Saturday, September 22, 2007

...Call for action!!!

After watching the video Ex Gay Watch posted about the Republican Mayor of San Diego changing his views on gay marriage, and signing a resolution to have the city attorney file suit against the state, I was just in awe. This is why I love politics. One person can make such a huge impact, just by leading with their heart.
I find myself wanting to do something, to make a change, to fight for social justice, just as Mayor Sanders did, in such a majorly brave way. But, I am just one...what can I do? Well, thankfully, I am not the kind of person who actually believes that...at least when it comes to politics and government.
I believe that Gandhi said it best that we must be that change that we want to see in the world(paraphrased.) Whereas the GLBT community has many vocal advocates and leaders, still a vast number of members sit back silently, while being opressed. I believe that we must follow the lead of people, like Mayor Sanders, who take unpopular stands, say unpopular things, and make unpopular decisions. This is where we come in.
I am the world's worst at following through with a lot of things, but I strongly encourage you to take action along with me by doing the following.

1. Write Mayor Jerry Sanders and email thanking him for his courage and conviction. you know that he will have a lot of critical letters from members of his own party. his email is JerrySanders@sandiego.gov. This took me about 5 minutes to type a very heartfelt letter of appreciation and praise!

2. Write a letter to the mayor of your city and members of your city council strongly encouraging them to follow the lead of Mayor Sanders and the San Diego city council. I will be sending mine to Mayor Francis Slay of St. Louis hopefully Monday.

These actions will literally take a total of 20-30 minutes. That is such a tiny bit of time that can impact and effect such great change. Thanks for reading.

2 comments:

Peterson Toscano said...

Jacob, thanks so much for the action points. I especially appreciate your hopeful enthusiastic tone. Ah, sounds so wonderful.

Anonymous said...

Jacob-

I have been reading your journal, and I just want to let you know that you are making a difference, also! Even just having your thoughts out there, is awesome.

Personally for me, I live in a Christian community, that preaches that if I accept Jesus, and if I live a certain way, that I won't be gay anymore. And as you certainly well know that is like telling a straight person that they have to become gay after praying to Jesus. They wouldn't be being true to themselves.

So thank you for being out there! I am definitely going to be saving your blog, and I hope you continue writing dude!

-peace love and spaghetti-