Fortunately for me and for many other chronically ill residents of Michigan, this initiative passed. It will be years before we see results, years that will see many of us beyond help. But all the information we have now says that stem-cell research has nearly limitless potential for treating Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, heart disease, and a lot of other illnesses. Proposal 2 gave me, and many people like me, hope. Maybe now I’ll live to see my baby niece graduate from college. Maybe now I’ll live to grow old with my partner. It’s not a certainty, but it’s the closest thing we’ve got, and I thank God for that gift.

If you really think defeating proposal 1 would have been the “pro-life” thing to do, then you are saying that my life and the lives of people like me are worth less than the frozen-in-stasis existence of a six-celled embryo abandoned in a fertility clinic. Rethink your usage of that term: pro-LIFE.

what I’m concerned about protecting is sacramental marriage, not civil marriage

Which, of course, is totally unaffected either way by ballot measures like Prop 8.

You have it precisely backward. Until and unless a solid majority of the people in a majority of U.S. states is pro-life, then having a change in the Supreme Court will be precisely meaningless. Overturning Roe v. Wade, while it would be nice, will just return it to the states. Will any of the states vote to place meaningful restrictions on abortion? Did South Dakota on Tuesday? The question answers itself.

If we can’t get a pro-life initiative to pass in South Dakota, then exactly where can we get one?

Two big reasons: first, it looked more winnable. Second, until we get either some genuine radicals, or a change in the Supreme Court, any change in abortion law is like a band-aid on a femoral artery cut.

The answer seems to be, because many ‘conservative’ activists are bloody hypocrites who want to uphold Christian values when it comes to forbidding gays from getting maried, but do not want to abide by Christian values when it means THEIR family members being required to carry a pregnancy (or donating to charity, supporting economic justice, or protecting the environment.)

Perhaps that’s uncharitable of me. While I morally disapprove of homosexual acts, I don’t particularly care if the United States government decides to recognize homosexual marriages- what I’m concerned about protecting is sacramental marriage, not civil marriage. I do care, very much, about abortion, and although I didn’t vote for McCain I was hoping and praying that the pro-life initiatives in Michigan, Colorado, South Dakota and California would pass. They all failed, which makes me think that maybe the supposed pro-life sentiment in America is largely a big sham. It’s truly sad that many social conservatives in America appear to care more about whether something is called ‘civil union’ or ‘civil marriage’ than about the protection of innocent human life.

I’m angry at the protestors, to some degree; if they’d shown the activism a month ago that they’re showing now, the result might have been different. But I acknowledge that to some degree this is unfair, and it is my pain speaking mroe than anything else.