Mr. Obama and the Human Rights Campaign

I watched this for the first time tonight.

Despite my feelings regarding the president at the current time (call it disillusionment, all the hype from the election turned into a huge post-election let down, but everyone can identify with that, within and without the LGBT community), I think the man did a good job. Whether he did a good job of pulling the wool over our eyes or whether he sincerely meant what he said, it doesn't really matter.

The fact of the matter is, there is progress. It is slow. Much slower than it should be. Much slower, I think, than anyone expected it would be. Perhaps even in my lifetime there will still be mountains to climb.

But as a hiker, I suppose, I have to admit that the unclimbed mountains are far more alluring than those which are climbed daily. The unchartered waves are more daring than the warm bay waters. The forest is more tempting than the field.

We can all feel this movement heating up, swelling around us, becoming bigger with every pulse in every vein in every crowd at every rally.

And in the end, we know that love wins. Love always wins. Love wins in Revelations, oh you who would quote God's word. Love wins in every story ever written. And if you would argue that no, love does not always win, I would tell you to read between the lines, and perhaps then you would see that yes, in fact, love does win.

This is about the pinnacle. The peak. Triumphing over hate. The journey there is long and arduous. Dangerous, perilous, often sorrowful. But some day, in some sleepy little down in America, a little child is going to read in their history books about how LGBT individuals were persecuted, and with the hard work, dedication and compassion of LGBT individuals, leaders and supporters, they overcame and are now treated as equals.

And that little child won't be afraid to be who they are,

because love always wins in the end.

HRC Gala on Saturday

Can I just say that I am sooo GLAD that the gays are going to be picketing the HRC gala on Saturday in DC.

I wish I could be there to fight the good fight with them.

I've got some choise words for Barack Obama, he's just about my least favourite politician right now. At least the Conservatives don't SAY that they are going to do a damn thing for our rights. But Mr. Obama, you lied. I'd rather gouge my eyes out with hot pokers than vote for a Republican, but you can rest assured I won't be voting for Mr. Obama again. Fool me once...

So, to everyone who will be picketing the Gala, I salute you, and wish I could be among your ranks. Godspeed, maybe Obama will get the message that we're here, we're queer, and we vote and pay taxes too.

A Sad Loss for Human Rights

I'm not the biggest fan of the Kennedy family, for no reason other than the fact that they are alarmingly wealthy and powerful and alarmingly wealthy and powerful people/entities scare the sh*t out of me. That being said, it is too bad that Ted Kennedy lost his battle with brain cancer (a particularly atrocious type of cancer, no matter how young, old, accomplished, unknown you are, it just plain sucks) and that the U.S. senate lost such a champion of human rights. It's also very unfortunate that Obama and those working dilligently on a health care reform bill won't have the advice and knowledge of Ted Kennedy, and also that Mr. Kennedy won't be able to witness health care being provided to all Americans.

It's hard to get by Ted Kennedy's past, and even harder to get beyond the fact that he comes from one of the wealthiest families this country has ever known, and one of the most politically active. It is evident, though, in many of the Kennedys and the way in which they live their lives, that though they were blessed with emerald spoons in their mouths from birth, they know that the only way one can get in to Heaven is to take care of one's neighbour and that he who has "most" has least in the eyes of God unless he shares his wealth with others.

Oh, and happy anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Next year will be the 90 year anniversary of women's suffrage. It was a long time coming. It's ironic that Ted Kennedy, a champion of human rights in general but a fierce advocate of women and our rights would die on a day like today. So it goes.

Scraping By

I get really scared when I hear a lot of my classmates, friends and peers suggesting that Sarah Palin would be a better president than Barack Obama. These are the same people whose parents voted for George Bush twice, so I can only imagine the brain washing that went on in their households. Probably had Fox News on 24/7 for eight years.

It's just scary to think that these kids, the future of America, the future work force... have these insane notions about leaders. Leaders who have shown their true colours and proven themselves to be useless and worthless as public servants.

