John F. Kennedy was a Catholic but he refused let his Catholic background influence his decisions. It was feared that the Pope would influence how he did things, but that was not the case. He did not pay blind allegiance to the Pope. He and not the Pope was US President and he ran it that way.

There are many liberal Catholics who don’t hesitate to question the Pope’s authority on a variety of issues including gay issues and some of them are less prejudiced than you. My best friend is a gay male Episcopalian who converted from Catholicism and he is one of the kindest guys I ever met. He is for the whole range of GLBT equality.

The thing is Sotomayor does not make laws, she rules on those laws made by elected officials. Including Sessions who has been pulled in front of a ethics committe about his numerious racist comments. Sessions is allowed to keep his position and made a number of laws in his 25 years in government. 25 years in which people elected him over and over after each racist remark. Not only him but a number of elect officials who have made not only racist but sexist remarks, which suprisingly came from white men. Interesting isn’t it.

Also may I remind those commentors that Clarence Thomas who sexually harassed women under him (Anita Hill), but so-call wise men determine that she and the other women were lying. And he was confirmed.

But some comments here think that someone saying a “Wise latino woman” is a racist remark. Considering the responses and the vemon being put forth by many supposely rights concious people. May I ask how many times have we said that were smarter than some of our officials? She said it not as a judge but as a private citizen to encourage people in her community to reach for positions and not to be afraid because they are latino or from a poor background.

As to her being evasitve about answering is understandable. If she answers them and a case shows up before SCOTUS the lawyers could accused her of being bias and having any ruling thrown out. Anyone ever thought about thiat? She makes her view known and poof the lawers have a perfect excuse… don’t they and we know that some lawyers will take any excuse to win a case.

“Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society,” she said. “Until 1972, no Supreme Court case ever upheld the claim of a woman in a gender discrimination case. I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum pointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown.”

“However, to understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give,” she continued. “For others, their experiences limit their ability to understand the experiences of others. Other simply do not care. Hence, one must accept the proposition that a difference there will be by the presence of women and people of color on the bench. Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see. My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage.”
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Sounds to me like she’s being honest in saying that her background plays a part in her decision making process which everyone does and apparently most are not honest about.

That’s only a problem in this instance is that she’s not a white male.

Who’s the racist?

I’m disheartened by the venom on this page. Why is it that La Raza is considered kin to the KKK? Would you say the same about the NAACP or Sons and Daughters of the Mayflower? As poster Morgan noted, Sotomayor identified herself as a wise Latina in the context of a speech meant to encourage Latino students, not in a legal opinion. It was also made in the context of a larger society in which white males hold a vastly disproportionate amount of power and privilege. She didn’t compare herself to an unwise white person, as one comment stated, nor was her intent to imply that more often than not, she would make a better decision than a white man, as another poster declared. Her comment was akin to a gay leader intimating to a gay audience that being gay had made him/her a better, wiser person than he/she otherwise might have been.

Shame on you, white gay men, for not having the grace to extend to women of color the freedom of pride you yourselves demand.

Be well.

I hope the couple is still alive today – I have seen there pictures, they make such as cute couple!!!!!!!

YES ON MARRIAGE FOR ALL*!!!!!!!

* ALL means straights, gays, blacks, whites, muslims, christians, rich, poor, etc.

One thing for certain, we didn’t need another Fu*kholer Catholic of ANY race!!!!