Overwhelmed but hopeful…
Like most people I am overwhelmed and overjoyed at the results of the presidential election. I feel like I am unable to heave that deep sigh of relief just yet. I will say I was surprised at the extent of my emotional response to Obama as the new president-elect. I could fully remember sitting in Ms. Russo’s 4th grade class, learning about politics and saying things like “one day there’s gonna be a black president” but not actually believing that in my heart. No part of me as a child, growing up in Oakland, really thought this day would come. It is amazing.
Amazing as it is that change may actually be coming, some things are still the same. Proposition 8 passed. There will definitely be a court battle to follow, but I am disheartened that Californians (and also Floridians and Arizonans) are still taking it upon themselves to dictate who can partake in the legal marriage system.
Prop K also failed and while I certainly didn’t expect it to pass I am really pleased beyond measure that it even made it to the light of day. I have no qualms about letting you know that I am pro legalizing sex work. Prop K would have made it possible for sex workers in San Francisco to seek health care and tell the truth. Not having to lie about potential STI exposure would be a huge move for public health concerns. I hope that this iniative is put forth again.
We have our own bond measure on the local ballot this year and it’s looking like it’s really going to come down to each and every last individual ballot counted. So far we’re down 186 votes with still more votes being counted. The bond is critical to the continued success of the library as part of the monies would go toward building an actual library (and hiring additional library professionals) at the Southeast Center (currently a center, not a campus).
There were some other critical gains and losses by my evaluation but I don’t see a need to get into the minutiae. We won some, we lost some, we’re still going strong.
Actually, bond monies can’t go towards hiring additional staff. We have to trust the word of administration that they will do so (there’s only a verbal commitment right now). The hope is that more tuition = more money = more salaries. The problem is that the admins don’t want to create new library faculty because we don’t generate FTE, and therefore we don’t generate tuition. It’s easier for administration to give the positions to “teaching” faculty, even though WE know we’re doing a helluva lot of teaching.