I suggest you read the article that I wrote. Box turtle reader writes. you might learn something about who is actually affected if prop. 8 passes.

I assure you, it isn’t you.

I also assure you that no one I know is interested in your lawn signs.

But the real damage has already happened. The trust, the good-neighborly feeling and the continued war as in “us” versus “them” has produced innocent casualties. This has pitted Church members against each other. It has strained relationships in families. It has made neighbors wary of each other.

It has done more damage than a silly prank.

And, Amy, aren’t you a little ashamed at projecting yourself as the victim here. Your rights are not being compromised. Your marriage is not being redefined. You can carry on with your life as if nothing happen on November 5th. But, honestly, do try to tell me how this Proposition 8 is NOT discriminatory? Do tell me how this Proposition will pass the equality test in the United States Supreme Court?

It won’t. That’s why Senator Orrin Hatch (a Mormon) can already read the future, and his focus has been and will always be to make the Federal Marriage Amendment come to fruition. Whatever the outcome next week, the battle may be won/lost but the war is far from over.

It’s not like this is a recent occurrence. 60 years ago, four activist judges disenfranchised millions of Californians by striking down the ban on interracial marriage. Look up Perez v. Sharp. Never mind that the people who wrote the California constitution could never dream that someone would read a right to interracial marriage in it. Then, the people of California enacted a ballot initiative that made it legal to discriminate against people who were colored. This was struck down by an activist U.S. Supreme Court. Shame on them, and shame on the current California Supreme Court for following them in that tradition.

Are you accusing the readers of this site of vandalism? That’s pretty bold of you.

Or do you just use the generic “you people” type of reference to diminish and dismiss anyone who does not share your anti-gay zeal? I suspect that this is the case.

It may interest you to know, Amy, that I’ve not defaced anyone’s yardsigns, but I have had a “No on 8″ sign taken down and stolen. You weren’t the one who did that, were you Amy?

In 2000 she put up a Yes on 22 sign. This caused strife with her neighbors, several of whom were same-sex couples and one of whom sent her a letter detailing their concerns (she considered it hate mail). Also, because her brother is gay, it caused grief and division within her family. So this year she refused to put up a Yes on 8 sign.

She realized – to her suprise – that championing her religious values at the expense of others was actually going to cost her relationships with the people she was seeking to diminish.

And I think that is what we have to do. We must, as Daniel did, make it personal.

Those who seek to control our destiny must come to know that we will not be shy in our refusal. We will not view their efforts as “a disagreement” and we will not allow them to get a pass for the harm they are doing.