In keeping with recent LD tradition of scatter-shot, repetitive posts showing a reckless disregard for minimum standards of copyediting or continuity, I offer yet another dispatch for those not able to be spending their remaining day before the election shivering in the windy rain, passing out No on 8 leaflets.
That’s what scads and scads (exact count? dunno! thus, “scads”!) of No on 8 folks were doing today, up and down the state. I was happy to be among the scads, and learned much (as I try to do every day on General Principle).
My station was downtown San Francisco, the business district, at a subway station exit. I had initially thought: Geez. Shouldn’t they post me somewhere more redneck? Them latté-swillin’, BMW-drivin’ financiers, they don’t need my bleeding-heart liberal message! They voted for the socialist and The Gay long ago, via mail, while they were up at their Lake Tahoe cabins.
I mean, on the subway ride over, I was subjected to a conversation by a woman who had been trying to address her cat’s anxiety-urination troubles with a cocktail of Prozac and Vicodin. Kid you not. Tutti frutti people like this, I tell you, they keep the reputation of this state in ship-shape nationwide. Transplants! Cat-loving, Prozac-pushing transplants from the Midwest, I say! Has anyone ever caught me, or any other native-born Californian I know, feeding their cats Prozac? I should say not!
But my thoughts about the irrelevance of our downtown visibility work? Wrong-o!
My sign-toting, leaflet distributing comrades and I were amazed that the responses went, in order of frequency:
- Studious avoidance of eye contact and flyer (a good 75%);
- Eye contact but with neutral response, still no go w/ the flyer;
- Eye contact and some subtle gesture (a thumb up) indicating support of message;
- Quiet, no-eye contact receipt of flyer;
- Actual verbal response but indicating little about direction (“Already voted,” etc.);
- Verbal response w/ eye contact, indicating a “No” vote (“That’s a no brainer!” with a smile);
- Heartfelt encouragement for our being out there in the rain, and a willingness to receive extra flyers to distribute at work or elsewhere; and
- Indication, either with hand gesture, shaking of head, or verbal exchange, that they’ve voted Yes so don’t bother. One woman said, “You have no idea how bad it would be if we didn’t pass this proposition.” My thought: You’re right. I really do have absolutely no idea how bad it would be.
The nicest part was the smattering of really friendly people with response #7. Since the more it rained on us, the more dedicated we appeared. What with the teeth chattering and the drenched shoulders and all.
Important take-home points from the above list: voters are as sick and tired of this campaign as are we campaigners, and HEY! Just because it’s San Francisco don’t mean it’s the year-’round Summer of Love. A “No” vote on proposition 8 is very far from in the bag. At best, it’s lounging there right next to the bag, eyeballing it suspiciously. And we’ve got around 24 hours now to shove it in there with all our might.
Fortunately, the clouds broke for a short time mid-morning, when the downtown contingent was redirected to Civic Center, where early voting was going on in City Hall.
Irony #736, in the ongoing cavalcade of ironies, is that the last time I was here was to get legally married.
This last vignette is for the “Welcome to San Francisco, now go home” department, Special Election Sub-file. The chipper, unassuming No on 8 volunteer Chrys, shown below, repeated the No on 8 mantra to a passerby: “Proposition 8 writes discrimination into the constitution, it’s unfair and wrong to take away people’s fundamental rights. Please remember to vote no on prop 8!”
Evidently he was a tourist. A grumpy tourist.
His response? “I can’t vote here, so get out of my f#cking face!”
Alrighty, then. Try not to choke on the crab down at Fisherman’s Wharf, sir.
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To the links!
The Prop 8 Spread the Word to your friends form
A compendium of Prop 8 videos to send to people in your 11th hour emails to friends
The Los Angeles Times editorial: No on Proposition 8
Ann Landers and Proposition 8: Watch it, bubs!
[next in this marraige equality series: Article of faith]
I passed some “No on 8” sign holders on my way to work this morning (in LA), and it put me in a great mood…I smiled at them as I drove by. Then I turned a corner a little further down the road, and saw “Yes on 8” sign holders on a corner. I felt sick, deep down. Someone had their kids holding signs on the sidewalk. One couldn’t have been older than 4, and the other WAS IN A STROLLER holding a sign. I mean, REALLY?!
