Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Good News & Bad News

I am so. so sad about the Ted Kennedy news. This is a man to whom everyone in this country, & even around the world, owes a tremendous debt of gratitude. He's arguably done more good for more people than anyone in politics for the last forty-some years, & he's done it staying true to his beliefs, as a proud & unabashed liberal. Even if you're not a religious person, please pray to whatever higher power you believe in for him. The Kennedy family has given so much to this country, yet has suffered so much tragedy that you wonder how they persevere, year after year. Sen. Kennedy is a remarkable man, & comes from an equally remarkable family. God bless all of them.

Now to the good news. The California Supreme Court, the majority of which was appointed by Republican governors (at least that's what I read), has finally done what so many millions of people have been waiting for, & made them first-class citizens. It's about time that our largest state has granted basic civil rights to gay people; it's just too bad that it's not the law everywhere. When we start thinking that we live in enlightened times, we just need to remember that this is the case. Oh, well, we take victories wherever we can get them, I guess.

Just a comment about the education split among Obama & Clinton voters. I'm sorry, but is she actually proud that less educated people vote for her over Obama? I'm not being snotty: I never finished college, either, & some of the smartest people I know didn't even go to college at all. But a lot of these people (like myself) are nonetheless fairly well-read & basically self-educated, & there's not a thing wrong with that. The Clinton supporters I'm talking about are sort of like George Bush (despite his Ivy-League"education"): basically ignorant & intellectually incurious. And I'm not even going into the racist aspect of all this, except to say that I find it very hard to believe that any formally OR self-educated person can be racist- that's really, really incredibly stupid, & I think it means, simply, that you're just a bad person, & shouldn't be allowed to vote. I really mean that. Just like some people shouldn't be allowed to have kids. Oh, to rule the world for a month. Anyway, I think Hillary should address this issue of racist voters, the sooner the better.