Honestly, the news media is at a bit of a loss. It’s hard to write bad news about something that is so clearly a big success. Several reporters were so skeptical that a “million lawn sign grassroots effort” would really materialize. We could easily have used two million! So many supporters are calling in trying to get more signs, more bumper stickers, more wave signs, that the campaign is hustling to meet demand.
In the Latino community, ad campaigns are sweeping through on the big networks and throughout television stations statewide. Radio campaigns will also be heard, with well-respected Latino figures standing up for the sacred tradition of marriage. Religious leaders will be heard from as well.
In the African American community, there are scores of pastors who are deeply committed to this cause. Their sermons are devoted to igniting their members. They are proud to stand with religious people from all corners of the state to protect marriage. You will be seeing many of them soon, making public their deeply-held convictions.
In the Asian community as well, there are great members of your community who are placing their own ads and reaching out to many cultures to alert them to vote.
I have enjoyed doing interviews with college editors from California universities across the state. A lot of younger adults aren’t in tune with the “price” of gay marriage….just the love angle. Once they realize the real consequences of Prop 8…..they seem to give it real thought.
The big city media outlets, for the most part, are opposing Prop 8. Often it seems their decisions are made even before reviewing the facts. This past week’s “photograph of the month,” in the San Francisco Chronicle, featuring 18 little 1st graders perplexed and dropped on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall…was one for the ages. Mayor Gavin Newsome made it perfectly clear for parents throughout the state that the target is not just marriage for gay activists, they have also set their sites on our schools.
This brings me to recount something that happened a day or so after that no infamous 1st grade field trip. After spending the day answering media inquiries (about every 3 minutes), I took a stray call from a father, a fireman, of a beloved gay son in Greater Los Angeles. He just wanted to talk to ANYone who would listen on the campaign. He disliked our ads, but also disliked the extremists on the NO side of Prop 8. He just wished people would understand that there are many good people in California who don’t have all the answers, but are trying to love and accept their children and have Thanksgivings that are a little different than they ever expected.
As we defend the traditions of marriage, and especially the critical rights of our children, it helps to remember that there are families and good people on both sides of this passionate debate.
Those of us involved in the backrooms of the campaign feel your support, we see the work of your bare hands as we drive to and from interviews and press conferences. We are inspired by the great Latino community where so many are beginning to make their OWN signs because they can’t wait to take to the street corners and wave. We say thank you to the good people from Carson, from Los Angeles, from SAN CLEMENTE even, who drove all the way to downtown Los Angeles just to take an important seat at a hearing on Prop 8.
This is a campaign of the people, by the people, and of the people. We don’t call the media when we need help….we call our good neighbors. Because we know they will show up. And a dozen years from now when our kids or our grandkids ask us where we were when marriage was on the ballot in California……all of us, all the millions of you, will be able to say, “I was there. And I did it for you.”
