Which got us to thinking. Caldwell is actually a pretty conservative place. Bush defeated Kerry in 2004 by a 68 percent to 32 percent margin there. OK, no problem.
Google opened a data center not too terribly long ago in Lenoir. You probably knew that. But did you know about Google's official position regarding Proposition 8? Yes, California's Proposition 8, which conservatives have been working overtime to defeat? It's all about allowing GAY MARRIAGE!
So, what is Google's official position? Check this out:
...we do not generally take a position on issues outside of our field, especially not social issues. So when Proposition 8 appeared on the California ballot, it was an unlikely question for Google to take an official company position on.
However, while there are many objections to this proposition -- further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text -- it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 -- we should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.
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See http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1129476/getting_prop_8_straight.html?post=true&cat=17 for the LAW on Prop. 8 before you vote on it.
Conservative economics in action--loo0k at what has happened to the unemployment rate in Caldwell (guess the estranged Google workforce will all quit, go home and then pray?):
(Source: News-Topic)tracking By Nathan Key, News-Topic, Lenoir, N.C.
Aug. 23--Caldwell County's unemployment rate for the month of July saw the most dramatic increase in North Carolina.
According to data released Friday by the North Carolina Employment Security Commission, Caldwell's rate jumped 2 percentage points, rising from 7.5 percent in June to 9.5 percent in July, elevating the county back into the top 10 highest unemployment figures in the state.
That Caldwell's rate jumped so significantly should come as no surprise. Rates in 97 of North Carolina's counties also saw increases, 23 of them by a full percentage point or more.
My Thoughts-We need to come up with a new proposition...
A Proposition that frames all the same legal benefits as marriage with a different name than “marriage” would go much further in dispelling all of the emotional arguments that have polarized during the Proposition 8 ballot issues. I think that we would gain the most momentum by formulating a new Proposition and stick to arguing for the same civil rights given in a conventional marriage. Under the constitution, we would have much stronger footing fighting for civil requests that do not intertwine with matters of Faith and religion. I don’t think that the conservative Christians that protested “gay marriages” really cared about the validation of the lives of gay men and women but felt defensive over issues that are not that important to the gay community. It is my observation that there is not a general awareness regarding the differences between Domestic Partnerships and the civil liberties afforded in a conventional "marriage". I think there would be an easier fight to reframe “marriage” as a “civil union”, with federal and state equalization of the rights in a conventional "marriage" only calling a gay version a different name. If some other term is used that stays away from all of the conservative Christian "buttons" that triggered the extreme polarization of the Prop 8 issues the civil rights would most like prevail.
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