A quick introduction of me:
It took the last 8 years and this incredibly exciting (if excruciating) campaign season to finally get me interested in politics. The first time I voted was in 1988 as an 18-year-old. I'm embarassed about who I voted for in 88, so I won't say. I got a little more interested when Clinton came around, but did only my duty by casting my ballot on election days. In 2000 I was dating a raging republican (boy, what was I thinking?) and he stayed up all night watching the returns, but I didn't really care. I voted for Gore since I thought he was the lesser of two evils. Bush II pissed me off so much that in 2004 I was pretty riled up - enough to cast my vote for Kerry and watch the returns with some friends at a bar.
But this year....
... I have been addicted to this whole election process. I'm new to Daily Kos and I love checking it out every day for all the different stories and diaries - they really make me think. Some make me cry, some make me laugh, and some send chills down my spine. I'm totally addicted (I can thank my husband, mountain pirate, for that). And beyond reading blogs, I've actually volunteered at the Obama office here in Bozeman, Montana. I've phone banked, canvassed, and data entered. After I finish this diary I'm heading there again tonight to help how ever I can. And tomorrow I'm spending the entire day helping at the Obama office by entering all the voters into the system so the phone bankers and canvassars can stop calling and visiting people who have already voted. I'm so excited about this election I can hardly think straight!
Enough about me. What I really wanted to write about is my family and friends in California. Many of these people are very conservative Christians and have some very different values than I do (I'm a very liberal Christian). I suspect that they're thinking about voting Yes on Prop 8. I'm not close enough (emotionally) to call them and talk to them about it (the truth is I simply hate confrontation), so I thought I would write an email begging them to reconsider and I wanted to share it with you:
To my friends and family in California,
Tomorrow is a big day for our country. I hope you all are going to vote for our next president as well as for other measures on the ballot.
I'm not going to beg you to vote for Obama, although it would be awesome if you did.
But I am going to beg you to vote NO NO NO NO NO NO on Prop 8. No matter what your feelings are about marriage - please vote against prop 8 for the simple reason that it will legalize DISCRIMINATION.
Our Declaration of Independence states:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Discrimination should NOT be written into any constitution (state or federal). And the happiness of a marriage between two men or two women is the same happiness of a marriage between a man and a woman. Why make it illegal for one person to love another person? I got married this summer and it makes me so sad to think that prop 8 would make it illegal for some of my dear friends to make that legal commitment and share that joy with family and friends.
Love is so much more beautiful than hate. And prop 8 is about hate.
This country is about freedom. And prop 8 is about taking freedom away from our friends and family.
Please don't let religion get into politics and legalize something as offensive as discrimination. And please ask your friends to vote against discrimination too!
OK, I'm off my soapbox now.
I'm spending tomorrow helping at the polls - I figured I would be too excited to work, so I might as well be useful somehow. We might have to be sharing hot cocoa with voters since it just might snow here in Bozeman tomorrow.
Hope you're all well!
The idea of prop 8 passing literally makes me ill. I've donated to the cause and wish I could be out there to knock on doors and make calls (and that's saying a lot because I really, really don't like confrontation).
Please vote no on prop 8.
And Please vote Yes We Can for Barack Obama and Joe Biden!
Peace.