Know Hope
Over at TalkingPointMemo there is a moving blog entry by eastside93 detailing his decision not to vote for Barack Obama yesterday.
I didn’t vote. Not for President, anyway.
Oh, I went to the voting booth. I signed, was given my stub, and was walked over to a voting machine. I cast votes for statewide races and a state referendum on water and sewer improvements.
I stood there, and I thought about all of these people, who influenced my life so greatly. But I didn’t vote for who would be the 44th President of the United States.
When my ballot was complete, except for the top line, I finally decided who I was going to vote for - and then decided to let him vote for me. I reached down, picked him up, and told him to find Obama’s name on the screen and touch it.
And so it came to pass that Alexander Reed, age 5, read the voting screen, found the right candidate, touched his name, and actually cast a vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Oh, the vote will be recorded as mine. But I didn’t cast it.
Then again, the person who actually pressed the Obama box and the red “vote” button was the person I was really voting for all along.
I also took my 5 year old to the voting booth when I voted and allowed her to push the button for Barack Obama. So I suppose I didn’t vote for him technically either.
She has been very into this election like I never expected. Now, she can’t quite get her tongue around his name so she just calls him “Rock the ‘Bama”. Last night she was so excited she made us promise to wake her up and let her know who won if they announced before my wife and I went to bed.
Knowing that she will never know a world where all of our leaders have always been rich white men is overwhelming. I am so proud of this country today. From the back of the bus to the White House in 50 years…you couldn’t ask for a better example of what a wonderfully perfectable system America is.
Perfectable, but not perfect. On the same night we celebrate the culmination of our parents civil rights movement our own took 2 major steps backward. The passing of Proposition 8 in California banning gay marriage and Initiative 1 in my own state of Arkansas single cohabitating adults (read: homosexuals) from adopting or becoming foster parents remind us that the progressive movement is never over. We must remain ever vigilant.
To those who would despair that these two discrminatory measures would pass, I am with you. But we take solace in the future. Both were rejected by large margins by those under the age of 30. 63%-37% in California and 54%-46% in Arkansas. Among those under 25 the number were even better.
These are large set backs to be sure. But I have faith that history will see them as minor bumps in the road to an even more perfect union. We are coming into power and will rebuild this country to reflect our values. Let no one doubt that. It will take time but we will see a gay presidential candidate in my lifetime.
Know hope.
