Heated Politics at my College

So evidently there's a recall vote occurring today at the Community College I attend. Evadently some fundamentalist group has taken over the student council, and only at the beginning of this month after they made a incredibly politically charged decision to endorse prop 8 did most of the student body (myself included) hear about it. I admit I didn't vote in the last Student election, mainly because I had no idea when it was since I'm not on campus often, and there's no notification. Rather then describe all of the recent events I'm just going to post some links:

Some recent history:

American River Current.com 5.14.08: Student Association election called libelous

Current Events:

SN&R 9.30.08:Trouble right here at ARC

SacBee 10.1.08: ARC Student Council votes to back gay marriage ban

YouTube 10.1.08: American River College Student Council Votes 8-3 for Prop 8(This is raw video so it can't really be biased I don't know if that can be said about the one who posted it though)

YouTube 10.2.08: ARC Student Council Passes Support Prop 8 Resolution - FOX40(This is an excerpt of a FOX 40 news report posted by some random person both of which are probably biased)

SacBee 10.21.08: ARC student leaders targeted for recall over Prop. 8 support

The real startling thing is a few weeks ago when I was last on campus for a counseling appointment I actually got to talk to Viktor Choban one of the council members who's up for recall. the conversation started off well enough. Me asking him how exactly are students notified of when the elections occur, Turns out they just post notices on campus, and then expressing my dismay of how that excludes many and suggesting a more inclusive way of the possibility of email notification. Then it started to turn for the worst as we talked about the topic of the day, the council's decision to approve of prop 8. He gave me pretty much the same line that he gave to FOX 40, that is it was an important issue for the council since if it was voted down gay marriage would have to be taught in schools, (uh huh like marriage of any sort is taught in schools) and the other crazy religious logic we've all heard by now... Then the conversation went into talk purely about religion. How he was a “True Christian”, that even swearing with GOD's name is a sin, and that how no good you do is worth anything in the eyes of GOD and thus the only way to be saved is by studying the BIBLE and praying to JESUS for salvation. (yes I know I've been capitalizing GOD I'm doing it for satire. )

The discussion left me a bit startled. If the Christians that think like that really believe that nothing good they do amounts to anything in the eyes of God then why even do good at all? If all that really amounts in the end is if you studied the bible and prayed to Jesus then why not just endlessly commit minor sins and never do any good since that won't matter after all? It's quite an unsettling mindset to see. No wonder they're willing to claim religious persecution if people speak against them but are more then happy to persecute those who think contrary.

Lastly what's my opinion on all this?

Student council recall: I intend to find how to get my vote in and vote for the recall. Even though the student council doesn't really amount to much it's still not good to have closed minded individuals who want to “dictate behavior” having the majority say in things. I'm sure this is not representative of the whole of the student body and thus they should not represent it.

Prop 8:

A big NO. It writes discrimination of one group into the state law, and once that's started where will that end? Yes I do admit that there is a problematic conflict between the Religious and the Legal definition of marriage now, and sadly it won't go away easily. Separate but equal has never worked in the past and it won't work in the future. My radical solution would be to strip any legal meaning from marriage and convert all current and future marriages to legal unions. That way everyone gets the same thing under the law and can't be discriminated against, but at the same time religious types get their meaning of marriage back. It would be a near perfect separation of church and state, but sadly I doubt many people would go for that either.

Well that pretty much sums it up for now. It probably gives you a little more of an idea about the Catholic raised, Heterosexual, Agnostic person I am. Until next time.