Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Church and State Anyone?
Does the seperation of church and state apply in the United states anymore? The department of homeland security in Kentucky is now required to acknowlegde god in the defense of their state. What the hell is this? when did god become central to US defense policy in any state? i understand that us atheists are a minority in most of america, but this is the most egregious violation of the constitution in US history (except the Patriot act but thats neither here nor there). The state of KY is now showing that they believe in not a democracy in which anyone has the freedom to worship any being divine or mortal that they want, but a theocracy, in which the people have the freedom to be a conformist lamb who has no opinion except that which is given to them. Down this road lies the Puritan Societies of Colonial Massachusettes and even the dictatorships of the middle east which we claim to abhorr. This is a slippery slope in KY and knowing the love people in america have had for fundamentalism since the days of Nixon and Billy Sunday, it will be a long way down.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The Reason to Repeal Proposition 8
Martin Luther King Jr. stated that we must learn to live together as brothers, or we shall perish together as fools. Proposition 8 is a blight on the California legal system that brings the church into official state policy on marriage, when the policy of the very documents that form the basis of our home, the greatest bastion of freedom in the world says that “no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property” now, where in the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Articles of Confederation, Mayflower Compact, or any other historical document that has had any bearing whatsoever on law in the United States have any exception to this rule? Where does it say that people who behave a certain way are going to be denied these rights? Where does it say Give me your poor, your weak, your huddled straight masses? Where does it say the gay community shall be exempt from the status as American citizens? Where does it say that we will insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of ourselves and our posterity, except those who are homosexual? Except those who make decisions we don’t agree with. Except those whose choices are different from our own. Growing up, we are fed this image of we are all unique, and in this we are all special and that is why this world in which we are blessed enough to live is so great. Now this law is saying that because this spice of life is a new flavor, we are going to shut them out. We are going to deny them their right to marry the person they love, to declare their love to the world, to say that this is the only person in the world whom they will love.
It has been decided that, much like during the civil rights movement of the 1960s that the world will know us as the greatest place for freedom in the world. We will not discriminate, all will be treated as an equal, the farmer is not inferior to the president, the janitor to the judge; we are all US citizens and will receive full rights as such-provided you meet the criteria. As long as you were not black in the 1960s you were treated fairly, you had quality schooling as a child, you had every opportunity to advance in your workplace, and you had every opportunity to be what you wanted to be as long as you were not like THEM. No. This would not stand to the mighty stream in Dr King’s speeches; this would not stand to the power of equal rights that was the driving force behind the Emancipation of the serfs by the Czar Alexander in 1861, or the Emancipation Proclamation two years later. This was the Force of Justice and Righteousness that guided these men as well as many others, who pushed for the equal treatment of all humanity, the struggle is the same, the fight for equality still rages, now it is not that we treat people differently because we are of different skin tone, or have different accents, or any of these things it is now about whom you choose to marry, it is now about those whom you love. There is a certain farce going around pretending to be marriage for the homosexual. Domestic Partnership, this is marriage, but it’s not. Just like colored schools made under Jim Crow laws in the 20th century were just like any other schools, but they weren’t. This is starting to reek of separate but equal. We have tried so hard for decades to live up to our credo of E Pluribus Unum and now we will exclude the gay community on the basis of their sexual orientation? This is becoming reminiscent of a past from which we have come so far from, struggled so immensely to overcome and are now regressing into like an 8 year old into baby talk after a younger sibling is born. We come so far from the travesties of that time and are now finding our way back. This is not something the land of the free and the home of the brave should be doing.
The supporters of Communism during the Cold War saw many flaws in the American way of doing things. It must have struck many of them as odd that the supposed land of the free was a place of such ethnic violence and discrimination. Many of the old arguments against interracial marriage are either identical or similar in theme to those against homosexual marriage. They say that children raised by homosexual parents are more likely to become homosexual themselves, I am not going to make a call on the authenticity of this argument because it really should not matter. People also used to say that interracial marriage would lead to people of mixed race. In hindsight was that really such a bad thing? People are worried that gay marriage will be taught in schools. Once again, I don’t know, and once again, who cares? If you are so insecure about the effect it can have on your children opt out of it. If you can opt out of state testing, then you can opt out of field trips. If you can’t for whatever reason, there is no reason that you can’t push a referendum saying that you can opt out of it. Why punish the gay community for a flaw in the school system? In personal experience, I was never taught about marriage at any point during my school career and many people can and will testify the same.
