public policy
Jan. 3rd, 2007 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauradi7dwThe first step towards a ballot question about same sex marriage has been taken. I understand the historical background for not letting people vote on equal rights, but maybe it's not such a good thing to assume that the majority of people are hate-filled bigots. Presuming that it will eventually come to a vote, it will be time for all of us right thinking straight folks to get up off our butts and go door to door, pointing out to our neighbors that protecting families and supporting the right of people who are dewy-eyed in love to marry makes sense and can only be a good thing. It will be harder than standing around the state house, which I've done repeatedly, but it would be good for all our souls, and it might work.
Those of us well off enough to fly on airplanes (which is to say most of the people I know) are familiar with the "security theater" show of shoe removal, plastic baggies of tiny fluid bottles, and so forth. I was struck by the contrast on First Night. All it took to get into the incredibly crowded Hynes Convention center was a flash of one's button. Nobody x-rayed, no bags searched, nothing. I expect that blowing it up would have killed more people than the number who died on September 11th, but nobody expected terrorists, I guess, and we were fine. There was a lot of police presence in the downtown area, but it was all warm and fuzzy sorts - mounted police at the front of the parade, concerned officers and fire fighters keeping people from getting too close to where the fireworks were being ignited, slowly moving cars holding back traffic while pedestrians got off of Boylston street as it was being reopened. Making folks feel secure and taken care of, not paranoid and picked on.
Those of us well off enough to fly on airplanes (which is to say most of the people I know) are familiar with the "security theater" show of shoe removal, plastic baggies of tiny fluid bottles, and so forth. I was struck by the contrast on First Night. All it took to get into the incredibly crowded Hynes Convention center was a flash of one's button. Nobody x-rayed, no bags searched, nothing. I expect that blowing it up would have killed more people than the number who died on September 11th, but nobody expected terrorists, I guess, and we were fine. There was a lot of police presence in the downtown area, but it was all warm and fuzzy sorts - mounted police at the front of the parade, concerned officers and fire fighters keeping people from getting too close to where the fireworks were being ignited, slowly moving cars holding back traffic while pedestrians got off of Boylston street as it was being reopened. Making folks feel secure and taken care of, not paranoid and picked on.
