Living Proof

As a "Christian lesbian", I don't understand why the LGBT community feels outraged that they cannot march under their own banner at the St. Patrick's Day Parade. With that being said, gays and lesbians are not banned from the parade, they are just unable to obtain a permit under their own separate contingent. This is a parade to celebrate the Irish culture, not sexual orientation. NRA Catholics aren't even able to have their own banner, neither are pro-lifers. They're "groups" too. If you're gay and lesbian, go out there and celebrate the parade. Why is it always a huge "agenda" -- a persistent urge to demonstrate sexual orientation? You want equal rights, then how would you feel if straight people had their own banner? We have gay pride day in NYC -- a huge event that takes up many streets for the entire day. But that's not enough. We have rights now. We can marry the person we love here in NY and a few other states. It's ge...

New York has been thrown some pretty wicked curve balls lately, having dealt with Hurricane Sandy and the recent blizzard that dropped more than 3 ft of snow on us. People in Staten Island are still picking up the pieces, some are homeless and others trying to rebuild and repair their houses. They are still in need of help. This morning when I turned on the news, I was outraged a bit annoyed over the fact that Mayor Bloomberg has his priorities up his wazoo again. First he was on a mission to ban big sized sodas, and now he wants to spend $250,000.00 on "raising awareness" about the dangers of listening to your earbuds at high levels, especially in public or on the subways. "People are annoyed."  People are annoyed with the idiotic attempts to ban things that aren't New York's biggest concerns. How about putting that $250k into helping the victims of Sandy or to help "raise awareness" about all the rapes, murders and drug dealers out on our stre...

Dear Mayor Bloomberg, I understand you're banning soft drinks in large quantities as well as trans fat in most chain restaurants. While I think it's a great attempt to improve our health, I also think you've missed a few other things that are bad for our health in large quantities. I would like to give you my suggestions if you're just going to limit it to soft drinks and trans fat, so hear me out. Make all bars limit each patron to two drinks maximum. Not only will you save lives by not having people drive home drunk, but you're saving women from the risk of breast cancer as "studies" show. Don't let any (one) person buy an entire pizza pie, unless they come in with a family of eight.  Make every New Yorker pay dues to a gym membership. If our health is so important, then enforce a gym membership rule.  Ban all white bread. 'Nuff said. Ban all "Americanized" Chinese takeout food. China is known for eating medicinal foods that ...

There's only so much I can really say about 9/11 that hasn't already been said. We've all remembered where we were at the time of the tragedy and how we felt as we heard about the second tower being struck. The annual memorial brings us all together to remember each and every person who lost their lives, but is it too much? I think about it and wonder how much of a heartache it would be for me if I had to go to my Dad's funeral every July 21rst. It's almost like the same thing. Yes, let us not forget, but also, not lose ourselves to grief once more and relive that terrible moment in time. I have mixed feelings. I watched the memorial on TV, and although I have come to terms over what had happened, I found myself crying as each name was called out, and especially the moment of silence for each plane that crashed. My question is: are the surviving loved ones ever going to have peace? Or are they going to continue grieving for something that had taken place eleven ye...

Since I’ve moved into this busy condo complex, it’s much different than living on top of a hill a mile up with practically no neighbors. Usually, on a Saturday morning, the only thing I hear are birds chirping away, squirrels collecting nuts and running onto my deck to store them in the rafters of my house and the sounds of crows telling me it’s going to rain soon. My friend used to tell me that I lived in a nature reserve. She’s never seen anything like it. She was a “city girl”… Now, so am I. Instead of hearing all of these beautiful birds and wild animals trek through my yard and seeing 10 or more deer parked on my lawn grazing for an hour or two, I hear the sounds of people. Picture it – there are valleys filled with condos on top of condos on top of other condos. There has to be close to 10,000 people here! (I’m not sure of that estimate, but there are mass crowds of various types of families, newlyweds, single parents and the elderly.) Now on a Saturday morning, I hear children ...