As people...

I dreamt last night that I was in the middle of a war - a modern battlefield - a city - and cars were exploding all around me, busses full of women and children, a really terrifying, horrid scene. And I stopped and I looked at the carnage everywhere and I thought, very simply, "shouldn't we be better than this"?

And then I woke up.

~Miss

The Baby in the Middle of the Room

Mary Cheney, in her first public comments about the baby she's having with her partner, claimed, "this is not a political statement". Well, too bad sister. The notion that the lesbian daughter of the vice president's decision to have a baby might not be political is, frankly, ridiculous. It is unfortunate, and I sympathize with her desire not to politicize her family, but that has never stopped the media, to say nothing of the American public from deciding what should or should not be a big deal.
It also should be noted that it is moments like this, where ordinary people break through the wall of what is considered morally correct by the majority of Americans that morality in this country evolves. The story of a black woman who refused to sit in the back of the bus comes to mind; she was not a civil rights leader, but she became a beckon for the movement and every child of my generation wrote a 3rd grade book report about her. Mary Cheney should only be that lucky - and she's doing herself and her country a disservice by not accepting the burden of her position as a public and political figure. After all, this is the world into which she will bring her child - what kind of country would she like it to be?

~ Miss