A MUST READ!!!

I'm not sure how many people actually read my blog. I don't care. I generally blog only for myself and the 4 people I know who read.
Most people who know me, know that I am a fairly open-minded person. I believe to each his own. I believe that everyone is entitled to equal rights under the law and under God whether they be white, black, blue or gay. People are people and as such they need to be loved and nurtured. I know that many of my friends are pretty religious and believe that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. That loving someone of the same gender and wanting to spend your life with that person is wrong. I say that the heart wants what the heart wants. That's as simple as life can be. Today I read about another shooting in Alabama. A man killed his estranged wife and their daughter, his sister-in-law and her son. And then himself. It's the 10th (?) mass shooting in the USA in 2009, the 4th in Alabama. A mother shot her 20-yr old son in the back of the head Sunday while they were having target practice together at a shooting range before turning the gun on herself - to save them both, she wrote. That is not love. If everyone could be happy in a loving, healthy relationship... you can't tell me that the world wouldn't be better off. We used to live in a world where people could live without locking their doors, where children could play outside while Mom made dinner. Why can't my son have that? Why am I so paranoid that I lock the doors on my car when Weston is inside and I am returning my cart to the corral 4 feet away? Why do I lock the car while driving? Why do I panic a little inside when someone knocks on my door or cars drive down my street? (I remember being a kid in the former world. I was less jaded than children today. The thought of someone having children before graduating high school never even crossed my mind. Today's world would have seemed like a piece of fiction to me... and I was reading Anne Rice and VC Andrews by age 10!) Why can't people respect and love each other as human beings first? Why does it matter what color you are? What gender? What religion? Why does it matter who you love, just so long as you can love?
Following along these lines... in a similar, more expressive train of thought... my boss' daughter, Kelli Best-Oliver has written a fabulous blog (as she usually does.) please read if you found mine even slightly interesting. She has relocated to St. Louis, MO, but she is still a Modern Iowa Girl at heart.
http://southcityconfidential.com/2009/04/08/why-im-proud-to-be-from-iowa/#more-972

I read a forward recently that kind of stuck with me... I wish you enough. Enough material goods to get by. Enough love given to be able to love someone else enough in return. Enough self confidence to be the person you were meant to be. And finally, enough self respect to respect and appreciate the life you have and the world around you.