spartacus's blog

The idea of happily ever after with white wedding gown and black tuxedo was first impressed upon me with Cinderella I think. At 21, when I was planning my own wedding, all the brides magazines were of beautiful women and handsome men - all romantic and perfect. So, that's mostly the image of a wedding and marriage most people I know have. Not the day to day reality, but the image of it.

Now...

When I see two really ugly people walk down the isle, I think "dang, their kids will be crazazy but you gotta 'love the love' baby."

When I see an octogenarian marry a bimbo, I think "she's marrying for money, he's marrying for - what - sex? seriously? at his age? but you gotta love the thought!"

When I see two very young kids take the plunge, I think "they are too young, it'll never last, but gosh I hope it does."

So when I see two same sex people pledge their love in front of their friends, I think "I hope they legalized a trust because they have no automatic legal rights like I do."

On my soapbox, marital status in general doesn't affect me personally. Whether someone chooses to tie the knot or not doesn't change my taxes, my income, my ability to work, vote, shop, drink or dance. I couldn't give a care if you love your sweetheart and date for the rest of your lives, live together, or marry. If you have a child and decide to raise it as a single person or not, doesn't impact me or pose a negative threat in my community.

So, I think the fuss is silly. But the arguments for prop 8 are not. They are horrific. They remind me of book burning and scream intolerance. That without changing the Constitution, we would then be forced to teach our kids that same sex marriage is okay. Perhaps these same pundits believe that their kids are not already aware that there are in fact gay people in the world who are currently not allowed to commit to each other in a legal way that means the same thing as marriage. And that these kids don't already disagree.

I urge all who are as appalled as I am to please lend your voice before its too late. March 5 is coming sooner than we think.

OK - it's bad enough that McCain just lost Ohio but why do we need a perky julie mccoy wannabe serious reporter spewing her venom and MSM views right now? She just hurled her own precious view about how McCain cannot win no matter what he does.  And this was said smugly.

Changing the channel - and getting disgusted by the posers who have nailed the coffin shut on this campaign. As of this moment, it's 1.6M versus 1.6M votes and depending on which channel you surf, many states have not been called.

Is it really a foregone conclusion that Obama will win? Is there no way we can hope McCain will win? Is anyone else discouraged?

I'm native Northern Californian - East Bay native in fact. This is not so common around here and  I'm proud of it. What I'm not so proud about is that I've always felt I was in the proverbial political closet living here.

As a child, I couldn't give a care about what was going on out 'there'. For me, it was all about hopscotch and sleep overs. It all changed as I became a teenager and started to really have my own opinions. My earliest recollection of not fitting in was New Year's Eve 1979. My best friends wanted to listen to Deep Purple and all I wanted to hear was disco - but I bit my tongue and said nothing. It wasn't cool to like disco anymore. Here in the Bay Area, you had to like heavy metal.

This went all all throughout my high school and college days. Friends would want to people watch at the airport and I wanted to grab and bite and watch a movie. The analogies could go on and on. But I was smart enough to know that in my circles, I was the minority and unless I wanted to stick out like a sore thumb, I should just shut up and go with the flow. So I did. Little follower I was.

Until one day, I realized that my parents, who never foisted upon me their political belief system, were kinda smart people. My dad grew up dirt poor in Pennsylvania (my Mom's side of the family is where I get my deep bay area roots). He joined the Navy, landed in SF at some point, met and married my Mom and immediately started a family. Dad became a salesman for blind and handicapped products door to door. Then got a more stable job as a meat cutter at Safeway. Worked his butt off to get a 2-year degree so he could join the Fire Dept. Which he did. And he also started a side business doing small landscape projects. So between the fire dept, the meat cutting job and his own small landscape business, he was able to provide a pretty decent middle class home for his wife and 3 kids. God bless him and his desire to be the best he could be - no excuses and no handouts.

So one day I wake up and realize he's been the inspiration behind my hard work ethic. I thank him and we dialog as adults. It helped me to realize that all along, I knew the path I would always take and always wanted to take was perhaps the less popular. See, here in the East Bay of SF, it's very popular to be liberal. And if you're not, you better not say a word. In fact, you better just shup up and go with the flow. But I won't. And I haven't.

This election year, I did something I am still nervous about. I've been sporting a McCain-Palin bumper sticker. I keep waiting to get into a verbal altercation or see my car keyed. So far so good, but I do back my car into stalls to be safe.

So folks, I know I'm not alone - and I know it seems so much more popular to be liberal, and that I cannot recall a time in my hometown where being conservative was the cool thing, but when exactly did it become a requirement by so many to conform to the homogenous ways of your local society?