One of my most passionate pursuits is to do my part to protect every American's civil liberties and to constantly use my celebrity to remind people of the ideals upon which this great nation was founded: liberty and justice for ALL.
No group should be singled out by a mob mentality, and no one's rights should ever be compromised. There is no justification for that.
Separation of church and state is a key component to ensuring that America never becomes a "my-way-or-the-highway" society.
To me, being an American means that we can believe what we choose, even if we disagree with each other. It is our duty to defend each individual's right of self expression.
We stand on the precipice of great change as a new dawn rises. It won't be long before all people accept different sexual orientations as a natural aspect of the human experience.
I do, however, have a grave concern about the influence of 24-hour news and its insatiable appetite to hold the viewer glued to these networks through fear. They pit Americans against Americans with unsubstantiated conjecture from loudmouth pundits. As a result of this never-ending need to boost ratings and satisfy shareholders, the quality of journalism has greatly suffered. There seems to be less and less actual news and more and more opinion.
Out of fear, the unthinkable becomes acceptable. It's why there was a McCarthy era, Japanese internment camps, and a war in Iraq!
A story I like to tell is that after World War II, LIFE magazine ran a contest asking Americans what they would do if they had caught Hitler. A woman won with a single-line entry: "Put him in a black skin and set him free in America."
Here we were valiantly fighting intolerance overseas, but that statement reminded us that right here in our own homeland, racism was very much alive and well. It's hard sometimes to see the frame when you're in the picture.
As public education continues to deteriorate as well, we are producing generations of ignorant people who are so easily swayed by these self-serving groups. As a result, the very psyche of our nation suffers.
These are the ingredients that move a nation away from its ideals and into ruin.
If any consenting adults are forbidden to marry, that is un-American.
If any person is forbidden to serve our country because of his or her sexual orientation then we do ourselves a great disservice. I don't care if you ARE straight as long as you can shoot straight!
I judge a human being not on her race, religion or sexual orientation, but rather, what kind of a human being is she? Does he live by the golden rule? What kind of character does he display? What is she doing for the greater good? These are the only criteria by which we should judge our fellow Americans and no other.
Love, light and justice really are on our side in this fight.