Turn Back Prejudice & Discrimination Everywhere it Exists

“NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.”

President Obama has declared June 2009 LGBT Pride Month (read the whole proclamation here).  He calls upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.

Can I get an AMEN!?

This is an important gesture.  

This is an important statement.

This is an important moment for all who fight for equality and justice in America!

Let me be the first to say, Congratulation Mr. President.  You have succeeded in energizing the progressive idealist in me. But now, Mr. President I must ask, “Why have you not changed don’t ask don’t tell?”  “Why are there men and women being discharged from our military because of their sexual orientation?” Prejudice and discrimination exist right now, in our government run, government funded, armed forces.

Your pragmatism, Mr. President, seems to be in conflict with my idealism.  I dare suppose that your pragmatism is indeed in conflict with your own idealism.  So what do we do?

What do you really want the people of the United States to do in order to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists? That is a powerful charge, and one I would like to follow.

I would love to see Organizing for America be freed up for individuals to organize around their individual ideals. This authenticity is needed for a movement to take place. I believe this will offer the public support you need to bring your idealism and your pragmatism together.

I think I am speaking for many when I say we want you to be successful and we know idealism cannot be the only driving force, but please Mr. President don’t give me this hope, without empowering me to bring the change we both agree we need.

Taking Perspectives: The Daily Show offers practice

.cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url(‘http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png’) !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;}

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Here’s a fun exercise.

1) Watch this clip of Jon Stewart and Mike Huckabee and just bask in the joy that there are smart and funny liberals that get their own wildly popular show!  Yes, I can say it too, we live in a great country!

2) Watch this again and really try to understand and relate to the perspective of Mike Huckabee. Embrace it, embody it, (ok I didn’t say you will agree with all of it) but try your hardest to understand it.

3) Reflect on what you came up with…

When I am honest, one of my first thoughts was, there can’t be many people that STILL think this way (oops seems I have a trace of judgement in me…)  I realize that we are coming at this whole issue from such entirely different worldviews, though it seems we can both relate to the feeling of something being taken from us.  Huckabee clearly does not want his definition of marriage taken from him. The rest of us :) don’t want gays and lesbians to have what we consider to be human rights taken from them.

I would like Mike Huckabee to look at this issue from a human rights standpoint.

Mike Huckabee would like me to look at this issue from the point of traditional values and his views of right and wrong.

So where do we find our common ground?

Maybe we don’t.

But we are talking about laws and government and we need to have some common law.

Did I tell you I heard this fabulous dialgoue with Malcolm Gladwell and Mark Kingwell,  they were debating the effectiveness of awareness campaigns and what creates action. I think Gladwell offers a bit of a solution to our problem talking with the Huckabees of the world.  You can watch the video here.

Basically the point Gladwell makes is that so often those of us fighting for this go the approach of thinking that awareness and calling upon people’s humanity and empathy will be the answer. He says personalizing this issue is not at all helpful when trying to legalize gay marriage because that just opens the door to individuals feelings. You don’t want to make people who are opposed to gay marriage aware of it on a personal level at all because that opens the door to all of the personal, moral, and psychological issues and prejudices that are preventing the forward movement of this issue.  You want them to forget about all of that and never think of it in a personal way.  He says the answer is to just make it an issue that is impersonal and is just about tolerance in a diverse society.

The question i have is, are the Huckabees of the world truly open to protecting diversity? I am not entirely sure, but I think that idea is so interesting. 

Of course it is important to note, that awareness work and striving for the end of discrimination needs to be pursued.  Maybe that needs to be done in the schools, and (I wish taught more often in the religious institutions) and the legislative work to reach equality needs to be impersonal and dry.

I hope that is the direction politics is going less on the sensationalism feelings that the religious right and conservatives were so good at using to divide us, and more focused on equality and what unites us.