Post Election Blues

Thank goodness I am still feeling all the good vibes from the Rally to Restore Sanity. I am still basking in the light that there are many people like me. Those who see the good in what has happened over the past two years. People who think that we have made progress and in the right direction--and who don't tend to oversell their case. Or their prowess. Because there is not much to really celebrate otherwise after this week's post midterm elections, neither nationally nor in Iowa. The most disturbing turn of events was the assault on the legality of gay marriage.

I am so proud of our state related to gay rights. We had two places on the mid term election ballot to demonstrate our feelings on gay marriage in Iowa. The first was on the re-election of three of the judges who were part of the unanimous 7-judge panel that held that denying couples the right to marry based on their gender was unconstitutional in Iowa. The second was a referendum that comes to the ballot every ten years about a constitutional convention. While the referendum failed, the three judges on the ballot all went down decidedly. Their defeat was personal. It is the first time I have wondered about the Iowa political process, which largely seems very centered.

Ok, so maybe it is all about how difficult change can be. How scary. Same sex marriage is a change. The right kind of change. Change for the better. It is a matter of civil liberty and equal protection. We are a better country when we afford the same rights to everyone. Sometimes I am amazed that it is happening so fast, and at others I am equally amazed it has taken this long. Unfortunately, it seems like the adage of two steps forward are inevitably followed by one step backward continues to hold. The more the world changes, the more it stays the same. Now it is time to pray that level headedness will return to the state, and we will be ashamed of what we have done and atone for it. In the meantime, don't miss this chance to get the Raygun shirt celebrating our trend setting.