{rheality.check}

I’ve been thinking about the passing of Proposition 8 a lot lately and what bothers me most about it is that it is fundamentally unacceptable. I believe I have finally understood why it bothers me so much and it is much the same with the issue of abortion. And I say this because it has nothing to do with whether anyone believes that being gay is acceptable nor what your personal opinion of abortion is. The similarity between these two issues is that these are basic human rights that we are not being afforded.

Let me be clear, I am not saying, “Yay, let’s all go get abortions”. I mean really, who says that? or even thinks that? Personally, I don’t know if I could have one if I were ever to get pregnant but let’s leave hypotheticals out of this. So what do I believe? I believe that women should have a right to choose. Yes, yes I do. I believe we should give women enough credit that they should be able to make this choice for whatever reason may be behind this. It is scientific fact that having an abortion is not easy, women experience a whole host of side-effects. In reality the whole thing sucks a lot, even having to make that decision sucks a lot. Can you imagine being a teenager and trying to deal with the consequences of having a child? Can you imagine being a woman who has been trying to get pregnant for years but is told that it’s your life or the child’s life? Can you imagine being a woman who has been raped and not only that but now has to go through a series of tests to find out if she is ok, if she has stds and if she is pregnant and if so wants an abortion? Those are not easy decisions to make. This is not something that they should be persecuted for.

This whole Christian right campaign about being pro-life is actually completely unfounded and ridiculous because if you were actually pro-life then should we be abolishing the death penalty. Not to mention thinking about health care for those babies that you so generously saved. And what about health care for their parents so that they can still have parents to take care of them while they’re growing up. Or even social security for the elderly so that they may not starve to death because they were too poor and too old and too weak to fend for themselves. And how about those food stamps and welfare for those families that are too poor to take care of those children that you so wonderfully saved from the jaws of death. What about making sure that there is appropriate housing for all these people whose lives we clearly care about saving. Clearly those do not qualify as being pro-life. Really this campaign isn’t about being pro-life, it’s about being anti-choice but let’s face it pro-life sounds a whole lot better than anti-choice. And I will say that whoever came up with that verbiage was a genius.

Now if we look at the issue of gay marriage, I want to know exactly how this threatens your heterosexual marriage? Is there somewhere that states, “oh if we let the gays marry then our marriage means nothing anymore!”? I would imagine that the divorce rate is actually more of a threat to the institution of marriage than actually allowing two people that want to spend the rest of their lives together to be married. What I think some people seem to be confusing the issue with is, is it ok to be gay? Well I’m sorry it’s not your legal right to tell me whether it is or is not ok to be gay. Remember, marriage is a legal institution what your house of worship chooses to do about the gay issue is not in question here.

Recently a friend sent me a note on his thoughts about Proposition 8 being passed and I am thankful to have many friends who have the same socially liberal views that I do. The thing that he said that really brought the point home was when he compared it to segregated education. It was not so long ago that our schools were still segregated. It was not so long ago that people believed that the education system should be segregated. But there was one man, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who stood up to all those people and took the initiative to turn it all around. Now LBJ was originally just a school teacher from East Texas and I’ll be the first admit (being a Texas native) that Texas is not always a particularly progressive place. But he was still able to realize that we should not allow such discrimination in our school systems. The questions around this issue run parallel to those with gay marriage – Does having black students affect the ability of the white students to learn from their teachers? Does it hinder the education system to allow people of various colors to be in that system?

Regardless of your belief, whether you believe all men are created equal or not, is it your place to judge and put it into the legal system of this country? America was created to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. It is not brave to disallow people who are different from you to exist happily, it is cowardice. It is not freedom to have unequal rights for particular groups of people.

As my friend said to me, “Should we not abide by and promote the idea that this nation was founded on one fundamental idea, freedom and liberty for all. Let’s not prevent other law abiding citizens from enjoying the same freedoms and liberties that we so freely enjoy, and let us all progress once again and truly be Americans.”

When the election results first came in I was absolutely elated. The Democrats have successfully managed to gain a majority in the House and Senate and we even got the presidency to boot! This has not happened since the beginning of Clinton’s first term and it only lasted for his first two years in office, so I tend to not count that. Before Clinton the last time we had Congress and the White House with a Democratic majority was when JFK was in office. Clearly there has been a major shift to the right and the people have finally decided enough is enough. At the end of the day I do believe that Americans, as a whole, are rather centrist in their beliefs and it was about time we started moving back towards the middle.

