I made “Pay to the Order of Anoki Casey” my status for so long, everyone had to have seen it. And have said it. I also repeated this on MySpace and am periodically posting it on Twitter. Hopefully with that many minds reading and saying it, I will encourage thousands of checks to come my way!
I have just poked a whole bunch of people on Facebook to see what effect continuously responding to their pokes will have on me. Will I feel oddly connected with them or annoyed at all the pokes. Will they be more responsive, communicative, or feel “connected” to me?
How I will quantify this, I don’t know, but I already got a nice wall message from my sister and a quick IM convo with an old friend!
Dear President Obama,
Thank you and congratulations, Mr. President. I cried watching your inauguration and it brought me back to the day I watched your speech entitled “A More Perfect Union”. It was a speech that left me deeply moved by every word and sentiment. When I heard your speech I had to say “It’s about time”. I am a member of an American age group born right at the start of the Reagan era and have never seen a President that has been able to speak with such words of true understanding as you have, and they most certainly never were able to live up to the promises they made. But I will believe you, and as an American who believes in the ideals built into the idea of this country, you have my vote, Sir. But as an American I am more than my age demographic, my economic status, or my genetic background. Those are filtered through another minority identity I share. I am a Gay American.
In a world where it can be said the only true majority on our level of evolving consciousness is humanity, and any division by race, color, gender, religious background, economic status or ability makes up the global minorities, I am a member of a minority within all of those minorities. I am a member of a third-dimension of human reality that bridges and spans the gap between the differing minorities of America…and the world…for I base my identity not only on my gender and my race and my successes and my hurdles, but also on how I express myelf and my love. I am a tax-paying, voting, working American who cannot under U.S. Law: marry, share health care, join the US Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines, and cannot say I am able to comfortably walk into many churches, businesses, establishments, or even whole areas of the country solely because of who I am intrinsically. I am also paying my full taxes to this government each year within the same tax-bracket as millions of Americans. But, I couldn’t help to notice you did not mention me and my people or our plight in your speech. You mentioned everyone else, but not us. Not in March of 2008 and not today, on your inauguration day.
I say this with no malice, no spite, and no conviction. As you said, I am taking a “leap based on faith” to believe you can help us begin to make “a more perfect union”, to enact positive changes the day you take office that will last into the future of this nation, the only home that I have ever known. I hear you say that now is the time to pay attention to the divisions that make up our population, and if we don’t, if we cloud them over and let them “disappear into the woodwork”, then we will never be able to overcome all of the hurdles that we collectively share as a nation of people. And as I cast my vote for you on election day, as long as me and my minority are left out of this plan for a more perfect union by not granting us the same acknolwedgement and rights as all Americans at every stage, as long as this silent modern day slavery prevails during your watch, my vote will only be from me to the larger population of my country, and unfortunately will not be truly voting for myself. Not fully. And with that another right—the right to vote—too has been denied of me.
Yes YOU Can… but one day we all will,
Anoki Casey
