Artwork tonight from John Berkey.
Rest. I was pretty bushwhacked today, and I still feel pretty bushwhacked to be honest, if only because I love the term bushwhacked. It just sounds nice. And robust. Robust is another fun word.
Cooper and Coco are sleeping down at the foot of the bed right now on the blue blanket we pretty much keep down there for them (because dogs like things that have boundaries, what can I say? they just do)…and they’re practically snuggled up next to each other. It’s amazing. It’s like they inch closer and closer to each other…at a glacial pace…but steady nonetheless.
I *did* clean my desk today. That was kind of my one contribution to society. Other than going to the office for rent, which I didn’t have a choice in so it doesn’t count, and helping the Ho put something on tape…likewise compulsory for obvious reasons 😛
I watched a movie today; HBO has been reairing their documentary from last year The Case Against 8, which is about the Supreme Court ultimately overturning Prop 8 in California back last year. I missed it somehow, but I’m sure glad I watched it this time around. It was genuinely moving. I have always found myself very impassioned against injustice, unfairness, or general stupidity. Ever since I was a kid. It used to get me into trouble with adults, actually, because I’d mouth off if I felt someone was being any of those three things. I carry that with me today…and though I am not gay, and *I* have not personally felt their discrimination…the thought that we could decide as a country and a legal system that they are not allowed to have the same right to marry a person of their choosing that I enjoy is so anti-American and infuriating I hardly have words to express how much it means to me that justice ultimately prevailed.
Faith is protected in this country. One is allowed to *believe* whatever they want…but those individual beliefs should never, ever, ever be allowed to deny someone else with differing beliefs access to their rights. That is such a dark, dark hole to fall into, one where one group decrees to another that they are right, and the other is wrong, and where people are not allowed to just be themselves, and where government can actually actively pursue and condemn groups with lesser power and influence…I have no interest in living in that kind of country. If this country is truly about Freedom, and the right of each person to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, then we must always seek to expand rights and freedoms that encompass and protect everyone. That is a *philosophy*, and one I would die for – through extending freedom to those who are different than we are, we arrive at understanding…and THAT is the ultimate goal.
Anyway…
I don’t feel like I was particularly articulate tonight on the issue…but suffice it to say that I was very moved by that documentary, and in thinking about the recent rulings by the Supreme Court on the matter…as well as this movement we appear to be seeing to do away with the confederate flag, and denounce what it represents in our history and our present day. I mean…I feel very, very proud of my country. This side of America is not one that’s shown all that often…and I just feel very proud.
We’ll end on that note, I guess. More tomorrow. A look back on the first half of this year…and a look ahead to the second half. Huzzah!