IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS CAN YOU GET A TEAM OF 6 TOGETHER AND

NOTES: For a cleaner copy of the poster please right click and open in a new tab.

LINKS: Save Maumee: Web | MySpace | A Greener Indiana |

THANKS: Fair Play Beach Volleyball: Web | MySpace | Blog | Yahoo! |

BANDS: The Holiday | The Freezing Scene | Rosemary Gates @ 9 - 11 p.m. |

VENUE: River City Bar & Grill and Sports Complex

F6 RESOURCES:
Going Green? | Support 3 Rivers Athletics & Links |
Things To Do In Fort Wayne | Fort Wayne Links |

200th post! Let's Do The Topher Time Again!!

.... An Introduction?

Just as I promised in the post on the fifth of this month, (8th ip/4th pic) in preparation of this event - our 200th post, Christopher Bennett, a local author, former journalist, budding musician, artist, and social and political cartoonist has agreed to bring back his illustrated views on the world today. I asked him to write a small biography.

I could have very easily reminisced about some of the crazy things I have experienced along with him, Mark Stevens, his partner of nine years, and Mark's good friend from college, Dave, whom has shared residency with the couple and their two ornery cats for years. Mark also writes @ Welcome To My World occasionally, and has previously been spotlighted on F6 last Christmas/Yule.

Christopher obliged my request with the following:

Christopher "Topher" Bennett is a thirty-something self-taught talented artist that feels no need to impress self-important gobs who can't sell their own art and therefore have to become low-quality school teachers and/or frustrated art critics..."Topher" is a rebel, a free-spirit, a free-thinker, an individualist, an anarchist, liberal, pagan, bisexual... "Topher" is in touch with his inner-child and is not afraid to dress-up and play every once in a while... "Topher" grew up in an abusive dysfunctional family he was adopted into and once lived in small-minded small town USA (Gas City, IN - It really exists!)...."Topher's" life experiences have led him down the path he currently walks and have made him the person he is today.

AND NOW, WITHOUT FURTHER ACCOLADE,
F6, LET'S DO THE TOPHER TIME, AGAIN!!

"Mary and Mohammed are screaming through the clouds,
for you to lay your goddamned arms down, rip your bigot roots up from the Earth,
and salt the goddamned ground."
~ Jay Brannan, Goddamned
(c) 2007 Great Depression Publishing

Now for some other stuff going on in the Community

Sorry this post is running behind ... I was called out on a pastoral every time I tried to write it.

For those whom don't wish to attend Fort Wayne PRIDE Festival this Friday 7p-12m $3 and Saturday 12n-12m $5 at Head Waters Park there are tons and I do mean TONS of other things going on this weekend around our three rivers.

Tuesday marked the beginning of the Allen County Fair at the Carroll Road Complex (about 2 miles north of DuPont and Lima Road/State Road 3 and then left or west 2 miles on Carroll). The fair grounds are on the north or right hand side of the road. Sunday is a Fair free day and the rides are all a dollar, for those with big families; otherwise, admission is $5 dollars per person per day and certain events do cost extra but there is still plenty of fun and inquisitive things for people of all ages to learn and explore during the Fair.

If you can leave the kids with a babysitter this Saturday, the DownTown Improvement District along with Comcast is hosting Island Fest, from 4p-12m, admission is $5, on the Columbia Street Landing, between Harrison and Calhoun Streets, one block south of Superior Boulevard, with free parking in the City County Building Parking Garage. Come down with your friends for live music, sand volleyball, and island-inspired food and drinks from Columbia Street West, Club Soda and Hartley’s. If you miss this event the DID will be hosting a Mardi Gras celebration event the 9th of August from 6p-12m also with a $5 admission.

Also this Saturday, There is an Open House and Art Show from 7-9p at Home Grown Bead and Candle Shoppe @ 125 West Wayne which will feature original abstract and raw work by Abbie Griswold.

Shakespeare From The Heart, a local volunteer theatre troupe, does The Bard the way he intended: out in the Park and off the cuff. You should come check out this years performance selection, Taming of the Shrew. SFTH show times are this Friday 25th and Saturday 26th of July, and next Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd of August, 7p @ IPFW outside of Walb Student Union. For those of you in Kendalville, we'll have a performance on Sunday, 27th of July, 2p in Floral Hall. Please come and support your local talent, local charities, and all the hard work these people have put in to this year's play! Donations are gratefully accepted and go directly to benefit other local charities.

