Desert Messenger

DESERT MESSENGER Quartzsite's FREE Community Paper Proud to be a Quartzsite Licensed Business 928-916-4235 Founded by Walt Akin October 1, 2004 P�������� �� P���� R��� P��������� C�. P.O. Box 3185 Quartzsite, AZ 85359 P�������� ����� � ����� 1st & 3rd Wednesday Sept. thru May with Special Summer Editions June, July & August EDITOR/PUBLISHER Shanana "Rain" Golden-Bear CONTRIBUTING JOURNALIST Joanne Winer GUEST COLUMNIST Louise Rouse GUEST COLUMNIST Jedidiah Free GUEST COLUMNIST The late Rosalee O Wheeler GUEST COLUMNIST Violet Kiss CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Starr BearCat NAME PLATE LETTERING Paul Winer www.DesertMessenger.com www.MyQuartzsite.com E-mail: Editor@DesertMessenger.com Copyright 2013 Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Desert Messenger. LIKE US on Facebook.com/ DesertMessengerNews FOLLOW US on Twitter @QuartzsiteRain Copyright 2014 6 www.DesertMessenger.com March 5, 2014 By Shanana "Rain" Golden-Bear OPINION With all the recent publicity on Governor Brewer vetoing Senate Bill 1062, the world is looking for Arizona to step up to the plate and deal with discrimination of the LBGT community. Arizona began getting negative feedback from around the nation, putting pressure on the governor to veto the bill. Thursday night, Tempe City Council recently joined Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff by adopting an anti-discrimination ordinance. The ordinance includes sexual orientation and gender iden- tity and also includes military status. Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell said, "It protects people as it relates to discrimination in housing, employment and bidding contracts with the City." It also includes areas of public accommodation. Arizona is open for business LETTERS TO EDITOR POLICY Desert Messenger encourages letters from its readers. Letters should be no longer than 300 words, and may be edited for grammar, content and length. OPINIONS EXPRESSED HEREIN DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THOSE OF THE DESERT MESSENGER. We invite you to not only see a problem, but search for the solution to share with the community, keeping the benefit of all in mind. Letters considered libelous, in poor taste, on a personal issue, mean spirited or dominated by Scripture quotes will not be published. Third party letters will not be accepted. To avoid confusion over people with common or similar names, writers must provide a full name and indicate the name they are known by. Writers must provide a full street address and phone number. Rvers can provide the location of park/BLM land, etc. Street addresses will not be published. Phone numbers are for verification only and will not be printed. Send letters to: Desert Messenger, P.O. Box 3185, Quartzsite, AZ 85359 or E-mail to: Editor@DesertMessenger.com 928-916-4235 208-290-5102 Honey Do Lists? Builder with 35 years experience in satisfied customers! High quality workmanship Small to Large Projects Call Rich! not a licensed contractor "So if you come into a restau- rant in Tempe and somebody says you're not welcome here, well, in fact, you are," Granville said. The nation's largest LGBT civil rights group, Lambda Legal, praised Tempe and said equality for all in America starts city by city. Quartzsite is such a unique com- munity with the population swell- ing to and estimated 500,000 to million folks fl ocking here from around the world. We have been seen as a very welcoming commu- nity to our snowbird friends and visitors. Quartzsite went through our own bit of negative publicity awhile back, which fed anger in some. Attempts at public humilia- tion and discrimination occurred. Just recently a posting on Facebook shows the anxiety of a woman choosing not go to a local hospital, for fear of her life-partner being barred from visitation. The support of her friends online is very encouraging, but why do we have to have this discussion at all? SB 1062 evidently began the discussion of the importance to ac- cept those we may not understand. And then on Sunday, Jared Leto won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a transgen- der AIDS patient in Dallas Buyers Club. The topic is out there and we, as a community need to open up the discussion locally. New research shows negative criticism and insults tend to stick in our brains longer than positive ones. Lack of understanding or fear of the unknown usually is the guiding force behind insults and anger directed toward folks who are different than us. Most ma- jor religions teach us to love our neighbors and to show compassion toward others. The Tale of Two Wolves One evening an old Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all. One is Evil. I t is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resent- ment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humil- ity, kindness, benevolence, empa- thy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: 'Which wolf wins?' The old Cherokee simply replied, 'The one you feed.' You could Be Anywhere, Doing Anything, and You are Here Doing This, Thank You" ~ Robert Greygrass (thank you from me too!) Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com /DesertMessengerNews Follow on Twitter @DesertMessenger @QuartzsiteRain

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