Not all Mormons oppose equality of marriage

The Church of the Latter Day Saints has been one of the major fundraisers for Proposition 8, however, some Mormons have broken away and oppose the measure. This prominent Mormon couple are exemplary.

Good for the Youngs. Will Joe Montana chime in? He can redeem himself for scabbing the 1982 NFL strike.

Addendum: I wish this web ad would air on TV. Who knows if it’s effective. But it sure makes a point to the edification of the converted. Or not converted.

Addendum: Some photos of the dueling prop 8 demonstrations in San Francisco today, just a few blocks from where I used to live.

Studs Terkel checks out at 96

Probably the best social historian of our time, famous for history through interviews. I strongly recommend his 1980s book The Great Divide, much of it about the culture war. Working is another of his great works.

He once said he preferred the phrase “check out” to “dying.”

I’ll probably post more about him tomorrow.

Addendum: An excellent eulogy – The Immoderation of Studs Terkel

The Columbus 13 respond

The thirteen have posted at Daily Kos.

Among the many voter registration efforts in Ohio is an organization of young people named Vote from Home. They came from around the country to register voters. They are definitely progressive in politics and there is little doubt that they always had in mind a Democratic Party victory for their efforts. They rented a home in Columbus on August 1 and got to work. They were exceptionally successful.

1)The average number of Franklin County voters that Vote from Home has registered per month is higher than the Obama and McCain campaigns combined (as reported by the Columbus Dispatch).

2)The Columbus Dispatch has also reported that our success rate for approved registrations (by the BOE) is among the highest of all registration groups in Franklin County.

In other words, they have it together better than ACORN.

There is no controversy about their registrations. What drew the screams from Fox News and Michelle Malkin was the fact that they registered to vote at the home in Ohio. They read the requirements for registration at the elections department website, which said they had to be a resident at least 30 days before the election. The site did not include the legal definition of “resident.” They planned to live in Columbus for four months and they thought that was adequate. They registered to vote. They are not voting anywhere else.

From what they were about to face, you’d think they were the Manson family.

On October 15, 2008, the harassment began. “Voter fraud alert: Houseful of out-of-state Obama activists registered as Ohio voters, received absentee ballots,” blared the conservative Michelle Malkin blog. “Will out-of-town punks…help turn Ohio blue?” Other conservative news outlets repeated the charges, spotlighting our team members and disparaging our education, judgment, families and intentions.

Soon, four news trucks were parked on the street outside 2885 Brownlee Avenue, cameras trained on our every move. A crowd lingered on the sidewalk. In Oxford, England, Palestra.net camera crews harassed Vote from Home team members. In New York City, where three of the Vote from Home team members have family members, the NY Post ran a front-page story entitled, “Swingers”.

Hundreds of hate-mails filled our inboxes. Day after day we tried to ignore Fox’s nightly “breaking news” clips about Vote from Home.

They were criminally investigated, while their attorneys advised them to keep quiet and just continue their work. While the pushed the story initially, with trumpets blaring and all the appropriate outrage and indignation at these 13 kids trying to destroy democracy and American life as we know it, the fact that the investigation was dropped didn’t even make it to page 7.

On October 23, the investigation was dropped and no charges were filed. As it turns out, deep in Ohio election law 3509.02(c), the rules of residency are defined in greater detail and include intent to make Ohio one’s permanent home. This information, however, was not given on the voter registration form or the Franklin County Board of Elections website at the time that we registered. Subsequent news stories identify many others, on both sides of the aisle, who have done as we did.

When Rose posted about the incident a couple of weeks ago, I kind of bought into the hype. I do think it was a little sloppy on their part. Yes, they’re young, and yes, the rules for residency should be readily available particularly if it confounds a common practice on “both sides of the aisle.” But I think it’s common sense to assume that a state or locality would prefer that their elections are determined by people with a long term interest in the outcome, particularly when it comes to local candidates and issues. Students vote where they go to school, and even though their residency is often temporary they are replaced by more students with like interests. I believe that even in my early 20’s I would have had a sense of that and voted absentee in my actual place of residence. But these are phenomenal kids, ethical and idealistic, at least until a few weeks ago. The world is a better place with them in it. They didn’t deserve the treatment.

The Kos post accounts for the incident as part of a broader Republican strategy to suppress the vote with intimidation. I see it more as a rush to judgment in the context of a very stressful political campaign with extremely high stakes, somewhat conditioned by the contemporaneous ACORN controversy, equally misunderstood due to the hysteria and hype.

The post is signed by several of the thirteen.