edge of the continent

At some point in each session of my language class, my classmates and I are told to partner up with someone new and practice our conversation skills through exchanges of pleasantries and questions about majors and favorite colors. Earlier this week, I teamed up with Jayne, who told me (in English) that she is seventeen and just graduated from high school a few months ago. After some quick mental gymnastics, I calculated that I was in high school when she was born. Wow.

After we had exchanged (in Filipino) what we ate for dinner the previous night, I asked if she did anything else. She replied that she had played a videogame, so I followed up by asking if she had a favorite and then she asked me for mine. I blurted out “Frogger” before remembering all those hours spent playing Maniac Mansion on my family’s Commodore 64. But before I could change my answer, Jayne asked (in English), “What’s Frogger? I don’t think I’ve heard of it.”

I felt my thirtysomething soul wheeze a little with those words. Had I mentioned MM and the Commodore, I don’t think I could have withstood the twitching induced by her blank stare.

“I want for them the same thing that we all want for our loved ones — for each of them to find a mate whom they love deeply and who loves them back; someone with whom they can grow old together and share life’s wondrous adventures. And I want their relationships to be protected equally under the law. In the end, I could not look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships - their very lives - were any less meaningful than the marriage that I share with my wife Rana.” –Mayor Jerry Sanders

When politicians make me cry, it’s out of frustration: for having to endure four more years of backwards-thinking policies, a war we should have never begun, an environment being left for dead, and our ever-shrinking rights and personal liberties. Tonight, however, San Diego’s mayor moved me to tears in a good way.

The San Diego City Council voted 5-3 on Wednesday in favor of filing a “friend of the court” brief in support of legalizing gay marriage in California. The brief will be forwarded to California’s Supreme Court, which agreed late last year to re-review cases in favor of gay marriage.

Mayor Sanders initially stated that, in keeping with his 2005 campaign stance of favoring civil unions but not same-sex marriage, he would vote against the resolution should it pass a council vote. But tonight when I was settling in to watch the evening news I learned that not only had he agreed to sign the legislation, but that he called a press conference in order to share his reasons for doing so. Voice of San Diego posted Sander’s statement, in which he talked of his goal of seeking equality and social justice throughout his career, the shift he has experienced in his thinking about the issue, and the very people closest to him that his decision would impact the most: friends, staff members, and his own daughter.

“For three decades, I have worked to bring enlightenment, justice and equality to all parts of our community. As I reflected on the choices that I had before me last night, I just could not bring myself to tell an entire group of people in our community that they were less important, less worthy and less deserving of the rights and responsibilities of marriage — than anyone else — simply because of their sexual orientation. A decision to veto this resolution would have been inconsistent with the values I have embraced over the past 30 years.”

This kind of heartfelt openness, and the obvious difficulty Sanders experienced in making his decision, really moved me.

Governor Schwarzenegger has already stated that he will veto a marriage equality bill — recently passed by the California senate — that is sitting on his desk and awaiting a decision. I can only hope that he, too, will follow Sanders’ example and do some soul-searching of his own.

. . . . .

KUSI.com
Mayor Sanders’ entire news conference[page links to video]

VoiceOfSanDiego.org
An emotional Sanders explains switch

SignOnSanDiego.com
In reversal, Sanders supports gay marriage resolution

Sort of. With Labor Day here and gone, I am almost feeling nostalgic for the summer that was… except for this interminable, insufferable heat. I am really quite over it already.

The fall semester is underway and I’m happily settling into my classes. I considered going full-time with a third course, but I had to remind myself that balance and sanity are just as valuable as working on my degree.

Thanks to a lab, Tuesday is my late night; I’ve been home for twenty minutes and I’m already fading fast. If the first few weeks set the tone for the semester, then I am going to be half asleep for most of it.