Truth & Consequences

I know the elections are over. But their results linger on.

One in particular... proposition 8 in California. I saw that several lawsuits were recently filed (and rightfully so) contesting the legality of this proposition.

There was one particular politician in my state running for re-election. And he won, but not with my vote. I voted against him for one reason. Just a day or two before the election, I heard one of his radio ads where he specifically stated that he was in favor of a state constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage. When I heard that, he lost my vote, regardless of how unqualified his opponent was.

I know that there are some who are certain of the dire consequences of allowing gays to marry. So I found a graph yesterday that explains these dire consequences in easy-to-understand terms, and I thought I'd share it with you.

So that we can ALL know what the 52% of the voters in California apparently didn't know.



I don't think it gets a lot clearer than that.

Today, I Shivered

It's no secret that I've been an Obama supporter, and not just because I don't care for Palin. And today, the thought that the campaign is almost over... that Obama may win it... made me shiver in that "I-can't-believe-it-is-almost-here" way.

Let me explain.

My dad was a farmer. He's old now, so a brother mostly took over the farm, but in my early years, the small family farm was our sole source of income. And in the late summer months, before harvest, there wasn't a lot of farm work to do.

So we took family vacations in late August... long camping trips ranging from one to three weeks. We were poor, but we ALWAYS had our summer vacations.

And he did volunteer work. I especially remember his stories of helping out in Gulfport, Mississippi after a particularly bad hurricane in the late 1960's. I was probably about 4 years old, but I remember him being gone for a month or more at a time.

But his volunteer work began earlier, when he did a variety of jobs as a conscientious objector during late WWII.

I remember his many stories from the various volunteer jobs he did in his life, particularly the stories of almost causing fights when he refused to follow the rules of segregation in the south, and instead insisted on using the "colored" bathrooms or drinking fountains just to make a point.

"Colored", segregated facilities are thankfully a thing of the past. But segregated society has not yet totally followed suit.

And today, I got a shiver in thinking of the message that Obama's election would send to young black males throughout the country. (I hate calling them African Americans... I'm a German American, but I don't call myself that. I guess I suck at being politically correct.)

But while I may not be politically correct, I AM in favor of human equality. Blacks & whites. Gays & straights. Males & females. Dad may not agree with all of my perspectives, but his examples led me to be the person I am.

And the young blacks who grew up in situations similar to Obama... poor, single parent households? Today they see how far their aspirations can go. And even if Obama doesn't win, that change in perception is still a win for all of us.

And that thought makes me shiver, in anticipation of the future achievements that this may now help to make possible.

Some things I just can't believe

I was going to blog about the Republican party's shopping sprees. I mean, I enjoy new clothes as much as the next person who can see Russia from her home, but does anyone but me think this is excessive and ridiculous?! (And does saying you are donating them to charity afterward really make this expenditure ok?)

But this morning I found a different topic.

A number of months back, I signed up for the Obama campaign's email list. And for the most part, I find the frequent emails monotonous and a bit annoying.

But today I was shocked. The email I got this morning highlighted yet another mailing that the McCain campaign put out, accusing Obama of siding with terrorists. It tries to capitalize on the 9-11 fear to cut into Obama's support. This mailing comes alongside another large robocall surge with the same theme.

However, I was glad to see that this really dirty attempt to lure away voters by appealing to their fear may not be working as intended. A GOP official in Wisconsin has endorsed Obama due to these calls and mailings.

In issuing her statement, Lorman became the latest in a growing line of GOP officials who have publicly denounced the recent tone and tactics of the McCain camp. In recent days, Sens. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Norm Coleman, as well as former Secretary of State Colin Powell, have all been highly critical of the Arizona Republican's efforts to tie Barack Obama to former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers. Lorman is not, obviously, of the same national stature as these other officials. But her place in Wisconsin politics makes her an influential voice in an important swing state.

The fact that she is a lifelong Republican -- she left the Senate in 1994 and, until recently, was the longest woman serving senator in Wisconsin history -- now crossing party lines is also of interest.

And some people are quitting their jobs after refusing to make the robocalls that accuse Obama of ties to terrorism. In this economy, that's a big ethical stance to take.

I understand that McCain is becoming desperate in the final days of the race as his campaign falters, but I'm still in shock that he would stoop this low. I watched most of the third presidential debate, and I was impressed at how well McCain presented some of his points. I still was turned off by his repeating some of the same old tired, already-been-refuted claims, but over-all he came across much better than he has in the past.

This is just low. How-low-can-you-go low. McCain doing the limbo, so-to-speak. (But I guess he IS known for being flexible.)

I'm not the most educated voter out there, I admit. I try to research fact vs fiction, but I get burned out with elections easily. So I tend to make my decision pretty quickly and ignore the crap after that. When things get ugly, I pretty much just tune out.

But this sort of thing just seems so transparent to me. Obviously scare tactics must work sometimes, or people wouldn't continue to use them. But WHY do they work? How can anyone be so gullible to not see through something this blatant?

It just looks like people WANT to believe this crap, so they can have a reason to not vote for Obama that doesn't look like they are voting against his skin color. And that is just another type of racism.

I, for one, am praying that we are bigger than these tactics. Because in my opinion, voting for someone who would run a campaign that uses this type of crap is worse than voting against someone because of his race.

I don't know how to process the concept that anything this low could even conceivably benefit McCain. It seems impossible. It makes me sick to my stomach.

Is there hope yet?

My husband is and always has been a Republican.

Me? Not so much. I could be, I suppose. If I didn't so firmly believe that the religious right's influence on the Republican party is totally out of control. With me, it's not so much the party's general issues, as it is the fact that religious groups do not belong on the political forefront.

