My blog post from www.libertyhill.typepad.com on May 11, 2009

Like many of you, I go to several fundraisers per month.  I receive dozens of direct mail pieces.  All have a common message in the last six months. "Times are difficult but we'd appreciate it if you can find a tiny morsel more for our important cause."  Ok, so maybe not that timid, but you get the point.  Everyone feels obligated to somehow acknowledge the economic situation before asking for money for critically important work.

I'm a progressive working for economic and racial justice.  I'm a gay man fighting for marriage equality. The need for social change after 8 years of the Bush Administration has never been more dire. And the political opportunity with progressives in power from City Hall to Sacramento to the White House has never been greater. 

This is not the time for us to cut back our giving out of fear of what may happen or because our investments are down.  If we are employed or still have accumulated assets (admittedly somewhat less of them), this is the time to give and give more generously than ever. 

 If not now, when? 

As Angelenos who count immigrants both documented and undocumented amongst our friends and neighbors and The White House is calling for true immigration reform, if not now, when?

When more people than ever need access to affordable housing due to high unemployment, if not now, when?

When the basic civil right of marriage for gay and lesbian Californians can be won, if not now, when?

I will not give less in these hard times and I will ask you to join me in stretching further than ever.  The time is now.  Not two years from now when our investments bounce back.  Not six months from now when our property values rebound a little. 

"Change will NOT come if we wait for SOME OTHER PERSON OR SOME OTHER TIME" --Barack Obama

Not some other person or some other time.  It's you.  It's me.  Today is our day.  We need to dig deep and give our time and our money.  We will never see a bigger return on our investments in social change than investing big. Today.

Let's step away from the abstract, all the rhetoric and semantics, smokescreens and conflict. Let's get down to the human face. Here is your human face;

I am gay. I think I was born gay. Is being gay sometimes a choice? Maybe it is for some folks, but not for me. I didn't choose to be left-handed or green-eyed either, but I am.

I am your neighbor. I am the stranger who held the door for you yesterday, the smiling friendly person who chatted with you in the checkout line last week, the one who let you pick greens from my yard for your tortoise. I am the one who gave you a jumpstart in the parking lot that day, the one who picked you up on the side of the road and drove you to fill that gas can and returned you to your car. I buy Girl Scout cookies and chocolate bars and wrapping paper, pledge to T-Ball hit-a-thons and fundraiser walks. I donate clothes to Goodwill, food to Plowshares, money to the Southern Poverty Law Center. I am courteous to you because it's the right thing to do. I give back to my community because it's the right thing to do.   Read More »