Success! But What about Maine?

I am out of my mind happy to report that your Head Trucker has his broadband connection back.  All praise to geekmeister Albert in tech support at AT&T who walked this old man through the setup of the new modem, plus about a million passwords, code numbers, and other necessary mumbo-jumbo.

And glancing over the election night returns, it appears we have cause to celebrate in most of the nation:  the Washington State referendum on domestic partnerships passed with 51.1% of the vote - just barely passed, but we'll take it; the gay and transgender non-discrimination ordinance in Kalamazoo, Mich., passed with 60-something percent.  Down here in Texas, openly lesbian Annise Parker got the most votes in the Houston mayoral race, which will go to a runoff.

Oh but then there's Maine:  as of 1:04 a.m. in Maine, the Bangor Daily News election site reports our side losing 52.75 to 47.25 percent, with 87 percent of counties reporting.  But apparently our guys and gals up there are refusing to concede, hoping to pull a miracle out of the yet-to-be counted absentee ballots and counties not yet tallied.

Doesn't look good, though:  about the same percentage as defeated marriage equality in California last year.  Still, as Andrew Sullivan says in a late-night post, he's heartbroken over the Maine results, but the fact that the vote is so very close is a huge encouragement when you consider what it would have been just 10 years ago - when no state offered even civil unions, much less marriage for their gay citizens.

We've come a long way, brother.  Whatever the final result in Maine, Onward! must be our motto until the last vestiges of discrimination and inequality are wiped out of the law books and into the dusty pages of history, as they were for all the other groups who had to fight for their civil rights.

We have to work for our liberty and justice.  Nobody's going to hand it to us - and as is all too clear by now, certainly not the President who promised to be our fierce advocate.  It's not him, boys - We are the ones we've been waiting for.  Remember?

But that's okay.  It makes us better people to suffer injustice and struggle for what is right, like so many others have done before us, showing us the way.  For the same reason it makes you a better person to pay your dues and earn your own living, instead of living off somebody else's toil.  And the victory, when it dawns all across this land, will be that much sweeter when we finally taste it. 

So let's get on with it.