hypocrite, opportunist

i've been seeing a lot of information put out there regarding proposition 8, which is being voted on today in california. it makes me a little jealous that we don't have something like that going on in tejas, but let's be realistic, i don't think rick perry and the majority of texans could handle that just yet. **

reading the way people my age are arguing either for or against (mostly against) prop. 8 is something particularly interesting to me because of how closely they're comparing it to discrimination, equating its level of absurdity to segregation and universal suffrage. it is discrimination. it IS. thinking back to what i was taught in church and bible study and on countless retreats really unsettles me these days. it's not rational. it's not reasonable.

i feel like the most important thing to keep in mind is that this is a decision that should be kept entirely separate from one's personal religious beliefs. it is not up to the government to superimpose an arbitrary moral code for the whole country; leave that up to your local church or synagogue or mosque or whatever spiritual beliefs or non-beliefs you choose to align yourself with. and further, keep that as far away from the domain of politics as possible. the separation of church and state is one of the things i feel the most strongly about, and i would be hard-pressed to find anyone who could offer any legitimate reason to pass any measure similar to prop. 8 that goes outside of religious beliefs.

anyways, it got me thinking about some things, and i'm really curious to talk to people who were around during the segregation of schools. people who were not just alive, but remember it, were embedded in it, who had discussions about it. i know i've asked my mom about it before, and she said she was too young to really remember and was living mostly out of the u.s. when she was that age, but what about my grandparents?

it's weird to think of someone like my grandfather, someone i have always looked up to and admired as one of the most intelligent human beings you could come across, as being pro segregation. surely no, right? well, i've never asked. i guess i'm kind of scared to hear what he would say, but the point is that even the smartest people fall victim to patterns of ignorance, because that's all they've ever known.

i just hope our generation can do something to change that. it might take some time, but at least there are a lot of us out there trying. right?

VOTE TODAY!

**or maybe i'm dumb and don't pay attention to what's going on in the world? did texas already ban gay marriage?