F6 CALENDAR: Highlighting Other and Ongoing Events:

THURSDAY

Late Nights @ The Fort Wayne Museum of Art
Thursdays from 5p-9p. Admission Is Free

FRIDAY

Free Music Fest, Every Friday 7-10p @ The Bean
1008 N. Wells, north over the Superior Street Bridge across from the Public Safety Officers Memorial and next to Cloud 9. Come on by for some organic fair trade food and coffee or a just to celebrate our Community's musicians. And yes, The Bean is located @ the former Hide~n~Seek's Gay Leather and Levi Bar and they have changed it into a beautiful baby blue and white cafe and gathering place. I want to applaud them for keeping some of the old bar archietecture and design, it is a phenomenal tribute to the continued "Community Building" that this location will hopefully always provide.

Critical Mass Bike Ride 6:30p @ Lawton Park, meet by the gazebo.
(north of 4th Street @ Clinton across from the Skate Park)
The News Sentinel did a cover story on CMFW last month.
Event happens the last Friday of the month, no matter what the weather

F6 LINKS PAGE: To find out more about Local Cycling and our Bike Trails System visit our Links Page


SATURDAY

BARR STREET MARKET

• presented by YLNI and The History Center and WMEE 97.3FM
  
• northeast corner of Wayne and Barr Streets (Old City Hall Complex)
  
• Saturdays from 12th June to end of September from 9a-1p

ARCH's South Side Farmers Market

• @ 3300 Warsaw Street
• Saturdays from 3rd May to 22nd November from 7a-1p

F6 LINKS PAGE:
There are 2 Community Festivals over next weekend:

Harlan Days

• @ Harlan Community Park
  
• 31st July-2nd August 5-10:30 Th&F; 6:15a-11p Sat;
• Admission varies for certain events only
  
• 6 minutes north of exit 25 of I-469 @ SR 37
  
• (aka Crescent/Stellhorn) hang a left between Spencerville Road and School Street to get to the park.

Huntertown's Heritage Days Festival
(right click into new tab
1st link, for town website;
2nd link, for festival schedule)

• 1st-2nd August 5-10p F; 7a-10p St
• Most events are free especially in the main tent;
• Continuous running events include a Verizon Fios Van, Food Court, Historical Display in School till 8:00 Sat. Silent Auction till 6:00 Sat. in school, Moonwalk
  
• There may be a small charge for some games/events/food, hosted by other groups;
  

Honoured To Serve Our Country; Forced To Not Live Freely

The most recent update, (Source: Washington Blade) has most people clamoring the isles of the United States Capitol with anticipation as it was announced, that, on the 23rd of this month the House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee will begin to hear testimony by Military members and other on the effects of the 1993 "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (DADT) Policy. According to other news reports this will be the first time in over fifteen years that the actual policy undergoes an evaluation process. Some of the more notable witnesses invited to testify are: former Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, who is gay and the first Service member wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and former Air Force Captain Cholene Espinoza, a lesbian. In the same week that the Congressional policy review and oversight was announced four retired Generals issued their findings on this historically discriminative policy with some outstanding results.

Ex-US generals want gays to serve openly
By Karin Zeitvogel

Four former US generals have joined a growing call to end a policy barring homosexuals from openly serving in the military, after a study showed it was out of step with the times and harming the armed forces. The retired officers from the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps found in a year-long study that the 15-year-old policy, which allows gays to serve in the military only if they do not reveal their homosexuality, "is not working."

"The military is losing critical talent and it's requiring some members to serve with a unique disadvantage in that they can't be honest with their peers," Nathaniel Frank, a senior research fellow at the Michael D. Palm research center in California, which commissioned the study, told AFP on Tuesday. The Pentagon policy -- called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -- is mandated by a congressional statute passed under president Bill Clinton in 1993 and replaced a blanket ban on homosexuals serving in the military. The "Don't Ask" part of the policy means military recruits can no longer be questioned about their sexual orientation; "Don't Tell" means that, as long as they don't reveal their homosexuality, through words or actions, they may continue to serve.

[... edited 5 ip ....]

Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith insisted that sexual conduct, not sexual orientation, was the criterion on which gay service members could be excluded from the military. "The law establishes the basis for separation from the armed forces as conduct, not orientation. Our policy reflects the law, ie no military member is discharged due to his or her sexual orientation," Smith said in a statement emailed to AFP... the Pentagon will "follow congressional direction on homosexual conduct."

The study indicated otherwise.

"According to a report prepared by the Government Accountability Office, nearly 800 people with skills deemed 'mission-critical' by the Pentagon have been dismissed" under the policy, it said. The study also found that around 1,000 men and women were discharged from the military each year as a direct result of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", and that "3,000 would likely have stayed in the military if they could have served openly."

(source: AFP 9th July, 2008) via Yahoo! News

Another random poll (unfortunately with a really small sample of constituents) by the Washington Times and American Broadcasting Company News Service reported on two days ago finds that 75% of Americans feel that said gay people who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the United States Armed Forces. The survey also revealed some other interesting numbers.

