Laramie, A Labor of Love: We went to see the play "Laramie Project" at Framingham High School Saturday evening. It was a SPLENDID play about, of course, the torturous death of the young gay man, Matthew Shepard, in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998 at the hands of two homophobic brutal malcontents. The performance was POWERFUL. It was sold out and we understood why. We absolutely loved it. The actors and the community that showed its incredible support were nothing short of wonderful. It made me proud to be from my town as we drove past the candlelit crowd standing up to the forces of hate exemplified by Fred Phelps and his merry family from the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas holding their "God hates fags", "God hates Jews" and God hates everyone except us signs. Somehow he thinks he is the only one God loves.

It is astounding that these wretched human beings have the unmitigated gall to actually hold those rancid signs up in front of families mourning the death of our soldiers and their loved ones. How dare they commit such an atrocity? Yes, it is Phelp's free speech rights that our country is loath to curtail. It is the very foundation that makes this nation what it is. That those signs were not ripped apart and Phelps & Co. led off in hand cuffs for incendiary speech is tribute to our system, indeed. We do not do things that way in this country. We simply let these mentally sick misfits hang themselves with their own words.

A THOUSAND kudos to the actors, the director, Ms. Wresinski, and the town. Ms. Wresinski's sentiments that "life isn't about the breaths one takes, but the moments that take one's breath away" echoes our own. We did not join the hundreds that came out in candlelight support and love before the performance. Our hearts were with them though if not in body most certainly in spirit. My mind evokes the lines of one of my favorite poets, John Donne, in his "Meditations": "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee..."

Science, Truth and God: Interesting article from "Politics Daily" linked below entitled "Does a New Life form Mean God is Dead?" Its subject is about the recent discovery of a new form of bacteria which has arsenic as part of the DNA genome rather than heretofore thought all necessary ingredient for DNA life element phosphorus. Life now, it has been verified, can exist without the phosphorus molecule. To the layman this, perhaps, is not a big deal. It is though. It is a VERY big deal in the scientific realm. Some are using this as proof that a god is not the creator. I, however, see it differently. I believe it does not matter (pardon the pun) and said so on the "Politics Daily" blog. I also include the article from the NYT "Microbe Finds Arsenic Tasty; Redefines Life" to explain what the new discovery is about and why it is important. I wrote the following:

It does not, in my opinion, matter what science discovers in terms of its work to analyze the origins of man and his universe. The existence of a god as a creator will, I propose, NEVER be found. Whether life can use the molecule arsenic or the molecule of phosphorus in stabilizing its DNA matters not. Until evidence is found in substance and form of an actual being or thing that one can observe, others can duplicate AND pray to in order to get results then nothing changes the war between truth of science and fantasy of mythical beliefs which make people FEEL oh so good and oh so protected but are, in truth, the fiction of a human's very creative mind.

In reality the ONLY protection are those things which man and science have discovered to ensure man's survival. Other than that one can pray from morning to night and in between to some morphed or amorphous being it will not matter one whit because whether one is lucky enough to have escaped a tornado is so because the laws of physics have determined it to BE so. His poor good friend with a sweet faith-driven wife and six kids across the street who were torn limb from limb and killed by the same tornado has nothing to do with a sky god protecting one and not the other but has EVERYTHING to do with the science of physics to explain why that doomed family could not escape the tornado's wrath!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/science/03arsenic.html?_r=1&ref=science
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/12/04/does-a-new-life-form-mean-god-is-dead/?ncid=webmail