Note: This is a horribly delayed post, but I was waiting for photos that did it justice (I need a camera crew for FlashDance and Trikeasaurus dammit!). Luckily, Brian, Mike, Whole Wheat & Bill came through. Anyway this is the one of 2 posts about LAST Saturday (11/15), not the most recent Saturday. The other post is from the FlashDance that night.

Also note that there are more pics and videos after the jump!

(Courtesy of Whole Wheat on Flickr)

Celeste and I were on our way to the Prop 8 protest last Saturday (11/15) & halfway there I started wondering whether we should go home and get Trikeasaurus. It was a bit of a debate because obviously you don’t want to detract from the cause or trivialize it.

It’s a tough call because the gestalt here in our fair city is strange: ecstatic, hopeful, and in giddy disbelief about Obama, but devastated, angry, and really heart-broken about Prop 8′s victory. (It doesn’t matter whether you are straight or gay – everyone I know is heartbroken about Prop 8.)

So what to do?

In the end, the gorgeousness and warmth of the day carried it. We figured “The Gays” + “sunny, gorgeous day” meant that in addition to being a protest, it was going to be a party.

So we turned around, went home, put together Trikeasaurus & headed out again.

It turns out we were right! PEOPLE LOVED IT and my wee trike became a bit of a rallying point.

Did I mention how much I love “The Gays”

Click HERE for more…

Note: This is a horribly delayed post, but I was waiting for photos that did it justice (I need a camera crew for FlashDance and Trikeasaurus dammit!). Luckily, May-Li & Liza came through. Anyway this is the one of 2 posts about LAST Saturday (11/15), not the most recent Saturday. The other post is about Trikeasaurus rocking the Anti-Prop-8 Protest that day.

Also note that there is a video & the playlist after the jump!

(courtesy of May-Li Khoe)

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Flashdance 18 was just amazing. Maybe 100-150 people dancing at any given time and maybe 200 people over the course of the night. But as usual, the real story was just the vibe. A warm night and fun music were part of it, but really, as usual the key to such a great FlashDance is all the awesome people who came out to 24th & Mission and made it so fabulous! I love my peeps! Thanks for making 3 years of FlashDances so amazing!

Click HERE for more…

because it summarizes how I feel so well:

I’ve barely been able to think about Prop 8 going down. It is just too depressing and gets in the way of the happiness I so desperately need after all these years. I realize though, that not thinking about it is a luxury I have but is so much harder for anyone who happens to be gay. So I thought I should put this up to remind me. None of us get to “not think about” this.

I’m sooo sorry. For all of us.

‘deep

UPDATE (11/13/08): Here are 2 GREAT articles from the NYT that discuss some of the points I make in this post, with much better detail and info. The first is about transforming “I don’t trust blacks” voters in PA, and the second is about “I don’t want blacks over me” voters in the South.
NOTE: I wrote most of this yesterday on the flight back from Ohio, but decided to spend some time thinking about it and editing. I also wrote these three posts (1,2,3) about my time volunteering in Ohio.

I’ve always been fascinated with race & civil rights. I’ve read a lot, studied a lot, been affected by it a lot, and just plain thought about it a lot. So, it came as a bit of a shock to me that I only remembered Obama was black yesterday as the vote totals were coming in. I’d kinda forgotten it until then

I had been worried that we might win close even though we had 10 times the ground-game McCain had. I would be happy of course, but deeply unsettled about what that would say about us as a nation. This has been a vast national push the likes of which I have never heard of. What would it mean if all that effort only squeezed out a victory as close as our last two losses? That would be a deeply shattering statement about our country. But as I drove back down to Columbus last night, listening to the early vote totals coming in & hearing all the states that were going McCain, I realized that it would only be troubling only if our candidate was white. And I had forgotten that he was black.

We are in many ways a country not ready for a black President, but we have exceeded our worst truths to attempt our best truths.

Click HERE for more…

NOTE: I wrote most of this yesterday on the flight back from Ohio, but decided to spend some time thinking about it and editing. I also wrote this post on race & these two (1,2) posts from Ohio.

(Geauga County, where I went, is the red one, next to Cleveland)
(from NY Times map)

WOW WOW WOW.

This is the first day in a long, long time I’ve felt real hope. The end of the of 2006 elections was a relief & it meant that the long nightmare was at least ending. But it wasn’t a time to start a new national dream. Today is that day. The last eight years have shattered almost everything that I loved about our country. We have laid bare all the ugliness we are capable of as a people*. We have done and said things I believed were impossible for us until we did and became those things. It was 8 years of looking in the mirror and finding evil and ugliness. It has been a hard, hard time (tears come to my eyes even thinking about it). What a beautiful way to turn the page. The difference between just yesterday and today is best summarized by Barack himself, as he said last night:

Click HERE for more…

NOTE: This is my second quick-’n'-dirty post from Ohio. Again, I’m sorry for grammar, punctuation & readability. Sorry – just too busy.

