Tuesday, November 18, 2008

[1836 - Sir William S. Gilbert, operetta librettist, poet, born in London]

[1882 - Amelita Galli-Curci, opera singer (soprano), born in Milan, Italy]

[1901 - George (Horace) Gallup, pollster, born in Jefferson, Iowa]

[1908 - Imogene Coca, Emmy Award-winning comedienne, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]

[1909 - Johnny (John Herndon) Mercer, Academy Award-winning composer, lyricist, born in Savannah, Georgia]

[1923 - Alan Shepard, Jr., astronaut, born in Derry, New Hampshire]

Proposition Hate

As a transplanted Californian (My folks came west in the early days of WW II) I usually come to the defense of my adopted state. Recent events seem designed to test my loyalty, however. It is not just that we elected an action hero to run one of the ten largest economies on the planet. It isn't even the annual spectacle of our dysfunctional legislature that cannot timely pass a state budget that has me so upset. It is this Proposition 8 thing that causes me to look for a break in the housing market so I can sell my place and move to a state that still believes in individual freedoms and equal justice under law.

The California Constitution used to be a source of pride for your humble servant, since it included even greater protection for some individual freedoms than did the federal Constitution. Now my fellow citizens of California have seen fit to amend that document to embed the definition of marriage favored by the Religious Right in the supreme law of the State. As a result, a disfavored minority will now apparently be denied equality of opportunity under law. What can we be thinking of?

William's Whimsical Words:

The founders understood the danger posed by a tyranny of the majority, and designed a democratic government that would keep church and state in their separate legitimate parishes. The passage of Proposition 8 in California spits in the face of lady liberty.

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