A Modest Construct

Allison and I have been dating for 18 months today (a year and a half, for the mathematically challenged). In some ways, it barely seems possible to have known her for that long: I can remember as if it were yesterday how I stiffened up like a board (no, my whole body, you pervert) when she first said “Hi, Ben.” I recall wondering “How did she find out I liked her? Son of a bitch!”

In other ways, though, it seems like I’ve been with her forever (I mean that in a good way), and it amazes me that I ended up with her at all. Her, likewise. The first time I ever talked to her (online, naturally), I asked her to a dance that I didn’t want to go to. Thankfully, she turned me down. Two conversations later, I admitted “I’m madly in love with you.” On October 28th, just before my sister’s wedding, we officially began “dating.” Five days later, my first slow dance. Strange, but ultimately satisfying.

Relationships are difficult. Two people have to learn to be comfortable with one another, physically yes, but emotionally as well, which tends to be much harder for young people; hell, for people in general. Differences have to be reconciled, schedules matched. Men and women, who fit perfectly in the biological sense, tend to have starkly contrasted personalities (if you didn’t know that, you’re a moron), but I’ve found that if you love someone, even the worst of their idiosyncrasies are insignificant. That’s what keeps people together, even when divorce rates are skyrocketing. That’s why I’m in love, and why 18 months is just a start.

As I promised so many weeks ago, here is a scan of my ACLU membership card. First, it took a while to get here, and then there were several personal hullabaloos, and then the server switch.

Nowadays, some people refer to a “card-carrying member of the ACLU” as though it’s a bad thing, as though the ACLU is a nasty organization that tries to keep perverts and criminals from owning up to their crimes. While it’s true that the ACLU has fought for people that we, at first glance, would rather they not (Rush Limbaugh immediately comes to mind), the ACLU merely serves as an impartial protector of civil liberties.

1995′s The American President (Michael Douglas, Anette Benning) comes to mind, where Douglas, playing the president, says:

For the record, yes, I am a card carrying member of the ACLU, but the more important question is “Why aren’t you, Bob?” Now this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question, why would a senator, his party’s most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the constitution? Now if you can answer that question, folks, then you’re smarter that I am, because I didn’t understand it until a few hours ago.

America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.” You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of it’s citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.

Just doing my part for the American Dream.