I'm not a democrat, I'm a centrist independent.  However, I couldn't help but feel emotional on Tuesday night as I watched the election results roll in. Although I'm a centrist, I tend to lean away from the party that is in power, which means I've been leaning pretty far to the left for the past 8 years. My cynical side made it difficult for me to place too much hope in the election, because part of me doubted that our country had come far enough to actually elect a black man to the presidency. Because I hadn't allowed myself to have too much hope, the gravity of what was happening didn't really sink in right away. I was glued to the results all day, and even as Obama raced out to a big lead, and won key states that it had seemed impossible to win, I kept my hope in check, worried about having them dashed. Everyone knew Obama would win California, so when he exceeded 215 electoral votes before results for California had come in, putting him within California's 55 electoral votes of victory, I began to realize that history was happening. I've never been all that excited about an election before this one. To be honest, 2004 was the first time I had voted. I guess I was complacent until awakened from that complacency by the worst president in history. At least I can credit him with that. So, shortly after 8pm, when California's polls closed, and it was, thus, legal to do so, CNN called the election for Obama. Even at that point, my enthusiasm was contained. "They called it too soon", I thought. "They could be wrong", I worried. Then they showed celebrations from around the nation erupting spontaneously in the streets, and I began to believe, "This is really happening". Then, after a few minutes, McCain conceded, and it was over. McCain's speech was excellent, exactly what his supporters needed to hear.  Obama's acceptance speech was, like many of his others, inspiring.  With the outcome now assured, I allowed myself to be caught up in the moment. We just elected a black man!  If half the bad things I had come to believe about this country were true, this couldn't have happened!  His being black couldn't have been the reason he was elected. Nor was it  the case that he was elected despite being black. We didn't elect a black man, we elected the best man for the job, who happens to be black. That says a lot. He was elected in a landslide, winning in states such as North Carolina and Virginia that you would never think in a million years would vote for a black man. People weren't freaked out by his distinctly non-Anglo/Saxon name. I have to admit that tears came to my eyes as I drank in the historic moment that was happening before my eyes. The entire country, even the entire world it seemed, erupted into spontaneous celebration. I believe this was the adding together of two huge realizations.

1. We elected a black man, and a candidate that many, many people were very excited about, more so than any I can remember in my lifetime.

2. People realized that the nightmare that has been the Bush administration is really going to end, and end in a definitive change in direction.

Have you ever noticed when you have a pain somewhere in your body, and it suddenly goes away, how it feels euphoric? Couple that with another body part suddenly feeling really good and you've got a visceral equivalent of what our nation felt on Tuesday night.  A huge weight was lifted off our collective shoulders, psychologically. Hopes are very high, after the long nightmare, for just about everyone in America.

Everyone, that is, except for our gay and lesbian community.

Am I the only one that finds it more than a little ironic that, on the same ballot where we elect a black man, thus effectively and decisively putting an end to racial inequality in our country, we turn around and strip another minority of their basic civil rights? I'm not going to rehash everything I said in my November 3rd entry on the same subject, but this is a tremendous injustice. Since when were basic civil rights awarded or denied by a simple majority rule? Does that mean that Christians, who greatly outnumber every other religion in our country combined, can simply initiate ballot measures and vote away the rights of everyone they disagree with?

The America that I had feared hadn't come far enough to elect a black man reared it's ugly head after all, on election night, with the passage of Proposition Hate (8).  Are we just determined to discriminate against someone, anyone?

I invite anyone to use the comment section to explain to me exactly how it is that same-sex marriage "threatens traditional marriage". Because, no one has offered a logical explanation yet. It just seems to me like an elaborate justification of hatred. People who are determined to hate, or feel superior to others, will always find justification, usually by making up some way that they are threatened. Hitler was good at it, he found a way to label Poland as a threat in order to justify "pre-emptive war" (sound familiar?). He also found a way to label Jews as a threat, and managed to convince an entire population that their extermination was justified. Seems to me that certain right-wing factions would like the same fate for homosexuals.

All of this adds to my argument for why separation of church and state is essential to a free society. But that's a debate for another time...

PETITION TO REPEAL PROP 8 HERE.

(This post was submitted via email. I can do that.)