Jan Brewer is still furiously counting absentee and provisional ballots in a futile attempt to close the gap on Prop 107, but the margin actually continues to expand the more ballots they tally. Poor Cathi Herrod...couldn't get a homophobic ballot initiative passed in Arizona...there goes that federal judgeship!

As the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force convenes their annual Creating Change conference this week, I was thinking about the incredible sense of camaraderie (not to mention infrastructure) that was built over the past two years working to defeat Prop 107 AND defeat the most noxious and hateful of the Congressional Republicans.

This would have been more appropriate a week ago, but a week ago I was neck deep in event planning. The following is one of my favorite speeches in all of Shakespeare's canon (the histories always have the best speeches - my audition monologue is one of Richard II's). A little trite, perhaps, but the spirit I think perfectly reflects the week we just had. We had some major wins and some painful losses (Props 100, 102, 103 and 300 are disgusting and I'm ashamed of Arizona voters for passing them and passing them by such wide margins), but we won and lost together. We will long hereafter look back on November 7, 2006, for better or worse, with a sense of pride about what we accomplished and what we set the stage to accomplish in the future.

Take it away, King Henry:

O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart. His passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse.
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say, "To-morrow is Saint Crispian."
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, "These wounds I had on Crispian's day."
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,
Harry the King, Bedford, and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Labels: CAP, Creating Change, LGBT, Prop 107, Shakespeare, Task Force