Proposition

After yesterdays election, I have conflicting feelings. I am excited and upset, hopeful yet disheartened. My anger does not come from the Presidential election. America made history yesterday and I was part of it. Obamas victory is a victory for so many people who thought that this day would never come. I look at my students, students who were elated today, and I am happy that they have been given a new sense of hope and a new understanding of what is possible for them in the future. They know now that you can be white, black, asian, hispanic, a woman, and still have the opportunity, there is still a posibility for you to be something bigger than you ever thought possible. This is not where my frustration lies.

I am angered and hurt by my state. How is it possible that the state of California voted yes on Proposition 8. Proposition 8 eliminates the right for same-sex couples to marry in California. This proposition eliminates the right of a human being in our country. I just can not see any right in that. Many people that I have discussed this with tell me that same-sex couples can still have a civil union (a fact that I am not certain is true) and that they will still have some rights, just not marriage. My students and I are reading George Orwell's Animal farm and one of the comandments in the book states "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." Is this not what California is saying with the passing of prop. 8. "They can be together, but they just can't get married like everyone else." Ridiculous! We are all equal, but if you are a homosexual you are not as equal as everyone else. Separate but equal is not right and the days of Jim Crow are gone! If one human being loves another human being, they should be able to marry that person, and spend the rest of their life with that person. I will never see any wrong in that.