My partner, or shall I say husband?!, and I have been together for 12 years. We are raising a most wonderful 6 year old daughter together and about to adopt a second soon. We love our lives.
Last weekend we were married, legally. We've had three previous weddings.. a commitment ceremony, a domestic partnership, San Francisco's 2004 weddings, but this one was legal. Finally.
As you know, Proposition 8 could change all that.
So my partner and I have spent the last of our savings donating to the cause, argued with are Mormon family and friends, given hours and hours of volunteer time, written hundreds (yes, hundreds) of emails, raised thousands of dollars, to kill this proposition. It has consumed us and our family.
Saturday I decided I had enough. I was exhausted. I could't do any more. I took the day off Tuesday to GOTV for No on 8 and will, but I decided I really had to take the day off this campaign today. I couldn't do any more.
Well, that changed yesterday... follow me below the fold to find out why.
First there was the training.
You see, the No on 8 campaign has a major push to GOTV and convince the last undecideds on election day. My partner and I took the day off work to help. He went to a training Saturday and said it was jam packed full. I though that was great, but wasn't expecting what I saw on my training day yesterday:
A huge crowd of volunteers. There were 200 seats, the crowd was standing room only. Made up of old, young, male, female, every race and ethnicity. All FIRED UP.
The crowd was so big, the trainers had to use bull horns to make themselves heard.
This was only one training period of many in the last few days.
I was ready to go. The excitement of the volunteers had me fired up.
But then, in the back (I was sitting in front), people started standing up and clapping, loudly.
We strained our neck to see who it was and we soon found out. Nancy Pelosi and Phyllis Lyon had made a surprise visit to our little training. She fired us up, reminded us of our SAN FRANCISCAN values of equality, care for others and the world around us.
Phyllis did not speak, but her presence and the memory of her dear departed wife and their tireless half century of effort on our behalf fired us up.
I left that training more excited than ever about election day work.
But that is not what got me fired up to work today, a day I decided I was going to rest and put it all aside for a while.
I leave that inspiration to an 10 year old boy I have never met.
I belong to an online parenting group and have "known" one of the mothers (straight, stay at home mom) for over 5 years. She is an amazing woman and has been quite a help to me as a parent. We were discussing how this election has been such an emotional investment when she told me about her 10 year old son.
He apparently has been discussing proposition 8 with his friends who are 'pro 8'and she says her son 'gets it' more than most adults she know. She and her children honk and yell out the window with thumbs up for all the No on 8 volunteers they see (and have given themselves). She told her children about our wedding and us and how she wish they could have gone. Her son came to her recently...
[my son] came to me the other day and asked me if you would be very sad if 8 passes (shit, I'm getting teary again). I said absolutely, and that I would be sad for you, too. He got teary and said that he would like to give you a hug.
A 10 year old boy is concerned enough about someone he does not know to feel and understand that person, to empathize and love.
It is a testament to him and to his wonderful mother and father.
And for him, and for the inspiration his concern and love give,
I decided I will go out and phone bank extra hours today. I was going to rest.
But we will have NO REGRETS!!! We will have given every dime possible, every moment possible, every effort possible.
And then, on Wednesday if we fail, it wasn't because we didn't do enough. If we succeed we won't regret that we weren't part of it.
And we can thank that 10 year old boy for wiping away that last possibility of regret.
I hope we can return the favor by making it a much more beautiful world for him to live in, free of hate and discrimination.
Can you help? Will you have no regrets on Wednesday?
Pass this No on 8 video around, email everyone Californian you know... again:
http://www.noonprop8.com/...
Help GOTV:
http://www.noonprop8.com/...