Conversation and Education Coming At Us

Well, the banner headline above the fold on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle this morning reads "NEXT TEST FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE". I thought the article was particularly interesting for it's use of statistics and the quotations from same-sex marriage advocates that use the words "conversation" and "educate". Right now the on-line version has the head "Battle looms for plan to ban same-sex nuptials".

Since this was an article about the California Marriage Amendment, I was surprised to see the reporter used statistics from the 2007 national survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life instead of the more recent and state specific LA Times poll which I wrote about here yesterday. The Pew survey gives 55 percent opposed to same-sex marriage, 36 percent for same-sex marriage and 9 percent undecided. The May 2008 poll of Californians conducted for the LA Times gives 59 percent opposed to same-sex marriage, 35 percent for same-sex marriage and 6 percent "don't know". So, the new poll show 4% more opposed to same-sex marriage, 1% less for same-sex marriage and 3% less undecideds. Hmmm, why would they use the older, less regionally relevant information in the article?

I liked the last paragraph on the front page of the article before it moved back to page 12:

"We're already working on the November election," said Alice Kessler, director of government affairs for Equality California, a leading organization in the coalition opposing the initiative. Supporters of the group worked in Sacramento, Fresno and Riverside to persuade voters not to sign petitions, she added, which "gave us people on the ground to begin a conversation with voters."

That's my bold and italics on "conversation". It is such a joke because the "decline to sign" campaign she is referring to resulted in bullying and intimidation of such magnitude that the initiative had to be mailed to people's houses to get signatures. So it is a safe assumption that Alice Kessler is referring to the sort of "conversation" that Irenaeus described in the Revisionist Dictionary last August on Stand Firm:

CONVERSATION: Playing the Progressives’ game by the Progressives’ rules. If you are Orthodox, you cannot have a satisfactory “conversation” with Progressives unless you discuss their agenda on their terms, using their language and working towards their conclusions. Come, let us reason together!

I also like the way the article ended with the plan to "educate people":

"California is a very fair-minded state, and voters have opposed anti-gay efforts in the past, like Prop. 6 in 1978, which would have kept gays or lesbians from becoming teachers," said Kessler of Equality California. "We're reaching out and trying to educate people in the middle, people who are conflicted about the question of gay marriage."

With the crush of gay and lesbian weddings expected in California next month, she added, "people will see their lives won't be changed because of same-sex marriage."

(my bold and italics)
*
*
*