Like Christmas, But Not Quite

This morning as I woke, I had the distinct sensation of impending joyfulness, like the day was full of promise of great things to come, like Christmas morning as a kid. Then it dawned on me: "Barack Obama has been elected our next president!" It was and is indeed Christmas. Obama represents a new chance and a new hope for our nation, an unblemished fresh start. I remember now last night when the news was announced: I had been watching the results for so long at that time that I was barely focused on the television anymore. My mind was numb with the pundits' guesses as to outcomes for this battleground state and that controversial county and this prediction made in such and such month, and so on and so on.... and then... beneath the captions, I read "Obama elected president!" I sat with my mouth agape; my mom walking in the house at that moment didn't believe it was real. She cried. We hugged. We called relatives. We listened to one of the most real and convincing and heartfelt speeches I feel that I will ever hear a politician make.

On the other hand, this morning I read in the Prescott Courier that the "same sex" marriage proposition passed in Arizona. PASSED? A proposition amending our constitution to define marriage as only an institution between a man and a woman!? I couldn't think of a better example of NOT separating church and state. If this definition of marriage is not fully and 100 percent supported by secular organizations, then by reasonable argument, it is being pushed as an agenda of faith organizations! Then how, HOW can it be written in our Arizona constitution that we ALL must follow the mandate of a faith that is not neccessarily ours? This is NOT separation of church and state. This is lobbying by religious organizations that controls the lives of citizens that such organizations can't control any other way (not by scare tactics, or door to door evangelizing). This proposition is unconstitutional and un-American. Isn't it ironic that the faith-based organizations that pushed this amendment through are the same ones that are against what they call "government-controlled health-care?" Why is it ok for faith-based organizations to control our right to marry whom we want, but it isn't ok for the government to create a socially responsible universal health care system?