Presidential Opinion

Today President Obama announced that his views have evolved and he now supports gay marriage.  Hoorah!  It really is a momentous day!  It is one more step towards marriage equality.  But you know we all expected it anyway.  Way back when he first said his views were evolving, we knew that was code for, "I'm waiting for the right time to share those views."  That day is today!

So I was reading the Yahoo article on the announcement.  In the comments (which are always hilarious/interesting) there were a lot of detractors.  Here was my response:

I love hearing how so many of you say, "Oh this will never happen..  Oh these numbers are cooked," etc.  But cast your thoughts forward.  How do you see this ending?  In ten years will it be illegal to be gay?  Will we have found a cure for homosexuality?  Will we have passed a Constitutional ban on gay marriage and that will be the end of story? 

No.

Do you think that gay people will settle for some form of middle ground and leave it there? 

No. 

So where does that leave us?  Full marriage equality.  Gays and lesbians fully accepted as complete strong members of society.  Just think it through logically.  Peel away your bias and ask what will happen. You may be afraid of the answer, but it is the same answer anyway.

Change and Promises

Do you remember this last presidential election?  Presidential hopeful Obama ran on a campaign ideal of change.  He gave people hope that our government could change and our nation could become better.  We were unhappy with how things were running.  He inspired a lot of people. 

I felt pragmatic (some may say cynical).  I remember commenting that either candidate wouldn't be able to fix all of our country's problems or even the major ones.  No one man or administration can do that.  But I think most people who voted for President Obama believed that somehow he could.  That hope was unrealistic.

Time passed.  He didn't make the progress that people thought he should.  Change didn't come fast enough.  People became jaded and lost hope.  So everyone started blaming the Obama administration for everything.

Well, I hope people remember today.  The Senate has voted to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  President Obama kept his promise.  And this isn't a small thing at all.  Our servicemen and -women will not have to give up their integrity in order to serve our nation.  All citizens of the United States deserve equality, but especially those who would give their lives to defend it.

I have hope.  I have hope that this change will reverberate throughout our nation.  Let everyone know that gay men and women have achieved another large step on the quest for equality.

PS - I didn't vote for Obama.  But I believe in him.

A Lesson Learned From Being LDS

Today I read an article about another Presidential controversy. I use the term very lightly too. I don't think this should have even been reported. In a nutshell, President Obama was chatting back and forth with a CNBC interviewer. Kanye West's escapades were brought up and the President said that Kanye is a "jackass". ABC employees overheard the conversation and twittered it, sending it out to the world.

Fine. I think most people would agree with President Obama's opinion.

What bothers me is that people take the opinion seriously. People (maybe just the Media) are aghast that the President would say something like that. Come on!

Being LDS, we learn early on (though it is not always understood) that the Prophet and President of the Church is able to speak as a man, or as a Prophet. Not everything that comes from his mouth is doctrine. If he roots for the Utah Jazz it doesn't mean that it's a sin to hope they lose. If the Prophet enjoys florentine lasagna we shouldn't throw away all of our italian sausage lasagna.

Equally so, the President of the United States may like soccer, hate chocolate ice cream, and think Kanye West is a "jackass". It doesn't matter. He isn't signing a presidential decree. Do people (or the Media) believe he isn't able to share personal opinions? Or maybe it's just grasping at anything "news worthy".