Missed Opportunities

Have you ever been so wrapped up in your life that you can't see what is going on around you? That your personal views and opinions get in the way of some major event taking place outside your window? I know I sometimes get so busy that I forget to experience what is happening at a given moment. And I know that we all have certain convictions that make us turn our eyes to what some call progress and others call a march backwards.
I'm sure there were some men in 1920 that agreed with what the women's suffrage movement was doing, but wanted to keep their mouths shut. They knew that everyone should have the right to vote since the US was a country for 'all'. I'm all but certain there were white people in the south during the 60s who believed in the civil rights movement and ached every time they saw a black person at the back of the bus or not allowed to sit at the counter of a coffee shop.
And now, there are brave men and women in each state voting in equality for gays to marry - crossing party lines because they believe it is the right thing to do. They not only see the future; they see what is fair. Not based on religious beliefs, but what civil liberties mean in the US. They realize that gays and lesbians are contributing to their states; to society - paying taxes and living productive lives. Why should they be denied to love and live like others?
I believe that equality is going to happen - in my lifetime. I want to see it happen. But I'm saddened by politicians who allow politics to get in the way of doing what is right. They think in terms of their forward careers instead of of the opportunity that is before them to be on the right side of history as it is being made. 
Governor Christie of New Jersey is one such man. Many will praise his decision to veto a bill brought to him by the state assembly and senate. Others will see the missed opportunity that was in front of him. While I wish him no ill in not listening to what many elected officials agreed upon - in believing he is the sheriff of the 'wild west' and what he says goes...but I do hope that legacy will follow him for the rest of his life. And I hope when all other states around him finally offer the equality so deserved, he will look back and ask himself "why didn't I do it when I had the chance?"
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."  ~Thomas Edison