OLD POST: My Thoughts on Last Night's Political Escapades

This was written on November 5th. 

Last I had read, Prop 8 had pretty much passed, I don't know if that's still the case or not but I'm assuming it is. I think it's very ironic to think now about watching the yes on prop 8 ads a few weeks back with my family and laughing at the unintentionally comic nature of their contents and the ridiculous product of a mindset they were so blindly determined to sell. It's very disheartening to see people so easily swayed into confusing whatever religious issues they have with gay marriage and the fact that children might (god forbid. Pun sort of intended?) perhaps be taught something in school that is not a choice but a natural evolution of the human condition. Think about it this way: What if you take them up to San Francisco (or most anywhere at this point to be fair.) and they see two men holding hands or being rather romantic with each other? What if they kiss? What will you tell your inquisitive child? Perhaps one of the gentlemen fell onto the other gentlemen due to his weak legs, (PROBABLY CAUSED BY THE GAYNESS! serves them right, damn gays!! *sighs*) and is using the other gentlemen's lips for support until he can get up the emotional strength to prop himself up again and continue on his rather unfortunately-titled first time in the Virgin Megastore. 

Whether you like it or not, kids are smart and will find things out for themselves one way or another, and fact number two is, if you make something "bad" or "taboo" they find it out FASTER. Sex, drugs, music with unfortunately derogatory lyrics("ima whack it up all ones in this beeze what what for heazity"? what does that even MEAN?), Rude language, things like this only survive in the underlaying psyches of our youth because adults give them a negative cloud around them that appeals to the repressed, rejected, rebelling angst-ridden teens of today. Granted, I understand that regardless of how we treat it, someone will ALWAYS want to listen to 50 cent, god knows why, and I'm sure somewhere in the world someone will always want to drugs. Treating these issues like the family dog or the aunt no one really likes but we have her around anyway because she's family doesn't resolve or make any of these issues go away, but I really believe it makes them less appealing because personally for myself, I've never really had any information taken away from me or made taboo, and have been able to make my own sound choices as to MY opinion(Isn't that marvelous?) about things like music with raunchy lyrics, alcohol, drugs, etc, and I've pretty much always been able to see what was good and what was bad from my standpoint and not feel blindly pressured to become absorbed in something that wasn't good for my health or disturbingly inappropriate for the purpose of potentially attracting skanky mates by purchasing a rather large car that bounces up and down and blasts the music deafening passers by on the street and blowing them into store windows with the sheer force of volume. 

Small children get ahold of knowledge regardless, and whether or not you repress something, and especially if you do, they'll find out about it. Little kids that are in my show that are 10-12 years old swear occasionally. It's rather ironic because all of the older kids have been conditioned not to swear around them, or the adults, unless in appropriate individual situations. (Mind you, that is not to say that 5 or 6 of us go off in a corner for 45 seconds and rattle off all of the swear words we know, then return to working. Although, isn't that a FUN idea?? I can see it now...) My point is, it's not fair to use teaching in schools and children to defending a horrendously archaic concept when children are just going to find out about it anyway, and making it taboo only makes it more so. And then kids have to look at you differently for not bringing something like that into your own household and being honest and free about it, and decide whether to take your side and further add to the disgusting mob of beings roaming our great planet being adverse to things because they're different or to have negative thoughts towards you regarding your beliefs and choices. 

And regarding religion, I don't really think there's anything in the bible regarding gay marriage particularly. I don't believe it negatively affects your religion anyway, unless you were to stop a mid-sermon because you spot a gay couple in the back and have to go off into a little room and get your bearings back. I know the concept of change and evolution can be a difficult thing to grasp, but bear with me... Even if there is something in the bible that could even by slightly construed as homophobic, perhaps it's a typo. It IS quite an old book. There's a new version of the Catcher in the Rye every other week or Mr. Martin's yearly movie guide. Perhaps it's time for a revision? Perhaps a 3000th anniversary edition with fun little pop outs of Jesus and friends? I might even buy it! I'm quite liberal and we're very attracted to bright colors. 

On a more positive, less frustratingly-angry-at-the-state-I-live-in note, last night was an incredibly night for democrats, and a very moving first for myself. Less than six hours after my mom had taken me to vote for the first time, which in itself was an incredibly powerful and humanizing experience, I watched televisions across downtown Palo Alto declare Barack Obama the next president of the United States. 

My mother,who was in Borders bookstore doing some christmas shopping, had sent me a few blocks downtown to go grab my brother a sandwich for dinner before we had to go pick him up from his guitar lesson, so I walked down to Taxi's(Which is now called Ralph's or Abbey's or Johan's or something now. I feel sorry for the original owner. His(Her? It?) name was Taxi, I suppose, which is a rather unfortunate name and yet they managed to make it pretty big with a nice respectable food chain. What will he do now, I suppose? He can't drive a Taxi, conversations with the passenger would be too confusing and he'd be ridiculed by his taxi driving peers. Perhaps he'll have to work his way back up the big business ladder and become an executive of some sort. I'm rambling.) and on the way I could see people in the other restaurants glued to the television or dancing around, and one woman ran past me at top speed obviously trying to reach another person somewhere in town. I finally reached my destination and walked inside to find everyone smiling and staring at the tv, making phone calls or talking happily. I turned around and looked up at the large flat-screen which declared "Obama Declared President" and it took me a minute to register what it said (Especially because it was tuned to Fox News, and I couldn't believe they would admit something so early.) before I ran like a shot down the street back to borders. I could hear car horns beeping in the distance and people cheering and celebrating, all televisions in the store windows were tuned to the same thing and everyone was glued to their sets or texting friends in celebration or defeat as I pounded down the middle of the road towards my mom in the crosswalk. I told her what I had seen and we walked quickly back to Taxi's to discover relatively the same scene as I had encountered before. My mom turned around as I ahd before to stare at the TV in happy disbelief. She then ordered Adrian's food which I had completely forgotten about and chatted happily with the cashier about how MUCH he had won by. I stole a pen from my mother's purse and grabbed the only piece of paper I had in my pocket, a receipt from Unamas mexican food and wrote that "Today I voted for Barack Obama and six hours later I watched him become elected president of the united states in the Taxi's in downtown Palo Alto. 11.4.08.". I'm going to tape that to a notebook or my wall or something. It was a very powerful thing to ride home happily knowing I had been a part of this. Democracy can be very moving. I was so happy that I had voted, and that I felt like I had been a part of it. I had so much more invested in the election now that I had actually thrown my own chips on the table, so to speak. My family raced home to watch our new president speak to the people on TV, and we felt the adrenaline buzz for the whole rest of the evening. 

It was one of the greatest days/moments/events of my life, and one I don't believe I will ever forget. 

I didn't think about the fact that I had just purchased John Mayer's live album seconds before, and had been listening to him sing Waiting On the World to Change on repeat in the car and before I fell asleep last night. The tone and content of the song really fits this mood and situation, and pretty much all of last night. Millions of people, huddled around sets or listening to their radios waiting for word of what the final results were, and as a nation holding our breath united as one for a long overdue change. 

Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We feel just like we don't have the means
To rise about and beat it
So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change

It changed last night, and I think the change will be pretty strong over the next few years, and I look forward to a very bold, bright and better future as an adult and member of society. I feel very grown up today. I think I'm ready to be a part of all this. Let's do this, bitches.