Voting
Like most everyone else in America right now I am reading the news. When I eventually get home tonight I’ll be listening to the radio (as I do not own a TV and my laptop isn’t with me currently.) Today is a historical day. Despite who wins it’ll be a first. A first black president (oh please, oh please) or the oldest president ever and the first female vice president. Either way, kind of cool to be experiencing it. It is the perfect election for a media driven reality loving society that we live in. Is either of them amazingly perfect? No, far from it, but, it’s a nice change of pace. So as I sit here and see a new happening that never could of happened years ago I wonder why some of these amendments and hot ballot issues around the country sound so…archaic.
Social issues including abortion rights, affirmative action and same-sex marriage dominate this year's list of some 150 ballot measures in 33 states.
▫ Colorado could come close to banning abortion if voters approve a proposal to define person to "include any human being from the moment of fertilization." The term would apply to sections of the Colorado Constitution that protect "natural and essential rights of persons."
▫ In South Dakota, voters will decide whether to allow abortions only in cases of rape and incest. California's Proposition 4 requires physicians to provide parental notification to guardians of minors at least 48 hours before performing an abortion.
▫ Affirmative action measures in Colorado and Nebraska would prohibit state governments from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to people based on race, ethnicity, color, sex or national origin.
▫ If California's Proposition 8 on same-sex marriage passes, it would overrule a state Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex unions in May. An Arkansas proposal would prohibit unmarried sexual partners from adopting children or serving as foster parents.
…and that is just the beginning. Florida (where I did an absentee ballot) is voting an amendment to add something to the their Constitution that basically says “marriage is only valid in the case of a man and a woman” - and of course many other states have similar things going on.
[http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/state.laws/index.html]
Wait…what? Are we really trying to prohibit someone else from not keeping an unwanted bundle of cells in their uterus? I would never, personally, get an abortion but that is my own body - I’m able to make that choice. I wouldn’t make that choice for anyone else.
And…if my friend Steven wants to marry his boyfriend how in the world does that affect someone else in his state? Straight couples around me getting married don’t affect me, neither would gay couples. I don’t understand the logic against it at all even when people that oppose it try and explain it to me. Maybe I just don’t have anyone articulate doing so?
It’s also funny, to me, that both subjects that are across a lot of states right now also deal with a subject that is never talked about much (except for against gay couples): adoption.
People say that if you don’t get an abortion and don’t want the child just let it sit in you for nine months and then put it up for adoption. We have many many unwanted kids in awful situations because of this…but whatever. That happens and should be looked into, of course and I wont go into my thoughts on that right now BUT when a happy gay couple wants to go and adopt that little unwanted child that a poor 14 year old couldn’t give up because her state is going to now ban it…well they can’t. I mean, they are gay, so of course they can’t have a kid. Because, um…why again?
I feel like I am missing something and when people explain to me why it should be this way I feel like I don’t ever get a solid answer except “it just isn’t how it is done.” Yes and woman couldn’t vote or own land - it wasn’t done that way. Blacks couldn’t vote or be recognized as an individual - it wasn’t done that way. PEOPLE couldn’t vote and make their own choices - it wasn’t done that way. Things change. Evolve people.
With that being said…I hope everyone has a good day and votes and feels proud for doing so, regardless of how you voted, you are lucky enough to have the choice.
Social issues including abortion rights, affirmative action and same-sex marriage dominate this year's list of some 150 ballot measures in 33 states.
▫ Colorado could come close to banning abortion if voters approve a proposal to define person to "include any human being from the moment of fertilization." The term would apply to sections of the Colorado Constitution that protect "natural and essential rights of persons."
▫ In South Dakota, voters will decide whether to allow abortions only in cases of rape and incest. California's Proposition 4 requires physicians to provide parental notification to guardians of minors at least 48 hours before performing an abortion.
▫ Affirmative action measures in Colorado and Nebraska would prohibit state governments from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to people based on race, ethnicity, color, sex or national origin.
▫ If California's Proposition 8 on same-sex marriage passes, it would overrule a state Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex unions in May. An Arkansas proposal would prohibit unmarried sexual partners from adopting children or serving as foster parents.
…and that is just the beginning. Florida (where I did an absentee ballot) is voting an amendment to add something to the their Constitution that basically says “marriage is only valid in the case of a man and a woman” - and of course many other states have similar things going on.
[http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/state.laws/index.html]
Wait…what? Are we really trying to prohibit someone else from not keeping an unwanted bundle of cells in their uterus? I would never, personally, get an abortion but that is my own body - I’m able to make that choice. I wouldn’t make that choice for anyone else.
And…if my friend Steven wants to marry his boyfriend how in the world does that affect someone else in his state? Straight couples around me getting married don’t affect me, neither would gay couples. I don’t understand the logic against it at all even when people that oppose it try and explain it to me. Maybe I just don’t have anyone articulate doing so?
It’s also funny, to me, that both subjects that are across a lot of states right now also deal with a subject that is never talked about much (except for against gay couples): adoption.
People say that if you don’t get an abortion and don’t want the child just let it sit in you for nine months and then put it up for adoption. We have many many unwanted kids in awful situations because of this…but whatever. That happens and should be looked into, of course and I wont go into my thoughts on that right now BUT when a happy gay couple wants to go and adopt that little unwanted child that a poor 14 year old couldn’t give up because her state is going to now ban it…well they can’t. I mean, they are gay, so of course they can’t have a kid. Because, um…why again?
I feel like I am missing something and when people explain to me why it should be this way I feel like I don’t ever get a solid answer except “it just isn’t how it is done.” Yes and woman couldn’t vote or own land - it wasn’t done that way. Blacks couldn’t vote or be recognized as an individual - it wasn’t done that way. PEOPLE couldn’t vote and make their own choices - it wasn’t done that way. Things change. Evolve people.
With that being said…I hope everyone has a good day and votes and feels proud for doing so, regardless of how you voted, you are lucky enough to have the choice.