No, We Couldn't.

I received this from my daughter who started a college carer at Evergreen State College in Olympia WA. after her son had also been attending there. this was written by one of her fellow students................PEACE.....................Scott

This is an amazing commentary and I felt it would be something you'd like to put on your blog.
Tammy

No, We Couldn't.

I cried twice this past week. The first time was watching President Elect Barack Hussein Obama give the best damned acceptance speech I have ever seen, and doing it in our shared home of Chicagoland. The idea that we have the most pro-science candidate since Thomas Jefferson, a man who said that he is "down with Margaret Mead", who brings us a first lady who is herself presidential material, a man who is fundamentally cool and genuinely warm, who made a point to include not only Queers, but the First Nations and, gods forbid, Republicans among the members of the nation he was elected to represent. I will never forget where I was standing, who I was with, when he said,

"As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

"And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

"And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared..."

The second time I cried was yesterday. I had hoped that the nation's most populous state and the world's fifth largest economy would be able to relay the beacon of hope for myself and fellow Queer people of the Americas.Canada, Massachusetts and Connecticut had all shone hope for equality, and even heavily religious Ecuador and Mexico moved towards the light. When the court ruling came through in California, I was so excited. I was caught up in the autumn winds of the Bush Administration and its attempted successors. I forgot that while a culture can change, a national paradigm can shift, it can only change so much. That beacon, that hope, was snuffed out when one half of the Republic of California chose to deny the desire of the other half of their state to acknowledge my humanity, and the humanity of fellow Queer Americans. This denial was echoed in Florida, in Arkansas, which denied people who are not in heterosexual marriages to adopt children, and in Arizona, which only two years ago was the first state ever to reject a homophobic constitutional amendment.
These past few years it has become a constant that Republicans can win or Democrats can win, but every election bigotry wins, and Queers lose. In 2006, eight states passed constitutional amendments banning gay marriage. In 2004, eleven states did. In the rest of the United States except for Connecticut and Massachusetts, the state's elected representatives have passed sub-constitutional laws that reserve Marriage for heterosexual couples.
I can't blame it on voter turnout or a lack of funding. Proposition 8 was the best funded campaign, on both sides, of any election going on this year aside from the U.S. presidential election itself. Turnout among Democrats was at its highest since 1964.
I am tired. I am tired of fearing what the next election will bring. I'm sick of politicians first taking advantage of our fear of further oppression, and then, after we've gotten out the vote, after we've worked for two years on their campaigns and remain (alongside African-Americans) the most consistently progressive Democratic demographic, to denigrate us, to deny us our fundamental personhood, to, at best, begrudgingly give us a few of the rights of marriage so long as we don't dare to use that sacred Word.
To the 70% of the African American Community who voted in favor of Proposition 8, to the 53% of the Latino community who supported it, to the 49% of European-Americans who didn't support their gay friends and family members, to the Christian Community who couldn't look past their own religion to strive for a more representative democracy, to Barack Obama who failed to show his leadership when he told reporters that while he opposes Prop 8, he believes that Marriage is a sacred act between a man and a woman, I say Fuck You. Fuck you, for denying me something you acknowledge as precious when it would cost you nothing to allow me to have it. Fuck you for forcing the rest of the nation into the shape of your specific brand of religious bigotry. Fuck you for hurting members of your own communities because you are too cowardly to question your own assumptions. Fuck you for putting personal political gain over universal human rights. I am not a political pawn, I am not a statistical trend, I am not a bogeyman. I am a human being. I am a human who wants to raise children that I won't risk losing if I am widowed, who wants to get married and not fear being barred from staying with my husband if he gets sick and has to go to the hospital.
And yes, just as I hold my community responsible for policing itself against latent racism, sexism, classism, xenophobia and ignorance, I hold the African American Community responsible, the Latino Community responsible, the First Nations responsible, and the European American Community responsible for keeping their homophobia in check. Log Cabin Republicans, racists and religious zealots are all held in disdain by every respected leader in the gay community. Queer culture and media strive toward multiculturalism not just as a survival mechanism, not just because they do violence to our own community by claiming to be a part of it, but because it's the right thing to do. We recognize the universality of human rights, and how absurd it is to ask for equality if we deny it to others. If one of our leaders strays from this path, they cease to be a leader to us. I'm still waiting for a similar commitment from the rest of you.
Overall I'm reminded, and I think we all need to be reminded, that this election was not a repudiation of Republican thuggery and a mandate for Progressive revolution. If it were, Michelle Bachmann would have lost her seat after calling for the legislature to investigate members of Congress for holding "Anti-American opinions". The convicted felon Ted Stevens would not be re-elected, knowing that if he does he'll likely be kicked out of senate for his conviction because, well, he may be corrupt, but the alternative would be some Liberal. If Americans were really voting for Liberalism and lashing out blindly against the Powers that Be, Tim Mahoney of Florida, Nancy Boyda of Kansas, Dan Cazayoux of Louisiana and Nick Lampson of Texas would have kept their seats. Overall, this was a victory for Populism. It was a vote against something, not a vote for it.
We need to keep this in mind as we move ahead: we have not won the hearts and minds of the American People. Our job, over the next two years, is to prove to them that we can share the wealth, safeguard our biological and linguistic diversity, shield our children from toxins, prevent catastrophic climate change, reach out with compassion to other sovereign nations and respect that sovereignty. We can do this and it will benefit them directly, and benefit them more than selfishness, shortsightedness, and greed would. We do not have time for centrism, or for catering to the fears of our peers. If we retreat from our agenda it will be seen as a vindication of the Right, and they will come back to power.
Fortunately, we have new allies in this fight:

