Information Wants To Be Free, Ctd.

Another reader:

The value of this map, at least for me, would be the same even without the names attached.  This map has finally cracked the story I'd been able to tell myself about Prop 8. It wasn't my community that was the problem, the story went, it was all the money coming in from out of state, especially Utah.  Well, the map speaks for itself.  Scan down the San Francisco peninsula, between San Francisco and San Jose.  I live in the middle of that swath of red dots, in what is conventionally assumed to be one of the most liberal parts of the country.  I've probably waited in line with some of the people in those red dots at the grocery store or post office, passed them on the street, or seen them at the library.  There were no Yes on 8 signs in yards or stickers on cars during the campaign around here, and they would probably have been quickly ripped out had anyone tried to put them up.  Well, the Yes on 8 folks aren't invisible to me anymore.  I can't keep telling myself that my community isn't part of the problem with such clear evidence staring me in the face.

And so you have a clearer idea of the work we have to do: persuading, arguing, telling our stories.