Okay, for the most part, I'm thrilled. So thrilled, I'm gonna make you watch this:
Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I do need to register my utter disgust and dismay that Prop 8 passed in California. I can't believe anyone would even consider voting for a proposition that begins with the words "Eliminates the right of..." but apparently 52% of California voters saw no problem with that and let this vile Proposition pass. Congratulations, California. Now you can tell your children you "protected" them by taking away the rights of others (and for about 10% of them, their own civil rights)--I'm sure they'll thank you for it. But don't worry, chickens gained civil rights, so I guess we're even.
To be certain, California is not the only state that said a collective "fuck you" to a group of their citizens yesterday. Florida and Arizona both passed same-sex marriage bans. Arkansas passed a ban on adoption by same-sex couples. Even as we were making history by voting in the first African-American president, we were taking huge steps backward in the fight for civil rights.
Read this post. It's good, and it's written from a perspective I just can't give you.
Now back to Obama. I think he's going to be a really great president, and not just compared to what we've endured for the last eight years. I do believe he has an agenda--and that agenda is helping the American people to live happier, healthier, and more prosperous lives.
As Kate Harding so eloquently writes:
"It’s incredibly hopeful to finally be thinking of my new president as a tool in the useful sense, not the slang one."
I especially like the insightful article in The Onion today.
"Carrying a majority of the popular vote, Obama did especially well among women and young voters, who polls showed were particularly sensitive to the current climate of everything being fucked. Another contributing factor to Obama's victory, political experts said, may have been the growing number of Americans who, faced with the complete collapse of their country, were at last able to abandon their preconceptions and cast their vote for a progressive African-American."
"Obama's victory is being called the most significant change in politics since the 1992 election, when a full-scale economic recession led voters to momentarily ignore the fact that candidate Bill Clinton had once smoked marijuana."
More than anything, however, I am glad to be able to go back to posting the things that really matter: knitting, jewelry, painting, dogs...
