Dream of equality lives, but not yet realized

Television and the Internet can sometimes make the world seem like a very small place. It's easy to get the impression we all have shared experiences. We post our little burbs on our blogs and Facebook and MySpace pages, we Twitter and text and talk incessantly on cell phones. Communication is non-stop.

We share data and details with those near and far. However, that doesn't mean there is true sharing or understanding.

In watching the post-election coverage Tuesday night, so many of the commentators, analysts and pundits were talking about how far we have come as a nation to elect Barack Obama, a bi-racial man, to the highest office in the land. Obama, who was born before the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act became law, is now seen as the hope of a new generation and the embodiment of what so many generations have fought -- and died -- to achieve.

Even Obama's acceptance speech was different than those that came before in its attempt to be inclusive of all of America.

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. ... It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red
States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America."

-- Barack Obama, Nov. 4, 2008

In the rush of euphoria, perhaps it seems that the worst is all behind us. That Americans have matured, grown wise and understanding and inclusive and accepting of people and their differences. But on the same night Obama was elected the next president of the United States -- on the night he mentioned homosexuals specifically in his speech-- that very same electorate also voted to exclude others. Voters approved a constitutional amendment restricting marriage to heterosexual couples only in California and similar measure in Arizona and Florida -- three of 30 states that have now adopted such measures. And on Tuesday, Arkansas voters passed a measure that keeps gay men and lesbian women from adopting children or serving as foster parents.

The headline on commentary piece by Joseph Galliano on the Guardian website calls Obama a pro-gay president.

Yes, we've come so far, but our nation still has so far to go.

"There's something deeply wrong with putting the rights of a minority up to a majority vote," Evan Wolfson, a gay-rights lawyer who heads a group called Freedom to Marry, was quoted as saying in an Associated Press story. "If this were being done to almost any other minority, people would see how un-American this is."

Fortunately, we have a system that does not merely rely on majority rule. We have a system that offers checks and balances. But we haven't achieved true balance or true equality yet.

Just ask the gay community.

I can't understand it. I'm perplexed why anyone would care that two people who share their lives and responsibilities also share the same gender. But then again, not everyone has had the same life experiences I've had. I am thankful and fortunate to have so many friends and family members who are gay and open about who they are at their core. They don't live a lifestyle, they haven't made a choice to live or love a certain way. Their sexuality is as much part of them as their eye, or skin, color.

I've been fortunate to live in a community with a vibrant and active gay community, gay businesses and gay activists. I've been fortunate to see beyond the flamboyant fringes of gay and lesbian life and beyond the stereotypes. Those I care about have shared their lives -- not just the parts that are different or mysterious or spicy -- to a heterosexual who was naive about such things. I've seen that they have the same boring, vexing problems I have. But if they are fortunate to find someone they want to share their life with, they run into many more roadblocks in trying to take care of each other or share the burdens of responsibility that come with love and true commitment.

My tolerance for intolerance has worn thin. That's undoubtedly due in no small part to having family members who are Latino and gay and friends who are Latino, black, Jewish, gay, Asian, etc., in other words, people who are outwardly different than me, yet who inwardly have proven to me to offer more similarities than differences and whose differences have enriched me personally.

I'll be honest, Obama's election stunned me. I know there is still a lot of bigotry, racism and intolerance in our country. If I look close, I can still see it in myself too. I didn't think we, as a society, were ready to elect a black man as president.

I was wrong. Sometimes it's good to be wrong. But I can't for the life of me figure out how some of the very same people who voted for Obama in California, Arizona and Florida could also oppose gay marriage.

However, I am not without hope. I know interracial marriage was once illegal. I know the voting majority once supported slavery and opposed giving black men and women of all races the right to vote too. I am proud America is the type of nation that it is with the type of government it has and that majority rule is not the only rule of government or law. I am confident that one day we will achieve the freedom and equality espoused in our nation's Declaration of Independence. We are already more equal today than our Founding Fathers ever dared to dream.

But we are just not yet equal enough.

Who can promise real change for a better future?

My ballot and the voter's pamphlets sit a few feat away on a foot stool. Election Day is less that a week away. It may prove to be one of the most important elections of a generation, yet I find I'm not yet ready to mark my ballot.

