Poll | 11/06/2008 12:00 am

What have you let fall off your radar this election season?

Read more about: Election 2008, Entertainment

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Hmmmmm––that is interesting, and disheartening. Thanks both of you for the reply on this.

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 11/06/2008 12:35 pm

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I was just listening to my local NPR “Forum” and the discussion on Prop 8 revealed that Dr. King’s daughter was featured on a robocall urging people to vote yes, quoting scripture. How ironic that the daughter of a man who lived and died in the fight for equal rights would take this position again them.

By Susan B on 11/06/2008 12:41 pm

That would be, “against them.”

By Susan B on 11/06/2008 12:42 pm

Susan–-the contradictions in human beings. And you’re right about the irony here. There is a documentary, by the way, entitled. the Times of Harvey Milk which I would highly recommend. This lucid, empathic 1984 documentary is about the first openly gay elected official in California and focusses on Harvey Milk as a grassroots politician who views gay rights as just one part of a democratizing movement in San Francisco government. He rose to a seat on the Board of Supervisors in 1977, after the city moved toward neighborhood rule. A former Board member Dan White, assassinates Milk and Mayor George Moscone. White, clearly a disturbed man who was homophobic, pleaded not guilty because , he claimed, he had eaten a huge amount of Twinkies before the killings–––”it was the sugar, it altered my brain.” It is a powerful film. I have seen it four times and each time it touches me more.

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 11/06/2008 2:09 pm

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Living most of my life in the SF metro area, I remember that day vividly. It’s hard to believe so many years have passed since those murders. I’ve seen the doc, many years ago. But I have to say, reality left even more of an impression. It was an event that touched my life and molded my views about homophobia. Another event close to home was the Jonestown massacres in Guyana in 1978. It was an example of socio-religious power gone terribly wrong, leading to the deaths of over 900 men, women and children. I was in college at the time, and my Anthro instructor was the brother of Deborah Layton, a defecting member of the People’s Temple whose testimony was instrumental in Bay Area Congressman Leo Ryan’s investigative journey to Guyana — which, on the day of the tragedy, led to his and newpaper reporters’ assassinations on a landing strip there. Another vivid lesson about the dangers of blind faith. I imagine anyone living in or around SF in those days still carries a deep conviction about that sort of insanity and hatred. When I say that I’m intolerant of intolerance — especially religious intolerance — that’s where I’m coming from.

By Susan B on 11/06/2008 3:34 pm

1978 was truly a horrific year in San Francisco. I was in law school there at the time, and I vividly remember driving across the bridge, on the way to class, when Dianne Feinstein’s breaking voice announced over the radio that Milk and Moscone had been shot. Then one of my law school classmates went to Jonestown and never returned, and then we heard of the mass murders [I don’t think of Jonestown as suicides, not really, other than Jones himself] of so many people. Anyway, I was thinking this morning of Prop 8 and that night after the Milk/Moscone murders that we all converged on city hall carrying candles. It was a very moving evening, drenched in grief. People were crying, people were in shock. That day was emotionally charged, from the announcement on that radio that morning to the vigil that night. We will find a way to turn Prop 8 around. A lot of people were made to feel fear, especially in the Central Valley. If you look at where Prop 8 passed, look at the Central Valley and the Central Coast. It was defeated along most of the Coast and around Lake Tahoe. Horribly sad that King’s daughter was part of the robocalling. Maybe we need to continue the campaign, to get people to change their minds, see how unfair it is to deny one segment of the population fundamental legal rights.

By Elizabeth Bennett on 11/06/2008 3:59 pm

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Reading your comment along with Susan’s gives me chills. That you two were in the thick of it and what that must have been like. Re: King’s daughter initiating those robocalls––––much should be made of this this, I would think. Some letters to the editors? Something!!

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 11/06/2008 4:55 pm

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What can be said. I don’t know if she actually “initiated” those robocalls, but she certainly lent herself out to the purpose. She is a minister today, and with the church at the center of her life, doctrine is bound to be her primary guide. She truly believes she is following God’s will, just as many are.

