Profile In Courage: Jerry Sanders

[Michael Russell]

I'm proud of my mayor.

A Republican For Marriage

Be sure and watch the touching video of his announcement.

Mick

[BaalChatzaf]

I'm proud of my mayor.

A Republican For Marriage

Be sure and watch the touching video of his announcement.

Mick

Hizzonor said he went with his heart (in the vid). That is bad news. Given a conflict between heart and head, go with the head. Sentimentality and emotion will lead to the wrong place 99 times out of 100.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Brant Gaede]

I'm proud of my mayor.

A Republican For Marriage

Be sure and watch the touching video of his announcement.

Mick

Hizzonor said he went with his heart (in the vid). That is bad news. Given a conflict between heart and head, go with the head. Sentimentality and emotion will lead to the wrong place 99 times out of 100.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Well, Ayn Rand agrees with you. I don't. I'm for resolving the conflict.

--Brant

[BaalChatzaf]

Well, Ayn Rand agrees with you. I don't. I'm for resolving the conflict.

--Brant

That is easy. Ignore one's feelings. It works every time.

Pity rots, sentimentality kills and compassion is a disease. But Good Manners are always appropriate.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Michael,

I saw the highly emotional announcement of Mayor Jerry Sanders and realize how much and how deeply he must have had to use his head to counter some strongly ingrained beliefs. That took a lot of courage. He did the right thing because his head told him to even as his heart was obviously still telling him differently.

We need more people like this guy.

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

Well, Ayn Rand agrees with you. I don't. I'm for resolving the conflict.

--Brant

That is easy. Ignore one's feelings. It works every time.

Pity rots, sentimentality kills and compassion is a disease. But Good Manners are always appropriate.

Ba'al Chatzaf

I was thinking of thinking about it--like introspection--like learning if one's "head" wasn't making a fool out of oneself. One generally has time to do this except in an emergency.

--Brant

[Michael Russell]

Michael,

I saw the highly emotional announcement of Mayor Jerry Sanders and realize how much and how deeply he must have had to use his head to counter some strongly ingrained beliefs. That took a lot of courage. He did the right thing because his head told him to even as his heart was obviously still telling him differently.

We need more people like this guy.

Michael

Michael,

Before Sanders was elected, San Diego was on the verge of bankruptcy due to the incompetency of two previous mayors and a corrupt city council. He has provided stable leadership and San Diego is back on the right track to fiscal sanity.

What makes Sanders' decision to back gay marriage so courageous is that he is facing a well financed socially conservative candidate in Steve Francis as he prepares for reelection. San Diego is not San Francisco or Los Angeles; there is a sizable and influential socially conservative community, whose reactionary irrationality is fomented by talk radio host Roger Hedgecock, a right wing hate monger and convicted felon who once served as mayor of San Diego before he was removed from office in disgrace on a corruption conviction.

To have an elected Republican in a relatively conservative community come out in favor of gay marriage, not merely civil unions, is astonishing. He truly loves his daughter and wants her to be happy and to have all the rights afforded to all Americans.

It wasn't a choice between thinking with his head or with his heart; it was a choice between political expediency and doing the right thing. Mayor Sanders did the right thing.

Mick

[Martin Radwin]

An interesting coincidence of names. I am quite familiar with another man with this same name. Jerry Sanders was one of the co-founders and long time president and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices. I am a long time employee of AMD.

Martin