Bittersweet!!

I had a horrible weekend. . .and an equally horrible day. I HATE being sick!! :(

One of the many negative things that happen when I am sick is the beautiful nightmares!! Last night was a doozie!! I figured I would share it with all my blogging friends. . .lucky you, right?

I have been very upset with the current situation on Prop 8. I was having a difficult time with this proposition from the start. I have a lot of friends that live an alternate lifestyle (comes with working in the Cosmetic industry), and a few family members. So of course I want them to be happy. However, I was very concerned with the possible outcome that no on Prop 8 would have made on our state. When prop 8 passed it was very bittersweet.

My hope was that they would either go back to the drawing board and think of a compromise that everyone can agree on, or that they would feel peace that they tried their hardest (two failed Propositions) and move on.

I never dreamed that they would go on a full riot. And against the Mormons aka The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. Hence my nightmare last night was all about this riot. I woke up quite disturbed and figured I would share my overall feelings on this issue.

I think a lot of you would appreciate reading a post done by my wise friend Brian that his equally wise father wrote:

The following facts might turn your head if you blame the Mormon church for the passage of Prop 8 in California:

1. Mormons make up about 2% of the population of California. There are approximately 800,000 Mormons out of a total population of approximately 34 million.

2. Mormon voters were less than 5% of the "yes" vote. If one estimates that 250,000 Mormons are registered voters (the rest being children). If every single Mormon voter in California votes yes, they made up approximately 4.4% of the Yes vote and 2.2% of the total Proposition 8 vote. PROP 8's MARGIN OF VICTORY WAS OVER 500,000 VOTES. IF EVERY MORMON VOTER HAD STAYED HOME FROM THE POLLS, PROP 8 STILL WOULD HAVE PASSED EASILY.

3. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) donated not one dime to the Yes on 8 campaign. Individual members of the Church were encouraged to support the Yes on 8 efforts and, exercising their constitutional right, donated whatever they felt like donating.

4. The No on 8 campaign raised more money than the Yes on 8 campaign. Unofficial estimates put No on 8 at $38 million and Yes on 8 at $32 million. The No campaign enjoyed a substantial money advantage.

5. African Americans in California overwhelmingly supported Yes on 8. Exit polls show that 70% of Black voters chose Yes on 8. Haven't read about any protests at the NAACP offices.

6. The majority of Latino voters voted Yes on 8. Exit polls show that the majority of Latinos supported Yes on 8. Are protesters headed to the MALDEF offices next?

7. The Yes on 8 coalition was a broad spectrum of religious organizations. Catholics, Evangelicals, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, Muslims – all supported Yes on 8. It is estimated that there are 10 million Catholics and 10 million Protestants in California. Mormons were a tiny fraction of the population represented by Yes on 8 coalition members. The Knights of Columbus were primary contributors to the Yes campaign. Are the protesters planning to send a delegation to the Vatican to let Pope know how they feel?

8. Not all Mormons voted in favor of Proposition 8. Our faith accords that each person be allowed to choose for him or her self. Church leaders have repeatedly asked members to treat others with "civility, respect and love," despite their differing views.

9. The Mormon church is under no obligation to refrain from participating in the political process to the extent permitted by law. U.S. election law is very clear that Churches may not endorse candidates, but may support issues. The Church has always been very careful on this matter and occasionally (not often) chooses to support causes that it judges to be moral issues.

10. Supporters of Proposition 8 did exactly what the Constitution provides for all citizens: they exercised their First Amendment rights to speak out on an issue that concerned them, make contributions to a cause that they support, and then vote in the regular electoral process. For the most part, this seems to have been done in an open, fair, and civil way.

Opponents of 8 have accused supporters of being bigots, liars, and worse.The fact is, we simply did what Americans do – we spoke up, we campaigned, and we voted.

This is a witness account of the happening of this day. I think this picture makes me feel worse!

Witness describes scene at the LA Temple:
I was at the Los Angeles Temple assisting in the security efforts and it was quite an experience. Our temple is safe and no damage was done on the grounds. It was a sight I never expected to see.

At one point we had let in about 20 police vehicles through the gates, because they were afraid their vehicles would be damaged as civilian cars were being vandalized. . .

Two full squads of LAPD in riot gear set up their base inside the temple grounds while SWAT vehicles and hundreds of officers followed the crowds up Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards. I’ve heard that the crowd was estimated to be over 2,500. When I arrived, all of the gates were shut and a small group of members had to remain outside the grounds as the direction was to turn away others who had come to assist.

After about a half an hour two sister missionaries ran up the drive to the East gate. I would have made more jokes with them, asking them trivia questions to prove they were LDS before opening the gate, but they were obviously nervous and had left on their name tags as they wandered the streets. When the crowd turned back towards the temple from West Hollywood, we opened the gate to those members still outside so they would not be trapped in the crowd.

The officers inside the temple grounds made a line on the front lawn by the fence. At one point, with 7 news and police helicopters overhead, the crowd began to climb the fence and it looked like there was going to be a lot of trouble. We had, it seemed, a good fourth of a Polynesian ward there, so it could have gotten very interesting very fast.

With lines of motorcycle cops with sirens wailing up and down the street with the latest outbreak, helicopters continually circling with spotlights cutting through the sky, and the crowd roaring being led my megaphones shouting every synonym they could think of that went along with “evil”… it almost seemed like the very end was at hand. My dad called me every few minutes to give me updates from live news through the Internet because we did not have TVs and the police did not even seem to be informed on the movement of the crowd up and down the streets. I relayed these updates directly to the head of temple security so we could anticipate when to be ready.

My friend and I joked about what would happen if we were caught in the middle of the crowd rushing up the lawn. We decided that because we were still single without much luck in finding wives, it might be to our advantage to go without a fight, and die as a martyrs. If I remember correctly, that’s a free ticket to the Celestial Kingdom, and I’m sure there’s plenty of girls there to chose from without the dramas of dating. [Note to non-Mormons: This is a humorous reference to an Islamic teaching for which there is no Mormon equivalent.]

While I was there, I was not aware of anyone actually breaching the fence, but we were asked to move far across the parking lot, as they were anticipating the need to shoot tear gas canisters.

I never thought I would see the day when police officers would sit perched on the spire of our temple as lookouts. All of this happened at about 7:30 pm. . . .

Against this backdrop, in defending Prop 22 (Prop 8’s statutory twin) California’s Attorney General argued before the California Supreme Court
that California’s current domestic partnership legislation affords same sex couples all of the core substantive rights that plausibly may be guaranteed to an individual or couple as elements of the fundamental state constitutional right to marry . . .

In other words, despite Prop 8 or 22, gay partners already enjoyed all of the substantive rights of normal couples. Thus, the No on 8 agenda had (and has) nothing to do with substantive rights of gays. What they want is to take away the rights of others to freely and publicly state the moral, societal and economic inferiority of homosexuality. They seek to impose moral equivalency between homosexuality and normal, husband-wife relations through the law. I think this is called “legislating morality.”

To read more go to this website

This bothers me. When I think of temple workers I think of my Grandparents, my Mother, Sweet Helpers, and my Friends. Same as the Patrons who visit there. I feel violated and sick that they had to be put through this.

I wonder what they are trying to prove or get out of their actions. Do they really think that if they riot that everyone will want to take back their vote? I think that this is causing the absolute opposite reaction for all the community.

I am also very upset with how some have treated others throughout this whole ordeal. Vandalizing, Stealing, Name Calling, and NOW Riots. I understand being passionate about something. . .but must you lose the act of being civil??

Again, I am sorry that it had to end up like this. I really hope that something can change for both parties involved.