And it's not that I'm not religious. I am. But I'm also against telling everyone else what they can or can't do based on my personal convictions.

I'm against keeping knowledge regarding birth control from high-schoolers. Abstinence clearly isn't the only option, and the current abstinence-only education policy has resulted in increasing STD and teenage pregnancy rates for the first time after a many-year decline. I'm against making abortions illegal in any and all cases (including rape and incest) just because I personally can't see myself ever considering having one. I'm against limiting everyone's access to books just because I might consider them inappropriate reading material. I'm against saying that gay couples can't be legally recognized as a committed couple just because I am in the heterosexual majority.

I learned early on in our relationship that politics was the one and only one totally off-limit topic between us.

In local elections, he shows a bit of common sense. We discuss candidates for some of the offices, and we generally agree on who would be the best candidate based on their views. Our viewpoints, after all, really are fairly similar. However when it comes to national elections, I consider it my duty in life to cancel out his uneducated votes. He seems to have no ability to even consider crossing the Republican line and looking at actual issues.

Not that Democrats are always on the "right" side of issues. I am NOT claiming that. But neither are Republicans, and to vote responsibly, you need to know what you are voting for. Or against, as the case may be.

Last night at the dinner table, he was reading an article from the newspaper. He made some sort of comment about the presidential race, so I had my opening. I pointed out that a president really doesn't have the power on his own to put all of his platform into practice, and that a good portion of what you vote for has to be integrity and personality. I went on to highlight the reasons I support Obama. When he mentioned that he would feel much better about Palin becoming president than Biden, I said that I couldn't agree because she has too many extremist views, and that the thought of her in office scares the heck out of me.

He asked why... what were those extremist views... and I was happy to point out a few of them. And I found out that he was totally clueless. He truly had no idea.

I just don't get it. How can you have lived in this country for the past month and not know any of these things?

But after our talk, he backed off of his earlier statement. He said that he'd be ok with a female as president. I agreed with him heartily.

And as I added, "Just not this one," he echoed at the same time, "But perhaps this isn't the right one."

And then we proceeded to discussing the platform of the two candidates, and the differences between them. And he even listened.

Maybe he'll get it yet.

And another thing...

I got this in my email today and felt it was too good to not share.

Sure, I could write my own essay. Fortunately I recognize the limitations of my writing ability, so I instead choose to share Eve Ensler's essay.

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

Eve Ensler
September 5, 2008

Looking on the positive side...

I've decided that, at least from McCain's perspective, his choice of Palin as vice presidential running mate is probably a good one.

If he does happen to win the election, just think how much this will reduce the risks of him being assassinated while in office.

We got your lipstick here, bitches

Today's political uproar is about lipstick. Strangely enough, with all the problems our country has been having, the republican party has chosen to focus on lipstick.

Um. Yeah.

Lipstick is a cover-up. Having a bad day? Slap on a little lipstick... you'll be fine.

Does it fix the problems? No, of course not. But if you buck up, hide what's wrong, and pretend a little, everyone will be distracted, no one will know, and we can all happily go on as we have been. Right?

Yeah, that's some story of change.

Anyone but me question the irony of using that as a political platform?

Everybody needs one!

You might wonder about this post and my last one, but no these aren't just things I found on the web. I actually pass these beauties on my carpool run.

What a shame it would be to not share these gems... clearly I need to keep a camera with me at all times!

Teeter-tottering John McCain

Just got this link in my email from BuddhaGirl... it was too scary to not share with all of you. So I posted it (at the risk of causing you to miss the other post from the same day, located below... so please keep reading down!)



And now we all know that he really CAN see both sides of an issue.

Give me a REAL holiday!

This morning my daughter's best friend bounced up to me in the school hallway.

"I met Obama this weekend," she happily announced. "He shook my hand." He also signed her baseball cap.* She didn't tell me that part. But apparently her mother made her wash her hand. How inconsiderate is that?

This is an historic year. Presidential candidates are coming to our area. Indiana actually gets to play a part in a presidential primary. And hopefully we can do it right.

It's about time SOMEONE does it right.

Today's local newspaper noted several statements from people who met Obama during his surprise visit over the weekend. Actually the same statement, repeated from several people.

People around here are supporting Obama because of the gas tax holiday proposal. And to be honest, that's just one of the things that cinched it for me too.

Two of the things I most look for in a politician are common sense and honesty. And that's often a tough find.

McCain and Hillary Clinton are both proposing this gas tax holiday for the summer. Why? Because it makes for good media bites. They apparently are hoping that people are stupid enough to ignore that it really makes minimal difference to our pocketbooks, but has numerous negative effects to the economy as a whole. It's a gimmick that is supposed to make them sound like they care about the middle class.

Well, around here, the middle class isn't all that stupid, and we recognize a gimmick when we hear one. At least THIS middle class person does, and from newspaper reports, I'm apparently not alone.

The fact that Obama rejects it as the gimmick that it is shows me that he has some common sense. And I get a strong feeling that he says what he believes and believes what he says. That, more than anything, is what it takes to get my vote. Integrity.

Besides, during the summer I am not carpooling 50 miles a day. I can ride my bicycle to work if I want to. I'd hardly see this 'holiday' they are touting.

So I'm making my own holiday proposal: Come to my house. Take my kids for a weekend. Heck, take the husband too. Better yet, make it a full week.

Now THAT is a holiday I could vote for!

But if that's not an option... I'll choose Obama's common sense over the others' holiday.

* Edit - It turns out that his WIFE signed her baseball cap. I misunderstood. Which is much less exciting, and probably the reason she neglected to mention this fact.