Our new pledge of allegiance.

One nation, under whoever, with hatred, blame, and spite for all.
Now I want you to read these next lines very carefully.
I am not an overly religious person. I have my own questions and issues with faith that I wrestle with on a daily basis. Sometimes I do think that there could be something out there, some guiding force that watches over everything we do and say. There are other times that I feel like there's no way in the world that any higher being would allow us to get to the point that we are at now.
I make no judgments on people as far as their faith goes. I have some friends who are in the same position as I am. Some are diehard atheists. Others, including many of my extended family members, have a very strong faith. I support all of them and do not pretend to know better than any of them on this matter.
What I can't stand however is ignorance. I hate it. I too have struggled with, and still struggle with at times making generalizations about a group of people. Or having a preconcieved notion that I am sure must be true. Or feeling the guilt when my belief in said notion is proved otherwise. I'm trying, really trying to be better about taking each person on their own merits.
I've been the subject of generalizations so many times I couldn't even tell you when they started.
"I can't believe you are an English major. You don't look like an English major."
"You want to work with children? Oh I just never would have thought."
"You're straight edge right? Do you beat people up when you see them smoking?"
"Judging from your accent I just thought you were some country hick."
These are only a few.
Anyway, where am I going with this? This week has truly been an interesting one, and unless you've been living in a cave or vacationing on Mars I shouldn't have to tell you why. America, and the world, is bracing for change, and depending on who you are that is a good or bad thing.
I've come to terms with the fact that the person I voted for isn't going to be president. I was at peace with it on Wednesday morning. I've moved on, and even opened myself up to the idea that possibly things could get better.
But today I found myself getting all riled up again.
This morning I was informed by a good friend that he had signed a petition to have the tax exempt status of the Mormon church revoked, due to the fact that they threw so much money into advertising against Proposition 8 in California. Proposition 8 dealt with the issue of gay marriage, which California had approved this summer.
I understand my friend's interest in this topic, being that he is a gay man. I myself could care less if gay people were able to get married, the whole "sanctity" of marriage thing is probably the biggest copout in the world to me.
But I also think it is a copout to blame the Mormon church for the defeat of this bill.
Now I'm not going to pretend that I've done days upon days of research for this posting. One of the places where I did get some facts from was the anti-Mormon website mormonsstoleourrights.com. But based upon the small amount of information I've gathered in an even shorter amount of time, I think the defeat of this bill basically adds up to laziness.
Is the gay community trying to suggest that with 25 million homosexuals in the United States, with all the celebrity power and backing that their community has that they could not raise enough funds to combat the "Mormon Machine?" Come on.
Supposedly the Mormon church raised seventy percent of the money which they threw towards the opposition of this proposition. But this money came from private donations of members of the church, not the church itself as one entity. So by that logic can political campaigns not except donations from a person of faith anymore? Can you even imagine what our political landscape would look like on both sides if that were to happen?
How come the Catholic church, the Jewish Orthodoxy, and evangelicals were in favor of the measure as well, but have not taken nearly as much flak at the Mormon church, who's members only make up TWO PERCENT of the population of California?
It's just hypocritical to me. If you're going to go after one, then you need to go after all of them, not just the smallest, most easily targeted religion.
I'm sorry, but if the right to marry was so important than the gay community should have been out in the street everyday, screaming at the tops of their lungs, calling in every favor and raising every dollar possible. But they didn't, and as a result they lost.
It's easy to say "shoulda, woulda, coulda," to sit back and say why you lost or point the finger of blame when you didn't do what you should have. Now the gay community of California waves it's collective finger at tiny percentage of the population and says "You are the ones to blame. You did this to us."
No, it doesn't work that way.
You lost.
Sorry. Better luck next time.
If anything the entire community should look at this last election as an inspiration. Four years ago John Kerry lost, due to what so many people felt was voter indifference. This year the Democrats won, after correcting so many of the mistakes they made four years ago.
If so many lies were being perpetuated by Mormon advertising where were the ads for other side? Do you seriously mean to tell me that Lance Bass, Portia De Rossi, Ellen DeGeneres, Elton John, and Cynthia Nixon couldn't get all of their friends, gay and straight, in the industry together to film a commercial? I mean Melissa Etheridge and K.D. Lang couldn't get together and do a song to be played on the radio in support? I mean really, you expect me to believe that?
It's just ludicrous to me, this whole situation. It's like someone crying because they got an F on their test, when instead of studying they were out partying the entire week before.
Looks like party time's over.