John's Blog

This is a political post that's more candid than most I do that aren't Obama-related lately, but feels important to me. If you're not interested in my view here, please do skip. Last week I voted absentee, and there were 2 extremely important votes in my mind: Obama for president, and no on California Proposition 8, which would amend the state constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, effectively banning same-sex marriages. I think this is wrong, for 2 basic reasons:

• It's hateful and discriminatory, and discrimination like this should not be codified into law.
• We live in a time where human connections and commitments are increasingly hard to maintain and be true to over the long haul.

More broadly, though, is this: we should support and celebrate human commitments to each other to live in service of and support of one another, in any form we find them. It is not easy to live in a committed relationship with anyone for the long haul -- and rejecting the recognition of that type of commitment is wrong, and, I think, counter-productive in a society where nuclear families of all sorts are so hard to maintain. [You should also read Chris Messina's post on the subject -- he writes more eloquently than I do about this subject, and is well worth reading.]