Just When You Think Twitter Isn't Much Use...

...something like this pops up. I follow the website Columbus Underground on my Twitter page, and this morning they tweeted something that caught my eye...COTA bus changes. I've got a bit of a thing for public transit (even if I don't use it nearly as much as I should/could) so I thought it was worth checking out. Here's the CU article...COTA is adding a Hilliard-OSU express, as well as several other adjustments. You can get the full list there.

There's bigger news from Iowa, because on Friday gay marriage became legal in that great farming state. It blows my mind, because a state that's as rural (and typical conservative as rural states are) as Iowa is able to recognize a basic human right, but California and Ohio aren't. I mean, seriously? 3/50th of the country is moving in the right direction...but we need a few more states to reach critical mass.

The North Korean satellite launch was a monstrous success...! At least, according to the North Korean government. As the BBC will tell us (and I trust the BBC infinitely more than my own government sometimes, never mind the North Korean one) the rocket launch failed, and the satellite with its sing-a-long payload never reached orbit. President Obama took the opportunity to push his arms control agenda, telling us, "This provocation underscores the need for action - not just this afternoon at the UN Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons."

That's a bit more than I intended to post today...but that's what happens when I'm putting off other work ;-) Have a good rest of the weekend!

Gay Marriage Bans = Jim Crow

Let me tell you about a visit I made to the King Center in Atlanta several years ago. I remember being in a gallery of information on the civil rights movement (as you might expect, since we are talking about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr here) and stopping to read a list of Jim Crow laws complied from across the South.

(If you're not familiar with the term Jim Crow, then we need to have a chat with your local school superintendent. For right now though, I've found the Dictionary.com and Wikipedia entries on the subject. Long story short: Jim Crow laws were enacted post-reconstruction to help institutionalize segregation of black and white Americans. )

I remember reading this list, and at first there was nothing in there I hadn't seen before. The famous bus seating laws, separate water fountains, separate schools, poll taxes, literacy tests, obstacles to ownership, and so on. Then I hit a new one of the list: it was illegal for a white man to marry/date/have sexual relations with a black woman, or for a white woman to do any of the same with a black man.

That brought the Jim Crow laws home for me. Until that point, it was hard to identify with the laws and their victims in more than a theoretical way (I was a white kid raised in a small Massachusetts town...I had no reference point). But once I realized that 50 years ago I could go to jail because I was seen kissing a black girl? It dawned on me just how instrusive, how demeaning, how out-and-out wrong the codes were.

It opened my eyes. I realized in a flash no matter what you may think, discrimination against one group really is discrimination against us all. Pretty deep stuff for a 16 year old kid.

What's this got to do with gay marriage bans? Simple: banning gay marriage, and the hundreds of other ways gays are discriminated against, are the same sort of mindless, habitual discrimination as Jim Crow laws were. It's one group of people telling another group "You're not good enough to do what we do." It's just as wrong as making blacks drink from different water fountains, and just as ludicrous.

I was out of the state when the vote on the Ohio constitutional ammendment happened. I was disgusted to learn it passed; I thought the voters in Ohio were more advanced. The ammendment is a human rights violation that demeans us all. Like most human rights violations, I expect this one to work its way through the court system and become a piece of history in due time. Not soon enough, but it will happen. There's simply no rational reason for ever creating second class citizens.

But that doesn't change the fact we're still currently living in a Jim Crow-esque society. We're still creating and enforcing second class citizenship. It's sad how many people don't even realize it.

Voter Registration Confirmation

Sorry for the late post. The day jobs kinda got in the way.

I was going to post a picture of my voter registration confirmation card, and explain it, and maybe even the voter ID laws (which apparantly still give people fits).

But as I'm trying to photoshop some of the more sensitive info out of the picture, I realize they have my name wrong. They put an "A" where there should have been an "O." Meh.

So now we're gonna look at how to fix this instead. Take it as a lesson about checking your confirmation postcard carefully.

Step one is to check out my local board of elections. In this case, it's Franklin County.

Step two is checking to see if I'm registered under my real name or not. I can check my registration by clicking the link on the left hand sidebar.

*searches for name*...

And the search function is apparantly broken, since it asked me to call the office of the Board of Elections. Nice.

I'm assuming I'll need to have my name changed, so I can actually vote without having to cast a provisional ballot. (What's that? A new post topic? Hrm...). When that happens, I'll simply fill out another voter registration form and mail it in.

Of course, I should prolly call the BOE just to be sure.

...And Now for Some News...

McCain and Obama Win Again, from NPR

Family Brings Soldier's Dogs Home, from NPR

Bhutto Widower Rejects Idea of Being Prime Minister, from BBC

Israeli MP Blames Gays for Earthquakes, from BBC