Gays

After the Christmas presents were opened and we'd all gotten a cup of tea or coffee, I found myself sitting in my parents living room with my 85 year old father and my youngest son's wife.  I think she's 43.  Somehow the conversation got around to a newspaper my dad had read and the picture that was on the front cover.  I didn't see the picture, but I'd heard about it.  An aircraft carrier had returned to one of the ports here and as a female officer came off the ship, she ran into another female and they kissed on the lips.  My dad remarked that he was glad he saw that picture while reading the paper in the bathroom 'cuz it about made him throw up!  I thought I knew what his problem with that pic was, but acted like I didn't.  It didn't take long for him to let me know what bugged him about it!

Most of you can probably guess what a person 85 years old might say.  (Perhaps I should tilt the playing field a tad and tell you that my father always votes Republican and considers himself a christian.)  His whole argument focused on how it just wasn't natural.  He threw in how in the bible Adam and Eve were created, not Adam and Steve, gays can't have babies and numerous other reasons why gays should still be in the closet.  I asked him if blacks should still be in the closet?  In my eyes, gays are fighting some what the same battle that blacks fought not too very long ago.  I told him I didn't have a problem with gays and he asked me how I got so liberal?  I told him that gays were born that way, to which he remarked that they suffer from a form mental illness and what does society do with sick people?  We put them away and treat them.  I could tell that no matter what I told him, he wasn't changing his mind.  The bible tells him it should be a certain way and that's it.  I asked him if we should go back to stoning people like they did many years ago?  Anyway, most of my dads frustrations deal with where he see's the world headed.  Gays are just a part of what he see's as wrong doing.  He used to argue with my friends, many years ago, telling them that we had to stop the Communists "over there" or they'd be knocking on our doors.  What's funny is, he understands why the Mexicans are coming here.  He says he'd do the same thing if he were in their shoes!  You'd think he'd want to post the army on the border with sniper rifles!

I told him I had to agree with him, that he's probably seen some of the better times this country will possibly ever have.  What I couldn't convince him of is that we're evolving and along the journey, we're gonna run into potholes and closed roads.  I also see some things that make me go hmmmmm.  Political correctness, for one, has gone screwy.  Having paid attention for some 50 + years, I can say that there's more strife in the world today than ever before.  There's way too much hatred in the name of someone's God.  What I do know is this.......if you sit around and worry about 2 men or 2 women kissing, you're gonna miss the enjoyment you can find in life.  I'm not sure what my dad will find time to let bother him next, but there will be something.  I see US having an issue with Iran.  Cross your fingers we don't!  Hang in there dad, the journey isn't over!!