(click Barack to see more pix from my trip)

Many things have CHANGEd since my last post. CHANGE! I’ll drop some quick notes before I go to bed – tomorrow I have to get up crazy early and help squeeze the relatively small # of Obama votes from this area to offset part of the red wave from this part of OH:

• I’m now in the red red red Republican hinterlands in the northwest – near Cleveland & Lake Erie. McPalin signs outnumber us at least 2 to 1.
• My new Obama belly has grown considerably (soooo much campaign junk food everywhere & the aforementioned “would you like iceberg lettuce with that bacon?”-salads. What’s hi in the middle & round at both ends…. (sigh) …me
• I saw Barack at a rally Sunday – he rocks. Clearly a little tired, but the confidence, charm, and stature is impressive. 60,000 people showed up for his rally at the state capitol.
• I rented a car and drove up here from Columbus. On the way here (late Sunday night) I dropped off various things at various other campaign offices on the way. The energy and excitement at each, LATE on a Sunday night was amazing. Given, it was 2 nights before election day, but check these (1) articles (2) at 538 for comparison. Anyway here is the picture I took at a small office in Cleveland – it doesn’t quite do justice to the noise, energy & buzz, but perhaps it does do justice to the the diversity and youth. It really is cool to see. As The Who albums says, “The Kids Are Alright”. I am amazed not just at the youth and energy, but also the intelligence, focus, & drive. It gives me more HOPE.
• When I decided to come out, I was a little leary of staying at host housing & considered getting a hotel room for myself. I’m always a little leary of staying with hosts – mostly because I am always worried about inconveniencing benefactors, so I’m never relaxed. But after staying with 2 different Ohio families, I have to say, I’m glad I didn’t stay in a hotel. It is really really nice to connect with people who you don’t know anything about, and stay in their homes, and to enjoy their generosity (Thanks, Jeanne & Hal, Elizabeth & Jim!)
• The technology angle of all this is once again noteworthy. Using my iPhone 3G’s GPS to get me anywhere and everywhere in these completely unfamiliar surroundings has been AWESOME. I navigated to Cleveland, & all around to various campaign locations, & all around this pretty rural area with ease! Thank god I found that Wal-Mart open late Sunday night with an iPhone car-charger though….

.PS – GO VOTE TODAY & EMAIL ME IF YOU WANT MY VOTING GUIDE A.K.A THE ‘DEEP SLATE!! (Yes on H! No on 8!)

.pps I miss you guys & can’t wait to get home.

.ppps: TO ALL OF YOU WORKING ON CAMPAIGNS BOTH AT HOME & IN SWING STATES – YOU ROCK! THANK YOU!

NOTE: This is effectively a draft of the post I want to put up. And even the post itself will be pretty rudimentary. I just don’t have much time. I’ll put this up now & fix it soon HOPEFULLY. ALSO: I wrote most of this last night, but I haven’t proofread this at all… I gotta get back to work….

Reporting…. from….. Ohio…. sooooo….. tired…… must. focus. type.

Ok kids -

So I’ve been meaning to blog from freezing Ohio, but I’m just working too hard and am too fried to think of anything coherent to say. This is one of those “you’ll think about it when it’s over” times in my life. Mostly I’m just working my ass off, trying to use my powers for awesome.

So given the lack of coherent narrative structure, I’m just going to drop you some notes: I really do want to capture some of this moment & I know that some of you have been wondering what I’m doing & how it’s going…:
Click HERE for more…

SAN FRANCISCO, October 14 – Declaring that it was time to “set San Francisco aside,” Senator Amandeep Jawa said Monday that he would temporarily stop living in San Francisco to travel to Ohio to help forge an electoral-vote victory for Barack Obama.

“America faces an historic crisis in our political system,” Jawa said in mid-afternoon remarks to reporters in Cupertino. “If we do not act, every corner of our country will be impacted. We cannot allow this to happen.”

“We must campaign as Americans, not as San Franciscans or Buckeyes, and campaign until this crisis is resolved,” Jawa said, urging other Californians to join him in volunteering in other states.

“This is a time to rise above locality for the good of the country.” Jawa added.

