You better all be good citizens this Tuesday.
It isn’t that hard to vote.
It is sorta hard to figure out how to vote. If you’re not sure what to do, go here. Take a good amount of time and figure it out.
I did today, and I feel like I just climbed a mountain. I read through candidate positions, followed the money, and weighed pros and cons. And not just at the federal level nor even state propositions. Local government needs research also. I do recommend, however, if you don’t know how to vote, don’t vote just to vote. Skip that one initiative this time around. If you’re not going to do the research or have an opinion based on a strong foundation then move to the next grouping and vote. I believe everyone should vote, but I think everyone should also vote conscientiously.
Finally, for my California readers, America is founded on the principles that people are imbued with rights and freedoms by God and that Constitutions and Bills of Rights merely enumerate those rights and freedoms and not necessarily grant them nor take them away. Thus, modifying the state constitution to take away same-sex couple’s rights is fundamentally broken. Remember your own freedoms. Remember what makes America great. Vote No on Prop 8.
Hear, hear! And thanks for helping to fight Prop 8!
I’ll second the request to abstain from voting on any candidates, propositions, and measurements that you may not have had time to read up on the specific pros and cons. I changed my position on a couple after reading up on the relationship to existing legislation, funding, and/or plans for oversight.
Ballotpedia.org has some great summaries, but take it with a grain of salt since it’s a wiki. 🙂 Smartvoter is a reliable site.
I have strong feelings about Prop.8 on a few levels–I want any committed couple to have the same rights regardless of sexual orientation (separate is not equal!), see the many benefits to society to preserving strong bonds, and fundamentally feel the American Dream is best supported with a clear, ongoing separation of church and state. In some ways I wonder if there would be as much of an issue if the same legal rights were in place for all couples, but with a simple linguistic modification based on reference to heterosexual couples vs. homosexual couples. Not perfect, but that might help address the visceral reaction against the religious ties some feel with the term “marriage”.
I can understand how powerful it is to feel like a worldview is being forced upon you. The response to this proposition will be a significant marker of the current society at large, and whichever way it goes, there’s going to be a portion of the population that feels some moral devastation.
I hope people that are planning to vote yes, or are fluctuating, realize that these marriages have been taking place for months…and those have had no impact whatsoever on existing heterosexual marriages in any measure. Marriage rates have not dropped; divorce rates have not risen. The fiscal impact, too, looks to be negligible…if anything, if this passes, the state is projected to lost sales tax revenue (due to fewer weddings). And while I see some of the concern about lessons taught in schools, realize that California (unlike Massachusetts) allows parents to have their children opt-out of sex ed, which would be the only curriculum that might possibly mention marriage in the course of talking about relationships. So, any parent sending their child to public school still has the ability to shelter them from that if they wish. Of course, I’d say it’s far better to get exposure to different viewpoints and discuss it…but so be it. A slight discomfort to those who have a personal moral stance against homosexuality is no reason to shut down rights that can strengthen families and make people happier.
Julie, you articulated the point so well. For those of us that want to strengthen families and marriage, don’t get divorced.
Prop 8 reminds me of Prop 187, I am morally outraged at such prejudice and just reading the proposition any moderately educated person will conclude it is unconstitutional. For those of you who don’t remember 1994, from Wikipedia:
California Proposition 187 was a 1994 ballot initiative designed to deny illegal immigrants social services, health care, and public education. It was introduced by assemblyman Dick Mountjoy (Republican from Monrovia, California) as the Save Our State initiative. A number of other organizations were involved in bringing it to the voters. It passed with 58.8% of the vote,[1] but was overturned by a federal court. The measure prompted support for similar bills in Illinois, Florida, New York and Texas.[1]