So hearing what the right-wing aunts thought of the Warren pick, I thought I'd ask my right-wing uncle, also from SE Ohio. His take?
"Wow. I guess I kinda like Obama now. I am willing to listen to what he says now. Did you see how he punched out the fags?"
"...cuz ya know, when people start thinking you're a fag, the best way to dispel that idea is to go punch some fag. Then you'll be accepted."
Ok, I admit this is harsh. But that's how I felt when I read the diary about the schoolteacher in Ohio.
Great. Obama is reaching out to them. And letting us go with the same hand. But how many of them voted for him? How many of them gave him money? Aren't all their issues based on religion? What does he have to gain?
It reminded me of a pivotal scene in a great movie, "Get Real." The protagonist is a young gay man who falls for a jock, and vice-versa. But the jock has to act straight to his jock friends, and when the time came that he had to either support his friend or not, he chose to punch him in the face.
I am tired. I can't even load most of the diaries today. Have hardly been able to get a comment in. Have to listen to folks say things like "I'm indifferent" on the issue and expect us to still consider them progressives.
Yeah, I guess we can wait our turn. Yeah, our chances of change are better than they would have been with McCain. Yeah, he says, says, says he supports us, says it clearer and louder than any president ever did before, and he didn't need to wink like Bill Clinton used to.
But this was his first chance since being elected to show us how he ACTS, how he cares, and he punches us in the face, and turns to the evangelists and smiles.