love is all you need

i'm supposed to be at the tar pits today, as the kindergarteners are on spring break and i have extra free time, which almost never happens.  however, i'm sniffly and runny-nosed and while i'm more or less well, i a) don't want to infect anyone else and 2) want to be totally 100% for my planned newport beach trip tomorrow (i miss anya too much to cancel), passover on wednesday and the desert over the weekend.

anyway, so i'm not busy.  which is new.  which means i've been surfing the interwebs (i advise you to check out www.totallylookslike.com - hysterical) and have found, in my searches, that many people are planning to pull in iowa what they managed in california - specifically, to rob fellow human beings of basic rights by using religious funds to try to alter governmental policies.  disclaimer: while i am very easily annoyed and am a bit of a whiny baby, i am perhaps among the most tolerant people i know (and, apparently, among the most modest).  you could insist you were an alien and command i call you "clart" and i would still be your friend (if you weren't obnoxious, of course).  thus, i have close friends who fall on either side of the gay marriage debate.  i also have absolutely no inherent problem with anyone having strong religious beliefs.  that said, i am the daughter of lawyers who believe in the gospel of abraham lincoln and who hammered into me and my brothers since the day we were born the difference between right and wrong, and the importance of equality for everyone.  so, i begin to get worked up when people of one faith (or of a few) try to use said belief(s) as the cornerstone of morality or righteousness for huge groups of beautifully diverse and multi-cultural human beings.  in choosing one religion over another, you have decided that the one is better suited to you than the other, which is great.  we all make personal choices daily that define who we are for our entire lives (i, for instance, don't eat meat, eggs or cheese - and i've never been high).  however, attempting to force your chosen religion (or food rules, or puritanical fear of hallucinogenic substances) onto millions of others is just a touch pretentious.  it also, according to the constitution, which, religious texts aside, is the actual law of this country, is illegal.

i did not support prop 8 in california for much the same reason i wouldn't support a proposition that aimed to strip religious people of their own rights under the law - it's unfair.  and it's wrong.  trying to write into law the discrimination of any people would go against everything this country is built upon.  

this panic over gay marriage, over the simple allowance of people to have their own rights and their own lives, however different from ours, makes me, as a person, very sad.