Yesterday, January 20, my partner Tim and I celebrated our 11th anniversary as a couple. (Next month it will be 3 years since our wedding at San Francisco City Hall, during the "Winter of Love.")
Every four years, January 20 is also inauguration day. Tim and I celebrated our 5th anniversary, on January 20, 2001, by attending a huge protest in San Francisco against Bush being installed President. While we were happy about our 5-year milestone, our 5th anniversary was filled with dread. As the Onion wrote then, "Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is over." As much as our 5th anniversary was filled with dread for the future of the country, we could not have imagined how bad the consequences of Inauguration Day, 2001, would be.
Within a few months, the 2001 recession had claimed Tim's job, and he would remain unemployed for over a year. Tim's frustration over unsuccessfully applying for hundreds of jobs without a response spilled over into the relationship.
We were appalled at the direction the Bush administration was taking our country. Then came 9/11, the wars, the erosion of democracy in this country.
Our 9th anniversary fell on Bush's 2nd inauguration. In the previous year, we had felt the joy of being able to get married at San Francisco City Hall, and of celebrating with our family and friends. We also felt shock and anger at our marriage being attacked as destructive to society, in the demagoguery of 2004 Presidential campaign. We were sad in August, 2004, when the California Supreme Court annulled our marriage. We were heartbroken at the 2004 election results.
This 11th anniversary, yesterday, was a much more hopeful one, as the nation is finally coming to its senses, and as it appears that the excesses of the Bush administration might finally be curbed.
We're looking forward to Inauguration Day, January 20, 2008, which will be our 13th anniversary. We're hopeful that 2008 will be our lucky 13. Who's up for celebrating with us? Perhaps we'll dance in the streets of San Francisco-- as a happy counterpoint to the darkness of the protest march of Jan. 20, 2001.
Here's a video for a song for the next 2 years: "Two More Years," by Bloc Party.
http://youtube.com/...
Sing along with me on the chorus:
"This pain won't last forever
Two more years
Two more years
Two more years
To hold on."