Opinion: In today’s pages: Stellar speeches and the future of gay rights
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Who can possibly stop talking election yet? Not the Times’ Opinion Manufacturing Division. Both the editorial board and Wayne State University professor John Corvino predict that, as society gains a deeper understanding of and appreciation for gay rights, there’s a good chance voters will repeal the newly passed Proposition 8 in coming years. The board calls on the African American community, which voted heavily in favor of the gay-marriage ban, to remember the shared struggle of civil rights and how once society viewed interracial marriage as ungodly -- a few decades before the child of an interracial couple would be elected president.
The editorial board also applauds both presidential candidates’ speeches on election night. After a long absence, the board says, the John McCain who reaches across the aisle to make things work, and who puts service to his country, showed himself. And Barack Obama reminded Americans of something they also haven’t heard in a long time -- that success depends on people giving to their country as well as taking from it.
On the other side of the fold, Patt Morrison wonders whether party labels of outlived their usefulness:
How meaningful and relevant are candidates’ political parties anymore? When a New England Republican can be more progressive than a Texas Democrat, when millions regard themselves as independents and occupy the takeout-menu middle on political issues, why do we need to belong to parties? Why red, why blue, why even purple, when there’s the big deluxe Crayola box to choose from?
In a burst of free advice for Obama, former Secretary of State Warren Christopher offers trandition guidance to the president-elect and Rosa Brooks has ideas for how he can mend the country’s global relations.
AP Photo/Paul Sakuma