Let's see how far we've come....

It's a bittersweet day out here in California. Last night I feel proud. I felt ecstatic. I felt accomplished. This morning? I feel nothing but ashamed. I feel like I failed.

When Barack Obama is sworn in on January 20th, 2009 as the 44th President of the United States, it will mark a turning point for the country. Obama is America's redemption song. A chance to redeem what George W. Bush all but destroyed the last eight years. At the very least Obama will attempt to restore strained relationships with foreign enemies, and will strengthen those with betrayed allies. He will make it acceptable for American's to travel overseas as American's. But the essence of Obama is his willingness to listen; his readiness for change. When I listen to Obama I don't hear lies, or what I want to hear. I hear a man honest, true, and saying what he believes. Don't believe me? Just listen to his conversation with "Joe the Plummer." America needs Barack Obama after the eight years of Bush's regime.

As for Senator John McCain, he was very humble in defeat. He gave a very nice speech urging his supporters to embrace President-elect Obama, and pinned the defeat on himself and not his supporters. He spoke honest, he spoke true. He was the McCain of old, before the Bush brainwash. It's too bad that he wasn't this honest throughout the entire election, or we might be talking about President-elect McCain. His downfall though (and I truly believe this) was the appointment of Alaskan Govern er Sarah Palin who is no more fit to run a Starbucks than I, let alone a country.

The 2008 election will go down in history, much like the election of 1968. A female vice REPUBLICAN presidential candidate ran head to head with an African American presidential candidate who defeated a woman to take the Democratic nod. Never did I think that in my lifetime we would see a black president. Or a minority president for that matter. Hell, this country wasn't ready to hand a Catholic the job in 2004. Barack Obama has his work cut out for him, as no President-elect has had so much pressure, so high of expectations placed on him, but right now it's astonishing and amazing to sit back and realize that a black man who deserves the Office of President, who we as a struggling country needs him, realized his dream. It's nice to see how far we've come.

And yet, as far as we came yesterday, we haven't come far enough. Proposition 8 in California, which would place a constitutional ban on same sex marriage, passed by a 5% margin. As much as we campaigned, stickered, and blogged we couldn't change the mind of narrow minded individuals who felt it's fine to discriminate against those who are different, or who they don't understand. Everybody is entitled to their own personal beliefs, their own personal opinions, and that's fine. But when those opinions and beliefs discriminate, then I have a problem. Those who voted Yes on Prop 8, who stood out on street corners parading, those who placed yellow signs on their car windows or in their front lawns had the right to do so. The United States Constitution allows them the right to. However they took away the right of those they were campaigning against. This is no victory for anybody. Those afraid of homosexuals are doing just what we as society previously did to African-Americans, previously did to women. Not giving them the same equal rights that everybody deserves. And while this might be a slight digression from the point, the Bible and the Constitution don't mix. Those likening what the Bible says about homosexuality to Constitutional Amendments need to read their actual Bill of Rights. They should also probably read their entire Bibles and realize that Jesus Christ wouldn't have banned those who sinned, wouldn't have taken away their civil liberties, but rather wouldn't have passed judgement and would have taken them in as his own. But again, I digress.

Last night was a perfect example of how this country as a whole was capable of taking a giant step forward. Today, at least in California, we took two giant steps back.