Joys and dramas on Friendster

I often thought putting your life out on Friendster bulliten boards was well, um a little too out there. Then again, I'm blogging for everyone to see. go figure. But once in a while I check Friendster to find out a friend of mine and his long time partner have gotten married. I'm a romantic, I felt my cheeks blush and my grin widen at that bulliten board post. Though I know legally, it may not do them much good. I'm happy they made this public declaration of life-long committment to each other.

Anyway, been scanning pictures of the same-sex weddings in SF looking for people I know. I believe in love. I also believe in economic fairness and justice in our laws. This is why I believe in same-sex marriages.

What I find funny with the anti-same-sex marriage folks is how they talk about how this demeans marriage. Um...so what are they doing about the 50+% divorce rate if they're so big on marriage? I would think that they would be happy that people were making life long committments to each other at all! My co-worker feels like "this is the one thing we get to have." I supposed his "we" meant "hetero" people. Somehow I didn't want to be a part of that "we."

They say, hey, there's domestic partnership, isn't that good enough? Well, not when we're talking inheritance, or immigration status (family reunification), and parental rights. That's like saying "hey, there's a water fountain over there, isn't that good enough?" While my co-worker thinks that having prejudice for someone's skin color is superficial and not something to discriminate against, he doesn't see it as the same as the gender preference issue.

I watched a PBS show about the generational economic implications of HUD and the GI bill and how the system of appraising and loan valuation and it's implicit discrimination continues the economic disparities that occur today. The GI Bill after WWII gave returning vets the ability to get long term low interest loans that allowed them to purchase homes. The standard 30-year, 6% APR, 20% down kind of common day thing we know today. Prior to that in order to buy a home, people had to come up with 50% down. Can you imagine putting 50% down on a home just to get one? This is why people lived densely in the cities. Only the very rich or someone frugal for 30 years could buy a home.

The GI Bill changed that and essentially created the push for suburbs. There were a lot of GIs out there.

The problem comes in when they created the rules that determined who/where/what loans were given. The law that created these friendly loan terms also stated that it be best that neighborhoods not be diverse, because diversity would create disharmony in a community and strife thus lowering the value of homes. (ie keep the neighborhood all white) Thus, African American GIs who wanted to purchase homes in the same areas as the other veterans were dissuaded from buying in what was built as exclusive neighborhoods. They had to purchase their homes in other areas. If they were given the opportunity to purchase in predominantly white neighborhoods where the housing prices were good, their mere presence brought the housing prices down.

"White Flight" is the percieved notion that the presence of non-white families in the neighborhood would bring housing values down and those wanting to capitalize on their investments better sell early rather than later. It's not that they didn't like non-white families, but it was economically written into law that non-white neighborhoods held greater lending risks.

With the various equal rights amendments, the opportunity to economic viability was opened. Real estate people can't refuse a buyer based on race. But by then it was too late, the economic disparity was set. White families had houses that appreciated in value, while African American and Latino neighborhoods decreased in value. The family home is the number 1 investment nestegg. People leverage their homes to pay for their children's college educations, to make additional investments, and to assist their children in buying their own homes.

HUD also created Public Housing, which demolished the neighborhood homes in exchange for high rise apartment dwellings which are an overwhelming crisis for urban cities and for the generations trapped in the projects.

Today of course, neighborhoods are often quite diverse. Filipinos live in half a million dollar homes in Daly City. The opportunities to property investment are open. But it will take many generations to reverse the damage of the inequality set 50 years ago.

The show gave me a different view in understanding "urban gentrification" and the attempts to reverse what is known as "white flight." I also came to realize that economic injustice multiplies quickly and economic injustice perpetuated by the government is a plague.

This is the irony is it not? We claim that diversity and including the "other" is what makes this nation strong. Yet laws on the books say that being the "other" is detrimental to the core fabric of this country.

But how did I get to here from same-sex marriages? I think my overall statement is the belief that people need to be allowed to invest in their lives and in the people they love. And that the government only allows some people to do that. To build a nation based on "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and only allow some of the people to do this is a crime.