Election Reflection

I cried on Election night. Barack Obama's victory was touching in ways I hadn't anticipated; though it has been expected as of late, it is quite a powerful thing to see it come to fruition. While I am not a Democrat, I have been swept up in Obama's momentum. Although I don't agree with all of his politics and methods, (still I'd hazard our perspectives correspond the majority of the time), I view him as a great leader and a great person, someone who listens to multiple perspectives, prescribes to rational thought, and isn't afraid to admit he has been wrong. I wish these qualities didn't seem so unique and refreshing, but I cannot deny having grown jaded (along with the majority of the country) through this previous administration. Despite being a habitual cynic, I, too, feel the oft-touted "hope" that comes with this new administration and am excited at the potential for greatness.

The day after the elections, I heard an interview with Ralph Nader on Democracy Now and winced a bit. I voted for Obama because he is as pleasing of a two-party candidate that we've had in recent history and I wanted to say I was part of what I hope will be amazing change, but up to the end I still contemplated casting my vote for a third-party candidate, as I feel it is the best approach to creating legitimate, long-term change. As Nader listed reasons why I still feel like I compromised my values by voting for Obama, I questioned my choice. Rather than let it get to me, however, I've resolved to give it a year. I have so much hope and positive energy, for once I'm going to put my faith in what seems to be a promising situation and not let lingering cynicism win out.

As for Prop 8, good gosh. I didn't cry over that one, mainly because I anticipated it passing, though I had been cautiously optimistic. The truth is that this vote was just one battle in what will be an ongoing war, regardless of which side succeeded.

I didn't get to address the latest comments made before the election in the original thread because other aspects of life got in my way, but I would like to thank the debaters again for their participation. Predominately, we took the discussion way beyond the cop out approach of "You're intolerant!" "No, you're intolerant!" and at the very least I can say I thoroughly understand some of your points of view, regardless of whether I've ultimately agreed.

Commenter Katia asked that if Prop 8 didn't pass, we still revisit this issue in the future to discuss the consequential threats to religious freedoms. I think it's a worthy discussion to have regardless of the outcome and subsequent lawsuits/court decisions. I have been moving/traveling and haven't able to closely follow what is being filed by whom and who is protesting who, other than hearing that a lot is happening. As I expected, there's been a lot of backlash. I think it's fair to say there's always been latent hostilities between gay rights advocates and certain religious institutions, however, after recent events, a face-off has ensued. Someone sent me a link to this site Mormons Stole Our Rights. So now we have two angry groups (note: I wouldn't characterize everyone in this movement as angry, however) trying to deprive one another of rights. It seems to me that both groups would be better off if they let one another be rather than try to restrict the others' lives. Tickle me naive, but perhaps a truce can be reached.

Though I've taught Sunday School in my younger years, I can hardly call myself a Biblical scholar, so I've mainly avoided using scripture to contradict scripture. Besides, as someone who doesn't follow scripture, it might even be hypocritical. That said, I did find this video linked from FourFour about the Bible's statements about homosexuality coming from religious officials to be interesting:


Anyway, let's hope we remember to practice what we preach and tolerate one another.

I have hope for the future, I really do.