I miss going to the polls on Election Day. It feels more significant somehow to go to the polls and cast a vote. A vote at the polls seems more like I'm fulfilling a civic right, like I'm more a participant in the process.

I'll probably end up doing like I have the last couple of elections and drop off my ballot at one of the drop-off spots, rather than mailing it in. It feels more like going to the polls that way. That, and I need a deadline -- a ticking clock -- to get me moving on some projects, whether at home or at work.

I am pretty sure I know how I'm going to vote on the major races (but won't divulge that here. That's a secret I'll keep for my ballot). But the ballot measures are another matter. I'm becoming a cranky old curmudgeon on ballot measure. I am tempted to vote no on everything. I believe the initiative process can be an important part of American civics. However, it mostly seems a sign that the America political system is broken. Our elected leaders (at the federal and state levels), entrenched in divisive partisan politics, seem unable to govern. Unable to practice statesmanship. Unable to make the difficult, important choices to move us forward and away from simplistic, stereotypical rhetoric.

The people have tried to take action, force change, through things like establishing term limits in various states. But instead of making things better, it has only made things worse by leaving the lobbyists and appointed bureaucrats with the influence, power and institutional knowledge necessary to negotiate the process.

Can any of these men and women running for office, seeking our vote on Tuesday, lead us to a better world?

It's a simple vote: Yes or No?

Could the future president be coming to town?

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is coming to Oregon at the end of the week and he is scheduled to make an appearance in Salem.

According to the Statesman Journal website, tickets are required at his Salem appearance, but no more tickets are available.

I don't talk about my politics, even with friends, so I won't say who I will be voting for in the Oregon primary or in November. Actually, I'm not sure if I'll get to vote for anyone in the primary, since I also didn't tell state election officials my politics and I am not affiliated with a major (or minor) political party. But I am a little intrigues by the opportunity to see someone who could be a future president with my own eyes.

Perhaps I was born too late. I love lots of the modern technological conveniences and devices, but I miss campaign style of earlier generations where candidates made their stump speeches from the backs of trains at a railroad siding while traveling the nation.

I got to meet a former president once and covered a couple of presidential candidates' appearances in Oregon when I was in college -- Jesse Jackson and Michael Dukakis. Papers I've worked for have covered campaign appearances, but I was long since relegated to desk duty during those events.

Maybe I just forget the feeling and excitement of those appearances because so much time has passed. But Obama's candidacy seems to be different. There is an energy and excitement out there among the public and the mainstream press. I guess I am intrigues at the idea of find out what that excitement is all about for myself.

Odds are, I won't go. I probably wouldn't get to a spot where I would see anything more than the candidate's motorcade anyway. It's just exciting that at least one of the primary races is close enough that a candidate will make several Oregon appearances. Back in January, I figured it both races would be long over by the time Oregon's primary rolled around in May. I don't we will see McCain or the Democratic Party nominee before the November general election. Oregon just isn't a big enough state with enough voters to matter in the fall, unless they make a quick pass through Portland en route to Seattle or somewhere else.

I'll also be curious to see whether Hillary Clinton visits any other cities besides Portland prior to the primary.

Voters strip mayor of gavel for posing in panties

The mayor of the tiny town of Arlington, Ore., got dooced this week by her constituents. See the full story from the East Oregonian.

Some people just have no sense of humor. Come on, just how many mayors would anyone want to see in their underwear on a fire truck?

There are mayors embroiled in even bigger scandals than this one. Like the mayor of Detroit, Mich. And remember Marion Barry?

Well, I guess there are two lessons to learn from now-ousted Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist's scandal.

One lesson related to the Detroit mayoral scandal too and that is that political (sexual or skin) scandal has now ventured into cyberspace and the wireless world.

The other thing of note in this age of voter apathy is that sometimes your vote really does count, as Kontur-Gronquist was recalled by the slimmest of margins, 142-139. And she got her constituents involved, as nearly every single registered voter in the town cast a ballot. How many mayors can boast that sort of turnout or interest?

Big Fat Super Tuesday

Check out my beads!

I hope you are all enjoying this Fat Tuesday, aka, Mardi Gras day. And this Super Tuesday election day.

May your candidate win, or may the liquor hold out long enough that you just don't care anymore!