Thursday Musings

Random Thursday thoughts...I was filling out a bank form this morning and when asked for "marital status," I checked the "single" box, much to my subsequent horror. Wait! Didn't you just stand before the judge, Diana, and pledge your vows to Shannon? But which is the correct box, sitting here in my Idaho home? Is this what it is like for folks of mixed race when they have to relegate their racial or ethnic identity to one box alone? I quickly crossed out the box and put the check mark in "married," yet then suffered the interrrogating mind..."But you aren't married in Idaho and this is where you said you lived...but you did just marry in California and this bank has offices there...so really, what are you?" So what did I do? I made a tiny arrow up next to the check mark that says, "^ in CA." Odd.

Other odd musings come from the reverberations from last night's Sarah Palin speech. I went to the gym in town this morning and there were three women on the stairmasters next to me. They were all extolling Sarah's virtues and making confident assertions about her readiness to "lead our Nation!" I heard the speech. I thought she did a great job as a public speaker. But when I sift through the rhetoric, the crass Obama-bashing, the not-so-veiled sarcasm and critique of "her opponent," I was left without any of the same confidence these gymmate sisters seemed to feel. I was left with the odd sensation that she was instead an enemy of our gender, one who would have no qualms about taking away many of my rights as an equal human being. So, she is a hockey mom...is this supposed to endear me to her? Not a Washington insider? Is this supposed to make me trust her any better? One woman next to me at the gym said, "I love her 'cuz she is just like one of us!" and I thought, whoa, and this is who you want to entrust with the launch codes to our nuclear warheads? Someone just like you?

So then the conversation in my mind ensues about where feminism meets sexism meets racism meets intellectual fortitude. Wow, an historic election -- one my foremothers and forefathers would never have imagined possible. But what will come next? What happens when we peel away the layers of media hyperbole and electoral rhetoric? What happens if the McCain/Palin ticket really does re-energize the Right? I may have more dollars in my paycheck, but my right to makes choices about my body gets taken away. I may get cheaper gas due to more accessible US oil, but the environment my children will inherit will continue on the path of destruction. I may see more programs to help special needs kids in the schools, but my marriage to Shannon will be voided and second-parent, same-sex adoption will surely be more difficult, if not impossible. And I have not even mentioned the costs of war... It all makes me quite nervous, really. I hope folks in this camp are really taking a look at the issues, not just the hype. I hope they are paying attention to the impact that a Conservative agenda has had on our country for the last 8 years. I hope these "mavericks" begin talking about issues, not just throwing barbs at the other side. I am all for change...let's just make it positive change.