I spent some time thinking about the to do list and then saw that President-elect Obama has asked for input at his change.com site. The following is what I wrote there and then sent to my local paper and to the Rachel Maddow Show for her to do list. I am not looking to start a war here, only get an idea out to see how it plays. The honeymoon isn't over, I just want to know what room service has on the menu. :)
November 7, 2008
Dear Mr. President-elect,
I come here today to ask for myself a piece of that pie of which you spoke so often during your campaign. Not the piece called money, though as a disabled person on SSI I receive only 600 dollars a month to live on and a little more would certainly come in handy right now! No, I come for a piece of the slice of civil rights that just got a little bigger. For decades, minorities - whether overtly or covertly- were discriminated against by individuals and the government. And those of us too young to personally remember the struggle for civil rights in this country, are not necessarily too young to remember hateful words spoken or spiteful acts committed. With your resounding election, made possible only by the active participation of those minorities, a great barrier has fallen - and fallen so completely that our nation is still stunned by the vision to the other side. I marvel at the commentary about what it will be like to see your beautiful family move into the White House, and I weep at the shining justice in your transcending the hurdle. We all had the hope, but I don't think any of us truly believed it possible. I kept thinking, well Maine will do it, but North Carolina or Virginia? But I digress. You have surpassed all the dreams of so many of us, but in doing so, you have highlighted the need to keep going as your dear friend Hillary said at the convention. We must keep going and never stop until every person in this country has equal rights, and now this means me. Until I am able to go from Maine to Georgia to California with a Marriage license (or even a decree of civil marriage) I am not equal. I am a second class citizen following in the footsteps of Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and now, YOU. You have achieved your goal of getting where you might actually get to start making the sweeping changes you have promised. As G.W. Bush said when he entered the White House, you have earned political captial. And, now, Sir, it is time to spend it. But I suggest you consider upon whose backs you stepped to climbed this mountain. At least to some extent, by not actively endorsing Gay Marriage in California, you won this election. But you left millions of us racing for the back of the bus. Rosa didn't want to sit there, but we would be happy to rest our tired feet and just be allowed on it.
The polls show that in only a couple categories did you have fewer supporters than John Kerry. One of those was the gay and lesbian population. Think about that. It is unthinkable! I was baffled by this until I realized that you left us out of your plea for unity. Sure, you included us in your speeches, but only as an addendum. Because no matter how often I heard "we are not gay America or straight America", it didn't change your mind about gay marriage and you did not put your weight behind it when and where it mattered, in Florida, California, and Arizona. I understand that in the election you had to make choices, but now is the time for change - for you to change your tone and tenor- it is the time for a federal law endorsing gay marriage. It is a time to let go the old politics of fear and divisiveness and work toward that more perfect union. The one I believed in when I marked my ballot for you despite your stand against inclusion of my people in your ideology. I had HOPE Mr. President-Elect. Please don't let that hope be misplaced.