A couple of weird and disparate stories from this weekend.

Instead of rolling in the Scion as usual, we took the CR-V to Stockton so I could pick up the elliptical I bought at Christmas vaca. The CR-V has no iPod capabilities (the FM transmitter broke), so my wife was fiddling with radio stations. One of the stations played Digable Planets. I haven't heard Rebirth of Slick in years. Great, right?

It was the oldies station. That song came out when I was in high school!

Went to mass Sunday morning. They got to the part where they offer prayers, and it played out mostly as usual. There was a prayer to respect the right to life, which is pretty standard nowadays. A little later, the last prayer was for (and I paraphrase): that our leaders, especially President Obama, govern in a matter to respect the rights of the unborn. Lord hear our prayers.

At which point I leaned over to my wife and said, "That's it?!?"

When did it come to this? Why is the intersection of politics and religion so narrow that there is only room for one issue? At a time when I'm not really getting along with my church, this ain't exactly smoothing things over.

(I don't want to start an abortion debate. Personally, I'm not down with it, but I'm not rabid about my position. I feel like I don't want other people shoving their religions down my throat, so who am I to do the same? An abortion is a personal choice and it's between you and your God, whoever He is. The key word there being "choice". I don't think victims of rape or incest should be required to have a baby. There are a lot of people who think that makes me a lousy Christian and that I will burn in hell, but I say this is between me and MY God.)

My point, of course, is: what about the rights of the *born*? Is abortion really that much bigger a sin than war? Torture? Suppression of civil liberties? Discrimination based on ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or sexual preference? What about capital punishment? I don't understand people who are against abortion but in favor of the death penalty. What is it with you people, timing?

I guess I should just shut up now before I make anyone else angry.

Separate but equal, round two.

Whereas the election of Obama helped me feel better about my fellow Americans, the possible (likely? imminent?) passage of Proposition 8 just makes me feel sad about the sorry state of California.

Californians have a history of disappointing me (Prop 187, Prop 209, 8 years of Pete Wilson, the recall election) and, apparently, this will be no different. While the fate of Prop 8 is still up in the air while absentee ballots are counted, it would take nothing short of a miracle to close the 3.8% gap that currently exists.

It's pretty upsetting that Latino and (especially) black voters helped get this discriminatory proposition passed. I really believe the Yes campaign was so well-funded that they could just saturate the airwaves with lies and half-truths that the No campaign was unable to counter them. For example, I received a "robocall" Monday night that implied that Barack Obama was supporting Prop 8, which is not his position. It contained a soundbyte of the first part of that clip, but not the part where he said, "that's not what America is about."

I'm very uneasy about the complicity of the Catholic Church in funding the Yes on 8 campaign. The Knights of Columbus donated a million dollars to Yes on 8. A lot of attention went to the Mormons and their efforts (and with fair reason, you think they, of all people, would sympathize with non-traditional marriage arrangements), but I don't think No on 8 was hard enough on the K of C. Maybe they didn't want to alienate the Catholic voters, I don't know.

What I do know at this point is I'm done with pancake breakfasts. Knights of Columbus will not see another nickel from me, if this is how they spend it. What kept me up last night is that maybe I'm done with church too. Not done with God, mind you. Just done with the people who make decisions in Jesus's name for things I don't think He would have any part of. What happened to, "and they'll know we are Christians by our love"? I've been more than a little apathetic about the Church and its leanings for a while, and this is not helping matters.

So today, I am proud to be an American but ashamed to be a Californian and a Catholic. Again, not for the first time.

Yes, we did.

I think Gerald Ford said it best: "Our long national nightmare is over."

Whether you are happy with the outcome or not, this is world history. Not just American history. World. It has been less than fifty years since segregation and discrimination were the norm in this country, and now we've elected a black man President. No country with a white majority has ever been governed by a non-white person. Marinate on that for a while.

This election has helped restore my faith in America - or should I say, Americans. There was no "Bradley Effect." This wasn't your typical Democrat vote - blue in New England and the West Coast with spots here and there in the Midwest. Even in states he lost, Obama did much better than Kerry did in 2004. This said two things to me: many Republican voters are just as dissatisfied with their party as I am, and most white Americans don't have an inherent problem with voting for a person of color.

Can Obama live up to the immense hype that has built up over the past two years? Maybe not. Hell, probably not. But he can begin the process of repairing our damaged reputation with the rest of the world, and I think that is a pretty good start.

It's "go" time.

Hey folks, it's me again. I've been staying pretty busy, as if that wasn't obvious by the gap since the last time I posted. My back is holding up well. Work is keeping my occupied. My wife is busy and stressed out but still liking her new job better than the last one.

I'm writing today on the offhand chance you will read this, and you are still undecided about the election next week. I don't think it's hyperbole to say this is the most important election of my lifetime, and I wanted to elaborate a little on a couple of issues.

I have been on the Barack Obama bandwagon since March. This is not news. Nothing I say will make you switch your vote if you are in McCain's corner, and I suspect most of my readers are already in Obama's, so I won't get into the rationale.

What I will say is this: we Obama supporters cannot afford to get cocky. The polls have our guy leading, but they are just polls - we have to get out there and vote for the man. If the projections on TV have Obama running away with it, don't be complacent and stay home, because your candidates and propositions in state and local elections will suffer.

