Massachusetts and the ripple effect

Last week, the Massachusetts Speaker of the House, Thomas Finneran, announced his resignation from the statehouse, effective almost immediately. For the last few days, Sal DiMasi has been the speaker of the house.

Since this is considered local political news for Massachusetts, it hasn't been high on the radar for the rest of the country, but it is a very significant change that I believe has ripple-effect ramifications for the nation.

Tommy Finneran, in his eight years as Massachusetts Speaker, has consistently opposed equal rights measures for LBGT citizens in the Commonwealth. In particular, most recently, he was a key factor in this year's Constitutional Convention that ultimately voted in favor of an amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. While the rest of the country is grappling with the question of whether and how to block recognition of same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts, Massachusetts is still deciding whether to continue performing them at all. A constitutional amendment that prohibited same-sex marriage would make the question moot for the rest of the country (at least until another state picks up the question).

Ratifying an amendment to the Massachusetts constitution is not easy. The state legislature must pass the amendment at two successive Constitutional Conventions, after which the amendment goes to referendum and must receive a majority vote of the electorate. Last February we held the first of the constitutional conventions. The amendment must pass another convention this year before going to popular vote in 2006.

Under Finneran's leadership, it was practically guaranteed that the ConCon would be held, and very likely that the legislature would vote in favor of the amendment for a second time. Sal DiMasi, however, has been a consistent supporter of gay rights in Massachusetts for years, and vocally opposed the constitutional amendment when it was proposed. With DiMasi as the speaker of the house I think it is possible that the legislature will not even hold a constitutional convention; even if it is, the conservatives will have much more difficulty keeping their coalition together.

It may have gone unnoticed by the rest of the country, but same-sex marriage opponents suffered a significant blow last week.

Paintball Update

Following my post about preparing for Paintball, I am told by our esteemed organizer that we have had several last-minute cancellations, and therefore room for a few more folks.

We're playing tomorrow, Saturday October 2, in Windham, NH starting at 10am. The cost is $35 per person and includes gear, 50 paintballs and lunch. (You can buy more paintballs for cash at the field.)

If you're interested in coming along, holler. :-)

conversation with a motorcyclist

[this is a copy of a message I posted to the massbike mailing list, for those of you who saw it there]

My commute from Cambridge to Bedford takes me on Mass Ave from Porter Square all the way through Cambridge and Arlington into Lexington. Since Mass Ave has two lanes most of the way to Arlington Heights, I tend to stay more or less in the middle of the right lane and let traffic pass me to the left. When traffic's heavy, as it was last night, I will stay a little bit more to the right to make it easier for other vehicles to pass.

Last night, as I was passing through Arlington Center at about 6:45pm, a motorcyclist roared past me on my left, yelling "move over!" as he went by. Of course, we were both approaching a red light as he passed me, so I stopped next to him at the intersection. ( A conversation followed. )

I recite this here not to complain about aggressive drivers in general but to think about how to respond in situations like this, where we have a very small window of opportunity for one-on-one education. In this case I think that I would have done better to emphasize the fact that it's not safe in the shoulder (as if there's any shoulder to speak of on Mass Ave) and therefore not reasonable to expect a cyclist to ride there.

Interestingly, visibility is not generally a problem for me: at night I ride with a blinky red light on the back of my bike, a 5-LED CatEye headlight, a fluorescent yellow vest and (most memorably) a plush green alien doll strapped to my CamelBak. This guy obviously saw me in front of him and waited until he could pass; ironically, while he may have been annoyed about it, it seems that I am safe around him. :-)