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Today across the U.S.A. people gathered in various cities (I think approximately 135) to rally against what happened in California on election day.

from Wiki:
Proposition 8 was a California State ballot proposition that amended the state Constitution to restrict the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman. It overrode a recent California Supreme Court decision that had recognized same-sex marriage in California as a fundamental right. The official ballot title language for Proposition 8 is "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry." The entirety of the text to be added to the constitution was: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

The campaigns for and against Proposition 8 raised $35.8 million and $37.6 million, respectively, becoming the highest-funded campaign on any state ballot that day and surpassing every campaign in the country in spending except the presidential contest. The proponents argued for exclusively heterosexual marriage while claiming that failure to change the constitution would require changes to school curriculum and threaten church tax benefits. The opponents argued that eliminating the rights of any Californian and mandating that one group of people be treated differently from everyone else was unfair and wrong.

Voters in Arizona, Arkansas & Florida also weighed in on the issue on the same day. So people on both sides of the issue got fired up. What's odd about all of this is that on the day that Americans elected the first African-American as President, some citizens decided to deny rights to other citizens. How far have we really come?

At the urging of David Dust, a group of Dust Bunnies joined the rally in Houston. We got there around 12:00p.m. and people were just arriving (as you can tell by the first few photos). My guesstimate is that over 1,000 people showed up. It could have been 2,000. Here are some photos from the rally.

protesting made us really hungry and thirsty so we went to eat after it was over!

Are you ready to run?

Many things going on today and not enough time to go into detail. In a nutshell:

• Sister and brother-in-law are in town. Haven't seen them today.


• Worked on my costume for the Krewe Ball with Stuart & Daniel. Measurements didn't match up. Good thing I hadn't started to cut the big stuff.


• Beautiful weather outside. Have already taken The Calvinator out 3 times.


• Delivered a set of invitations that I designed for someone. I was REALLY happy with the way that they look but more important is that HE really likes them. Make the customer happy, right?


• Mardi Gras Party tonight but can't stay too long or too late because of the run tomorrow.


• Spoke with a friend who is running his first marathon tomorrow. I either calmed him down or made him more anxious. Todd, just think, tomorrow when you cross the finish line, you will officially be a marathoner.


• Lots of anticipation in the air about tomorrow. Temperature will be in the low 40s but it will warm up a bit before most of the runners are finished. Dress appropriately. I've always said that you can gauge the temperature by what the spectators are wearing and the runners should be wearing less than them. Looking forward to seeing Margo & Viv at Montrose & Westheimer. If you see two women with mylar balloons, give them a shout out.


• To all of the runners...good luck! See you out on the course.