{"id":2102,"date":"2008-11-04T18:55:21","date_gmt":"2008-11-04T23:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/?p=2102"},"modified":"2008-11-04T18:55:21","modified_gmt":"2008-11-04T23:55:21","slug":"it-is-not-enough-to-light-a-candle-against-the-darkness-you-must-become-the-candle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/2102","title":{"rendered":"It Is Not Enough To Light A Candle Against The Darkness. You Must Become The Candle."},"content":{"rendered":"

First…from Sullivan<\/a>…<\/p>\n

\n

I voted here in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood about two hours ago.  It took about an hour to get through the line, and while standing there I was chatting with the 75-year-old retired cop in front of me, and the young 30-something gay couple in front of him, who had their two little girls in tow.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Everyone was in good spirits as the conversation moved from the Obama-McCain contest to the farce that is Sarah Palin, and then on to non-political matters, like the road work being done on the next block.  The conversation between the cop and the couple started to get animated toward the end of our hour in line as the three men began to discuss the current football season, wagering bets for this weekend’s games and making predictions for the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

And then, as we entered the firehouse that doubled as our polling place, as the couple and their daughters stepped out of line and up to the table to receive their ballots, I observed the cop in front of me. He opened his sample ballot, took out his pen, scribbled out his "yes" vote on Proposition 8, and filled in the ballot line for "no."<\/p>\n

I don’t think he knew that I observed him.  And since it was such a private moment I held back my tears of joy and my overwhelming desire to pat him on the back and say "thank you, sir." Instead, I left the polling place muttering to myself those two words you have repeated over and over during this election cycle, Andrew:<\/p>\n

KNOW.<\/p>\n

HOPE.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

…and now…Savage<\/a> …<\/p>\n

\n

Four years ago my husband and I adopted a nine-year-old boy. He’d been taken from his biological family when he was three and shuttled through six different foster homes in six years. The three of us have worked very hard to create our family. Our son has added to our lives in ways we could never have imagined. We love him very much.<\/p>\n

This year our son, who is now thirteen, came out to us. Our son is gay. We are fine with this.<\/p>\n

The amazing thing about our boy is that he goes to school every day and lives his life true to himself. He’s a happy child. He writes poetry. He skips. He’s a track star. He excels at algebra. He loves the Stylistics. He has a blinding smile. Most of the kids at his school love him. But some of the boys call him “faggot.” Yesterday our usually sunny boy, all five-feet-four inches of him, came home staring at the ground, visibly upset. Some of the boys at school were taunting him with cries of Yes on 8, the California proposition aimed at eliminating the right to marry for those who want to marry another of the same gender. The boys were punished by the school, but the damage was done.<\/p>\n

Who are these followers of Jesus Christ who would tell my son, taken from his family at three, and homeless until he was nine, that he cannot marry and have a family of his own?<\/p>\n

Today my thirteen-year-old son joined me in the voting booth. As I voted for Obama my son put his hand on top of mine. He did the same thing when I voted no on Proposition 8. He was late for school, but I can’t think of a better reason.<\/p>\n

Miss Poppy<\/em>
\nAdult Christianity<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Can we all please wake up to a better America tomorrow?  Please?<\/p>\n

\n
<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First…from Sullivan… I voted here in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood about two hours ago.  It took about an hour to get through the line, and while standing there I was chatting with the 75-year-old retired cop in front of me, and the young 30-something gay couple in front of him, who had their two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[16,78,12],"class_list":["post-2102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-marriage","tag-the-struggle-for-america","tag-the-struggle-for-our-lives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucegarrett.com\/brucelog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}