stuff and things
November 7, 2008 11:16 pm Poetry, Thoughts, World- Beginning in January 2009, I’ll be serving on the advisory board for the Pittsboro St. branch of the North Carolina State Employees Credit Union. I love the NC SECU! If you’re a member– at any branch!– of SECU, feel free to tell me how it’s going. Advisory board members love to hear what’s going well and what you’d like to see from the SECU. Ideas for services you’d like to see are particularly welcome! (No, “free money” or “money for hugs” are not suggestions I will take to the branch manager.)
- I have finished the first seven days of a 30-in-30 grind. 30 poems in thirty days. After seven days, I have five sonnets. I did not set out to write sonnets, people, it’s just happening. But I am finding them tremendously liberating.
- This is my first post since election day, and I suppose that just about everything that could possibly be said about this election has been said. I have nothing new to offer. I feel a great sense of hope about the direction that this country could take under Barack Obama. I really believe he’s going to be an incredible President, because more than any politician I can remember in quite some time, I believe he’s an incredible human being. (And I am delighted with the direction of the Democratic Party under another guy I think is pretty great, Howard Dean.)
But for all the hope I feel, as proud as I am of the American electorate, I am just disgusted with referenda passed in states like Florida and California that deny human beings basic rights, that relegates some people to second-class citizenship.
Gay rights are civil rights.
According to tax laws, if a tax-exempt group — religious or secular — promotes ideas which contradict important public policies (like desegregation), then the group’s tax-exempt status may not be granted or extended. Tax exemptions are provided in exchange for groups’ providing services to the community; when the groups undermine important goals of the community, then the tax exemptions are no longer justified.
I have heard some calls for petitions to strip the Mormon Church of its tax-exempt status for its role in the passage of California’s Proposition 8. I support this action, and I support the removal of tax-exempt status for any non-profit institution which engages in partisan political activity. I hope you will too.
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November 8th, 2008 at 10:40 am
The SECU will always have a special place in my heart – they’re giving me money each year to go to school. Congrats on getting involved with such an oustanding organization Ross.
November 11th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Are part-time employees of the state able to use SECU? If so, many students should be notified of its advantages. Also, financial planning for college students would be so helpful.
November 11th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
The day after Election Day was not that fun for a lot of Californians because of Prop 8 passing.
Boo, Prop 8. Yay, Obama.