Maine voters reject gay marriage law
Equality took it on the chin Tuesday. Voters in Maine repealed a state law that would have allowed same-sex couples to wed. This defeat for marriage equality cuts particularly deep as The New York Times has referred to the New England area as “”more accepting of same-sex marriage than any other region of the country.”” It also comes on the heels of California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages in May.
Only five states have legalized same-sex marriage. The Maine election sends the message that advocates of marriage equality will continue to face an uphill battle in convincing the U.S. that same-sex couples are entitled to the same rights as everyone else.
Arizona passed a gay marriage ban in 2008.
Straight people, odds are good that someone you know and care about is gay. You have at least one friend, relative or co-worker somewhere in this world who is gay. If that’s the case, this election, and every election with similar results, should make you angry. There is someone you know who, through no fault of their own, has less rights than you do. They aren’t allowed, by the law, to be who they are. And that’s not right. Nobody should want that for anyone.
It’s going to be hard, but we can change the tone conversation by conversation. People are people. They want the same things. If you believe a person should be able to spend the rest of their lives with someone they love, regardless of their gender, then say so. If challenged, stand firm. There is nothing harmful, deviant or subservise about love and commitment, nor in the state’s recognizing that commitment. That needs to be said again and again until there is real change in this country.
And change can’t happen without straight allies who are willing to say what they know is right, in class, in coffee shops and in line at the supermarket.
As for the voters of Maine, for stalling the march of progress, they receive a fail.
Lots of ‘no’s on major Tucson propositions
Tucson voters rejected propositions 401 and 402, budget override measures which would have provided more funding for the Tucson Unified School District. A school district election may seem far off from student-life at the University of Arizona, but the results represent a disturbing trend that everyone who lives in this state should care about. Arizona voters have a developed a nasty habit of putting their pocketbooks before school books.
TUSD Superintendent Elizabeth Celania-Gagen told the Arizona Daily Star the district will now more likely than not have to cut programs once considered “”natural”” to the K-12 experience. In Fagen’s words, this means children in Tucson may soon have to go without full-time counselors, librarians, art, music and P.E.
Even more disturbing, Fagen openly admitted, “”We’re to the point where we’re not providing the level of education that we think is just part of a free and appropriate education.””
Blame it on the economy, perhaps, voters were understanably skittish about the possibility of increased taxes, but education is an investment in a community’s future. Consider the UA example alone. How can the university recruit all-star faculty to a city where their children would be denied access to the basic staples of childhood education. Similarly, what company would relocate to that kind of community? Not many.
And, as we all know, state universities have also suffered punishing budget cuts at the hands of the Arizona State Legislature.
Administrators like Fagen and President Robert Shelton cannot fulfill their mission alone. They need support from the voters and elected officials of this state.
According to the UA Factbook, about 25,000 students on a campus of 35,000 are Arizonans. They’re going to graduate, look for jobs and eventually start thinking beginning families. How does this state plan to keep them here if there is not future for their children, from Kindergarten through senior year of college.
For failing to prioritize education, Tucson voters get a fail.
No excuse for WebMail failure
Most students and staff members didn’t need to read yesterday’s Wildcat to learn about the WebMail outage, which was reported as the longest in its six years of use. Major WebMail delays began Monday and lasted for nearly 10 hours. Unfortunately, there were further delays on Tuesday morning.
With all the technological advancements of the past few years, university e-mail accounts are crucial educational tools. Students use their UA e-mail address to contact professors and other students, e-mail and save documents, communicate with professional sources and a myriad of other functions. In this day and age, students don’t always create a back-up plan in case their e-mail account is down for up to 10 hours at a time, and they shouldn’t have to.
Associate Director of the University Information Technology Services-Frontline Services Thomas Rees told the Wildcat that the major outage highlights the need for a new e-mail system, which the UA has just opted into. This was not the first time students have experienced WebMail difficulties, especially this semester, so Wildcats can only hope that Catmail will be more competent and reliable. For the slow-moving fix, WebMail gets a fail.
— Editorials are determined by the opinions board and written by one of its members. They include Shain Bergan, Alex Dalenberg, Laura Donovan and Heather Price-Wright.
