Little Bang Theory

Ecstacy Denied. November 5, 2008

I stir, roll over, and finger the alarm in the dim, pre-dawn light.

I haven’t gotten enough sleep.  How could I, with the passion flowing ’till three AM, so wrapped up in the Promise and the Glory, a new relationship consummated on a bed of Hope.

It was beautiful, but as with all things beautiful, the reality of last night was not without its warts, its too-late-acknowledged realities, the cut of the knife.

To have placed so much of my heart in the safe keeping of the Family of Man, my family, expecting it to be cherished and nurtured, expecting compassion and understanding, believing that Common Decency and a respect for the Power of Love would prevail, it was hard seeing how easily we were brought to our baser instincts, how willingly we cut loose the vulnerable and disenfranchised among us, how cavalierly The Deed was done.

California’s Proposition 8, crafted by bigots, fueled by lies, marketed by hypocrites and bought by a cowering cadre of self serving, self proclaimed “Christians,” eschews the teachings of their Namesake in favor of clutching tightly to what they have and others have not, the right to marry the person they love.

It seems we haven’t learned to share, even when the commodity in question multiplies as it is divided and passed around, even when there’s more than enough Love for everyone the world over, even when not sharing diminishes the value of our own stake.

What will it take to open our collective eyes to the truth, that All Men Are Created Equal, that We The People are each others’ keepers, that we are exhorted by our professed faiths to not judge our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, ourselves?

For starters, it will take a raising of many voices, a willingness to proselytize outside of our safe community of like-minded friends, a meeting of every falsehood with a corresponding truth.  It will take courage and perseverance.  And it will take the patience and implacability of an Obama in the face of the inevitable attacks.

If we don’t do this, if we don’t all get on this now and stay on it until the job is done, yet another generation of us will be denied parity, dignity, an equity stake in the American Dream.

But if we do this, if we work it the way we worked the election, as though our futures, all our futures, depended on it, we won’t be denied.

Speak out.  Write letters to the Editors of your local papers.  Call your local radio stations.  Not because we vote in a month or a week or a day, but because we vote now, today, this minute, to either be the change we want to see in the world, or to shut up and sit down and let others choose our futures and the futures of our children.

And we haven’t the right to surrender that to anyone.

Namaste.