My Heart is Broken

But then again (4.00 / 3)

Senator Reynolds has a low opinion of us, too:

Committee Chairwoman Deborah Reynolds, a Democrat, said she doesn't think New Hampshire is ready for gay marriage.

We're hicks here, the Senator believes. Vermont and Massachusetts and New York are ready. But her constituents are toooo sllloooowww.

And that's a good enough reason for having the state deny basic rights to people, in the Senator's book.

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by: elwood @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 17:56:46 PM CDT

Until the advent of participatory democracy, we had one party (0.00 / 0)

focused on government OF the people, as in controlling what the people do, and another focused on government FOR the people, as in doing for people what they are not able to do themselves. That the people govern is a revolutionary concept that wasn't able to be realized until all adults could exercise their civil rights and access the decision-making processes (FOIA).
What's a bit disconcerting is that New Hampshire seems to be regressing from the standard set by the town meetings.

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by: hannah @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 19:10:43 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

My Heart's Not Broken Yet... (4.00 / 1)

...just a bit injured.  But I'm optimistic we can still turn this around, because some of our Democratic Senate friends -- the very few who put themselves and their next election ahead of the cause of equality and fairness (the "I'm more important than you are" syndrome) can re-evaluate their political strategy and figure out that killing House Bills 415 and 436 HURTS their future, not helps.  

I think we've got 8 Senators who put ideals ahead of politics, and will vote for our bills.  We need to make it clear to the others that supporting these bills is in THEIR interests too.  Voting for House Bills 415 and 436 will get them re-elected in November, 2010.

Let's get that message out.  We have six days.  

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by: Rep. Jim Splaine @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 17:58:17 PM CDT

I don't know what to say (4.00 / 1)

Mr. Reliable Democrat here was changed by this debate. I am also disturbed, somewhere between you and Mike and Mike and Burt.. But what can I say, I am not surprised. For 100.00 there's nothing to lose holding fast to cockamamie positions.

cock·a·ma·mie also cock·a·ma·my  (kk-mm)
adj. Slang
1. Trifling; nearly valueless.
2. Ludicrous; nonsensical: gave me a cockamamie reason for not going.

Creating our nation, the Founding Fathers, men of great privilege, land, and standing, defined what follows Monarchy. Equality.Have no illusions though, they themselves were not common in any sense of the word, nor were they extremely interested as a group in giving up the power to control the rabble.

http://blogcritics.org/archive...
Howard Zinn, in A People's History of the United States, argues that the Founding Fathers acted as much to deflect popular resentment away from their own abuses of power as to further their desire for freedom to act without British influence. The central concept of the Declaration of Independence is based on the philosophy of John Locke, who outlined mankind's fundamental democratic rights to life, liberty and property. In drafting the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson changed "property" to "happiness" as a concession to popular sentiment. This more abstract language was calculated to appeal to the public mind, and to guard against those who felt that the privileged upper classes already had too much property.

It is clear, then, that the Founding Fathers were thinking of these "unalienable Rights" as applying principally to themselves and men of their own standing. This was a natural outlook for men of that time, and they would no more have considered their application to women, slaves, Indians or the lower classes than we today would consider giving the vote to children. They could not have anticipated the social upheavals that would lead to the broader inclusion of these groups into American life

We will never be all we can be if we keep some people in a different class because somebody's religion says it's so. The Declaration of Independence is a living document, which extends Equal Rights to all. Keep fighting for your rights.

"Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does." Allen Ginsberg

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by: JonnyBBad @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 18:01:24 PM CDT

Sometimes, in a primary, being a single-issue voter can be reasonable. (0.00 / 0)

Let us compare this to President Obama's nominal opposition to gay marriage.  I give him a pass because he has never lifted a finger against it, never supported a ban, opposed repealing it in California, and by some accounts, actually does support it but felt the need to hedge for the election.  But being nominally against something, while not failing to lead, is not the same as actively standing in the way.  And that's what Senator Reynolds is doing.

A point at the beginning of the diary: "State Senator Deb Reynolds just cheapened my marriage."  If you're on the right side of the issue, it's not your fault, but I can see why Dean is left with a bad taste, drinking from a segregated fountain.

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by: This Was The Moment @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 18:28:24 PM CDT

She's from the Vermont border?!? (4.00 / 1)

And she's saying that Vermont is ready for equal marriage but New Hampshire is only ready for straight marriage?

Does she have any suggestion on what we should do with all the married gay and lesbian people in the state or who want to come to the state?  Should we send them, and their tax dollars and their tourism dollars, and their National Guard service, and their entrepreneurship and everything else they might do, to Vermont?

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by: Vis Unita Fortior @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 18:29:38 PM CDT

Look, let me say it once more. It's not about denying rights or (4.00 / 2)

breaking people's hearts.  It's about equality.  

Lots of people aren't keen on equality because they prefer to consider themselves better, more informed, more competent than someone else.

It's also about whether the agents of government are beholden to the people who elect them or prefer to perceive themselves as acting on behalf of people whom they consider incapable of looking after themselves.

