A Toast to Possibility

There is much to celebrate today. The people of this country, despite our myriad differences, elected Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. The victory was decisive and fills me with hope for the future.  I had hoped to wake up this morning and feel the same euphoria I felt in 1992 when Bill Clinton was elected and Oregon's Proposition 9 was defeated but that was not to be. Although the presidential election went the way I had hoped, the anti-gay ballots throughout the country did not. Arkansas banned adoption by GLBT people. Florida and Arizona banned same-sex marriage and it looks as if Proposition 8 in California will pass, taking away the marriage rights given to same-sex couples earlier this year. So, today my joy is tempered by the fact that equality for all of us is still so very far from our reach. 

I want to thank all of you who come here to read the words I cobble together. Thank you for your support in general and, more specifically, in regard to Proposition 8. Thank you for sharing my family's story with your friends and family. Thank you for taking the time to comment and lend your moral support. Thank you for linking to my posts on this issue. Thank you for donating your time and money to the fight. This is only the beginning, however. As I have urged before, please keep talking about equality and justice for all people. Do it not because you know my story and want the best for me and my family. Do it because you want the best for yours. As President-Elect Obama said last night,

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other.

Or as John Winthrop said in 1629 as he led the Puritans to this land, 

We must delight in each other, make other's conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body.

This is my hope for our future. 

Now, let's talk about that prize I promised: The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. I randomly selected a name from readers who donated to No on 8 and we have a winner: MB in Kentucky. I'll be ordering and shipping that book out to her.

Thank you all.