hope

"There has never been anything false about hope."
-Barack Obama

The upcoming election brings hope, fear, anticipation, and so much emotion for me. I think we are all influenced by the voices around us, propaganda, or our religious and spiritual beliefs, but we must not be blinded or led astray by any of these things. We must remember that ultimately within these issues such as civil rights, animal rights, war, the environment, etc. that we should put first and foremost that we are humans and we should deny no one person the right that another is entitled to, whatever it may be.
Most of all the issue that has made me think the most is the discussion about Proposition 8. I find the arguments from religious entities the ones that have motivated me to think long and hard about this issue. How can we govern who some loves? I have a hard time believing that God would deny anyone the right to love. I refuse to believe that we are only a tool for procreation, or that there is only one type of family. We are here to LIVE, THINK, and LOVE. So we must question, learn, and think and take a stand, but this does not mean it is any one's job to pass judgement on one another. So to those that find discrepancy between what a religious institution has taught you and what your heart and brain are telling you, remember whether it be God, Buddha, Allah, etc., whose job it really is to pass judgement! It is not your neighbor, family or friend's job, so who cares what they think? Take a stand for yourself! Proposition 8 is divisive and discriminatory. Plain and simple. Whether you choose to ignore that or not. I HOPE we really can look past our differences and embrace each other for them. We must think for ourselves in order to do so. If we truly do believe we are all created equal then the answer to this issue should be simple.

"We have an obligation to pass along to our children a more tolerant, a more decent society."--Samuel L. Jackson