rivers_bend

Thanks to the fact that I can't seem to stop waking up at six in the morning even though it's been five years since I had to, I was checking my twitter feed at 6:04 and saw @barackobama's tweet of the link to the livestream of the signing of the repeal of DADT. Obama, as he is wont to do, gave a moving and wonderful speech. I, as I am wont to do, cried in all the right places. And I am so glad this finally got done and that the ball on this is finally seriously rolling. I eagerly await the "military readiness" that will mean this law will be fully enacted and not just voted on and signed.

The most moving part for me was the acknowledgment that men and women are being asked to give up their integrity in order to serve their country. That it's difficult to be asked to keep secrets, to lie. And that these people are willing to fight for rights that they don't have themselves. These queer men and women are fighting so that other people may keep the lifestyle queer soldiers have no access to. Thank you, president Obama for putting that in your speech. And I dearly hope that you were laying groundwork for soon-to-come laws that will mean these soldiers who can die for their country can also enjoy its basic freedoms. I'm trying to be patient.

But as wonderful as this moment was, and as glad as I am that I saw it happen, it is hard to be patient when one is being told that she lives in a country where "All men and women are created equal," but in most states equality doesn't extend to the right to marry, and in many states it doesn't extend to the right to keep a picture of your family on her desk at work and also keep your job, and in many states that family picture won't include children if you were planning on adopting, and in many states it doesn't include the right to rent any one-bedroom apartment you want with your partner. These are not SPECIAL rights. This is not the expectation to be let in to that exclusive club that only 2% of the town belongs to anyway where you can hand the keys to your $25,000 car over to a gold-jacketed valet and go get a massage and play golf. This is basic life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness stuff.

We are not the first group of people to be denied basic human rights and freedoms in this country which touts equality for all. Not by any stretch of the imagination. And in two-and-a-quarter centuries, great strides have been made. For that I am grateful. And I am so glad this day has come. This morning I want to celebrate that we got here. But I don't plan on resting on my laurels, and I hope my representatives in Sacramento and Washington don't plan to either.

I want to get this all down, and I totally won't. But I will say this much. I heard that Obama had taken Pennsylvania in the middle of my second class of the day. We took a break to scream, at the suggestion of our teacher who was dancing like an organ grinder's monkey. At the bus stop on the way home, I heard he took Ohio, and called my mom who had just gotten off the phone with her sister who lives there. I got home, changed the bandage on my foot and left for the Westin St Francis. I struggled upstairs with hundreds of volunteers for the Obama, No on 4 and No on 8 campaigns and made it to the Grand Ballroom just as McCain was giving his concession speech. It was unbelievable to be there for that. I was crying and clasping my hands over my chest and breathless. Suddenly there was a HUGE camera lens in my face. and after the speech, a guy asking me my name and why I was crying. He was a photog for the SJ Mercury News. It was surreal.

It's not looking good for gay marriage. With 50% of the precincts reporting, it's 53% Yes and 47% No. The percentage difference hasn't really changed since 31%.

But when I left the party and walked back to MUNI, there were people dancing and screaming and singing and celebrating in the streets, because Barak Obama will be the next president of the United States. And I can not possibly be happier about that.

The Rules: Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic, to your lj. (Any decision, as long as it's not Roe v. Wade.) Flisters, please take the meme to your ElJay to spread the fun.

Trying to post one I haven't seen on my flist yet (and thank you dreamlittleyo for making that so easy :/ *g*

How about Hernandez v Texas? Which granted 14th amendment rights to Mexican Americans (and by extension other hitherto unprotected minorities).

Rights. Novel idea.

via erin2326

I so very much wish to believe this isn't true. But it absolutely wouldn't surprise me, and so I pass it on.

The story is all over Progressive Talk Radio today about the MCain campaign sending absentee ballot applications to registered democrats or people that have donated to Obama's camapign.

These ballots are deliberately misleading and have postage paid return addresses that are for an election clerk that is outside of your city or town. What this will end up doing is either having your vote not counted, or if you return one of these, they will cite you for election fraud, saying that you already voted absentee.These ballots are only being sent out in 'purple states' and this is a big deal.. This is called voter caging, and is a huge problem.

Please get this information out to as many people as you can, and tell anyone you know who has received one of these ballots that they need to contact their city election clerk immediately. Also call the local media and let them know what is going on.

JUST REMEMBER, IF YOU DIDN'T REQUEST IT.... DON'T SEND IT IN.

The main stream media is never going to cover this so we have to depend on our ground campaign to get the word out to our voters.

penknife has outlined right over here and much more calmly than I could manage, some of the differences between McCain and Obama and what their records on LGBT issues are.

thank you nilchance for pointing me there

Point the first, I am no longer a funnel cake virgin. I kinda wish I were though, because I feel horrible. Though this might have more to do with having gotten heatstroke.

We spent all day at the Tapestry Art Fair in San Jose, talking to people about PFLAG and Proposition 8. We talked to some really interesting people, including a few who were undecided or leaning towards voting Yes, and who are now planning on voting NO! \o/

12-5 in the heat and just.... yeah. I drank about 5 litres of water and stayed in the shade of the tent thing and put cool towels on my neck, but it wasn't enough. I am SUFFERING.

But I feel fantastic for having done some campaigning, and so I'm counting the day a win. Am finally home and am going to go to bed shortly. No premire night for me. My head hurts too much to turn on the TV. My DVR better be doing its job.

Our booth was between the Democratic party booth and the Scientology people. Interesting.

Must find more pain killers.

♥

This was forwarded to me with no information about the original poster, but I think it's an important message.

eta thank you to diachrony who found that it was -Connie Schultz, The Plain Dealer, 1801 Superior Ave.,Cleveland, OH 44114, Cschultz@plaind.com, August 2004 who originally posted this. here


How Women Got To Vote: A short history lesson on the privilege of voting


The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they
were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's
blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of
'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'

They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and
left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled
Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and
knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and
suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards
grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and
kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at
the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to
the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow
Wilso n's White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all
of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When one of the leaders,
Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a
tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was
tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

So, refresh my memory: Some women won't vote this year
because--why,exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our
vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron
Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged
so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am
ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the
actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly,
voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it
was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO
movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry.
She was--with herself. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched
that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use--or
don't use--my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just
younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote,
she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.

HBO will run the movie periodically before releasing it on video and
DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would
include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunko
night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our
usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that
we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade
a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be
permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the
doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't
make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is
often mistaken for insanity.'

Please pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out and
vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very
courageous women.



There is no passion to be found in playing small - in settling for a life
that is less than the one you are capable of living. ~Nelson Mandela

If you are happy about the California Supreme Court ruling last Thursday saying the ban on same sex marriage is against California's constitution, and you think it's great that Governor Schwarzenegger spoke out and said he is NOT in support of a Constitutional Amendment that would define marriage in California as ONLY between a man and a woman, PLEASE CALL AND LET HIM KNOW. His staffer said he's getting a LOT of calls from the 'other side' and he needs to hear that people out there want equality and fairness in marriage laws.
(916) 445 2841.
Thank you!


You get a recording giving you options, natch, and after choosing your language, you can either press two to make a comment on legislation or five to make a comment on hot-button issues. both options take you to a person whom you can ask to pass on a message of thanks. In case the options change, do listen though ;)

or email governor@governor.ca.gov