Stoopid Stuff

How Dare They?

I'm with Michelle Obama. There really is not a great deal in America today to be proud of. And perhaps it's indicative of the depths to which we've sunk, but I can't help but be proud of my state for it's courage in support of such a controversial concept as equality and justice.

When you talk about equality, and specifically the Fourteenth Amendment, it's beyond my understanding how you could deny the right of marriage to any couple. Particularly when we went through this very same fight so recently with Miscegenation laws. And yet, here we are, with a bunch of Americans so blinded by ancient superstition and tribal hatred of anyone different than them that they are willing to abandon the very values that made America the shining city on the hill. Values, by the way, that these same mindless drones will happily tell you that American soldiers have given their lives to defend.

Like so many current political arguments, this is not a close question. There is no valid argument for preventing marriage. It encourages stability, it's every bit part and parcel of the "stable families" that social conservatives are always wailing about, it solves sticky legal questions that otherwise result in unnecessary confusion and suffering. How can it be in America that you can say "this group of people can get married, this group of people cannot"? For that matter, why would you want to? Why would you even care?

Like abortion, where indeed you are not required to participate if your personal beliefs prevent it, if you are opposed to same sex marriage, don't marry someone of your gender. But unlike even abortion, no case for the slightest harm to anyone can be made. Over the years, my greatest disagreement with religion has not been their silly beliefs, although any grownup who believes in the actual existence of magic and superheros should be embarrassed, but with their abiding desire to force their twisted beliefs and values on everyone else. It's not enough to live in the isolation necessitated by their belief in fairies and angels, they seem to feel the only way to validate their mad fantasies is to require everyone around them to believe the same fantastic stories.

Well, I salute California. And Massachusetts. And Freedom and Equality. For what more basic expression of a functioning democracy than assuring all citizens the exact same set of rights, and identical treatment under the law? For that matter, what better expression of an authoritarian dictatorship than arbitrary exclusion of a specific group of citizens from participation in any legally sanctioned action?

I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in the People's Democratic Republic of Amerika. I want nation that embraces the values in her constitution rather than seeking to constrain and eliminate those values.

posted by mikey @ 9:24 AM