6 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | FIRST WORD
from the publisher
Qsaltlake.com |
Issue 299 | MAY 2, 2019
Deciding to dance the dance BY MICHAEL AARON
Looking back, on the memory of The dance we shared beneath the stars above……
I’d never
considered this before, but I think that deciding on a presidential candidate to support early in the game is similar to those first moments of dating and wondering if this is the right person for you. You have two main choices — turn tail and run because of the possibility they are not the right one for you, or “dance the dance” and see where it takes you. For a moment all the world was right… So it is, for me, with deciding whether to join Team Pete. He officially announced this week and there is much excitement about his candidacy. On the one hand, wow! An openly gay candidate with significant “legs” entering the race. He polls at third place behind powerhouse (and old-school) candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. He’s young and fresh, smart, personable, right on most of my important issues, and looks good. Kind of a gay activist’s dream candidate. How could I have known you’d ever say goodbye… On the other hand, what are his chances of actually beating Donald Trump? Yes, the t-shirt helping pronounce his last name, Buttigieg, as “Boot-A-Trump” is cute enough that I want one in every color, but can he?
Will middle America and the needed swing independents and moderate Republicans go so far as to vote for an unapologetic gay man? That they did so for a certain unapologetic black man Barack Obama gives me hope, but have we progressed that far at this point? And now I’m glad I didn’t know… Frankly, I have decided none of the latter matters. Imagine all of the good that can come out of having an openly gay candidate with such great charisma and ideas in the national spotlight for however long he can ride this wave. The way it all would end the way it all would go… And, who knows, if we start the support early and keep it strong, how far this campaign can go? Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain… Some may say I’m choosing a candidate solely because he’s gay, and I will admit that there is some truth to that. But there is also the truth that supporting an strong LGBTQ candidate can do a world of good, even if that good doesn’t end up living in the White House. So, for this guy at this moment, I’ve decided to go to the Pete Prom and “dance the dance.” But I’d have to miss the dance. Q Thanks Garth Brooks and songwriter Tony Arata for “The Dance.”