I say this is a bitter-sweet victory because while I am elated that the Dems have swept Washington, I am also severely disappointed in the passing of Proposition 8 in California. I find it hard to believe that in California of all places they could pass such legislature to modify their own constitution. Especially considering all of the anti-discrimination legislature that is already in place in California I find it disturbing that they don’t see this in the same light. Ah well, I hope that my friend, Matt, is correct when he says there are many things that pass in California that cannot be put in place because there are too many checks against stupid laws actually passing.

Ah well it was a nearly perfect election, I suppose you can’t always get everything you want. I’ll settle for a hopeful Presidency and Congress!

I would say this election is one to remember. Not just because a black man was elected President of the United States of America but also because we now have a Democratic majority in D.C. “We” just swept the House, Senate and the Presidential bid. I know this has happened in the past but with the conservative rule of the last 8 years it seems like it was a lifetime away that America knew what being centrist was about let alone having a Democratic majority in anything. I just hope that the Democrats can do a good enough job to at least not lose the majority significantly in the next 4 years.

I have to say being in Chicago for this momentous occasion was pretty spectacular. Granted I wasn’t in Grant Park (you know Chicago is notorious for its riots for no reason and this time there were many reasons had the results gone either way) but still biking home from my friend’s apartment across town there were victory calls smattered throughout the city for Obama. There were couples on the street rejoicing and people everywhere celebrating. It was an unforgettable experience.

To be here.
Right now.
Is larger than anything that one can imagine.
It is being a part of history.
And this history cannot be rewritten. It is up to the Democrats with Obama at the helm to truly turn this country around and show us why we put our faith in them. I just hope they are up to that task.

I know that Obama wasn’t my ideal candidate but I cannot explain what a relief it is to see him as the nominee. But in the same breath I will also say that I was extremely impressed with McCain’s concession speech. That was one of the most gracious concession speeches I have ever heard and quite frankly if McCain had campaigned like that I don’t think that Obama would have had the landslide victory that he did. I may not agree with McCain but I do respect him. I respect him because as he proved in his speech he is a classy, intelligent, honest (relatively speaking, this is politics) and courageous man. In that speech I saw a glimmer of the McCain that I actually considered to be someone worth looking in to in the 2000 Republican primaries. I still say had he won the 2000 primaries or even been allowed to run in 2004 I would’ve considered him. He had far more gumption back then and as this speech proved he can really be a moving speaker.

I give a hearty “Congratulations” to Obama and I do hope to see what we can accomplish in the next 4 years. As an eternal optimist I am hoping for the best!

side note: I am officially a Rachel Maddow fan girl now… I typically don’t think of myself as a “fan girl” but I don’t mind for her, she’s worth it

Now I don’t believe in doing anything party-line. In fact, this year is the first time I have ever voted a straight ticket because I believe that all parties have good candidates to offer and one should spend the time getting to know who is best for the job.

But I really have to say that I have been wary of Governor Sarah Palin from quite early in her nomination as the Vice Presidential hopeful and it has now heightened to being more than a little terrified of what might happen should we allow her into the White House. For one, her camp and the McCain camp are having issues and clearly are not communicating with each other. I mean a McCain aide even said that Palin had gone rogue over the last week or so. Now, that is not a team that works together and if our President and Vice President can’t work together what hope can we have for Congress or the Cabinet?

While that is definitely concerning I think the straw that broke the camel’s back is that Sarah Palin actually believed that the President of France would just randomly call her up at her campaign office. I mean does her office not vet their callers at all? Obviously not since you can actually watch the whole thing on youtube and read all about it in the Canadian Press.

Haven’t we had enough incompetence in the White House? Do we really need yet another misfit in a position of power? I know that being Vice President is not the same as being President but let’s face it McCain is old, if he were Obama’s age I’d say it’s not nearly as frightening – still a concern but not to the same degree. This, this is just outrageous irresponsibility on his part and utter incompetence on hers. What a pair.

Has anyone else taken a look at how Canada’s doing? I hear it’s a nice place to live…