• Support from Republicans has doubled over the past 15 years, from 32 to 64 percent.
• 8 in 10 Democrats and more than 3/4 of independents now support the idea
• 57% of white evangelical Protestants now support allowing openly gay service members in the military
• 82% of white Catholics support so as well.
  
• 80 percent of those with no declared religious affiliation too.
• 8 in 10 women support allowing openly gay soldiers, and nearly two-thirds of men do too

When Army Sergeant Darren/Daniel Manzella, a medical liaison for his division, was is in Kuwait on his second deployment of the Iraq war. He spoke to 60 Minutes without permission told his story about how he came out in order to stop harassing messages and was subsequently told your not gay enough was finally discharged recently by the Pentagon under uncertain reasons 6 months after the original story aired.



Lastly after two recent Federal Appeals Court Decisions one in the Ninth District, which was reported previously on F6, and another more recent decision out of the First District in Boston, Massachusetts, which put a curb on the previous Courts ruling and finding of facts. Their decision in Cook v. Gates stated that, while they "agreed with the idea that the military should do more than prove homosexuality to warrant dismissal" must still consider that "in the end, that ensuring national security outweighs arguments from 12 former military members who say their rights were ignored when they were dismissed for being gay.", said Jim Lobsenz, an Attorney in the previous 9th District case for Margaret Witt v. Department of the Air Force. Both of these cases have the Military Chiefs and Administration officials scrambling for cover and attempting to keep a lid on everything. These two cases alone are enough to push DADT to a Constitutional Judicial and Congressional Review next year. In a heartfelt showdown of ideals versus practical realities, just three weeks ago Stars And Stripes issued a d facto warning to all Service members to "stay in the closet, or else!"

F6 RESOURCES:

+ Soldier Who Came Out on "60 Minutes" Booted by Andy Humm
Gay City News 03 July 2008
+ 60 Minutes: Is Military More Tolerant Of Gay Members In Wartime?
Hosted by Leslie Stahl
Produced by Karen M. Sughrue
16th December 2007
+ Zachary Denver has awesome commentary using the infamous You Tube Republican debates earlier this year along with the 60 Minutes story footage it is hilarious towards the last minute and a half and as a whole is worth the viewing.
+ Johann has a You Tube Channel and a MySpace Group
+ Andrew Sullivan offers review of the Sergeant Manzella story and some commentary in this December post @ The Daily Dish

F6 LINKS: Articles on Gays In The Military | Links re Gays In The Military |

Wednesdays post is late and I completely forgot about last Saturday's second post

Hey everyone,

Thank you to everyone for all the recent comments!!!

After cleaning up the archive, we are approximately three post away from our two hundredth post on F6.

Due the effects on my health by the current ozone issues locally my ability to write at length is limited due to the excessive humidity and heat. Please bear with me.

The last two posts: one from last Saturday as General Community supplement and a Bike Trails originally slated for Wednesday are running way behind. You can click on the picture to go to the development or back story post for the local bike trails. Saturday's post will be an update on Gays In The Military as promised.

Sorry about all of that.

Blessings Along The Journey!
MRev. Kenneth White, Jnr., Editor,

It's Three Rivers Festival Time...

Pardon me while I breakout into song with that old jingle "Come On Ever body" and "It's Three Rivers Festival Time" just for nostalgia sake. Of course some of these adamant evenings of clandestine debauchery began last night with the Midway @ The Memorial Coliseum and Verizon Karaoke Contest, but the 40th Annual Three Rivers Festival does not truly commence for the next two weeks until this morning @ 10 a.m., on West Wayne @ Rockhill when the National City TRF Parade begins in the historic West Centeral Neighborhood (map courtesy of Left In Aboite) and ends just south of Head Waters Park East on Superior at Clinton.

This year, fellow local blogger Mark Carboni @ Creative Mind Of Carbo, will be on the Grand Marshall float along with others whom have shown strong support for the Festival over many years previous.

There are so many other events going on that deal with arts, theatre, culture, history, sports and athletics, of course education, and fun for the whole family. Take some time this weekend and checkout, take part in, get involved with, these organizations which are providing opportunities for us to grow together as a community. The TRF Festival Guide can be found on their website with the events broken up by each day.

I do want to issue a challenge though to THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF ALLEN COUNTY.

The TRF is a non partisan event and does not allow politics to be brandished during TRF events. While the sidewalks may be fair game, I am still crying foul for certain candidates going ahead of the National City Parade on the same route and harassing the citizens and visitors with campaign materials. This is a clear violation of spirit behind the TRF Rules and Practices and the nature of The Festival itself. They came to see a parade not a politician. If the candidates do go through with this, I hope that Shannon White will consider pressing criminal trespass and civil rights violations against each of the candidates participating.

For other events read F6 articles on TTD In Ft Wayne
or visit F6's Links Page under Fort Wayne Indiana
This post will be updated a little bit more with an addendum post after I get some sleep.