• Florida: Suzanne Kosmas, an advocate of childrens' issues, universal healthcare and alternative energy, beat Abramoff buddy Rep. Tom Feeney.
• Illinois: Debbie Halvorson trounced concrete magnate Marty Ozinga in a district that has not elected a Dem in 14 years.
• Arizona: Ann Kirkpatrick wrested a Dem seat from antichoice mining lobbyist Sydney Hay.
• Maine: Chellie Pingree, whose daughter is a state rep, defeated Charlie Summers.
• Ohio: Marcia Fudge will continue as hardworking heir to Stephanie Tubbs-Jones.
• New Hampshire: Wins by Carol Shea-Porter and Jeanne Shaheen.
• North Carolina: Gov. Beverly Perdue -- who'll no doubt have Kay Hagan on her side. Hagan defeated first-lady-wannabe Elizabeth Dole, who had fought for her seat using a near-parody of an attack ad claiming that Hagan was "Godless" because one of her fundraisers included athiests. It featured a picture of Kay Hagan, over which they played a random female voice saying "There is no God!".
• Washington: Christine Gregoire was also reelected here in Washington state, defeating Dino Rossi, who is exactly as much of a Scooby Doo villain as his name suggests.
• Colorado: Betsy Markey fought back against nasty personal attacks to defeat KKK-approved Rep. Marilyn Musgrav, and Jared Polis will be the first openly gay man to enter congress as a freshman this January, when he succeeds Mark Udall, who has won a Senate seat for the Democrats.

Montana has a Democratic Governor and a Democratic Senator and came within a couple thousand votes of voting for President Elect Obama. From here on out, Montana is essentially a Blue State, along with Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Virginia (Richmond, the former capitol of the Confederacy, voted overwhelmingly for an African-American man for their president), and North freaking Carolina. I suspect, next election cycle, Arizona will be added to that list as will West Virginia or Tennessee.

Perhaps this is how we do it. Perhaps winning over the country for the wrong reasons (fear, bitterness, a symbolic rejection of the old in favor of whatever else is out there) gives us an opportunity to win them for the right reasons. Perhaps in an environment where the G.O.P. and their minions do not hold absolute power our leaders will be less afraid of demonization if they speak their minds about equality. Perhaps this, in turn, will lead to the culture shift that has been occurring in much of the rest of the industrialized (and not so industrialized) world. Now, maybe, we'll be able to turn away from religious, nationalist politics and toward something bigger, brighter, more colorful, and more free.

I can hope, but I cannot idly hope. I have to work through the bittersweet nature of this victory. The states have shown that their focus is too small to work on the scale needed to bring equality to our people. The focus is now on the nation at large. A decade ago, a Republican-controlled congress jammed the Defense of Marriage Act down the throat of an unwilling president. What can we accomplish now, with willing partners collaborating in the House, the Senate, and the White House? Once more, I look with hope to President-Elect Obama's speech in Grant Park:

"That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow."

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