Merry Religious Tyranny

http://g.msn.com/0MN2ET7/2%3Fhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/
10355980/from/ET/
Bushes' 'holiday' cards ring hollow for some
This month President Bush sent out cards with a generic end-of-the-year message, wishing 1.4 million of his close friends and supporters a happy "holiday season." But some conservative Christians are reacting as if Bush stuck coal in their stockings.
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Didn't we flee England and steal this country from the Indians to escape just this type of religious tyranny? How many of the alleged 96% of Americans in this county who "celebrate" Christmas do so in a religiously significant way? Where in the Bible are the Christmas tree and Santa Claus mentioned?

The Embrace - A Poem For World AIDS Day - worldaidsday.org

The Embrace
by Mark Doty
from poetry.org


You weren't well or really ill yet either;
just a little tired, your handsomeness
tinged by grief or anticipation, which brought
to your face a thoughtful, deepening grace.


I didn't for a moment doubt you were dead.
I knew that to be true still, even in the dream.
You'd been out--at work maybe?--
having a good day, almost energetic.

We seemed to be moving from some old house
where we'd lived, boxes everywhere, things
in disarray: that was the story of my dream,
but even asleep I was shocked out of the narrative

by your face, the physical fact of your face:
inches from mine, smooth-shaven, loving, alert.
Why so difficult, remembering the actual look
of you? Without a photograph, without strain?

So when I saw your unguarded, reliable face,
your unmistakable gaze opening all the warmth
and clarity of you--warm brown tea--we held
each other for the time the dream allowed.

Bless you. You came back, so I could see you
once more, plainly, so I could rest against you
without thinking this happiness lessened anything,
without thinking you were alive again.

From Sweet Machine, published by HarperCollins. Copyright © 1998 by Mark Doty. All rights reserved. Used with permission.