Tioga Herald

Dear Editors:

You had a huge photo of Trump on your editorial page. You included a letter from a Mr. Murphy as “My Turn.”  This was in your Sunday newspaper on the opinion page.

People like Mr. Murphy are all clamoring to write and speak about things they CLAIM Trump accomplished. In actuality, he did not and there is plenty of proof and evidence otherwise.  People like Murphy don’t provide the evidence.

I accomplished my Competent Toastmasters status. As part of that accomplishment, I earned 1st place from a peer vote in the meetings for “Best Evaluator.” So. Why, since Cox Newspapers sold their newspaper in West Palm Beach, FL, and now Gannett owns that newspaper there, am I being censored by the newspapers? I don’t get a turn and I have to ask why, since the respected newspaper journalists at the Post, have I been denied the rights to publish and get printed, after doing so for many years? 

I cannot say my first amendment rights are being curtailed. From what some are saying, first amendment rights are ONLY curtailed if it is a government trying to squelch the voice. Apparently, it matters not, too, if words are squelched due to inaccuracy or expressions of hatred or violent acts.  Yes, we all censor the f**k word, but not words of hatred and violence against one another.  We squelch vulgar language, but not words which are inaccurate. We cannot squelch Tucker Carlson for his words, described by Russians and Putin as being “propaganda.”  Propaganda IS inaccurate words.  Goebbels, the propaganda minister under Hitler said, “if a lie is repeatedly told, it becomes the truth.”  People in the Wisconsin Republican-controlled leadership are still dwelling on the 2020 election by telling the lie about Trump winning and the election being fraudulent, over and over and over again, so as to make it the truth – propaganda to the people of Wisconsin that even some Republicans are challenging as, enough is enough and let’s move forward.

I would wager that the purpose of coming up with these lies and inaccuracies is to bury the true issue here. Pro-bigotry folks who wish to keep fires burning with lies so as to get Republicans elected who tell the lies and then wham groups like the gay folks because these people are bigoted moles coming out of hibernation. For instance, a Republican in Florida gave a speech before college faculty in Florida. He was wealthy and one time sat on the board of trustees at a college, appointed by one of the governors (Jeb Bush or Rick Scott, don’t recall).  This man claimed that individuals do not know what it means to be happy, so they need to have it defined for them. The faculty was polite, but many of us shared, after the speech, how they wanted to boo him off the stage and walk out. We were pleasant and polite, taking it on the chin as we were being insulted for lack of intelligence with a claim that “we don’t know what makes us happy.” More like, for people who lack confidence in life, they don’t know what makes them happy.  And in the entire world, America ranks down about 26th on the list for happiness. Denmark usually ranks as number one with its people’s measure of their happiness.  Bottom line. If you are not as happy as the wealthy define happiness, then you don’t know what makes you happy. If you maintain the happiness of someone like Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King, Jr., or several others who knew the love of Christ, then you don’t know how to define happiness.  This man pretty much said that we need to have an evil love of money and materialism in order to be happy. We need to have money, but we don’t need to worship it and have a love for money to predominate our lives. 

At the end of the day, these people like this Republican speaker in Florida, don’t think anyone who is gay and has a same-sex partner, married or in some other monogamous means, then such people are not happy.  We are happy. As I stood before the Board of Trustees at the college where I was a professor, I spoke out rather eloquently about the need for domestic partner benefits. The Board of Trustees granted it.  That was before same-sex marriage.

Wait just one minute, though. When the domestic partner benefits were implemented, I was told by HR that the ones who came to apply for the domestic partner benefits were all heterosexual couples. Males and females living together and not married.  I never kept up to see if that small portion of people we call gay people (estimated under 10% of a population; a slight bit higher now that people feel liberated and not having to remain in the closet, so they let others know about it and get counted). 

Is it not ironic that those who are hateful of gay people do not even consider that there are church leaders who object to a man and a woman living together outside of marriage? But when gay people wish to establish a solid foundation of a monogamous relationship, then these people grab at Bible, televangelist, and fundagelical leaders to smear the idea of gay people establishing a monogamous relationship in the form of marriage. 