By Susan B on 11/06/2008 5:58 pm

Elizabeth, perhaps I stood beside you at City Hall that night back in 1978.

By Susan B on 11/06/2008 5:54 pm

Maybe you did!~

By Elizabeth Bennett on 11/07/2008 1:45 am

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Will Prop. 8 now be tested by the Supreme Court? Or is that that?

By DeBúrca obj on 11/06/2008 8:31 pm

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It is far from over. Several lawsuits have been filed to challenge it on various grounds, that a majority vote cannot deny a fundamental right, that more than a majority vote of the population is needed to revise the California Constitution. These cases will likely make it to the California Supreme Court. Also, the marches and continual consciousness raising will set the stage for another initiative to repeal this ugly amendment to the California Consitution. After all, the more people actually know about gay families, the less they want to deny them fundamental rights. I am optimistic for the following reasons. In 2000, the voters of California adopted by almost a two to one margin an initiative statute that defined marriage as between a man and a woman only. This time, Proposition 8 lost fairly narrowly, and only in response to a deceptive advertising campaign that made people think that it had something to do with teaching first graders about sexual orientation. [A child of about this age was used in the campaign ads.] I really think that as more people understand that Proposition 8 is fundamentally unfair, and will NOT cause churches to lose their tax exemption for following their own rules as to which people each church will marry, when people learn the truth, then an initiative to repeal it will be successful. [The first amendment to the Constitution protects freedom of religion, so a church could not be compelled to marry particular persons if their own dogma did not recognize gay marriage.] Already people are beginning to realize that the Army’s loss of gay Arabic translaters due to the don’t ask don’t tell policy at the beginning of the Iraqi war was a huge error. Since then the Army has been posting these ads on Craigslist: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/gov/910818012.html Notice that they are willing to use this as a fast track to U.S. citizenship they are so desperate to replace the translaters they discharged. I do think it is significant that the Yes on Prop 8 folk needed to lie in their campaign to get enough people to vote for it. It makes me think that its overturn is inevitable.

By Elizabeth Bennett on 11/08/2008 8:48 pm

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The fundamental rights of any of our citizens should never come down to a vote. We have a judicial system in order to protect the rights of the minority from the tyranny of a majority. In a way, this could be a good thing because once the Supreme Court decides it is unconstitutional, that will be that, and we will not have to go through any more votes like this.

By DeBúrca obj on 11/08/2008 9:02 pm

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I anyone’s interested….FaceBook already has a group dedicated to repealing this. Just join FaceBook and the the group: “Repeal the CA Ban on Marriage Equality - 2010” I only know because am always being sent group invites….but the group will grow quickly, there’s 100M on FB.

By Wine Warrior on 11/06/2008 1:49 pm

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Joan and Elizabeth, you really hit on the top items that we so easily slid to the back burner during the last 20+ months - Wow, that’s a long time. But, our nation has been sliding downhills so rapidly, I don’t think any serious American had much choice, and it’s not over, yet. I didn’t gain weight, thank goodness, but I hated myself for letting certain nasties enter my life, like being bothered by the Elmer Fudd and that little yappy animal from Lion King characterizations invading the campaign. I stooped to the lowest levels at times. My music and reading did slip, but I have been using the recordings for the blind, and they exhaust me, so I’ve taken steps to remedy that so I can hold a book again (with my retinologist’s help). By the way, I received the beautiful exotic places travel catalog. It has a place of honor on my coffee table. There is so much available to read, Joan - that sent me back to grad school in the 80s. I was overwhelmed with the fact that I hadn’t read 1/2 the books in the public library - what a joy that turned out to be - obtaining another Master’s just for the pure pleasure of it (I ended up in honors courses for almost all of my work - a real challenge but so worth it.)

By C jay on 11/06/2008 1:48 am