-- Reese Aaron Isbell, M.P.P.
About two months ago, my Grandma wrote a letter to her elected representatives for the very first time. It began: "I am a 78yo grandmother and great grandmother and I am very upset at what President Bush is doing to our country. He is supposed to be a Christian; I have my doubts but that is between God and him…." After writing further about her concerns, she ended the letter with a simple, "Please use your vote to stop President Bush…"
Please use your vote to stop President Bush…. What sweeter words could possibly be written? Especially when so many terrible policies are coming from him and his cronies in Congress that are detrimental to our everyday lives. Social Security 'reform;' bankruptcy 'reform;' tort 'reform;' so much 'reform' that one might think that the campaign of 2004 was all about 'reform.'
Oh, wait, it wasn't! It's almost as if these issues were hidden from the voting public. And, instead, the 'red-state' voters were all worked up into frenzy about same-sex marriage. So then after our marriage-equality rights, and other issues deemed against 'moral values,' were used against the Democrats, it would seem that the real Republican agenda is to dismantle all government programs and the social-safety-net. The issues that were NOT discussed last year during the election are sweeping through Congress; and the issues, like marriage, that got the 'red-state' voters all riled up, are being held on the backburner until, I might postulate, just before the next election in 2006-to get them all in a tizzy again. How patriotic.
Isn't it interesting how 'moral values' never seem relevant to Republicans in business and financial legislation? Take, for example, the bankruptcy bill. Republican Senator Charles Grassley, the sponsor of the legislation that would make it harder on the poor and easier for the rich, was recently lobbied by a national group of church leaders and Christian lawyers who spoke on how the Bible taught to forgive debts. (Those are moral values I can get behind!) But, wait, read how Senator Grassley responded: "…the Constitution does not provide for a theocracy… I can't listen to Christian lawyers because I would be imposing the Bible on a diverse population." Interesting. Very interesting. Isn't this the same right-wing Republican Senator who voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment and has no trouble imposing his religious views on social issues? Why, yes it is. Where did his love of 'morality' and Christianity go in the midst of legislation favoring Big Business? How hypocritical. But not surprising.
Speaking of big business interests, I got an email from the Human Rights Campaign the other day telling me to Apply Now for New HRC VISA Platinum Credit Card. In the midst of my blogging daily about the evils of Republicans in Congress destroying bankruptcy protections to help the credit card industry make even more billions in profit, one of our own LGBT organizations sends out an email to sell-us-all-out to said industry. Silly me, I thought I had signed up with them to fight for equality, not a 0% introductory offer. But I guess we should be proud to fight for the equal right of all Americans to get further into debt to the greedy credit card industry. While I don't like to speak ill of any of our LGBT organizations, because they are working hard on our behalf, I do have to wonder if they considered the timing of this promotion. All that said, I will give them props for hiring a progressive, pro-choice new president in Joe Solmonese.
Stateside, it's quite obvious that the LGBT community is getting behind Democratic State Treasurer Phil Angelides to take on Arnold in the gubernatorial campaign next year. With the other major potential Democratic candidate being Attorney General Bill "traditional-marriage" Lockyer, who has saddled up with the religious right in fighting against marriage equality, it's not hard to see why attending the Regency Ballroom kick-off dinner were our own LGBT leaders-- Assemblyman Mark Leno (the MC for the evening), PUC General Manager Susan Leal, Democratic Party Chair Leslie Katz, City Treasurer Jose Cisneros, Jim Rivaldo, Robert Haaland, Debra Walker, and newly-minted Under One Roof Executive Director Mike Marshall. I'll also give a special shout-out to the hot fire-fighter at Mark's table-not sure if he's an LGBT leader or not, but he can lead me out of, or maybe into, a fire any day….
And, by the way, we do need a new governor. Maybe if he actually spent some time in Sacramento instead of flying around the country for himself and his special interests, cozying up with big business, and playing from a handbook directly from the right-wing Bush Administration, he might see that our state legislators are working hard on issues that do affect our daily lives. Instead, he'd rather continue to fundraise and campaign towards elections of his personal choosing because he seems to perform best when he's not working at all. He's not really a governor; he just plays one on TV.
On the local side, I'm still crazy in love with Mayor Gavin Newsom for his rockin' oratory in support of our marriage equality. His consistent and strident words continue to knock me out everytime. Mayor Newsom, you keep on rockin'! I'm also pleased to see that Newsom's just hired another open-lesbian as his Director of Public Policy. Julian Potter will replace Joyce Newstat, another open-lesbian, in the position. Potter was formerly a Special Assistant to President Clinton as the Liaison to the Gay and Lesbian Community and clearly will be working with Newsom to the betterment of our San Francisco community and LGBT family.
And keeping it all in the family, my Mom recently wrote letters following my Grandma's lead. When they asked me to help polish their letters, I didn't hesitate. Having worked in Washington, DC and knowing how important one simple letter can be (or in this case two!), I knew my duty as a son/grandson was coupled with my duty as a progressive citizen to get these messages out.
So can I get a round of applause, and an Amen, for my Mom and Grandma right now? Damn straight, Amen! Paraphrasing our own already-deeply-missed Wayne Friday: how many letters did you write this week? If my non-politically-inclined family members can do it, surely our LGBT family can too.
---Reese Aaron Isbell, M.P.P. currently serves as the Newsletter Editor for the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club and as an independent political consultant for Assemblyman Mark Leno, but mostly he is simply an unemployed activist who blogs at www.reesesworld.com. He would also like it to be known that should he ever become brain-dead, please remove his feeding tube before Republican politicians can get anywhere near him.
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