VOTE

I voted.

Please make sure that you do, too.

Message to Sarah Palin

This video is making the rounds on several feminist blogs, and I think it is important.

Mini-Marathon

I just signed up for the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon! May 2, I'll be running a 1/2 marathon!! EEP!! It is part of the Indianapolis 500 Festival, and the end of the race is a lap around the 500 track.

I passed on the "training series" of races (5, 10, and 15 K races) leading up to the race, but might go back and register for those at another time. I'm going to sign up for a training program through my gym (motivation for cold weather running, people to hold me accountable, forced socialization - I'm becoming a bit hermit-like of late) and I'm psyched!

I've be thinking about doing this race for a while, and last weekend I saw my cousin finish the Chicago Marathon, and I was SO SO proud! Walking along the course (we caught up with Beth at a few different places along the route) and seeing the runners so excited, the crowd so supportive, how HARD these people had worked! And were working!! It was inspiration and really exciting. I don't think I'm cut out for 26.2, but I'm readying myself for the challenge of a half! Fighting!

There are a couple of folks talking about doing the race, too, and that would be awesome! Registration usually fills up by the end of November, so think about it - lots of fun! I believe firmly in the "run your own race" approach to running with friends, (if we happen to be about the same pace, great, but I don't want to hold anyone back from doing their best) but it is so great to have friends to line up with and to cheer over the finish line! Or, you know, cheer ME over the finish line, since I'm usually the last one :)

Anyway, committed.

World

What do you think would happen if the whole world could vote?

This article from the San Francisco Gate/Chronicle gives some answers. I don't think anyone is surprised that most of the world would vote in favor of Obama, but even I was surprised at the landslide they postulate.

Also, McCain's "That One" comment has had rather an impact.

Darren Davis, a professor at Notre Dame who specializes in the role of race in politics, sent a comment to the Huffington Post about McCain's "that one" remark. "It speaks volumes about how McCain feels personally about Obama. Whomever said the town hall format helps McCain is dead wrong," Davis wrote.

He isn't stupid enough to have intentionally made a racist remark. No one would be. But if it isn't a refection of internal bias, it is an indication of incredibly poor choice, something he has had a history of so far in this race (hi, Sarah Palin? Are you kidding me? OMGWTFBBQ?!).

elections and supreme court decisions.

Just a reminder that for folks in the US, voter registration deadlines are coming up. Indiana is October 6th.

I was accepted as a voting rights monitor for Indiana (they wanted to review my resume and everything!) so I'm pretty psyched.

Also, there was a meme going around talking about Supreme Court cases. In an interview with Katie Couric not only could Sarah Palin not name a single newspaper or magazine that she reads, the only Supreme Court case she could name was Roe v. Wade.

So, my favorite Supreme Court case: Loving v. Virgina. I'll be honest and say that the reason I like this case is because the name of the plaintiff is so apt - this is the case that made interracial marriage legal. Get it? LOVING? 'Cause, you know, they were in love. Yeah, I'm sorta lame.

Anyway, in a nutshell, Mildred and Richard Loving married in Washington, D.C. because VA law stated that interracial marriage was illegal. Police tried to catch them in an, er, intimate moment (also a crime in VA at the time) and they instead were charged because of their illegal marriage. They were found guilty, and a few years later the ACLU began challenging the ruling, which would eventually be heard by the Supreme Court (it wouldn't be until 2003 that the sodomy laws they tried to arrest them for were overturned).

In 2007 on the 40th anniversary of their case, Mildred Loving said the following:
I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights.

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about.

I have gay friends who have relationships that are deeper, more committed, and more stable than any relationship I have ever had with a guy in my whole entire life, and yet they can't have their relationship legally recognized. Which is so sad and unfair.