——–

Seriously, unlike John, I’m actually suspending something to go work on something. I’m headed to Ohio for the last 3 weeks of the campaign to volunteer for the Obama campaign in Columbus.

The polls are looking good for the moment, so maybe this will be unnecessary. But I was optimistic in 2004 too & that was the greatest suckage of my political life. So I’m going. Wish me (& the country) luck.

.ps
Whilst I’m away, please pass Prop H here in SF & pass Prop 1-A at the state level, but most of all defeat the heinous Prop 8 at the state level. I luvs me some gays and some civil rights! (If you want my political recommendations and voting slate, drop me an email. I’ll be sending it out soon.)

.pps
Please Please Please Please consider donating to Yes on H, or No on 8, I did. They both could use the money and are righteous.

.ppps
If you’re interested, I know a lot of folks are volunteering in Nevada on weekends for Obama. I highly recommend it! Others are making phone calls to other states. Please help out! Two words: President Palin.

(or maybe the title of this post should be “Election 06: When Good Things Happen to Good People”)

(from BoingBoing by reader Brian Topping)

Can I get a woot woot!

Random thoughts from political land…..

Yes, on a local level, we lost some truly good races with good people – but the the thing I MOST wanted to happen in San Francisco happened. Chris Daly has been reelected as Supervisor (well, as of this writing he hasn’t technically won – but that will change). For everyone out there who still doesn’t understand why I think this is so great, I’ll say this: Last night at his victory party, every activist I knew who did something important locally – whether it was homeless issues, or housing and tenants rights issues, or gay stuff, or environmental stuff – the people who I KNOW are actively trying to make San Francisco a better place, were there & many of them said the same thing: “When I realized Chris was in a close one, I came in to help out.” Another telling sign is how much money downtown interests spent getting Chris buried. They spent something obscene like $700, 000. Chris spent a fraction of that & won on grass roots support. That should tell you something too. Rock On Chris!

Yes, on the state level, we lost some really important things that would have made a real difference: public financing would have been the best thing to happen to CA in a long time & oil taxes are “hella good” as the kids say. But I can’t help but feel relief: the defeat of 90 was the thing I most wanted to happen & was most scared about. Just a few weeks ago, 90 looked like it was going to win & it had the real potential to be the worst thing that has happened to CA in a long long time.

Then on a national level, the two things that I most wanted to happen have happened – Richard Pombo, perhaps the worst threat to the planet in the House of Representatives, was defeated soundly by Jerry McNerney in neighboring Pleasanton. I spent a few days working over there & damn does that feel good. The other thing I wanted most was control of at least one house of Congress & to get the House & a virtual tie in the Senate (at least) is damn fine. The national election’s large Democratic sweep means at the very least there will be some check and some balance in our “checks an balances” system of government. I’m not sure how much I should hope for (leaving Iraq seems perhaps more disastrous than staying) and the Congress may not be able to get serious about global warming… but nonetheless – today is a very very happy one.

Finally on a personal note – yesterday I started thinking about everything I had done politically this cycle to figure out why I was so burnt out:

• coordinating putting out 25000 SF League of Conservation Voters endorsement slate cards in 3 districts here in San Francisco – a major amount of work (big props to everyone at SFLCV who helped)
• hours and hours of candidate interviews with the SF League of Conservation Voters (thanks Michelle Jesperson for getting all this going this year)
• chairing the SF Bike Coalition‘s endorsement committee & all the work that entailed (thank god for Leah Shahum who did so much more!)
• some last minute canvassing for Jerry McNerney with the Defenders of Wildlife (big props to Liz Pallatto for forcing my ass out to Pleasanton)
• a little tiny bit of canvassing for Chris Daly (and learning a little about the reality of supportive housing in SF)
• a little work with Alix Rosenthal (who ran for Supervisor, but lost – I’m keepin’ the faith Alix!)
• writing the ‘Deep Slate – my own personal recommendations which I email out to hundreds of friends & local acquaintances (thanks to everyone who asked me for my opinions)
• giving money to McNerney, Daly, Rosenthal, Jane Kim (for School Board – congrats Jane!), and Emily Drennan (for BART Board – sorry Em!)

All the while working my ass off at work & coming up with a major Halloween costume. This is why I’m soooo spent. And why I’m sooo glad that it is finally November. I get to hang with my peeps. And watch basketball. And eat turkey.

Can I get a Hell Yes!

happydeepy

.ps

Adrian sent me this awesome quote from Thomas Jefferson today – sums it up nicely:

“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long
oppressions of enormous public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us
at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an
opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game
where principles are at stake.”

* From a letter of 1798, after the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Thanks Adrian!