If you are looking for an essay on "spring fever" or the "April Love" of Pat Boone's recording for the movie of the same name, you won't find it here. This is about Suzanne Moe's "&labor of love -- for my community, my neighbors, my state and my country."

While making a documentary called, A Love Story -- in the Face of Hate,  Suzanne Moe learned about civil rights in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Her love-powered mission of hope, her baptism-of-fire film project, may have come too late for its subjects but may not be a day too soon for the rest of us.

The subjects of Moe's 38-minute film are Barbara and Tibby, a gay couple. What makes them different from you and me is not so much their same-sex union but the fact they have been together for 39 years as a loving couple living in a commonwealth that always frowned upon their union, and now officially condemns it.

While heterosexual couples marry and divorce at a 50-50 rate, Barbara and Tibby have been together their entire adult lives -- in sickness and in health. Barbara's health is in jeopardy now from a brain aneurysm, but she can not claim Tibby's health insurance or any of the benefits a married person enjoys.

Too late for them, is Moe's film, because Virginia now has a law that impacts contractual rights in regards to deeds, wills, bank accounts, medical directives, health insurance claims, and more. In effect, on July 1, 2004, Barbara and Tibby were no longer welcome in Virginia. They sold their home, departed their clients, left a big gap in the community they contributed to, and moved to a more amiable state.

Not a day too soon for the rest of us, is Moe's film, because, according to Fredericksburg attorney Leila Kilgore, this law goes beyond the "gay marriage" issue. This law jeopardizes basic civil rights, and Moe is miffed by it. Hurt by the fear and stunned by the unawareness, she met with several state legislators and came away frustrated, yet hopeful they might one day return to protecting the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  She isn't asking for marriage rights, she's trying to save civil rights.

She spent months on A Love Story.  It is her first film, a media genre she had no prior ambition for.  She worked for no pay and at the loss of revenue from her graphic design business, which she set aside to do the film. She did so because two of her neighbors, Barbara and Tibby -- who struggled individually with their places in society since adolescence and lived a closeted life together in northern Virginia so that Tibby, a revered teacher, could keep her job --  are now senior citizens being shunned by their home state.  It appears to Suzanne Moe it could get worse -- for all of us.

A Patriot's History of the United States boasts of Virginia as the cradle of our inalienable rights since Jamestown 1607& So what has happened in the 400 years since?  The Good Book, for 2000-plus years, has told us, "the greatest of all is love."  Yet in Virginia, the Law Book of 2004 forward overrules all of that. Why? How does Barbara and Tibby's union diminish yours?  We need answers.

And you need to watch this film. Visit sumoe.com.  Buy it at The Athenaeum. It transcends politics and goes right to the heart of the matter -- the liberty to live in love& Don't take your liberty for granted. Two who lost theirs are now gone&

May you enjoy the wonders of love and spring, and this issue cover-to-cover.