rights

as a Californian, rights, freedoms and equalities are all things i rarely take lightly. i know the costs for which these things were provided and i know what a continual struggle it is to keep them. we're now one week and a day past last tuesday's election and a bittersweet taste has been left in my mouth. we, as a nation, will stand up to recognize a truly remarkable step forward in civil rights, the first African-American president. despite your political affiliation or your choice this election, i know we can gather around the fact that our nation has taken a leap forward from its tarnished past of racial discrimination. but unfortunately last tuesday has a black cloud hanging over it. last tuesday, the citizens of California voted to write discrimination into our constitution and ban gay marriage. proposition 8's passage took us a step backward in civil rights. i want to know why someone in our great state would vote against progress and for discrimination.

i was forwarded this link from a friend in New York. i don't normally watch MSNBC and usually choose to get my news from alternative sources other than the big 3 (Fox, CNN and MSNBC). those alternative sources are mainly Real Time with Bill Maher, Deutsche Welle and NPR. anyways, Keith Olbermann usually comes off as a giant tool to me but i like this segment. he makes good points from an uninvolved perspective.

today i read about a movie coming out at the end of the month called Milk. unfortunately i'll be in Paris for it's release, but then again i have the feeling it won't be widely shown in Auburn, Alabama anyways. the film is about the life of San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk, who is portrayed by Sean Penn. Harvey Milk was a gay politician who was killed, along with Mayor Moscone, by a fellow city supervisor. the trailer nearly brought me tears. it portrays a man so passionate for his and his citizens' rights and freedoms that he will brave a barrage of assaults from others. we need someone like that now in California. i see glimmers of hope in Mayor Newsom or Senator Feinstein (Senator Feinstein was actually the President of the Board of Supervisors when both the mayor and Harvey Milk were shot).

in closing, we need to unite as a state and afford our fellow citizens the rights that so many all ready take for granted.