Really Mr. Obama? Rick WARREN? (An Open Letter)

Dear President-Elect Obama,

As a student at Chicago Theological Seminary in Hyde Park, I am deeply saddened by your choice of Rick Warren as part of the Inaugural ceremony. Have you abandoned all you learned in your years in a United Church of Christ congregation?

Warren is an anti-gay pastor who was instrumental in the passage of Proposition 8, and who equated your pro-choice positions with the Holocaust, and gave McCain a significant boost in their appearance at the "faith forum." He may be popular, but popularity does not make right. This seems to be a cheap and tasteless political stunt on the part of the transition team. I am willing to delay my personal political agenda for the purpose of "change," but I won't stand by quietly for any politician -- even Barack Obama-- that scores political points by harming my community.

Le Anne Clausen, Director
Center for Faith and Peacemaking
Co-Founder, GlobalServe Communities
(a 45-member interfaith residential community of volunteer service in Hyde Park and Woodlawn, which welcomes and loves all our LGBTQ members)

===========

Yes, I know. He's just playing the game in order to unite the country. But surely he could have done better on this one. Many thanks to my dear friend Richard Lindsay, who wrote in and encouraged others to write, and provided helpful language which I have adapted and used here.

Now, if you would like to write in to the Transition Team, please visit:

http://change.gov/page/content/contact/.

peace,

Le Anne

Global Wedding Wear Musings...

So, I've made some changes, not too last-minute, though others might think so. For the most part, this planning stuff has been a nice diversion to the rest of life this past semester, and not too stressful in itself.

A dear friend in Afghanistan (and her father a tailor, who is blind) made for me while I was there a beautiful white suit, called a 'Hindustandi' in the local language (Dari, a dialect of Persian). This is because it is based on the two-piece women's dress in 'Hindustan,' or India, but is much looserto suit Afghan cultural norms. The knee-length tunic had light pinstripes, and the loose trousers were solid white. I had a white shawl to match, and I was hoping to honor her gift by using it as my wedding dress.

Unfortunately, it needs more alterations than it can handle. I must confess, as many of you know, that I have an 'American' clothing size, and an 'International' clothing size which is one smaller. I loved my CPT work because I always lost so much weight. Now, for the suit, true to Afghan practicality, it can be altered for pregnancy; but there isn't quite enough seam allowance under the arms to allow for my American graduate student 'expansion'--which is a different kind of proportion change. I really need to get out of school, and probably out of the country, to work this particular twenty off :)

But I digress. Other plans needed to be made. Were we to have gotten married in summer, I also had a white 'hippie' dress from the souk in Jerusalem, and more shawls, and some pretty beaded sandals from Baghdad. These fit fine, but they would be odd enough in January in Iowa. That isn't a deal-breaker either, but my gut isn't going that direction. Jorge does have embroidered shirts from back home that he could wear that would match these as well, though, so....I'm still considering it. And Jorge does prefer to wear a suit, anyway. The cold must be getting to him too.

There is something in me absolutely allergic to the traditional' U.S. white fluffy wedding dresses. Perhaps it is their inability to be used again, at least by the same wearer. Perhaps it is the cost. Perhaps it is the evil undergarments, and that whole industry behind it. Still, my friends have all looked beautiful and I support their right to wear whatever they choose in their weddings. But I knew I wouldn't be wearing one for our ceremony. Jorge hasn't complained, and really has no one in my family, either.

Sarah and I went off to the stores last weekend (after the maniacal mobs had passed) and let ourselves open to creativity. The result? I may actually be wearing black and white, and pants. I found a fun shirt that has little black ribbons crisscrossing it and a sash around the middle; and I have swoopy earrings Kris and Hector brought me from Mexico, and I have the black pants and shoes to go with anyway already. Now that could be fun.

Gee. Look at all this. Since when did I care about clothes? Weddings make people nuts.