It's about limiting the power of civil servants to dole out services as if they were rewards.  Getting people to relinquish power is always difficult.

It's also, finally, about the fact that serving the public is most often a thankless job and extracting a modicum of authoritarian privilege is how people reward themselves.

So, there are all kinds of incentives for maintaining the status quo and few rewards for doing the right thing.

What I'm saying, I guess, is that we have to come up with more rewards.  Perhaps, instead of decrying the recalcitrants, we should be heaping praise on the progressives.

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by: hannah @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 18:57:30 PM CDT

Hear hear (0.00 / 0)

on the last point.

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by: JimC @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 19:21:58 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

2011 (4.00 / 1)

This was really the time to do it. If it fails now -- and it has -- no one will touch it next year. The pressure will be not to give the governor a "tough bill" to sign.

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by: JimC @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 19:23:09 PM CDT

It Hasn't Failed Yet... (4.00 / 4)

...six days until it gets to the Senate floor.  Call your Senators.  

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by: Rep. Jim Splaine @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 19:28:54 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Jim is right (4.00 / 3)

Lot of defeatism here. It failed in the first vote on the floor of the house, right? And then passed?

With all due respect to the passion here,   attacking Deb Reynolds like she is a horrible person isn't going to get this bill passed (and this is the same person some of you were praising for running the best hearing ever, and the same person who voted for civil unions two years ago, and has a pretty good record on a number of issues). It takes work to get a bill passed, and some are harder than others.  On this bill, the anti's have got a lot of out of state money paying for a campaign to call people to get them to call the senators.  

"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

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by: Kathy Sullivan 2 @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 19:53:28 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Look, I understand the existence of complexity (4.00 / 3)

What makes me deeply angry is the message from Sen. Reynolds. It is condescending and belittling to every citizen of this state to say the "we aren't ready;" the clear implication is that she knows what os right and chose to act contrary to it.

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by: Mormo @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 19:57:57 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

How often (4.00 / 1)

does the Senate overturn a committee vote?

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by: JimC @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 20:06:20 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

It Happens... (4.00 / 3)

...fact is, it will be difficult to get the Senate to vote to pass House Bill 436, but it could happen.  A month ago, when we initially lost on the House floor 182 to 183, Paul McEachern, who is a cosponsor with me of HB 436, and I looked at each other and said we just need "one more inning."  Within seconds I was up on my feet and asked for a roll call on a subsequent motion to table the bill, knowing that if we had just a little extra time we could change that vote.  One vote can switch.  It happened.  We stopped tabling, then stopped an effort to kill the bill, then passed it 186-179.

Right now, we're at a 2-3 disadvantage.  But we have another inning.  We can win this.  Equality.  2009.  Now.  We have until Wednesday.  But we need people to continue to lobby, to talk with State Senators, and to talk about the politics of this issue -- that passing this will HELP, not hurt, our Senate and House candidates in November, 2010.  

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by: Rep. Jim Splaine @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 20:16:18 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

The House Judiciary vote was tied (4.00 / 2)

I thought it was hopeless. Let's not get too morose - yet

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by: Putney Swope @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 20:18:07 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Yes, Correct... (4.00 / 1)

...and I think I said that night that the tie 10-10 vote was a position from which we could win.  We can do this.  Equality.  2009.  Now.  

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by: Rep. Jim Splaine @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 20:26:27 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

When I asked my state rep to vote for equal marriage rights, she first told me that out little town wasnt ready for that yet.. (4.00 / 14)

In the end, she voted, not based upon a shapeless apprehension of what people were ready for, but on the basis of what she felt was fair, decent, and truly moral. She voted not to marginalize a part of our community, but to treat all equally in marriage.

I hope that Deb Reynolds, who is a very good and thoughtful person, will likewise put aside her fears and look deeper into her heart before casting the final vote.  

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

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by: Paul Twomey @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 20:05:29 PM CDT

welcome back n/t (0.00 / 0)

"Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does." Allen Ginsberg

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by: JonnyBBad @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 20:23:35 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Somebody get Deb Reynolds' contact info (4.00 / 2)

Make sure her phones are off the hook with people demanding explanations and renunciations of her vote today. Make sure she knows she will face a primary if she does not turn around now and apologize for this vote, and correct herself on the Senate floor. Start fundraising for a challenger and recruit one, too. Stop by her office in person to deliver written complaints, if you're in Concord.

IT for John Lynch '04 and NHDP '08 - I'm liking my track record so far!

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by: RealNRH @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 21:42:56 PM CDT

Got it myself. (0.00 / 0)

From the state Senate web page. Office contact info only; I don't hold with putting up home information (even if it's otherwise available).

District 02
Deborah Reynolds
(O) (603)271-3042
deb.reynolds@leg.state.nh.us

IT for John Lynch '04 and NHDP '08 - I'm liking my track record so far!

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by: RealNRH @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 21:48:59 PM CDT

[ Parent ]