I’m psyched to vote YES on Obama and NO on 8 tomorrow…I think tonight will feel like Christmas Eve when I go to bed…
i’ve only had one conversation with a friend/relative who was unsure of how they are going to vote on prop 8 (luckily all others = big no). it was my friend’s grandmother, whose house i went to yesterday to pick persimmons. i was there with my girlfriend, though she didn’t know as much. we had a meandering conversation about her niece who is a lesbian and her partner is just a fine lady and about how she feels her marriage of 60 years ago will somehow be ‘mocked’ by the ‘hollywood pretending’ of ‘gay marriage.’ she showed me the article in the sf chronicle from yesterday that she said had touched her – even pointing out to me which woman was ‘the man’ and which was ‘the woman’ from the lesbian couple. she said she just didn’t know how she felt about it all, though she knows she is very old-fashioned. i tried to speak slowly and take some deep breaths. i had a script in my head about constitutional rights and everyone being entitled to an opinion, but that our laws should reflect the most openness we can muster to afford rights and freedoms to all people. i told her about a two-mama family that i worked for as a nanny, trying to personalize this without making it too personal – like sitting in her living room personal. she responded that i’m “really on the front lines of this yes on 9 business”…right i responded, only it’s “no on 8.” she said she liked the part i said about everyone being able to have an opinion despite what laws we have, seeming to say that she may continue to be unsure of how she feels, but vote in a way that lets others choose to make up their own minds, legally.
but really, i don’t know how she is going to vote tomorrow on prop 8. that to me might be the most frustrating part for me – that this decision will be made by those who might decide their vote the morning of the election – who don’t nearly care as much as i do, i tell myself. i don’t know what to make of that.
I can’t vote here guy was a solid #8. And what #8 said to you is the perfect example of why this is even up for a vote. They really think they know BETTER than you. As if you’re less of a human, having less of a human experience. It’s that lack of humility that scares me, Ms #8.
I am going to throw up 15 times tomorrow until the results come rolling in. Thank GOD I’m on Cali’s time zone.
Barf bags all around, barkeep!
I appreciate your optimism, Maggie. I’m thinking that for the likes of Mr Lady, tessita & me, it’ll be more like New Year’s Eve, 1999, when a surprising number of people thought there just miiiiight be a global meltdown, due to a cascading series of computer malfunctions. I will be so, so glad if it all turns out like January 1, 2000. The whole lead up was so much worse than the actual event.
I wish I could vote in California. Instead, I get to vote in Alabama. Good luck– I’m hoping for a No on 8 almost as badly as I’m hoping for a Yes on Obama.
I just wanted you to know that I’m thinking about you. I’m not a California voter, though I wish I was so I could cast a vote with you tomorrow. Since I cannot, I’ve done the alternatives: donated money, ensured that friends and family are doing the right thing, etc. I hope you know that people around the world are supporting you and hoping that the outcome is just.
Like hundreds of other folk up and down CA, it’s 4:30 election day and I’m up, getting ready to go dispatch hearty, time-giving, sleep-sacrificing volunteers over in Santa Monica. (OK, hundreds of other folk aren’t getting ready to dispatch in Santa Monica, but ya know what I mean.) As I have a number of other times, I turned to LD for a quick pick-me-up to hold me over until I can make it to the coffee shop. I have to say LD, you’ve played such a role in helping to remind me why I’ve very willingly left the rest of my life to the vagaries of entropy, I felt I would be remiss were I not to comment here on this historic day.
For all of you folks volunteering today, a heartfelt thanks, a hug, and a big high-five. Let’s bring this thing home!
Ruffian, I’m up a little later (6am), and headed elsewhere (the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, to be told what to do. But it makes a world of difference to think of you there, of everyone putting their heart (and dollars, and encouragement from afar) into this so so good good fight here.
Consider yourself heartily hugged and sleepily high-fived right back.