You see, on the course of this half marathon journey, I decided one day that I was going to run a half marathon. BUT - I did not wake up one day and say "tomorrow, I will run a half marathon!"
I started training for this race in October. It's taken me until March to run 10 miles. Why? Because my training had me slowly increasing my long run mileage each week. And some weeks decreasing, then increasing the following week. It's back and forth. It's not just "I'm going to run 13.1 miles tomorrow". I've had to build up to it.
And along the way, I've had to celebrate those small successes. The ones that helped get me to the next step. There will be a larger success, but that's over time.
And tonight, I connected this analogy to something in the news today here in Michigan.
First, let me preface what I write below. I support equality and gay marriage.
You see, the Republican National Committeeman, Dave Agema, made some pretty deplorable comments on his Facebook page yesterday. Or, more accurately, he copied and pasted a "study" by a "doctor" that basically spewed hate and lies towards homosexuals.
Yesterday, my best friend Dave posted his personal comments here. Now, for those of you that don't know him, he's the Chair of the Republican Party of Kalamazoo.
This morning, a statement made by 21 Republican leaders from around the state (precinct delegates, College Republicans and others) called on Mr. Agema to resign his post.
Shortly after, Dave added his name to that list calling on Mr. Agema to resign. He then issued this statement.
I stand behind MiGOP Chairman Schostak’s statement that our support for traditional marriage shouldn’t be used to convey any form of hate or discrimination towards anyone. The Facebook posts by National Committeeman Dave Agema are disgusting and do not reflect what the Party stands for.
While I respect the Committeeman’s right to free speech, as protected by the First Amendment, I also have the same right to both free speech and free association. When we exercise these rights, we accept responsibility for the results of that exercise. I choose not to be associated with his remarks.
Similar statements and cherry picked statistics were made back in 1966 to support a ban on interracial marriage when Loving v. Virginia was before the Supreme Court of the United States. Being in an interracial marriage, I’m a little sensitive to these types of comments. They were wrong then and they are wrongly used now.
I cannot silently stand by while one of our Party leaders promotes bigoted statements and then tries to hide from the damage caused by saying “It was someone else’s research.” At the least, the Committeeman needs to apologize for his failure to clearly fact check the statements he posts and if he cannot, then he needs to step down so the Party can rebuild the bridges that have been burned.
My job as the Chairman of the KGOP is to build our membership and get our candidates elected so that fiscally sound policies are adopted. The actions of Committeeman Agema do nothing but hinder our ability to come together as a Party and promote diversity in our membership.
Now. For those of you Democrats/liberals/people that support gay marriage that are reading this, you might say "well, that's great that they are standing up to hatred and bigotry, but now they should do X, Y, Z (support something else)." Ok, I totally get where you're coming from.
But, like my running example, you can't always just get there overnight. Sometimes it takes training, education and TIME to get to the bigger goal.
What we should do is celebrate what these leaders did to stand up against hatred. Is it all that those of us who believe in full equality regardless want? No. It's not. But it's a start. And to me, that gives me hope.
It gives me hope that people are reasonable. It gives me hope that even though we may not all agree, we can work together. It gives me hope that even though there are people like Mr. Agema out there spewing hatred, there were 21 (22) brave souls (and more) standing up and saying he was wrong.
Like my half-marathon training, we have to celebrate the small successes. That two mile run was HUGE back when I first started training in October.
Then we have to keep adding a little bit more on. And then sometimes, we have to take a step back (this past week, I ran 10 miles, this coming weekend, I run 8). But at the end of the day, we end up getting to the bigger goal, after we've built upon it. Progress is progress, no matter how big or small.
Here, we have to find the common ground. People have to show they are willing to compromise and accept progress when it happens. And we also have to LISTEN to others and understand their viewpoints if we have any hope of changing their minds.
I can only hope that I am doing just that.
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