the change we need

i know no one comes here for the politics, but i have two things i would like to talk about.

1. the amazingness that was the 2008 election. i woke up at 6:30 am to vote, and walked around the corner to my polling place and stood in line with tears of pride in my eyes at the other people waiting with me to vote for a new future. there were families and my peers and old ladies with walkers, and i felt like this was something to remember. i sat on pins and needles the rest of the day at work, and watched the election returns in the apartment, where i could hear the cheers and fireworks go up in my neighborhood when they called the election for president-elect barack obama. (i wish i could've shared it with someone, but alas, s had to work and when i went to meet a friend, i went to the wrong place. oops.) it felt like an important night to be alive.

2. when i went to nyu, every week an anti-war protest marched down broadway, until their yelling and clanging became sort of routine. i haven't seen a protest in person in awhile (had we all given up?) until tonight when i got out of work, and gay-rights activists were marching down broadway for civil unions. (it was also fairly anti-mormon, i guess in response to the recent sickening passage of prop 8 in california.) i teared up once again, this time not with pride but sadness. i was incredulous that such a hateful thing could pass in this country. for a people who claim to support freedom, we do an awful lot of oppressing of our own fellow citizens. the cruelty we are capable of continues to astound me. what i don't understand about the gay marriage issue is how anyone else's union, gay or straight, could detract from your own. if someone doesn't want to get married in your church or temple, why should it matter to you that they now have more rights in caring for each other and their family? it doesn't. love is love, no matter whom it is between. in an age of anger and fear, we should be celebrating every opportunity we have to join two people in love.

i will be back to regular programming soon. tomorrow, perhaps.