated, high-level government officials continue to profit at the expense of their own people, and the Ugandan people pay the price.

If you are in the Washington, D.C. or Baltimore area this weekend, we invite you to come see this play in all its poignancy, power, and - yes - humor.

Wherever you are this weekend, if you're fortunate enough to be able to kiss the one you love, or hold hands, or simply share a hug in public without fear of reprisal, we think you should take a moment to consider whether that should really be a privilege rather than a right.

That’s the type of choice our own Supreme Court will be deciding for all of us in America, very soon.

Hitting The Real Target

Since the mass shooting in Connecticut, one of our favorite media colleagues, Greg Sargent, has been targeting a single point about the gun safety laws before Congress, often. Many of our fellow members of the media haven't been getting the point though.

Greg's point has been simple: While Democrats and left-leaning Americans would love to see a new assault weapons ban pass, the real goal has always been to pass universal background checks. As of yesterday, one of Greg's Washington Post co-workers, Chris Cillizza, finally seems to have understood that Greg was right.

Mr. Cilizza's epiphany may have to do with actions by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who on Tuesday removed the previously proposed assault weapons ban from a comprehensive gun violence reduction bill. Frankly, we're not surprised that the assault weapons ban was jettisoned from the comprehensive bill.

As Cilizza himself notes, the politics of reauthorizing an assault weapons ban simply aren't on the pro-safety side in this Congress. When you've got a Congress being held hostage to its minority, forcing virtually every action to pass with no less than 60 votes, everything from confirming appointees to passing sane legislation - or almost any legislation at all - is going to be nearly impossible most of the time. The rediculous - and powerless - hold that the NRA has over politicians at almost every level certainly won't help sane gun safety reforms pass.

That said, no one can say gun safety laws can't pass in this country - even in "gun country."

Today, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper - a Democrat with whom we've had some policy disagreements in the past - is signing three new gun safety measures into law. Hickenlooper will authorize an ammunition magazine limitations bill, a universal background check bill, and a bill that requires gun buyers to pay for those background checks, all efforts that have passed through heavy debate and review under the "Golden Dome" of the Colorado state capitol in Denver.

We understand the gun culture in Colorado well, having had both staff members and their families who've lived in the Mile High State over the last twenty years. We're well aware that just because someone in Colorado owns a gun, likes to shoot, or is an NRA member doesn't mean they're a far right-wing nutjob by any stretch of the imagination.

Of course, there are those kinds of extremist right-wing gun owners in Colorado too, including Weld County Sheriff John Cooke, who insists he won't enforce Colorado's new gun safety laws. We hope that Sheriff Cooke realizes, if he's only going to enforce the laws he agrees with, he likely won't be employed as a law enforcement officer for much longer.

Universal background checks - the key gun safety law both at the state level in Colorado and nationally, in Congress - have always been the real bullseye for pro-safety gun legislators since the massacre in Connecticut. That many of our associates in the greater media industry have continually missed the real target on this issue simply drives home the point made by this year's Pew State Of The Media Survey.

The Pew Survey made it clear: Many media customers today are being driven away from old- fashioned news outlets because a lack of proper high-quality staffing has driven the caliber of the those media outlets' products so sharply downwards.

In other words, many of our colleagues aren't hitting what they're aiming at, in part, because their media organizations have chosen to not properly pay and prepare them.

At least on the issue of gun safety, maybe a few more journalists and pundits should follow Greg Sargent on this issue, since he's been on target all along.