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andru235
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tonight i went to a town hall meeting in the suburb where i live; both the state senator and representative as well as the rep from a neighboring district were there.
it was intended as a forum for people to speak their minds about whatever, ask questions, etc. and it flowed pretty smoothly.
i stood up about ten minutes into the thing, planning to give a quick speech i had prepared on gay marriage rights. i stood, but the speech stayed seated.
so i said who i was and that i had gone to school there k-12 and tried to paint a reasonable picture of myself as someone with qualities and faults, then i said i was gay. i always get shaky.
i can't even remember exactly what i said after that! but when i was done about 1/3 of the people there applauded.
then the republican senator said that he thought the people of minnesota should vote on it because that was what was fair, and he said this, looking me in the eye, in the tone of "i'm on your side, friend" but i was like, you know that 95% of the state is hetero; thats like in 1890 having a national vote if native americans should have rights when less than 5% of the people in the country are natives and most people have little or no personal connection with them.
ok, that's a terrible analogy. sorry. but still.
anyway, the rest of the meeting was pleasant and several people tacked on to their comments that they were married and didn't see why they would be affected by gay marriage one way or the other. some felt the state legislature was wasting its time. no one spoke up against gay marriage.
anyway, it was my first time at a town hall meeting type-thing, and it was revealing for many other reasons.
for one, people were friendlier than i expected and despite a few partisan jabs all from (R) at (D), there wasn't too much animosity. although one man kept refering to the 'republicans and the socialists', and someone corrected him that it was 'republicans and democrats', and he said, 'well, aren't the democrats all socialists anyway?' and the room burst into laughter.
but i sat there and thought, how idiotic. socialism and democracy are no more related than fourierism and laissez-faire (nor any less, i guess). it was a cheap shot.
anyway. i would have found it very interesting even if i hadn't had a reason to be there, and was merely sitting in. quite educational, in a strange way.
go to your next town hall meeting!!!
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050420
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