Television and Your Vote

There's a great article in today's NYT about how "The Cosby Show" may have set the stage for people in this country more comfortable with the idea of a black family in the White House.  Looking at the exit polls and that Cosby watchers and younger voted for Obama in the highest numbers, maybe that did have a big effect on us as we watched.  As I watched, there were so many times when I wanted to be Huxtable...to dress up and lip-sync to songs, to proudly weartacky sweaters, and to have some of that yummy Cliff cooking (stick of butter in the pan with beef and rice as I recall).  

Obviously, people in my generation have grown up exposed to a very diverse world, at least through television.  So, do we now need a television show to help this country accept gay marriage and families of two moms or two dads...or even just one parent?  Ellen is doing all she can, and probably convincing a lot of people that nothing is going to implode when we give everyone equal rights.  While they weren't gay, My Two Dads showed that two men raising a child wasn't so scary.  Similarly, didn't we all want to be part of the Tanner family on "Full House?"  I really hope that soon in my lifetime, we can come to a place where marriage and family is about love and commitment.  I really have a tough time with all of this, because there are a lot of people in this world who get married, not for love, but for other reasons, and have kids when maybe they are not cut out for the job yet.  Meanwhile, we have a whole segment of people who are still fighting, in 2008, for just the chance at adding more happiness to their lives.

I've been totally obsessed with reading opinion pieces about Prop 8 here in California.  There are a lot of opiners out there (Harvey Fierstein, Michael Patrick King, Joe Salmonese, etc) who, like me, can't understand how California is blatantly discriminating against humans, when we voted to give animals more room to move around.  This country has come a long way, but we seem to have this continuous need to opress some of our groups, so that others can be on the top of the pile.

On another note, gas prices here are as low as I've seen them since March '07 (when I was in Mass...so it's probably been even longer since gas was in the $2.40s here in California).  I'm so nervous that all those SUVs are going to start flying off the lots again, after months of slowing sales and seeing some hope that this country would change how we make and buy cars here.  

I am not trying to be pessimistic about what is clearly our country moving in the right direction and I don't expect everything to change at once.  I just wish we could make good decisions about the world and how to live in it every day of the year.