Optimistic Ruminations

In case you didn’t realize from my Dick quoting post, I was a bit frustrated when Kerry conceded. This coupled with the fact that I know that some of my family voted for w in Ohio. Nonetheless I was a bit pissed.

If they’re going to get a from me pass on this one I don’t know. While I know choosing a President should not be decided a single issue, it often is by individuals. As much as the aforementioned family members theoretically profess to care about me, voting for someone with such a bigoted attitude toward me doesn’t bode well in my book. (Yeah, I’m going to hold a grudge.) I’ll take responsibility for not talking with them about same-gender marriage and that I’m still of draft age for another year, but I assume that they’re smart.

I know that this could be perceived as self-centered and self-serving. It is. There is undeniably nothing wrong with defending your own interests when it does not hurt or infringe on the rights of another. Family should look out for one another. In this case I feel that my family has turned a blind eye to my best interests. Yes, this election is personal. When you have the leader of the free world describing your relationships and you as wrong, its personal, no other way about it.

So here is my game plan for the near future. I have a novel to write, you can check up on my progress at my NaNoWrimo Author Profile page. I feel content with my current word count, while it is low, it is in the range of the current word count of others who won last year.

Other items on the game plan for the near future include going to Canada. (No, I’m not moving, just a little road trip.) I’m quite sure that sometime around w’s first election I said if he was reelected I’m moving to Canada. I have myself a bit of a predicament here. I wrote in the beginning of May that I’m not moving until I’m 185. While thats a bit overblown, I still want to somehow keep both of my pledges to myself. (i.e. Go to Canada because w was reelected and not move, because its a pain in the rear) So I’ll be spending the weekend in Windsor, Ontario. I need to get away from this and wait for it to blow over a little, little bit. As one of my favorite bloggers has simply, but brilliantly elaborated, life goes on. (Also check it out for my mini-blog entry. (yes that was self aggrandizing.))

I’m going to end this entry with an excerpt from December 15, 2000 written in my my Spilling Open (Its like a Journal, but not. One of my teachers was inspired by Spilling Open : The Art of Becoming Yourself and had us all start Spilling Opens for our “Creative Writing” class. (yeah I’m scarred for life from that course.))

I am confident that its flashback reveals that I’m an optimist.

Without further adieu here is the entry:

Dec 15, 20000

[An arrow pointing towards a scrawling note written about 6 am or so after election 2000] This letter, an idea why I am so wrapped up in this — No doubt. I have seen the legal/political battle of Election 2000 as a personal struggle. Why would something like an election provoke a deeply personal response?

In someways I see it as a macro view struggle of my gay peer’s struggles. The fact that the christian churches feel a need to think deny me a legal right to love whom I want to love, and share profoundly and devoutly in my partners life pisses the living shit out of me. These are the same people who not 100 years ago fought to prevent interracial marriages.

While I realize that a president cannot change policy on his own, he has a Republican lead congress – which means he has great power. George W. Bush has expressed a desire to restrict Abortion, Gay Marriage, Women’s rights among others to this I say fuck you. Keep your hand out of my life. I am angry about this election, I see it as a legal coup while Bush has exposed being bi-partisan he could not accept one of the many olive branches his opponent offered him — So much for brining the parties together — great way to start out with a lie reinforced by inaction. Down w/ Bush.