Thank you, Arizona. Excellent, Florida. Good work, Arkansas. Right on, Nebraska.
What did these states do? Only ban gay marriage, ban gay marriage again, ban gay adoption, and end affirmative action, respectively.
Way to go, assholes. Thanks for tainting a day of transcendent importance by upholding bigotry, stone-age fundamentalism, obsessive fixation on globules of protoplasm while ignoring the needs of actual human beings, and misogyny on a day we struck a blow for racial equality (and sanity).
You couldn't have followed the examples of Colorado, Michigan, South Dakota, Washington, which batted down an attempt to end-run a measure against women's reproductive rights, allowed the use of medical marijuana/allowed stem cell-research, stopped another attempt at women's reproductive rights, and allowed people to die with dignity, respectively.
One hand giveth, and the other taketh away, hmm?
But to quote His Lame-Duck Irrelevant Shrubbiness' favorite philosopher (Who, incidentally, you pin your hate and intolerance on; hiding behind narrow interpretations and outright distortion of his messages), "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." - Matthew 25:40
And ye had surely done much unto our brethren on Election Day.
What is it, exactly, that frightens you so? Pee-pees and hoo-hoos being touched by the wrong gender, out of your sight or any other means of perception? Proof that people who are not like you live just as meaningful, rich, and productive lives as any other? Admitting that there are many miles to go before racial equality is achieved? Curing diseases and afflictions?
Backed into a corner by all measures of science and common sense, you cling to your so-called faith (which apparently is so weak that you must denounce the Founding Fathers as godless heathens for keeping church and state separate, and force your very distinct and irretrievably repugnant brand of cultism upon others so that you won't feel insecure), again and again attempting to sit in judgment of others whom your god alone reserves the right to judge.
"Marriage" has become your latest shield, a threadbare veil to drape over the hate in your hearts. No, no, good child of god, you tell yourself that you aren't usurping the one true judge you claim to believe in, arrogantly insisting you know know his mind, and acting without his blessing as his terrible, swift sword; you're defending "marriage." A tradition, sacrosanct and pure.
But your "tradition" of marriage is but another twisted course through the halls of history, as any historian can tell you that marriage came into being in order to gather wealth. Not join two souls under the eyes of god, but to combine the holdings of two families in order to solidify the financial position of both.
History also teaches us that homosexuality has been, is now, and ever will be, and you don't "catch" it by being near gay people; thus, the children that they raise will love whoever they desire regardless of their upbringing.
The same is true of differing peoples, who's only offense is to have had ancestors settle and adapt to a different environment than yours. So-called "race" is simply environmental adaptation, with statistically insignificant genetic markers. One people's thyroid cancer is another's sickle-cell anemia.
And so on.
Alas, history and it's students are just more heathens to add to the ever-growing majority of people who don't think as you do.
No historian, scientist, brown person, or gay person has ever invaded your home, forced you to abandon your beliefs, stolen your money, enslaved your children to a lifestyle you find repulsive, burned your dwelling to the ground, spit and hurled curses at you, and/or defiled your holy text(s) because of their "faith".
Why, then, do you feel you must treat others as they have never treated you?
November 4, 2008 was a date that will live on in our nation's history long after you and everyone you know are dust. I hope by that time your sad attempts to thwart the Preamble to our Constitution and the Bill Of Rights are dust as well. But you will long be remembered as throwbacks; antiquated sub-humans who blighted a day of sublime importance and meaning.
Go ahead, California. Make my day.