To Our Fellow American Muslims,
Hey there. It's two of your brothers. We're writing to you about the Supreme Court's decision to legalize gay marriage in all fifty states. The good news is that a whopping 42 percent of you support marriage equality, as do both of our Muslim elected officials in the United States Congress. One even serves as vice chair of the LGBT Equality Caucus! There are many faithful gay and lesbian Muslims in the U.S. and we love and support all of them.
At the same time, many of you are scandalized by the ruling (we know because you keep tweeting about it), and many more of you are equally perturbed but have chosen to keep it to yourself. With all the rainbow-flag waving and self-congratulatory pats on the back this country is giving itself right now, you don't...
Lifestyle
Dear Russ & Pat:
Please, don't discard this letter without reading it through. I write not to attack or disparage you or your beliefs. I would, however, issue you a challenge to really examine the actions you've taken in the name of those beliefs. Please, hear what I have to say. I think it is important you understand what has transpired and only wish to ask some admittedly difficult questions and beseech you to honestly consider them before dismissing me out of hand.
First of all, thank you for the birthday card and gift card; the sentiment was nice. I just wish it felt sincere -- if not for me, then for your son, Tim. Oh, I know you love him (indeed both of us) in the best way you know how. Just like I know a lifetime of learning doctrine to mean one thing is not easy to reconcile...
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To my students at Penn State Brandywine:
We meditated together, cried together, struggled together, learned together. Thank you for cultivating your curiosity as, class after class, we dove into The Pen and the Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy World. Thank you for your willingness to be vulnerable, to enter into the deep waters of your being for the sake of illuminating yourself and, in turn, our team. Thank you for wading through challenging but important conversations on race relations, restorative justice, modern-day slavery, and institutionalized inequality. Thank you for asking genuine questions about everything from commas and publications to climate change and the life of shipbreakers in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
And thank you for using your collective voice to go up against a...
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Dear Mr. Chief Justice,
In your dissenting opinion to the Obergefell v. Hodges case establishing marriage equality last week, you made sure to note that, "people of faith can take no comfort in the treatment they received from the majority today." With all due respect to your office and to your opinions regarding religious liberty, I am writing to make it plain that as a person of faith, and as an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church, you do not speak for me. I take great solace in the knowledge that I am not alone.
There is a certain arrogance that permeates the dissenting opinions as a whole and yours in particular. You write:
The court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the states and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis...
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To the esteemed Kanye West:
I wanted to sincerely thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the strength and character you showed at your concert in Sydney. You are a consummate performer who just needed to put those lazy, unappreciative fans in their place. You are an intelligent man so you obviously deserved to ask them for proof of their alleged disability. I mean who wouldn't call a security detail on the delinquent concert-goers to verify their disability status?
As you and your wife attest, this is just a catastrophe created by the media. They have pretty much outlined exactly what happened verbatim, and truthfully portrayed your pompous attitude in all its glory, but I know they somehow made this all up. Your unabashed offensiveness victimized two people, but clearly, you...
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Dear Charles,
Let me say first that you are among the basketball greats. I remember rooting for you in the ’93 Championship Series against the Bulls along with one of my hometown heroes Richard Dumas. You have achieved a level of success on the court that will be cemented in the basketball history books permanently. Eleven NBA All-Star Game appearances, twice All-Star MVP, once voted NBA MVP, one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. Dream Team, two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. You are basketball royalty.
Your book Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man? is sitting on my bookshelf right now. It’s a powerful book that takes on the issue of race and racism in a way that many would’ve shied away from.
“Racism,” you said, “is the biggest cancer...
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To Policeman Joselito Sevilla,
I was the foreign protester who was actively denouncing to you the violence used against the activists yesterday at the SONA Protest. I was one of the 41 injured activists in the protest. Many of the injured received head wounds and contusions, two of the injured were senior citizens. They were attacked simply because they exercised their constitutional right to assemble and protest.
I came to the Philippines as part of an International Solidarity Mission and as a delegate of the International Conference on Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines. I attended the SONA protest because I had been outraged by the human rights violations committed by the corrupt Aquino regime. I am tired of the extrajudicial killings, the illegal arrests, the forced...
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Dear Peter,
SURREY POLICE REVIEW – IMPACT ON ELMBRIDGE
Thank you for taking the time to meet with me to discuss the Surrey Police Review. I would like to take the opportunity of congratulating you, the Authority and the force on the tremendous job Surrey police do in challenging circumstances – not least given repeated cuts in central funding for Surrey police, and the arbitrary recent caps on the precept raised locally. Whilst Ian Taylor and his Surrey parliamentary colleagues fought hard to improve the financial settlement, I recognise that you were compelled to review the way the force operates given the existing budget. Equally, I was struck by Surrey’s strong performance – across the board – in the recent performance assessment conducted by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of...
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Dear Under the influence of influence,
I’m a fool. On my best and worst day that’s the largest compliment I can receive. If you go home thinking “What an idiot” i’ve done my job.
Being an idiot however, doesn’t make me a criminal.
My new show UnbelievabLISH is a show about truth...
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Dear Grammar Police,
I wanted to thank you publicly for noticing a grammatical error in my recent column with regard to my use of the pronoun “I.”
Apparently I had written, “the kids and I,” when I should have said “the kids and me.” This was a gross error of unparalleled magnitude and I apologize profusely for committing this miscarriage of syntax and offending your finely tuned grammatical sensibilities. I realize that as a writer, I should be well-schooled in the use of “I vs. Me,” but it’s (its?) often difficult to remember all the rules when I’m focused on much less important things like making sure my humor column is funny, which, actually, sometimes necessitates breaking beloved grammar rules (the shock, the horror).green-blackboard The truth is, there (their? they’re?) are so...
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