There are some blogs I follow that I really like. Most of them may be found in my sidebar, but some of them I haven’t gotten around to adding just yet. I have to confess that I agree with almost all of them. I know that it’s good discipline to read those one does not always agree with. However, I found that it was not entirely healthy for me when I fell off my cliff earlier this year. I still read the occasional blowhard, but it’s not redemptive and causes my bloodpressure to rise so I don’t really see the point.

A blog that I read and agree with on most occasions is Willzhead, written by Will Sampson. I like his politics and his theology. But this morning he wrote something that I finally and sadly had to disagree with. I wished with all of my heart that I could agree with it, because you see, Will has hope. And I do not.

It may be that Will has hope because of where he lives. Or maybe I don’t because of where I live. Where I live people continued to vote yesterday in their same old ruts. Yes, it is entirely possible that Jim Webb will replace George Allen as our US Senator. But the fact that this race is so close makes my blood boil. It is 2006 … how can it be that so very many people will vote for a man who will call those different from him a monkey in public? If he is so willing to show disdain that easily, do they think he will not turn it on them?

Then as I trolled through the results this afternoon, I found this horrifying election result from Florida. In Florida’s 16th Congressional District 48% of the electorate voted FOR Mark Foley. The scandal surrounding his inappropriate behavior broke too late to remove his name from the ballot. The man RESIGNED from his position in Congress. Yet 110,317 people voted for him. Have they gone mad? The Democratic candidate only got 49% of the vote.

I think the primary source of my discomfort was the ease with which the Marriage Amendment passed here in Virginia.  I’m still struggling with this.  I have a hard time with the amount of money and effort that was spent defending an idea against a somewhat what specious reality, when that time and money might have been spent defending real people against a very harsh reality.  But perhaps that’s really the issue.  It’s much easier (in the long run) to rail against or for an idea than it is to get one’s hands dirty helping real flesh and blood people.  People are so darn inconvenient and they cost so much.  It’s easier, grander, more romantic and fabulous to pass a marriage amendment that protects almost no one against an enemy who does not exist, than it is to set captives free, restore sight to the blind, or bring water to the thirsty and bread to the hungry.  Or … something like that.

I hope, tho, in the long run that Will is right and I am not.