Joy is tempered with sorrow

CA voted to ban gay marriage. So did Florida and Arizona
AR voted to ban unmarried couples (gay and straight) from adopting children.

So apparently while it's not OK to hate black people any more, it's still perfectly fine to hate gay people. Sigh.

At least it looks like the abortion limits in CA and SD, and the "life begins at conception" in CO are going down.

It's been interesting watching the reaction of the international community (at least the part of it on LJ). Universally they have been happy about the Obama win. Nearly all the posts are some variation on shinyjenni's "I agree, and I think that's why I'm so delighted by this result, even though I'm not American - it feels like all these people just stood up and went "no, we are not having this anymore, things are going to change" and they did." Feeds into my theory that one of the best ways to "safeguard America" is "to not be the kind of country that people want to blow up".

My bus driver (a black woman) greeted her friend with "We got us a black president - how cool is that?!?" I interjected with "We got us a SANE president, how cool is that", and she laughed and said "That too", and we then had a nice little conversation about how "change" isn't going to happen overnight, and how there is a rough road ahead, but that this morning we're both a bit prouder about being Americans.

Heee

from a comment on [Bad username or site: metaquotes: @ livejournal.com]
Dear USA,

Congratulations on Passing 'How to Elect a Decent President'.

Unfortunatly, although you achieved high grades in this module, you have failed 'How to Stop Highly Discriminatory Laws from getting Passed'.

You have therefore failed the subject Elections.

Please try again in four years time.

Love,

The Rest of the World

Gonna smack me some people

Several people I know whose candidate did not wil the presidential election are all "Woe woe we're gonna be taxed out of existance and my standard of living will be adversely affected. Boo hoo"

You know, I WANT to live in the kind of country where poor kids can get hot lunches at their schools which have actual BOOKS in them, and where old ladies don't die of perfectly treatable conditions because they can't afford to see a doctor.

If that means I eat dollar-store soup and store-brand mac and cheese once in a while, I'm okay with that. Unless you have food allergies, a little peanut butter and jelly never hurt anyone.

My income is low enough that I qualified for government programs to help me buy my house. I've gotten unemployment benefits and food stamps when I needed them, and I've eaten out of church food banks and learned to cook with government-surplus cheese. I'd like other people to get the same chance.

The economy sucks right now, and money is tight for me. I'm skipping the next couple of conventions because I need to watch my pennies. But I'm still going to participate in the Sun-Times' Letters To Santa program, because there are a hell of a lot of people who are a hell of a lot worse off than I am, and I can manage to scrounge up $20 to make sure a kid in a shelter or a (government-funded) head-start program or whose dad skipped town and whose mom works 2 jobs can have a present just like every other kid on Christmas morning.

Taking care of other people is not just my responsibility - it's my priviledge.

So we're just gonna have to agree to disagree about this. Cuz in this country you can do that.