I was there was an island somewhere, where there were no politics, no one in charge and no power struggle. Everyone just did their own thing and got along and if there was ever any trouble there was punishment to be decided by the local people as a collective unit. No war and no death or destruction, just people trying to scrape by, like we've been trying to do for thousands of years.

When I think about the future of this country, I get so scared it almost makes me physically ill. Here's hoping my generation can get its act together, or that I stop caring.

Inauguration Day

I'm back at school, glad to be back, but I think the events of today take precedence over anything going on in my personal life.

It's really cool, I think, that a nation can come together to celebrate the entrance of a new leader, and the departure of an old leader. As much as any of us may disdain George W Bush, I think it's fair to say that he did lead us through a great deal of tragedy and turmoil. Though he has more or less left us high and dry and in an economic downward spiral, he led us and we are wiser for it, I would say.

God bless the Obamas and the Bidens, let today go off without a hitch. God bless and protect our great nation.

Definitely a sign of hope. Great things to come I think.

Maverick

Who's the Maverick now????

Congratulations Barack Obama, make this country proud! Please help set us on the path toward whole-ness.

I wish my daddy was alive to see this day. I wish I was back in the old neighbourhood holding Miss Bubba's hand. Barack, you won this for all the kids who dreamed of being president when they were told they would never make it. You won it for your daughters, who have the potential to some day become world leaders. You won it for my daddy, who worked tirelessly for the rights of all people. You won it for Miss Bubba in the old neighbourhood who could never dream outside of Hartford, outside of the bubble we lived in. You won it for Dr. King and HIS dream that has become OUR collective dream. You won it for me, the kid whose parents grew up on a farm in upstate New York and a little apartment in Bayonne New Jersey, the children of immigrants and dreamers, who thought a little house near the projects in Hartford was like a dream. You won it for me and all the people like me, the dreamers and the thinkers and the doers. You won it for me and all the people who are making their lives better, who are taking what our families had to offer us and shaping that into our own fantastic American Dreams. My daddy was there to hear Dr. King speak. He was there to walk with him, to hold his brother Americans and his sister Americans by the hands and sing and wonder and pray. And now you, Mr. Obama, have been given this wonderful opportunity, this unfathomable challenge, of repairing our nation while maintaining your sense of self.

You won the election for all of us, now the task is to lead ALL of us, not just some, into the future. Take me, and my red white and blue, orange yellow and green, black grey and tan, polkadotted and striped brothers and sisters, and lead ALL of us into a brighter tomorrow.

God bless this wonderful country where anything is possible.
And thank God for not passing Question 1 in CT. Be with all those who are still fighting their own battles. Teach this country how to love ALL and respect ALL individuals.

Vote

No on Question 1 in CT. Don't amend our constitution just to take my rights away.

No on Question 1 in MA. Do not repeal the state income tax and let the haves continue to get more and the have nots continue to flounder.

NO on Prop 8 in CA. Love is Love!! Separation of church and state!

VOTE

The End of an Error

I voted yesterday by absentee ballot. This is the first presidential election that I've been eligible to vote in. I think this means that I am officially a participant in democratic process? Total sense of accomplishment.

We've almost come to the end of the last eight years of backwards governing, of war and tears. There is a sense of joy at the end, a sense of relief. We as a nation and as a world have definitely earned the opportunity to celebrate the end of an error. No matter how the election ends, I personally feel that nothing (including the election of John McCain, possibly excluding the election of VP Sarah Palin the complete and total nut-job) can come close to the tragedy that was the last eight years.


To have come through it: to have joyfully
survived even the happiness - quietly, completely.
First the testings were mute, then verbal.
Who could look back unamazed?

No one has been able, since life lasts
because no one could. - But the infiniteness
of the attemps! The new greenness of birch trees
is not so new as that which behalls us.

