Daniel:  My experience at Trader Joe’s today was a bit different, but equally satisfying.  As my wife and I came out of the store, we were met by a man and woman with clip-boards, and wearing t-shirts with an = symbol,  asking if we supported gay/lesbian rights. “That depends,” I responded, “on whether you are calling upon the state to use force upon people.”  “Well, we have a petition we would ask you to sign on behalf of legislation to prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians in hiring practices,” I was told. “Then you are trying to empower the state to expand its control over people,” I answered.  In response to his polite smile indicating that this was, indeed, what the petition proposed, I asked him to “consider the words of one of my favorite poets, e.e. cummings, who said that ‘equality is what does not exist among equals.’”

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