Lobbying at the statehouse
I lobbied for gay marriage at the RI state house today. It was...surreal, and wonderful and maybe even effective.
We got there and opened the doors into this ... If you haven't seen the state house, you should. It's like the capital building only made out of cement. It's beautiful and very providence. And the inside is marble and grand opening up into this big staircase that splits into two halfway up. And they were...covered by catholic school children dressed all in black.
Yes, today was "catholic school children's day" at the state house. And they gathered together ages 6-18, skewed toward the older end. And they sang showtunes. Really out of key showtunes including Circle Of Life from the Lion King and Tonight from West Side Story. And there were drummers (of course there were drummers).
And i'm thinking, "hi, i'm here to talk to you about civil marriage...basic civil rights...insurence, hospital visitation...tonight, tonight, won't be just any night, tonight there will be no morning STAAAAAAAAR" And there were all of these talbes set up with various jesus related paraphernalia. One of them had rainbow letters and said "in everything we do there is jesus" and I thougth, well isn't that sweet...
I did get to talk to legislators though, as they realized, one by one, that the catholic school children really just couldn't sing. They came into the chamber and we talked to them. And they listened. It was really quite beautiful. I think i may have taught some of them something. perhaps changed some minds. They listened to me and were respectful and open minded. I hope they remember what we talked about when they vote next week.
It's so exhilarating to be a part of a meaningful process. People who tell me that the system is broken, that no change can exist without revolution, that there is not difference between the parties, that what we say and how we vote have no meeting, clearly have never done what I did today. The system is beautiful. These people really do care, and they do listen, and they want to learn from their constituents. They think about the issues and they think about the politics. Even if they make the wrong decisions (which they often do), even if they choose reelection over civil rights, it isn't the system that's broken. It just means we have more work to do.
I don't think we'll get gay marriage in RI. At least not this year. People are scared and catholic. But I am not without hope. There is still a lot of fighting to do, a lot of minds to change, a lot of explaining and lobbying and phone banking and letter writing and voting and voting and voting to do. But we'll get there. Probably not this year, but soon, my friends. Soon.