News Day Friday

This was a crazy day. I had to get to work by 8 and Julia was due at the SPCA by 8:30, so I took her with me. Once we were there, she got a special tour of the behind-the-scenes at the station, seeing the control rooms for both radio and TV.

This afternoon, half an hour before my shift was supposed to be over, this happened.

Ever since then, happy couples have been getting married here in San Francisco.

Two and a half hours later, I finally got home.

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F&F

Throughout my life and my career, whenever I sense I am on the verge of a big transition, personally or professionally, I have become extremely agitated.

I have not lived the life my parents would have chosen for me -- a life with far more certainty and security than mine has turned out to provide. Instead I have chosen a life of constant uncertainty and insecurity, but also one that allows great bursts of creativity.

But there have been times I regretted these choices, especially in recent years.

They (both my parents and all of my kids) would have liked it to be far less chaotic and strange, I'm sure.

Nevertheless, the life I have chosen has often delivered surprises, both good and bad, and now I sense I soon will enter a new phase in that journey.

More news soon. Plus this blog will never again become public. This is strictly a Freinds and Family blog -- please never share this content with anyone without my permission.

Thank you.

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The Devil Speaks on Same-Sex Marriage

So today indeed was the big news day. And the news was good, by and large, for proponents of same-sex marriage.

But for me it was a day of almost complete chaos, as I juggled my parenting duties, my normal blogging work for 7x7, including another interview with the founders of a startup, and a long shift at KQED News covering the Supreme Court rulings.

Since I have a quirky approach to the news at times, the first post I put up had to do with how people were searching keywords related to same-sex marriage today at Yahoo and Google. In our new data-driven world, the devil is in a new set of details.

Later, surfing around searching for details myself, I came upon this gem -- that Justice Scalia, a fierce opponent of same-sex marriage, now believes that the majority of his colleagues now would support same-sex marriage as a constitutional right!

Wow. I think that may be the voice of the devil.


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On the Eve of a News Day

Tomorrow is the day. The Supreme Court will finally rule on Prop 8 and Doma. Depending what the justices decide we will either face a historical moment in the civil rights movement, or we will go backward a few steps.

If the latter, not to worry, equal rights for gay men and lesbians will soon be achieved.

I will be going into KQED to work in the newsroom starting at 1 pm for the next eight hours. By then, we will all know what the Court ruled and my job will be to help document the reaction. Here in San Francisco, there will be a big reaction.

Either a big celebration or a big protest. There is no middle ground at times like this. You either believe that everyone deserves the right to marry the person they love or you actually don't believe in true love.

As for the other important rulings this week, on affirmative action, the Court punted in a way that may prove useful, and utterly failed on voting rights. Pathetic, in fact, not recognizing that today's racism is much more subtle, but just as destructive, as that employed when I was a boy.

Tomorrow is a new day. Let's hope the Court does what is right.

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The Week To Come

The kids will spend most the next week here with me, as their mother travels east to visit her ailing father. My daughter just got home yesterday after a week camping near Yosemite in San Francisco's Camp Mather.

She looked taller and I have a theory about that, like I have theories about lots of things.

When they are growing as fast as she is, at the age of 14, we don't really get acclimated to their new size for a while. They have to level off and stay at a size for, say, a few months before we can accept their new height and weight as real.

Until then they just seem to keep growing before our non-acclimated eyes.

All eyes are on the Supreme Court this week. Journalists get restless at times like these. Decisions are imminent, the kinds of decisions that help alter history, or at least affirm that history has been codified into law.

Some great issues await resolution -- civil rights for gays and lesbians, affirmative action for under-privileged minority students, and voting rights for those who historically have been largely shut out of the political process.

Whatever your thinking is on such issues, they affect millions of people probably not a whole lot like you. I guess you could measure a citizen's social empathy by ranking his or her's opinions on these types of controversies.

Should people of the same sex be allowed to marry and gain access benefits only heterosexual couples enjoy today?

Should minorities who still lag in education be given preference getting into college?

Should everyone have fair an equal access to the right to vote in elections?

FWIW, here are my personal opinions, not meant to affect or disrespect anyone who differs with me.

Same-sex marriage -- it's a no-brainer. Of course. It's time to do the right thing.

Affirmative action -- I do not like it, but I recognize that it may be a necessary evil for a bit longer, under we see more educational parity in this society. I will not cry elephant tears if the Court strikes it down, however, which I suspect it will this week.

Voting rights -- it's an abomination that any state or county or district would in any way attempt to fix elections by erecting unfair barriers to participation based on race, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, party, or any other factor. It is, simply put, un-American.

Of course it matters not what I think or believe; only what nine justices in black robes decide to agree on -- make that five justices in black robes decide to agree on.

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