Cali freedom?

Politics has been banned from the dinner table at my grandparents' home.  Only because usually it starts with just an innocent conversation-starter and ends with my grandpa slamming his fist down and my mother saying "Why do we have to talk about this?" and my grandma rolling her eyes with me.  I should tell you that my grandma, a long time teacher, is a democrat while my grandfather... is not.  He served his country and he's lived through enough for me to know that he is entitled to his opinions (especially having paid taxes for over 2x longer then I've been alive).

Which is why I cautiously brought up Prop 8 last night over chicken orzo.  

My grandparents had voted early because they were going to be off the grid visiting my aunt and uncle down in Texas so they still hadn't even seen all the results from Ohio and since 8 was a California issue, they had never even heard of it.

Careful not to inject my political views, I explained that it meant gay men and women were no longer able to be married.

"Where they ever?" my grandpa asked, inquisitively.

"Well yeah.  And then some people didn't like that and brought the issue back to the ballot."

"Oh."  He was quiet.  My grandma could tell that he was still working this out in his head and explained what she knew about it.  

"They were allowed to and then some conservatives thought it wasn't right so they brought a proposition to amend the previous decision," she told him.

He thought about it a little more and then said, "Well that's just not right.  They gave them something, freedom, and then just took it away.  That's just not right."  And a simpler explanation I couldn't have asked for.

That's exactly what happened.  I read comments on one of my favorite politiblogs discussing this issue, one of them saying "we might as well have turned the hoses and dogs on the Castro." Once again, there is a second class in this country.  And it's just not right.

I have a sweatshirt from Hollister (stop laughing, it's the only thing I own from there).  It says "Cali Freedom" embroidered on the back.  I liked it because that's pretty much what I always thought about of California.  Sun, sand, waves, freedom.  Guess not.

If my 78 year old grandpa, who gave service to this country and is one of its most loyal supporters, can see that this (Prop 8) is wrong.  My grandfather! A church going conservative.  Then my question is this:

What kind of crack are half the voters in California smoking?

If I was a gay person in Cali right now, I'd have to agree with Melissa Etheridge:

"Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books."- from Melissa Etheridge's blog.

TO CALIFORNIANS FOR PROP 8: Be careful what you wish for.  I think it is shooting yourself in the foot to deny liberties to a very large, influential population of your state.  

But that's just me.  I'm from Ohio.  What do I know?

(I'll get down off my soap box now... but just one more thing: it's really not a question of gay rights vs. morality as everyone is making it to be.  It's the fact that a group of people that do not share the same opinions as a majority of this country just dictated the rights and future for another group.  And I think there is something fundamentally wrong with that.  The fabric of society will not unravel because two men can get married.  We do not live in a democracy, the people do not rule.  We live in a Republic and we elect people wiser than us to protect and represent those who need it.  That's what my grandfather, your grandfather, and others before us fought and still fight to protect.).