Dawning of a New Day

(This will be rambly) I am sitting here with my kids watching (for me, the 2nd time) Barack Obama giving his acceptance speech. I am watching with tears in my eyes and the emotions close to the surface. We kept the kids up last night to watch the elections. We've been talking about it for a really long time, the kids, Rob, and me. Irene would often talk to me about it on our drives to and from school. She was one of the few kids in her class whose parents were supporting Barack Obama. At one point she asked me why he was the person I wanted to see in office. I didn't get into the pro-choice part of it, I didn't discuss everything, but I did tell her that his ideas were closer to my ideas than John McCain and Sarah Palin's. What I did say to her about the issues is that Barack Obama believes that The Aunties can and should be a family. That is something, for our family, that is incredibly important. Irene and Rhys know that two boys can love each other and two girls can love each other and that it doesn't matter. I've heard Irene tell her friends that when they have said something against it. She was excited for her Auntie Jolie and Auntie Kris when they got married. So was Rhys, for that matter. I know that he hasn't come on the side of marriage and I am hoping that will happen - more on that later - but he DOES believe in the civil unions.

As I was watching the election results coming in, I was afraid to trust in it. I've seen the elections go the other way. I've WORKED elections that went the other way. (rhys just piped in "If I were president, I'd make it be longer school recesses,") We watched PBS and CNN and NBC and I was looking at 538.com which didn't change a state color until they had more than just 3% of the votes had been counted. We kept the kids up to watch it even though it was past the time they usually go to sleep and both are sick (Irene has succumbed to Rhys' croup). Irene was REALLY happy when it was announced on CNN that Barack Obama would be our president. My girlfriend's daughter proclaimed it a miracle (a very happy one). Rhys said "Rahback Obama won? Great!" He'll eventually be able to say Barack :)

Our country needs to Be the change it wants to see - don't stop trying. We need to work - just as Our president elect told us, we will need to work and work hard. It's not going to happen overnight - it's going to take time.

Irene went to sleep before we found out that Nevada went blue - she asked about that early on this morning and was so happy to hear that we did. Nevada going blue is an amazing thing.

What saddens me is that California - the place I still think of as my state - the place I'd move back to in a New York minute if we could - seems to have voted for hate, inequality, and discrimination with voting for proposition 8. There is still a possibility that it won't pass, but it's seeming less and less likely. I don't understand how this happened. Why is it not okay for my sister to be married to the woman she loves and who loves her back and with whom she has two beautiful children? Jolie and Kris have been together for - i think 11 years - maybe 12. They formed a civil union 8 years ago. They got married in a wonderful and meaningful and special wedding ceremony on 08/08/08. Their union has already lasted longer than way too many straight marriages!

Don't give me this shit that marriage is all about being able to have children. That's crap. If you go by that, then the infertile couples shouldn't be married. The couples that choose not to have children shouldn't be married. And if you voted for this because you saw it as the end of straight marriage - that it would HURT your marriage as a straight person, then I'm sorry that your marriage is so unstable and fragile. The thing that hurts marriage? Divorce. Divorce hurts marriage. I hurt for Jolie and Kris. I hurt for Martie and Karen. I hurt for Jeff and Ramon. Lisa and Carol. I hurt for the some of my friends from high school and college. I hurt for us. I am trying to continue to visualize prop 8 being defeated - perhaps as the absentee ballots come in, it will tip the balance. Why should it be that on such an historical evening as last night, that it would be so bittersweet knowing that people I love are being punished.

okay -- that's probably enough.

Spread love and acceptance. start with yourself, move on in ripples to your family - your friends - your neighbors. be the butterfly and have an effect.