DADT

The Senate voted to repeal Don't Ask; Don't Tell today. I feel embarrassed to even capitalize the words and the "acronym" as I write this.

But, it's funny how civil rights legislation happens. You hope for it and demand it and vote for it, and then, when you're drinking wine with some fantastic women and not thinking about civil rights hardly at all, there it comes.

It's a little strange how I feel about this, because I really don't want Johan to be in the military in any way, shape or form for any reason, but at the same time I feel glad that if, for whatever reason he should choose that path, that he could choose it while also being whoever he is meant to be without shame or apologies.

I wonder what a woman similarly situated as I am was doing when the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed. Was there a woman soon to be divorced who was raising a little boy? Was there a woman who wanted that little boy to grow up in a better world than the one she had known? Did she feel a shift in the universe that night? Will all of this matter?

Tonight, for whatever reason, I feel like my vote on that fateful night in November 2008 matters quite a lot.