A wood dove coos. And again what you suffered
seems, ah, as if yet unlived-through.
The bird keeps calling. You are in the middle
of the call. Awake and weakened
- Rilke 1921

I'll Take People Who Won't be President for 800, Alex

So I played lacrosse today, and I needed some caffine for my weary bones afterwards. Two of the other girls and I were in a car, driving to dunks, when on the side of a busy section of road we saw a man waving a John McCain sign.

Oh hell N-O. You are not brandishing a John McCain sign near where I live and learn.

So naturally, I rolled down the window and screamed "JOHN MCCAIN SUUUCKSSS!" Much to my disappointment, my sentiments were not well receieved in the car. I was among McCainites. Meh, they're still cool chicks, they're just terribly misguided.

And I got my absentee ballot today. And I'm voting Obama. And I'm voting No on Prop 1. Suck on that John McCain and Caribou Barbie.

The moral of the story: don't wander up and down a busy street brandishing a John McCain sign, because I will be there, and it will be obscene.

CT Vote No on 1

There is nothing else to say. If you're a registered voter in the state of Connecticut, please vote no on question 1. Mr. Blumenthal said it best with "Our State Constitution is the bedrock of our civil rights and liberties. The convention proposal is a risky and costly process. The State Constitution is not a document to be rewritten carelessly." Don't let the focus on the family groups steal your tax dollars for a ridiculous process that could potentially change more than simply who you are allowed to marry.

This election is insane. There is so much more riding on this election that simply which candidate will potentially save our floundering economy.

Barack Obama has my vote (even though I wish Hillary was on the ticket), and he best be appreciative cause this is my first presidential election and I don't vote for just any average joe. And I am most definitely saying VOTE NOT ON QUESTION 1 IN CONNECTICUT and NO ON PROP 8 IN CALIFORNIA.

And P.S. - RACHEL MADDOW IN 2012!!!

I Want to Believe

I have been a Hillary supporter since the fourth grade, when I cried because another little girl got to be Hillary Clinton when we were doing presentations on historical figures. I got to be Amelia Earhart, and my mom bought me an aviator hat and goggles to wear during the presentations at the army surplus store. Sometimes I still wear them just for shiggles. Miss Earhart is still one of my top three no-longer-with-us heroes (Joan of Arc, Lucille Ball, and good ole Amelia).

I was devastated when Hillary had to concede the nomination to Barack. I sat in the driveway, staring at my Hillary bumpersticker for a while, wondering where we went wrong. Can't a woman be president of the USA? Will it ever happen? Hillary is so perfect for the job. In my heart, Hillary Clinton will always be MY president.

I never liked Barack Obama, and when Hillary lost the nomination I was terribly bitter. I debated not voting at all. I decided, though, that it's unethical for Americans to not vote, and I'm all about ethics.

He has been more in the public eye as of late, particularly with the Democratic National Convention. And it dawned on me.

He's a real guy. He's just a regular guy, living the American Dream. He has a wife, and kids, and a vested interest in the future of this country. He is a young guy, with his own dreams and aspirations. And they all stem from and lead to this American Dream of ours.

I was young when my father died, but I remember him talking about marching with Dr. Martin Luther King. My father was a conscientious objector, and during the Vietnam War when he was drafted, he told the United States Army that he would sooner by shot than shoot another human being, and he was given a different assignment.

When he was young he marched with Dr. King, and shook his hand, and they all marched, and they all sang, and they were all Americans. All with an American Dream.

My daddy makes me so proud. I hope that some day I can be even half the person he was. He had so much love, so much love for every person he encountered. Love is really what this life is all about.

I wish my daddy were alive to see this day. A man and a woman, both running for the nomination to go to the election to the most powerful office in the land. An African American man who will, God willing, take that office and make it great again. Equality. It's what they marched for so many years ago. And here it is, knocking on our doorstep. We have so far to go, but we have come so far already.

"One person's struggle is all of our struggle." Mr. Obama, you have my vote. Make us great again.