The 11/15/08 nationwide rally againt the passing of California’s Propostion 8 had a large, spirited showing in Madison.

I left work early the night before, since I knew the noon start would be a little hard for me, to say the least. Still, even though I knew I’d be up late on Saturday, too, it was well worth attending. The residual good vibes got me through a long night, and I was pleased at the positive bent of the rally, since hating on Mormons has grown a little tired.

Knowing that most of my local friends were sound asleep, I was prepared to attend the rally alone, but I was thrilled when Poolboy announced he and his two boys wanted to share in the moment. I joined them before the rally to drink coffee and make the signs shown in these photos. All in all a great time, and the kids were thrilled to let everyone know about equality. (There was a funny moment on the lawn of the Wisconsin State Capitol when they started hitting each other with their equality signs, and I yelled out “Hate crime!”)

Even though you’d expect at least some people stuck unexpectedly in traffic (like this New York City driver, thanks Joe My God) to be a little upset in Madison, this wasn’t the case. Everyone was celebrating. Well, almost everyone. The combination of sleep deprevation, sheer happiness, and making sure I kept my eyes on the kids prevented me from noticing the small group of college-age women who — Poolboy told me this later — said something like, “Oh my god! Can you believe they’re making those little boys hold those signs?!” Really. That was disturbing to them? I mean, first, who can say the message of “equality” is a bad thing for kids? Hell, at least it helps them with their math skills, right? Even so, the notion that we should protest hate with love is something I’m happy to pass on to the next generation. Especially, since this is what we’re up against.

Preventing large emerging groups of people from participating in “marriage” will ultimately do for marriage what keeping large groups of emerging musics from participating in music education did for music education programs.

Your fundamentals of music are likely not mine. Her fundamentals of marriage are likely not his.

But maybe it’s time for music educators to focus once again on the songs we’re actually singing, not just the ones that seemingly confirm the theories of harmony, counterpoint, and other distilled “elements of music” promoted for all sorts of weird historical reasons by a steadily shrinking group of increasingly anachronistic people.

Lord knows it’s certainly time for the “institution of marriage” to enrich the relationships we’re actually in, rather than dismissing the ones that don’t conform to the beliefs no doubt also promoted for all sorts of weird historical reasons by a steadily shrinking group of increasingly anachronistic people.

[self-editing note: It should—but I admit probably doesn't—go without saying that many of my friends and I belong to one or both groups of the aforementioned "increasingly anachronistic people." I would never wish to exclude you, them, myself, nor anyone else from either institution.]