Two Calls to Political Action

On Livejournal, the election for the User Representative to the Advisory Board is underway until '9:00 p.m. PDT Thursday, May 29'. The candidates' positions are linked here and on the User Info page of lj_election_en. The election itself is here and a clarification of the instant runoff process is here. ( my thoughts, hopefully not teal and deerlike )

In other news... California's recent lifting of the ban against same-sex marriage is not going unchallenged. Governor Schwarzenegger is being inundated with phone calls from those who support the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in California. If you'd like to call to oppose that amendment and support the current ruling, here are the instructions (from this forward): "The number is 1-916-445-2841; press 1, 5, 1 to get to the particular issue, then press 1 if you want to support upholding the court decision and are against a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage."

I plan to call specifically because I'm a resident of Massachusetts; not only should same-sex marriage be permitted, but I can testify that it has not caused the breakdown of society where I live.

Today is Memorial Day

I can't find it in me to write something that, in its disillusionment, would not risk sounding disrespectful, and that I would not want to do for the world.

Still. Today is Memorial Day, and I wanted to note, at least in my little diary, that I remember. I wish that one day people would only have to remember war as something distant and historical, not a current human practice, but that seems like as impossible a wish as any. Still, people have dreamed, and fought, and died for, and lived to make real, other impossible-seeming dreams. So I will remember, and try to hope.

The Power of Words, Example #27

From dandelion_diva:

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper".

I love it so very much that, even with the opposition, she achieved her aim, and honestly helped people, from then till now, and that before that she helped herself. If I could I'd send her a fan letter of thanks for using her experiences to craft such a work of fiction for such aims. (And I find myself wondering if she would have recieved the advice to "live as domestic a life as far as possible," to "have but two hours' intellectual life a day," and "never to touch pen, brush, or pencil again" had she been a man, but be that as it may.)