Which brings me to my second concern: the controversial Proposition 8. People have strong religious beliefs about homosexuality, and I can understand that. But contrary to what Prop 8 proponents would have you believe, this law is not about protecting marriage or our children. It's about discrimination, plain and simple.

Look, I'm Catholic, so I'll use the Catholic Church as an example. The Catholic Church does not allow gay marriage, even if the state of California does. In the eyes of the Church, any marriage that doesn't take place in the Church doesn't count - whether the couple is gay or not. So Prop 8 is not going to change anything in that respect.

As far as schools go, what happened in Massachusetts (and what is exploited in the television ads) can't happen in California. Sexual education, including talking about marriage, is voluntary. Parents can ask to have their kids excluded from such instruction.

Sure, gay couples have civil unions. Isn't that the same thing as "separate but equal"? Why are people so threatened by civil wedding ceremonies between people in love? I just don't see what the big deal is.

The reason I feel so strongly about voting No on Prop 8 stems from my education at UC Berkeley. As a person of mixed racial heritage, I learned about anti-miscegenation laws used to prevent people of different races from getting married. Throughout history, Americans have created laws to discriminate against people who are different from themselves. In this case, I really don't see a difference. Proposition 8 is about denying basic rights to a group of people based on their sexual orientation, and that is just wrong.

Prior to this year, I had never contributed to a political campaign. But in this important election, I contributed to both these causes, as well as a third: our friend Dillon Delvo, who is running in Stockton as an incumbent on the school board. I have never been this excited about an election, nor as nervous - I've literally been praying for these causes for the last three weeks.

On Tuesday, vote Obama/Biden. No on Prop 8. If you live in his district, Delvo for SUSD. Let's make this happen.

Playing Catch-Up

Almost two months since my last post. I suck at this.

Let's hit the high/lowlights of March and April:

• I started Twittering (Twitting? Tweeting? Damn Web 2.0 doublespeak). Well, in any case, Twitter is sort of like a mini-blog, where you can post short entries about anything, no matter how mundane. My three most recent "tweets" are in the sidebar on the right of this page, or you can sign up and "follow" me. I have been spending a lot of time on this lately, probably slowing down my blog output.
  
• In sports, out with college hoops season. Out with Ben Braun. In with Mike Montgomery. In with baseball season. Out with Giants' playoff hopes, then back in. (Same for entertainment value of 2008 Giants.) Out with Warriors' playoff hopes. In with Cal NFL prospects, out with little remaining faith in the 49ers' front office. Lastly, out with Sharks hockey.
  
• Democrats still haven't picked a player. Starting to wonder if an election seemingly ripe for the taking will go by the wayside. Hilary doing McCain's work for him. Obama unable to close the deal. Sigh.
  
• Back flare-up two weekends ago. Using leaf blower and doing actual work apparently through me all out of whack. That's all gone now but still some nerve impingement in my leg, and I think that is still causing me some weakness (although the pain is mostly gone). I am convinced the extra thirty pounds I put on after my wedding is causing all this, and I need to lose at least twenty. So all-you-can-eat ribs tonight were probably a bad idea.
  
• Layoffs on the way at Sun. What else is new? Seriously, I love working at Sun so I'm hoping that I (again) will make it through unscathed. I think they are on the right track and were just stung by the sluggish U.S. economy. I put full blame for our current stock price on the guy in the white house on Pennsylvania Ave.
  
• I have four (yes, four) fantasy baseball teams this season, including two in 20-team leagues. That is taking up far too much of my time.
  

That's all for now. See you in ...July?

A More Perfect Union.

Video, Audio, Transcript: Barack Obama On 'A More Perfect Union'

I voted for Barack Obama in California's primary. It came down to the last day, and was more or less a toss up between him and Hillary. I figured it didn't matter much, since I'd vote for whichever one was still standing in November.

Today, I'm more convinced more than ever I made the right decision. In an age where the spoken word is boiled down to the ten-second soundbyte, I feel today may stand in history as one of the best and most important speeches of my life to date.

When Rev. Jeremiah Wright's inflammatory comments about white people came out a couple days ago, I started getting that sinking feeling that he would drag Obama down with him. I felt it was enough to give people pause about Obama's judgment, especially after he inevitably to distance himself from Wright and denounce what the man had said.

But then something else happened. Obama decided to confront the issue of race in America head-on. He did so honestly and intelligently, without pinning the blame on whites or blacks, and elegantly explaining the point of view of both. In doing so, Obama's words rang with a truth refreshing in the polished and safe world of politics, and in doing so exposed race relations in America for the unhealed wound it really is.

The underlying message I see in Obama's speech is that before we can all get along, we need to understand each other. Trying to believe we are all the same was and is a mistake. In actuality, we are all different, and understanding those differences and embracing diversity is the only way that wound can heal. Part of that is to stop blaming each other for our problems and to start looking inward.

I'm only thirty-one, but I am Chinese and Mexican and, firstly, American. I have friends from many cultures and walks of life, and I have seen and heard a lot that has made my cynical and apathetic about the country I live in. Today I began to understand that I want Obama as President because his candidacy makes me believe this country can be as great as I have been told in school. I need to believe this country isn't what it has been for the last eight years.

Today's speech was a big risk for Obama. After all, he's in the lead. He didn't have to do this. I'm hoping he is rewarded because of it. If he loses the nomination or the election because of this speech, it will be because he told Americans the truth but they did not want to listen.