Exclusion and Embrace

I’m stunned by the vote in North Carolina yesterday, a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as “between a man and a woman.” The LA Times describes it like this:

The amendment not only outlaws same-sex marriage — already illegal in the state — but bans civil unions and domestic partnerships for gay or straight couples. Family law experts say it will threaten domestic partnership health benefits for local government workers and strip unmarried couples, both gay and straight, of their rights to make financial or emergency medical decisions for an incapacitated partner.

Some days its hard to be a human.

But then something like this happens:

Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers hit four home runs yesterday against the Orioles. Only 16 players have ever had four home runs in a game. Mind you, I’m a fledgling Orioles fan, so I’m not thrilled about anyone hitting four home runs against them in a game. But the amazing part is that the Orioles fans gave Hamilton a “a warm ovation when he came out to his position in center field in the bottom on the ninth.”

It’s not often that I think about sports fans leading the way to more civility, but it does give me hope.