It is About Time!

I am frankly thrilled with the news out of Iowa and now Vermont this week.

The Vermont Legislature on Tuesday overrode Gov. Jim Douglas’s veto of a bill allowing gay couples to marry, mustering one more vote than needed to preserve the measure.

The step makes Vermont the first state to allow same-sex marriage through legislative action instead of a court ruling, and comes less than a week after the Iowa Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages in that state. These victories are huge. Especially seen in the light of the dark ages of the Bush administration from which we have just emerged.

I have frankly always wondered what the big issue was about banning gay unions. The argument that it destroys the institution of marriage never rung true. I frankly think we ought to celebrate any committed relationship. And frankly I think there are none as committed as those thwarted by society. This was true of inter-racial marriages in the 60's and it is true now of the same sex marriages being disallowed in most of the United States.

As an artist and with a long history in the theatrical world it has been my pleasure to know many same sex couples that without the benefit of marriage have stayed together in loving relationships far longer than some of my friends in conventional marriages, moi included. I have always thought this is about health insurance. Companies and Medicare (and Social Security with survivor benefits) do not want this additional burden of having to provide coverage for same-sex partners.

It is sad if that is the reason we are banning love just because it does not fit our narrow definitions.

I applaud Vermont and Iowa. Way to go.

None of the Above

In college I had this marvelous Sociology professor. After taking Sociology 101 from him I decided to get a minor in the subject.

His freshman level 101 class was in the major lecture hall which held 600 plus students, so we did not have essay exams but multiple choice. He wrote some of the trickiest multiple choice tests I ever took. There were seldom less than five choices and the instructions said that sometimes two choices would be correct.

Choice E was frequently, but not always, None of the Above. It became somewhat of a rallying call among Varley's students. Any time you heard the phrase on campus you knew they had taken a course from the man. D was often all the above but it just did not have the ring of None of the Above.

Watching the current political contests here in the United States I find myself wanting to scream at the political pundits on television - None of the above! I like it. We should put it on the ballot.

For President

• John McCain - Republican
• Hilary R. Clinton - Democrat
• Mayor Bloomberg - Independent
• None of the above

If no one candidate captures 33% of the vote or more or if None of the above has the highest number of votes the election is re-run. And why stop at President with this proposal? Start on the state level. And lets start in the primaries. It would give fair warning to all parties that they just have not captured our hearts and minds; dig deeper.

And just think of the fun when the pollsters call. No longer do you have to meekly reply that you are undecided (and let's face it if they were running a great slate of candidates would you be undecided). Just yell: NONE OF THE ABOVE.

The talking heads on television would be dismayed. "Well, Lou, it appears that the winner of the Iowa caucus will be None of the Above. What do you think that means for the future of the political process here in America?"

That it is broken and we want it fixed. Candidates and their future votes and vetoes should not be open for purchase by the big money interests in this country. And with None of the Above us little insignificant voters, the backbone of the representative republic, can take back our country.

Let's not wait until they get the message. We have write in votes. Write in None of the Above. Tell the pollsters, None of the Above. E-mail the news media with your choice of None of the Above. Why should we have to settle on the least obnoxious candidate for the leader of the less-than-free world? Just say None of the Above.