edg | Feb. 22nd, 2004

I've been up since 3 AM. (It's now just a bit after 7, although it will probably end up being just a bit before 8 by the time I'm finished this.) I'm suddenly glad that I went to bed at 9; at least I got six hours in. The problem was that typically when I go to bed, I put on some kind of audio - mostly music, but lately it's been DVDs. Since I've been watching Farscape over the last few days, I figured I'd stick the next disc in and let it play while I was going to sleep.

Bad idea. Very bad idea. Why? Because the theme music is so gratingly aharmonic that it woke me up every time it played. I didn't twig to this until the third time through the disc, though (I woke up, saw that the playback had stopped, and restarted it). So at 3 AM - when the DVD ended for the third time, and the title menu came back in, where the music is inexplicably louder than during playback itself, I woke up, and couldn't go back to sleep. Thus, I've been up for four hours and loose change.

I really do hope that an inauspicious start like this only means that the day will get better as it progresses.

And now, a digression.

I've been seeing a lot of protest widgets lately. "Ban Gay Marriage, Take This Poll!" "Support Gay Marriage, Take This Poll!" "Save Angel, e-Sign This e-Petition!" And here's where I get to be flat-out honest: I'm really fucking sick of it.

Taking a poll isn't going to ban or save gay marriage.

Signing an e-petition isn't going to save Angel. (Hell, putting an ad in the Hollywood Reporter isn't going to save Angel. All that demonstrates is that someone, somewhere, has the wherewithal to spend $3250 on an ad, which is going to mean almost nothing to the producers who literally have to come up with one hundred times that much - if that little - every time a new episode airs. David Boreanaz alone makes $30,000 an episode.)

If you're going to support a movement, understand that it takes work. Signing an e-petition, filling out a poll, tossing a few bucks at the problem - these don't do anything. Anybody can rig any of these. (As I said before, it only takes one guy with $3250 to put an ad in the Hollywood Reporter, just as an example.) It's too easy.

There are two questions to be asked:

What methods of supporting this cause are available to me?
How far am I willing to go to support this cause?

If you want to support gay marriage, write a letter (hand-written if possible, hand-signed if not, and absolutely not a form letter that somebody else wrote) to the various members of Congress who support you. If you want to stop Angel from being cancelled, call the studio that produces it. If you live in the area, show up in person. All of these addresses and phone numbers are available to the public; it just takes a little looking. By all means, sign the petitions and take the polls - but that should be the least of your effort.

If you're not willing to take the time to do that, then ask yourself how much you really support your chosen cause, because you're not doing any favors taking it easy on yourself.