Barack Obama ran for president on the platform of bridging gaps and bringing people together. Several times he talked about the necessity in dealing with people whose views differed from ours, but engaging them, understanding them and finding other areas of common ground. These are not the divisive politics of the past eight years and regardless of your religious views, or lack there of; regardless of your views on issues pertaining to gay rights, the choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration ceremony should be viewed as an effort to unify opposed to divide.
Many individuals have said that gay Americans largely voted for Barack Obama and that this is a slap in their face. This seems strange to me, as Barack Obama has never come out in favor of gay marriage. Why is this an issue? It is being made one of the biggest knocks against Warren—his support for Proposal 8 in California, which bans gay marriage. Strangely enough the man these people voted for has not spoken out favoring gay marriage, civil unions yes, gay marriage no. I do not see the disrespect argument in this case.
I’d also suggest that there are undoubtedly a great number of individuals who cast their vote for Obama who are atheists and of different religious viewpoints that could claim to have beef with Warren. However, we have not heard the great outrage and claims of disrespect from these folks that we have from the gay community.
It’s fair game to point out the issues one group might have with any individual. It’s fair game to express displeasure over such a choice as Warren. It is a bit heavy handed however, to claim that this is a slap in the face, that Barack Obama is disrespecting the gay community. Any individual who votes for any candidate could always find an issue (at the very least) in which they disagree with a candidate they voted for. Instead of focusing on the differences we have, why not focus on the common ground? Isn’t this how actual relationships work in this country? We should embrace Barack Obama’s choice as evidence that he will not bow down to one large hunk of the Democratic voting base, we should be thankful that he is taking actions to back up his statements of creating a government and a vibe of togetherness, opposed to the divisive bullshit of the past eight years. Part of being inclusive, part of working together is at times bringing people in we don’t like or agree with. We’ve had eight years of exclusion and one minded/sided views, I’m happy that there is an apparent change on the horizon. Diversity is a two way street and that seems forgotten by some.
Comments