Well, the majority of the polls are closed and Barack Obama has been named the President Elect. Wow! I am so excited to be apart of such an amazing chapter in our history! The United States of America has elected its first black president.

To say that Obama was elected just because of his race would be unfair and racist. I don’t care what people say, if you vote for a person just because of his or her gender/ race that is descrimination and it goes against every civil liberty that this country has fought for!

The truth is that Obama is an amazing orator. His ability to excite large crowds of people is a large contributor to his winning campaign. When his victory was announced on the news, our neighborhood went insane. Our house in Berkeley is located on a row of fraternity and sorority houses from UC Berkeley. There were students crowding into the streets cheering. We even had the good fortune of watching a group of female students running down the streets topless. I think the guys in our house were especially appreciative of that kind of celebrating.

Alaskans stuck to their guns Tuesday night and the state came out republican, as always. Surprisingly it looks like they have re-elected Senator Ted Stevens who, according to the Anchorage Daily News, was convicted on seven felony charges a week ago. As of this morning the ADN reported that there are still 40,000 absentee ballots out, but it looks as if Stevens is going to be the first senator re-elected after being found guilty of criminal charges.

Historically Ted Stevens has been a driving force in the development of Alaska. He has been able to use his position in the senate to ear mark millions of dollars for Alaskan projects, which most Alaskans are in favor for. Stevens’ re-election is a testament to the localism that is abundant in Alaska. Alaskans have a large distrust of the “Outside” and especially of national politicians who don’t understand the idiosyncrasies of Alaskan life. As a people who play hard in the summer during the 24 hour days and struggle to survive the winters during the 24 hour nights, we don’t appreciate being told what to do and would rather reinvent the wheel than use an idea from any of those “lower 48ers”. So I guess it’s not such a big surprise that Uncle Ted is back! It would have made a much larger impact on the election if he had been convicted in Alaska rather than by a jury in Washington DC. We just don’t trust those folks!

I am deeply saddened that Proposition 8 passed in California. It feels like a step backward in civil liberties everywhere. As the largest state in the union, California has the ability to influence the way the entire country defines equal rights.

Proposition 8 was the measure to change the California State Constitution to state that only a marriage between a man and a woman would be recognized by the state of California. First of all, I don’t understand that in a time of economic and education crisis politicians were so concerned about putting this on the ballot. Millions of dollars were spent on both sides and Prop 8 passed 52% to 48%.

Second of all, I don’t understand how a state that overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama with 61% of the vote could so openly disregard the constitutional right of an entire population! I would further argue that defining marriage in the state’s consitution is an obvious lack of seperation between church and state. Either marriage is a religious organization in which it would be up to each church to decide who it will marry. Or marriage is a government organization in which every citizen should have equal rights to participate and receive whatever benefits from that union. You can’t have it both ways!

I know that gay citizens will eventual have equal rights, it’s just a matter of fighting the good fight and breaking down these ridiculous barriers.