Three Times Happy, One Time Pissed

WARNING: Stong, emotional opinions ahead

This will be my last political blog for a while, but I felt I couldn't rest until I had my final say.

As of Wednesday morning, I was three times happy and one time pissed. Let's start with my three times happy, shall we? I was not surprised, but nevertheless excited, that Barack Obama won the presidency. I was at a results party in Downtown Sacramento at the home of one of Cliff's co-workers. There were about 12 of us there, and as his office has been calling people to support Barack Obama, we were all very passionate about our candidate. It was also fun to be around people who know a lot more about politics than me - it was interesting and educational. We yelled at the TV, we cheered, we talked shit about Sarah Palin, but we were pleased to hear McCain's excellent concession speech. Where was that McCain during the whole campaign? That was old McCain - the McCain that even democrats used to like, the McCain that Jon Stewart had on his show, like, 20 times. It was the McCain that should have been campaigning against Barack Obama, but instead, during the last year or two, it was an ugly McCain, a mud-slinging, uber-negative, Bush-loving McCain. Think if the concession speech McCain had run against Barack Obama...now, that would have been an exciting contest to watch. Instead, Obama blew the nasty McCain out of the water. See ya!

My happy number two was about Proposition 2. It passed! Yes! Granted, it doesn't go into effect until 2015, which is kinda bogus, but at least it will go into effect. I don't understand why cruelty to animals is necessary to pay a few less pennies at the grocery store. I have seen enough programs (Oprah, Morgan Spurlack's "30 Days"), and read enough books ("Skinny Bitch") to know and understand the horrors that go on at factory farms. As much as I think it is important for those who voted "No" on Proposition 2 to know what they were, essentailly, voting in favor of, I cannot bring myself to relate that information. It brings tears to my eyes just to think about it. Am I happy that I will eventually pay a little more at the grocery store? When I consider the alternative, you bet I am. I think the owners of factory farms should be shot, but at least, now, I hope they will be out of business, though I would love to see them suffer what they put their animals through.

Happy number three: Proposition 4 failed! Another, Yes! I don't really care what people feel about abortion, but the parental notification law would have been very dangerous. In an ideal world, girls would feel comfortable and safe enough to go to their parents about an unplanned pregnancy and their plans for abortion. But unless you are delusional, you may have noticed that we do not live in an ideal world. What about the girl whose parents will beat the shit out of her for getting pregnant? What about the girl who got pregnant because her dad, brother, or uncle raped her? Would parental notification be beneficial for them? No way! Plus, it's not like that law would keep girls from getting abortions, it would just keep them from going to safe, professional medical facilities to do it. We'd be back to the back alley abortions of the 1950's and 60's, where the mothers often died along with their unwanted fetuses. Of course, I know there are people out there who would say that the death of the mother would be deserved for them getting an abortion, but those are also, probably, the same people who voted Yes on Proposition 8.

That brings me to my issue of being completely and utterly disappointed in California and pissed at the bigots of this state. I am now talking, again, about Proposition 8. The bigots won. The people who relish discrimination and prejudice won. The people who are so filled with hate that they think than can derive power from making a minority group suffer won. It disgusts me. I thought California was better than that, that our one-glorious state would not allow hate-mongering bigots to make discrimination a law. However, there are two lights at the end of this tunnel. One is that the California Supreme Court previously ruled that marriage was a fundamental right. Therefore, to refuse a fundamental right to a minority group, a simple amendment can't be added to the Constitution. An actual revision of the Constitution must be made, which requires a majority vote from the California House of Respresentative and eventually the Governor. Fortunately, most California politicians, especially Arnold, were (and are) very against the passing of Proposition 8, so they may be able to overturn the decision since it is unconstitutional. The second point, though much farther off, is that just like the end of segregation and votes for women, this too will eventually happen. It is just a shame that the people of the state have failed to learn anything from history, and instead of doing what is right, they will simply force us to relive our ugly prejudices from the past before the right thing can be done. I imagine that if the people who voted Yes on 8 were alive in the 1950's and 60's, they would have been thrilled with segregation and would have told Rosa Parks to get her ass to the back of the bus. Though, the ironice truth is that the majority of people who voted Yes on 8 were African Americans. Perhaps they forget they once were not allowed to marry in this country. Though, that would require a knowledge of history and an ounce of compassion, which the Yes voters of 8 lack entirely.

So there are my three happy's and one pissed. Now I can go back to watching a variety of TV shows in the evenings instead of the channel being fixed to MSNBC. Though, I can't totally give up Keith Olbermann...that guy's a hoot!