Daily Dave! Morning Briefing

So I hate to do this because it’s one of those things that I try not to do. I learned a long time ago that it is supposed to be one of the worst things you can do and through experience I learned the hard way that it really is bad, especially in a relationship. But here goes….

I told you so.

Back in June I wrote an Insider newsletter in which I postulated that newly “discovered” right to gay marriage would be used as a bludgeon and that eventually the so-called “gay rights” would trump your religious rights. In fact, I wrote these words:

Many of us have argued from the beginning that Gay Marriage would be a slippery slope leading inexorably to polygamy, bigamy, pedophiliac marriage and any other type of "marriage" that can be legally justified. I realized early on that the slope is seriously slippery, but it quickly went in a direction that I had intellectually understood, but was not really willing to believe. As it turns out, the whole issue of Gay Marriage is in fact, an assault on the Fist Amendment of the US Constitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

All of that, established back in 1791, and yet now today, the very existence of Gay Marriage appears to overturn all of the very first freedom guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and enshrined in national belief from the day that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. How, you may ask?

We are already seeing cases before the California Supreme Court where a Physician who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian couple as against his beliefs has been sued. Despite the fact that he made efforts to obtain for the couple another doctor who would perform the procedure (and based on the outcome it appears that he did so) and the offer he made of post-natal care, he is still be skewered on the basis of his religious beliefs.

In a country where those who hold pacifist beliefs based on religion are for the most part excused from service in combat roles of the US Military, and in more recent years even from the military at all, we now see that ordinary everyday professionals in various lines of work are being told that their right to freedom of religion and the free expression thereof is being trumped by the "right" to gay marriage.

I received numerous eMails explaining to me that I was everything from overreacting to outright wrong, and in the spirit of not wanting to get into flame eMail wars, I bit my keyboard and just let it ride.

Ha! Didn’t take as long as I thought it would, but now we learn from our esteemed Supreme Court that you CAN be forced to violate your particular religious views in order to maintain or I suppose fulfill “gay rights.”

So like I said would happen, yesterday the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Christian Doctors who refused to artificially inseminate lesbian couples violated the States Anti-Discriminatory laws.

That’s right, their religious beliefs and convictions are now discriminatory. You can read that as: their religious beliefs are now illegal.

So Prop 8 is coming up on the November ballot, and those of us with religious convictions and beliefs are wondering if our vote will mean anything at all.

I hate to say it, but I told you so….

Daily Dave! Morning Briefing

It’s a pretty well known Dave! Diamond factoid that I am not a big basketball fan and especially NOT an NBA fan. The game lost its “team” aspect a long time ago, and even NBA Commissioner David Stern has taken to describing the game as being like jazz music – pure improvisation as opposed to actual teamwork. You’ve heard me say it before, but I have long though that Michael Jordan ruined the NBA. Nor am I a huge Summer Olympics fan, I prefer the winter games, but the games always have their exciting moments.

One of the moments of the film Miracle, the story of the 1980 US Olympic Ice Hockey team is the point at which Coach Herb Brooks tells his team of prima donna college athletes, but not quite good enough international level players that they had better realize that the name on the front of their sweaters is more important than the name on the back. You can sense that point when each of the players begins to realize that what they are playing for is more than the self. There are no contracts here, no endorsement deals, no superstars. This is about playing for the team and the country. We all know how that story ended and I am amazed that even now, nearly thirty years later, the guys on that team still choke up and still recall with pride at how they represented their country.

So while we watched over the weekend two of the three Presidential Candidates go to church we were left to wonder what happened to that spirit of understanding that country is more than self. It was clear to me, watching and listening to answers that one candidate understands that the country is more important than the self. Granted, he is not my “perfect” candidate. All things being equal I would not choose him, but let’s face facts, all things aren’t equal. Sometimes, you find yourself on the ice as a college player facing professional players from another land who don’t have to worry about grades or making enough money at side jobs to stay in school. They play and practice every day and are all part of the Army, assigned to do nothing but play hockey and be very, very good at it.

Nobody would have faulted or criticized the 1980 team if they had lost to the Soviets. I imagine that afternoon, in the pre-game locker room, with butterflies and jitter, as they pulled on those sweaters they ran their fingers over the letters on the front – USA. Dressed and ready, they heard Herb Brook – a man who hated communism with a passion that so few of us can imagine – told them that their time had come, this was their day.

It was not easy, in so many was that game was a microcosm of the conflict history of our nation. Behind and facing defeat, but resilient and never say die. That game represented America and Americans in their best moments. That we never quit, that we always give 100% and that in the end, we are the best.

Watching Senator Obama at Saddleback and over the past few weeks, it’s clear that to him, the name on the back of the sweater is more important than the name on the front.

And it was refreshing as the bad taste of seeing that washed about our mouths, to hear from the Olympics again. Yes, Michael Phelps is great, yes the scullers are fantastic and the women’s soccer team is awesome. But for me, it was the moment when Kobe Bryant, an NBA MVP and NBA Champion, an athlete with really, nothing to prove and virtually nothing to gain, said that he got goosebumps when he was given his Team USA Olympic Uniform. He went on to say “went on to call the U.S. "the greatest country in the world. It has given us so many great opportunities, and it's just a sense of pride that you have; that you say, 'You know what? Our country is the best.'"

The name on the front of the jersey – USA is more important than the name on the back. How revitalizing that there are still those who get that.