America never had a referendum to decide same-sex marriage, as what has happened in nations such as Australia. The polls in America reflected the same numbers supporting gay marriage as the results of the vote in Australia. Two-thirds of the population.  Every time there is some number like that, then hateful Republicans call foul in one way or another. Either the vote was not done properly or the polls were not accurate. Then they throw people like Tucker Carlson out into the public eye with his lies of propaganda. And who is the guy at the top in that organization? An immigrant who needs a wall built around HIM> Why? He did not like the vote in his homeland of Australia. 

So, he uses propaganda and the idea that people do not know what makes them happy, so they need the sensationalist fake news of Fox. I am speaking about Murdock. He has been on record as saying he would help destroy local news broadcasts. The FCC and big corporations have picked up his gauntlet in nationalizing the news media and destroying the local media, whether broadcast or newspapers.  They have paved the road for all the ridiculous stuff in social media by expanding individual use of cell phones.

Therefore, there is a need for more bandwidth for cell phones. The local radio and television broadcast power are reduced so as to make room for cell phones. The signals from local broadcast outlets are reduced so badly that we are FORCED to purchase “cable” television with streaming, like renting the “airwaves,” not getting it free or by purchasing to own on CD and/or DVD. Thus as I head south on a New York State Road, the same path I took in the 1970s when working one summer at IBM or Phil’s Chicken House, the radio signals are blocked out when i get in the shadow of hills. In the 1970s, the local radio stations were so powerful that it never happened that way. 

Gannett tries to not only block me from speaking through newsprint, but it is also creating a “rental” system for dispersing of the news by way of digital copies which are often too hard to read, especially for someone who is visually impaired, due to the negligence of retina doctors in Florida with laser surgery.  Negligence played a role in Julie Andrews voice. So we don’t say her “voice is impaired?” Vocal impairment? She can still speak, but has more difficulty in singing.  I know. I have evidence from the “horse’s mouth.” Explained by Ms. Andrews when she explained this to a large audience of librarians at a professional librarians conference.  She also shared her experiences in her work with children’s theatre, too, which is absolutely fabulous. 

So, big corporations have purportedly been putting support behind anti-gay politicians. My bet is shis. Most of such anti-gay politicians are Republicans. In fact, it might be safe to say that ALL of them are Republicans. But I cannot say that with a certainty because I have not researched the information about the topic. I base it only on conjecture regarding what appears in our lives.  And to support such corporations, people hide the anti-gay side of it and say, “oh, I don’t know why you think that food place is so bad because the food is good there.” Buddy. The bad or good of the food being served is not the question. The question is about how much happiness they wish to take from gay folks like me, by supporting anti-gay candidates when humanity and human justice are NOT political issues. Only by those with the love of money and materialism does such things happen.  There should be no money involved in campaigns and politics. Period. At one time we had public financing of campaigns so as to avoid the lovers of money with PACs and lobbyists. 

In the end, I really don’t get it about this. During my life, I have been subjected to those who tried to push me into a closet by means of bullying and insults.  Me and many others simply went along. We never did anything bad to such bullies and others forcing us to follow their means of being a macho, macho man in order to be happy.  We finally get a chance to come out of the closet, meet people in places other than just bars and baths, and suddenly we are confronted with hateful people who want to dictate to us what such people believe SHOULD make us happy. 

I know I have done NOTHING nor tried to push my judgments on heterosexual OR gay people for living promiscuous and/or non-monogamous lives. I have also never attempted to advocate for laws (by getting money lovers in corporate settings) against some really rotten heterosexuals who don’t know how to raise kids. Why do hateful bigots wish to harm and block gay people from adopting children?

I never sit in judgment of others at all. So, why do we have to face the prospect of being lynched, figuratively or literally, because we are gay folks in the pursuit of happiness in life?  Happiness does not always mean drugs, alcohol, and sex, too, because many of us have learned to have self-control.

I believe in living forever and believe in a Creator, Maker, Deist, etc. To those who don’t believe as I do, I have respect for them because they do not maintain a hateful attitude.  Perhaps such people reject religion entirely. I understand.  I do agree with them with the words, Bon Jovi says in a song, “I just want to live while I’m alive.”  In a way, I see the words Bon Jovi uses prior to “live while I’m alive” as perhaps tongue-in-cheek humorous way of explaining that puritanical folks just cannot accept that someone somewhere is having a good time in life.