I've just about had it.  Elizabeth Dole, Sarah Palin, up in Virginia, Thelma Drake - the country is regressing at an alarming rate into the worst of its own past. Proposition 8.  I saw a very short post (on twitter, posted by @wilw yesterday ) that put it better than anyone else.  Insert the words Chinese American, or Latin American, or African American into the proposition in place of the gay and same sex slots, and you should be able to see just how evil this whole mess is. 

This country was founded a very long time ago by some pretty smart men.  We almost didn't win our freedom because they did not want to give the newly formed federal government the power to raise its own army.  Throughout the nation's history there have been battles between federal and state governments over who should and should not be the ones telling the people what they can and cannot do. 

The government is supposed to be there to serve, but more and more we get political ads and campaigns clearly believing that the people should serve them - that they should decide for us what we can say, wear, do, listen to and watch - and that we should be happy about it.

I'm not happy.  Sarah Palin won't even stand up in front of people and tell them what she really believes.  If she can't stand by her own Creationist and racist beliefs, what makes anyone believe she'd stand up for OUR beliefs if she was Commander in Chief?  Elizabeth Dole - do the same for her hate-driven campaign you do with the Proposition eight wording...take out the words she's using, athiest and homosexual, and put in Mexican, or Irish - she's as bigoted as it's possible to be, and she's not even being secretive about it.  Thelma Drake is pulling the same crap in Virginia, fueling the fires of hate - trying to make people rise up and feel like they are superior to some other sort of person so she can get their vote.

Remember Joseph McCarthy?  Remember the Revolutionary War, and then the Civil War - remember Jim Crow laws and KKK lynchings?  Want all that again?  Then by all means, put these people in office.  They'll be only too happy to put down entire demographics of the nation in the hope of retaining your support.  Maybe we could alienate a few more foreign countries, or lock more of our own citizens out of their rights.  Maybe we could have a federal church, and eveyrone that doesn't go there can't procreate.  You think something like that is impossible then you don't remember Hitler, Mussolini, or the filthiest parts of our own history. 

It's easy to push all that aside and tell yourself it doesnt' matter who you vote for.  If you're going to support racists and homophobes, though, maybe you'd better quit with the "I don't have anything agasint those people personally" argument and own your beliefs.  If you truly can't get past the hate, I wish you luck in this world, because it's bigger - and smaller - in more ways than your parents ever dreamed of, and the walls between us all are crumbling.  It's a better world.

You can't have it both ways, though.  If you put those in power who perpetuate the bigotry and hatred of the past, you really can very easily fall into a pattern no one wants to see repeated.  You can't pretend hatred to win an election and expect the fire you started to fizzle and go out when you win.  So don't let them win.

Those of you out there with the opportunity, vote no on Proposition 8.

Those of you with a conscience, don't let people like Palin, Dole, or Thelma Drake return us to darker times.

Now..back to Nanowrimo and writing.

-DNW