It's the first day of December

   Thanksgiving is now behind us and it's time to start decking my halls and doing my Christmas shopping.

          

     It's the first day of December and the first day of my almost month long vacation, I've got so many things to do.

     It's the first day of December and today is Rosa Parks Day.  <--- In 1955 she was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white bus rider, we all know the story.

     It's the first day of December and it's World Aids Day. <-- Aids has killed over 20 million people since the first cases were diagnosed in 1981. This years theme is "Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS.

     It's the first day of December and I'm sitting here thinking about civil rights in our country, a country that's foundation has been based on the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness since 1776.

     It's the first day of December and I'm sitting here wondering how it could have ever been a law, that because of the color of your skin you were not permitted to drink out of a public water fountain, use a public restroom or sit where you wanted to on a bus. 

     It's the first day of December and I'm sitting here thinking that for so long, people in this country have acted with violence, hostility, and semitism to other people in this country based on their religious beliefs. We're not talking Germany here folks, we're talking this country where our constitution clearly states that "all men are created equal."

   It's the first day of December and I really want to know how one group of people in this country can tell another group of people in this country that they do not have the same rights, benefits and protections of marriage, under the federal law as the rest of us. We're talking simple everyday rights to family medical leave, spousal social security benefits, rights to immigration petitions or employer based medical coverage for their spouse.

     It's the first day of December and I am thinking that as a middle class, white, heterosexual woman, some people might say these things are not really my problem. To that I would ask "then why am I sitting here with my thoughts as tangled as my mangrove photo above, feeling like they are?"

                                  *** Coy ***