Nov
5
…all of us.
Last night, the US elected Senator Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Despite what feels like a wicked cold kicking my arse, I stayed up to hear both his acceptance speech and McCain’s concession speech. Rather than stooping to certain people’s levels, let me just say the contrast couldn’t have been starker. It had nothing to do with who won and/or who lost. It absolutely reflected what sort of person each man has shown himself to be. One was graceful, elegant, dignified and truly (IMO) tried to reach across every barrier in our country. The other was the single most passive-aggressive speech I’ve ever personally witnessed. I’ll let you decide which is which.
And here in Colorado, the news was…mixed. US Congressional District CO-02 now has the first openly gay Representative in our state’s history. Jared Polis ran a clean campaign from beginning to end. Most impressively, neither side mentioned Polis’ sexual orientation; the attack ads focused on 1) the fact that he’s a successful businessman who is a millionaire and 2) his support for charter-public school partnerships. Best of all, during his acceptance speech he introduced his partner by name and brought him up on stage. I cried like a baby.
There were a number of ballot initiatives and amendments this year; we had the longest ballot in the US, with 18 different issues on which to vote. The one I’ve been following the closest, Amendment 48 (the one that would have defined a zygote as a fully functional human being in a court of law), went down in an incredibly spectacular manner. Not just in flames, but with a rocket burying it in the damn ground. The other ones I’ve been watching, sad to say, were also defeated; Amendment 58, which would have ended state subsidies to Big Oil/Gas companies for the privilege of taking Colorado oil from our lands, and Amendment 51, which would have provided money for services for the developmentally disabled.
I also hear that in CA, Proposition 8 passed. Just shows how far we have to go in this country. This won’t be the end of the marriage debate, nor should it be.
We all have a lot of work to do in the years ahead. The Worst President Ever has left our country in a gigantic fscking hole. The hole is most likely bigger than any one person can fill. But, at least we have a start. A President-elect with a functional cerebral cortex, a wee glimmer of hope.
And for those of us who check off “other” when they fill in their race, we can tell our children that yes, they too can be President someday.
UPDATE: I cannot believe I didn’t mention this before. D’oh! Our newest US Senator from Colorado is…Mark Udall. Oh, Senator Udall has such a nice ring to it. His acceptance speech last night was pretty great as well – it was incredible to see how excited and happy his family was, especially his wife. Very cool.
this is nice. this one is nice. it’s a straight up middle-finger to everything the last eight years have been about. nice is good. i like nice.
(thanks for the add, btw)
Nice is a welcome change from what we’ve had, right?
(thanks for the add, btw)
Most welcome! Sorry I didn’t get to it sooner.
The world feels a little bit brighter this morning. There is still work to be done, a lot of it, but what an amazing first step.
It’s not perfect, true – CA’s still waiting to hear about Prop 8, even though it’s not looking good right now – but it sure is better than yesterday.
That’s the problem with the world. What is so bloody obvious to us isn’t to a lot of others. Sure, there will eventually be marriage for everyone, for example, in all 50 states, but it really is a ‘duh, what the hell are you medieval jackasses waiting for?’
I just hate baby steps. We’ve been told to be patient for so long – “don’t worry, the rest of the world will come around in time”. It’s just so frustrating. And now, apparently, we’ve got to wait until tomorrow sometime. Maybe. Grrr…
WTF kind of state allows the passage of a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT by a simple majority, anyway?
On a personal note, it’s going to take a while for my emotions to mend over the passage of Prop 8. I haven’t been able to be truly happy about the election because of it. Bigoted f*cks, many of whom had just finished voting for our nation’s first minority president. *sighs exasperatedly*
*tight hugs, because i probably need them as much as you do*
CA does. It sucks, but it’s a state that does. I had forgotten just how conservative most of that state really is; the places where the no votes are are all located on the coast.
It’s not over yet, unless they’ve called it this evening – there are still mail-in ballots to be counted, and it’s expected that there won’t be a final count until at least tomorrow, maybe even Friday. Who among those voters actually gave a fsck about the “sanctity of marriage”, anyway? I’ve got to stop now; I’m so angry I can just barely type.
*tight hugs to all of you* I’m so sorry – this is so fscked up.
ETA: What I would have said if I hadn’t been half-asleep when posting…CO is a state that allows a simple majority to change the state Constitution. It’s only been in the past couple of years that the laws have been tightened WRT how Constitutional amendments get on our ballot. You should have seen it before…
Oh, and as of this morning it appears that Prop 8 is a done deal – but not without being challenged, thank goodness. Fsck, I hope it gets overturned.