I have to say, I have a profound respect for Jerry Sanders, the mayor of San Diego.
True, having his own daughter be gay may have helped him along in his conscience, but considering how easy it is to do what's en vogue when you're a politician, this took a lot of strength.
More than that, though, it took an incredible leap of personal understanding of the heart, and the soul.
I know people who even have gay sons and daughters, who regard marriage as a nifty thing because it entitles us to matching rings and nice, engraved certificates, but who have no idea what it really means. For that matter, I know people who don't understand the concept, regardless of the context.
I respect Mr. Sanders for leaping the chasm between the simplistic and the supremely profound--for really grasping the idea that what we think and say about two people and their love for each other directly correlates with how we feel about each other, as human beings...and whether we really feel that someone else, and their idea of love, and life, is as meritorious of our respect and acknowledgement as the ideas we hold as our own. That's not a gay thing. It's not a straight thing. It's a simple, fundamental truth of life.
Moreover, it is, in the end, our way of saying to someone else that they are as deserving of love and the ability to cherish the love of someone else to whom they have dedicated their lives, and nothing less. It's our way of saying that seven years in a relationship is a hell of a lot of hard work, no matter who you are. No one has a franchise on difficulty and strife when it comes to love, and conversely, no one has a franchise on having it be easy. Most of all, no one takes the endeavor any less seriously than anyone else.
Or, if we negate the idea, it is our way to say that people who are not perfect facsimiles of ourselves do not deserve to be loved, or to love. Not in degrees; not "the same as 'us;'" at all. There are no degrees of love. It simply is, or it is not.
Whatever the end-result and repercussions of his actions, I hope that, at least, Mr. Sanders' heart is at peace, and I deeply, truly, respect him. It's been a long time since I've seen someone act out of pure honesty. It's been even more rarely that I've seen it on TV.
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True, having his own daughter be gay may have helped him along in his conscience, but considering how easy it is to do what's en vogue when you're a politician, this took a lot of strength.
More than that, though, it took an incredible leap of personal understanding of the heart, and the soul.
I know people who even have gay sons and daughters, who regard marriage as a nifty thing because it entitles us to matching rings and nice, engraved certificates, but who have no idea what it really means. For that matter, I know people who don't understand the concept, regardless of the context.
I respect Mr. Sanders for leaping the chasm between the simplistic and the supremely profound--for really grasping the idea that what we think and say about two people and their love for each other directly correlates with how we feel about each other, as human beings...and whether we really feel that someone else, and their idea of love, and life, is as meritorious of our respect and acknowledgement as the ideas we hold as our own. That's not a gay thing. It's not a straight thing. It's a simple, fundamental truth of life.
Moreover, it is, in the end, our way of saying to someone else that they are as deserving of love and the ability to cherish the love of someone else to whom they have dedicated their lives, and nothing less. It's our way of saying that seven years in a relationship is a hell of a lot of hard work, no matter who you are. No one has a franchise on difficulty and strife when it comes to love, and conversely, no one has a franchise on having it be easy. Most of all, no one takes the endeavor any less seriously than anyone else.
Or, if we negate the idea, it is our way to say that people who are not perfect facsimiles of ourselves do not deserve to be loved, or to love. Not in degrees; not "the same as 'us;'" at all. There are no degrees of love. It simply is, or it is not.
Whatever the end-result and repercussions of his actions, I hope that, at least, Mr. Sanders' heart is at peace, and I deeply, truly, respect him. It's been a long time since I've seen someone act out of pure honesty. It's been even more rarely that I've seen it on TV.
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