Supporting Local Farmers!

My partner and I, back in May, decided on a whim to purchase a community-supported agriculture share from Borski Farms. We weren't sure if roughly $175 was going to be money well-spent, but our green ambitions outweighed our penny-pinching ways, so we signed up (well, actually I made the plunge, yet she still gets the benefits!).

I think it may well be worth it! This week, we got three items: fresh garlic, English peas (I'm looking forward to some steamed with butter, and I might whip up a chicken salad!), and cherries.

Spotlight on the Cherries: OMG, these cherries are so absolutely delicious I can't stop eating them...and we all know what happens when there are cherries involved. But can I just say that everything, including the $175, is worth these cherries. They are perfectly red, a wonderful combination of perfectly balanced sweet and sour, and best of all, they are organic and were produced less than 30 miles from our home!
And so...it is my suggestion to you that when the next season comes around, you seriously consider a CSA share as well. There are about four listed on the Utah's Own website, plus links to other locally owned and operated businesses you should frequent. Trust me, folks, the cherries alone are worth it!

In the Basin

Two weekends ago, my partner and I took a trip out to Great Basin National Park...the country's least visited park on the nation's "Loneliest Highway."

It was spectacular. Not in terms of scenery or breathtaking vistas, though it has those too, but more in terms of solitude.

We camped in the Baker Creek campground, which had about 15 of the 40-some sites filled both nights we stayed. No one camped within earshot of our conversations.

We hiked up to the gnarled bristlecone pines and got a good glimpse of thousands of years of history. From there, we could see the basin stretched out in front of us, a barren landscape of brown and green, dotted with an occasional steadfast ranch.

We ate in the town of Baker, at a place owned and operated by some San Francisco natives that make fresh ravioli every day. The town is home to about 337 people, at least one of which is gay, as evidenced by the rainbow sticker in the window of his cafe and shop. Another gay-friendly shop-owner was located across the dusty Main Street, and she flew a rainbow flag in honor of equality, and her son.

It's a laid-back, lazy kind of place, with a wholesome feeling about it. My partner and I, for a few minutes, thought "hey, we could live here." She could work for the Park Service, I could work from home, or work at one of the cafe's or galleries, or work for the Park Service.

I imagined a life where I had to make my own music because the only radio stations that come in out there are Country and Gospel. I imagined lazy days on the front porch, writing or painting. I imagined close friendships with people who knew us and accepted us for what we are.

Then, I realized we already have these things. We have close friendships with good people, both gay and straight, who accept us and love us and would do anything to help us should we need it. I have the ability to write or paint or be lazy on my own front porch (which I own!). I can make my own music even if I can tune in to any kind of music I would ever want to listen to.

I realized how much I love the west. The fact that I can live in a metropolitan area with good food, good music, Farmer's Markets and Arts Festivals, with streets and streets of people that would love and accept us if only they knew us. And the fact that, should we tire of the city, we can escape only a few hours away to the Basin, or to the Arch or the Canyon, or to the geysers of Yellowstone.

We live in a spectacular place, surrounding by spectacular vista's and breathtaking views, and beautiful solitude.

An Acceptance?

A friend of mine and I talked the other day. She is LDS and I used to be, and she asked if I hold any grudges against the church.
I talk big. Yeah, there are a lot of things I don't like, and even if I weren't a lesbian, I probably wouldn't go back. But deep down, there are no grudges against the church or what it teaches. There is an abhorrence for the people, for the most part, and how they interpret those teachings. Even sometimes for the leadership and specifically their stance on gay marriage.
Then she said that her wish for my partner and I was that we would meet an open, loving, and accepting LDS couple that would befriend us and blast those walls of stereotype we have created for all people LDS.
LDS Couple, oh LDS Couple, wherefore art thou, LDS Couple?

Orrin's To-Do List

While less important things like lack of health care, educational funding, and of course the impending oil crisis, City Weekly has the scoop on Orrin Hatch's to-do list...very important things that must be taken care of NOW!

The Ostracizing Begins

Click here to read about the beginning of the fall out over gay marriage.

Mitt proves me right

I recently posted concerning Mitt Romney and his inability to separate his politics from his religious beliefs.

He proved that he may very well be in the pocket of church authorities when he recently wrote to Senators encouraging them to vote yes on the Federal Marriage Amendment right in time with letters from Church authorities.

But the church won't run the country if Mitt is elected? Maybe not officially, but its policies are intircately woven into his policies...so read up here and decide for yourself if you're willing to have Mormon dogma on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Political Ploys run Amok

It's election season. You can smell it in the air. And even if I didn't have a calendar to tell me we're only 4 months and 28 days from the 7th of November, I could tell you it's election season, and here's why:

Orrin Hatch has brought up the perennial flag-burning amendment. AGAIN. I think deep down in his heart, he knows it's an assault on free-speech and freedom as a whole, but it gets his conservative Utah base fired up, so he keeps pushing it...at the opportune times before elections.

Gay marriage is at the forefront. We haven't heard much about it since 2004, but it somehow got Bush his second term, so other Republicans are looking at it as a way to divert attention from failings in Iraq, Katrina, sub-par health care, the huge national debt, and deep-rooted corruption, so they bring it up again, trying to throw right-wing Christians into a frenzy, while fair-minded people everywhere roll their eyes as the real issues get pushed aside.

Politicians have already started kissing babies! Figuratively speaking. "We have to pass the Federal Marriage Amendment because it's about children!" "We have to repeal the estate (or cleverly worded "death") tax for children!" "We have to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for our children!" Funny that in the off-years, more school and child-geared programs get funding cuts. Or in Utah, more poor children don't have dental care in favor of a parking complex. But we should definitely give millionaire children a break! Particularly Bob Bennett's. That's right folks, it's all about children when using that frame of reference will get you elected. Otherwise, forget them! Let them make their own way!

Wedge issues, wedge issues, everywhere! In a word: Immigration. Everybody has a "hard-line" stance, but few have real solutions. As it has been with other favorite wedges: abortion, health care, Social Security, gay marriage. Politicians love to tell you they stand with you on your side of the issue, without really telling you what they're going to do about it. And usually, they end up doing the opposite of what they promised.

That's right, it's election season, and trying to see through the spin to what folks really stand for gets tiring...I suppose that's why people vote right down the Republican or Democratic ticket. It's hard to really see who a person is when they're running for office.

Amazing

That One Guy has posted an amazing argument that clearly and succintly exposes the anti-SSM argument as fallicy. Everyone should read it and pass it on.

Surprise, Surprise

Apparently Utah isn't doing so well when it comes to reproductive and gay rights. Big surprise?

But then, it depends on which side of the argument you're on. A ranking of 43 out of 50 is dismal to those of us who believe in the rights an individual should have to choose who they marry and when they have children.

But, Gayle Ruzicka is thrilled. Well, also a little disappointed that Utah wasn't rated dead last. That's LAST Gayle, not first.

It baffles me that people are fighting so hard to restrict the rights and freedoms each American should enjoy. It baffles me that they're fighting to restrict sex education so they can leave a legacy of ignorance, unwanted pregnancies and disease. It baffles me that they think a sixteen-year-old girl should get her father's permission to abort a child that may very well be his own.

But then, when has Utah not baffled me?