Election Day and Differing Opinions

Well, it's election day. I voted. I won't even say which way, because I'm not convinced that it matters. Politics is full of words and promises (mostly broken ones, as I presume presidential candidates really have no idea what they are getting into).

So, while everyone else is focusing on the inevitable outcome of who is going to be the next guy to run this country into the ground, I'm curious about how the propositions on the California ballot are going to fare.

Just because I happen to live there.

It seems the one with the most controversy is Proposition 8 to disallow gay marriage. It doesn't matter to me, personally, because I have no stake in the matter one way or the other, but if this is truly going to be a progressive state, and if the do-gooders are really serious when they say everyone should be treated equally, then gay marriage should be allowed.

I watched some of the videos on YouTube by groups and people who want us all to vote Yes on the proposition (to ban gay marriage), and if nothing else, they were hypocritical. So utterly, totally and completely hypocritical. And, not surprisingly, most of them had disabled comments (probably after being hammered by opposition) and they had obviously removed all comments that were contrary to their agenda.

What cowards.

My favorite was this one called Proposition 8 in Plain English (which they have since replaced it with a shorter version and renamed to Proposition 8 Made Simple). It was all happy-go-lucky about how Mr. and Mrs. X were friends with the gay couple that lived next door and how nicey-nice they all were to each other and how hetero couple X respected their neighbors' lifestyle choice (which I read as "tolerant of their decision to live a gay lifestyle with each other") and how they believed everyone should be treated equally, but they didn't want to offend their gay friends by voting YES on Prop 8.

Take a breath.

Then they went on to justify it (using their own faulty reasoning, packed with arguments that had absolutely nothing to do with Proposition 8) and closed with this - and I quote: "But Tom and Jan have come to an important realization. They can respect Dan and Michael's lifestyle choice, without affirming and embracing their lifestyle."

What an ignorant, hypocritical couple Tom and Jan are!

It is apparent that, first of all, they think it is somehow a choice to be gay (who the hell would CHOOSE that, and when did Tom and Jan choose to be straight?). Secondly, IT'S NOT ABOUT BEING GAY - IT'S ABOUT TWO PEOPLE WHO LOVE EACH OTHER WHO WOULD LIKE TO GET MARRIED! LEGALLY!

Oh, but Tom and Jan X are scared, too, because if Proposition 8 dies, that means their church could maybe might perform same-sex marriages (according to the video, that could happen, and they don't want THAT to happen - God forbid. Then again, who's going to force their church to perform same-sex marriages?). They also seem to think that a domestic partnership (a.k.a. Civil Union in a few other states) and marriage are the same thing.

I guess Tom and Jan X either don't have a computer, or don't know how to use Google. Oh, but wait, they said they found this information on the Internet! Perhaps they just didn't look past their church's web site, or beyond their Yes on 8 friends blogs.

Maybe we should just ban marriage all together.

I think the problem stems from morality. It is difficult to justify morals, as they really boil down to personally accepted modes of conduct, typically rooted in a strongly influential belief system, usually spawned by some ancient religious text that was created back when people didn't even believe that air existed (yet, immaculate conception was a totally acceptable idea).

Speaking of morality, my wife had a bit of an encounter in the parking lot of a hardware store a couple days ago, where a family of Yes on 8 promoters were encouraging passersby to think like them. My wife, while walking past them, said, "you're a biggot."

Oops.

Maybe that was too strong a word, but it really pissed them off. A woman (standing next to what I presumed was her son), shouted out, "come here and say that to my face!"

That is the WRONG thing to say to my wife. Oh, man, I saw it coming right then and there, and I knew there was no stopping it, so I observed for a bit...before they drew me in.

I loved a couple of the arguments the Yes on 8 family members proposed. One woman asked, "think of an outlet in your home. Can you plug a plug into a plug?" I just about lost it. I didn't know whether to laugh or to put them out of everyone's misery. I wanted to ask her if she could stick a hole in her hole, but, respectfully, I said, "what's that got to do with it?" instead. Pretty lame, I know, but I just didn't want to engage. We both had our opinions and neither side was going to change, so what's the point?

At one point, however, we were breaking away, and the woman turned around and mumbled something about "I'll kick your ass." This was after we endured a lecture about morality and how science tries to tell us about homosexuality, but that God really has the right answer, blah, blah, shut-the-fuck-up blah.

There was that word: morality. Almost in the same sentence as "God", and certainly in the same context. That's when my wife finally closed the door on the matter before we went into the hardware store to get what we needed (a plug of all things - actually, a receptacle for plugging in a 220V clothes dryer). Actually, we were exchanging one receptacle for another, because we had the wrong one, and so the plug wasn't right for it.

How fitting.

Anyway, I can't wait until this whole mess is over with (the voting results, anyway). There's a lot of ignorant and narrow-minded people out there - it's too bad so many of them are voting. I hope there's enough of the other variety of people out there to offset some of the bad decisions to make the good ones prevail.

Time will tell.