Philly Elections in a Week

I don't usually go political here, but I got a surprise in the political propaganda that was shoved under my door yesterday.

As most of you know, I originally moved to Philly 12.5 years to go to law school.  After my first year of law school, I interned at the office of the District Attorney of Philadelphia in the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit.  We handled the prosecutions of domestic violence, rapes, crimes against children, and elder abuse.

Two of the people running for judge in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas are people I worked for that summer - one of them is Christopher Mallios, Junior.

Chris was someone I greatly admired and respected.  Not only was an out gay man, but he was very open about it.  While I was out in law school, I wasn't confident enough to be out during my internship, but I watched him closely, and I considered him a role model.  Last night, I looked up the questionnaire he submitted to Liberty City, and (as I suspected) he has continued to be unashamedly openly gay during his campaign.

I actually emailed him last night (expecting that he would not remember me), but I wanted to let him know that I remembered him because of the impact he had made on me.  And I wanted to let him know that he had my support.  He wrote me back this morning, and his kind words meant a lot to me.

I think the City of Philadelphia would greatly benefit from someone like Chris on the bench.  If you don't agree with me, that's fine.  But don't forget to vote, anyway.

Inauguration Day

One of my coworkers brought in her portable television so we could watch the pomp and circumstance in the office.

I held it together for the most part. I cheered for Justice Stevens (although I made fun of Biden for calling him "Mr. Justice) and I jeered Chief Justice Roberts, especially when he went and fucked up the oath of office. Dumbass.

I was proud of myself for not bawling like a baby while Obama was sworn in. Although I will admit that I cried when Dubya got into the chopper and flew away. It was such an immense feeling of RELIEF. All I could think of was, "It's over. He's gone. We can get to work on repairing this clusterfuck of a country now."

The only unpleasant part of the whole deal was when Rick Warren was introduced. I made a comment that I still couldn't believe that he was doing the invocation. Coworker 1 asked me who he is. I said, "He's a conservative pastor who is anti-gay rights, pro-life, etc." Coworker 2 said, "He isn't anti-gay rights. He's anti-gay MARRIAGE." I said, "Marriage IS a gay right." Coworker 2 said, "But he isn't against ALL gay rights." I just left it like that; I'm not out at work, and I didn't want to start a big THING.

While I was disgruntled at this statement, my sister (who I called last night since it was her birthday) and I managed to make it pretty funny. As in, "how many gay rights do you have to support for you to call yourself pro-gay rights? Is one enough? Two?" I wondered if it was like a meal plan where you get one entree and two sides - you can support one BIG gay right and two little ones and you're good to go. Then we really got nuts and started in on feminism. You know, like you can be a feminist but against females being educated... so you aren't against all women's right, just SOME of them. *rolls eyes* Anyway, by the time we were done, we were both giggling like crazy.

I also had my first day of Pre-calc last night. I think I'm really going to like this professor. But we'll see how it goes after Day 1. :)