I saw a group online calling themselves Democracy has spoken, Prop 8 passed. This makes me sad beyond understanding. It is not democracy that we deny people basic human rights, if we will allow men and women on death row to marry before they are executed than why won’t we allow the same to upstanding citizens of homosexual preferences? When did the criminals who will die in a matter of days or weeks become more deserving of basic rights then the homosexual? When did the homosexual become less important than the murderer? Less important than the rapist? Less important than the child pornography viewer? When did the standards of the American people sink so low? When did the association of sentient thought exclude the American people from their decision on whether or not people deserve basic human rights? I was brought up on the image of America is the land of opportunity, this law has disillusioned me. Democracy is a government of the people, by the people, for the people. That would be for all the people, not for those whom we like and not for those whom we don’t. This is not democracy that has spoken. This is theocracy that has spoken. People are often opposed to gay marriage because it is against their religious beliefs, this is understandable, but when did the bible become the basis of American law? When did the church decide what was and was not legal? If Martin Luther understood that church and state should be separate parts of people’s lives than why can’t we as a whole? This is something I would grieve every day for the rest of my life, if the Christian Bible or any other religious text becomes the basis of our laws. If scripture replaces freedom in the hearts of Americans, I will be proud to count myself as a member of Canada, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, or any other country who does not show the hypocrisy of claiming to have freedom and then take it away from its own citizens.
I cannot stand by and watch as the men and women who sacrificed their lives to ensure that this land remains the fortress of equality that it was and should be are let down by this legislature. I thought that it would be fitting to mention this because if you ask any volunteer in the armed forces if there should be segregation in the united states whose freedoms they are defending, you would get a resounding no, of that I have no doubt. They are over there defending freedoms, which we are taking away, rendering there sacrifice meaningless. After all, if you die to defend a democracy that does not exist, than what did you die for? If you die to defend freedoms people don’t have, then was your sacrifice meaningful?
I do not wish to spread a message of hate however. The election of Barack Obama has shown that people can come a long way in defending freedom and equality for all Americans and I hold the same optimism that one day the same tolerance and acceptance will be applied to the people of America and the world regardless of any such choices and circumstances of a persons being. The people who support proposition 8 are not to be treated any differently than those who oppose it, for that would be to descend to a level at which I and any other people who would profess to love freedom should avoid. I love this country and the freedoms which living within it have provided me, I only wish to ensure that many other people who also love the country can enjoy as well as I have the freedoms which are supposed to be guaranteed to them.
It has been decided that, much like during the civil rights movement of the 1960s that the world will know us as the greatest place for freedom in the world. We will not discriminate, all will be treated as an equal, the farmer is not inferior to the president, the janitor to the judge; we are all US citizens and will receive full rights as such-provided you meet the criteria. As long as you were not black in the 1960s you were treated fairly, you had quality schooling as a child, you had every opportunity to advance in your workplace, and you had every opportunity to be what you wanted to be as long as you were not like THEM. No. This would not stand to the mighty stream in Dr King’s speeches; this would not stand to the power of equal rights that was the driving force behind the Emancipation of the serfs by the Czar Alexander in 1861, or the Emancipation Proclamation two years later. This was the Force of Justice and Righteousness that guided these men as well as many others, who pushed for the equal treatment of all humanity, the struggle is the same, the fight for equality still rages, now it is not that we treat people differently because we are of different skin tone, or have different accents, or any of these things it is now about whom you choose to marry, it is now about those whom you love. There is a certain farce going around pretending to be marriage for the homosexual. Domestic Partnership, this is marriage, but it’s not. Just like colored schools made under Jim Crow laws in the 20th century were just like any other schools, but they weren’t. This is starting to reek of separate but equal. We have tried so hard for decades to live up to our credo of E Pluribus Unum and now we will exclude the gay community on the basis of their sexual orientation? This is becoming reminiscent of a past from which we have come so far from, struggled so immensely to overcome and are now regressing into like an 8 year old into baby talk after a younger sibling is born. We come so far from the travesties of that time and are now finding our way back. This is not something the land of the free and the home of the brave should be doing.
The supporters of Communism during the Cold War saw many flaws in the American way of doing things. It must have struck many of them as odd that the supposed land of the free was a place of such ethnic violence and discrimination. Many of the old arguments against interracial marriage are either identical or similar in theme to those against homosexual marriage. They say that children raised by homosexual parents are more likely to become homosexual themselves, I am not going to make a call on the authenticity of this argument because it really should not matter. People also used to say that interracial marriage would lead to people of mixed race. In hindsight was that really such a bad thing? People are worried that gay marriage will be taught in schools. Once again, I don’t know, and once again, who cares? If you are so insecure about the effect it can have on your children opt out of it. If you can opt out of state testing, then you can opt out of field trips. If you can’t for whatever reason, there is no reason that you can’t push a referendum saying that you can opt out of it. Why punish the gay community for a flaw in the school system? In personal experience, I was never taught about marriage at any point during my school career and many people can and will testify the same.
I saw a group online calling themselves Democracy has spoken, Prop 8 passed. This makes me sad beyond understanding. It is not democracy that we deny people basic human rights, if we will allow men and women on death row to marry before they are executed than why won’t we allow the same to upstanding citizens of homosexual preferences? When did the criminals who will die in a matter of days or weeks become more deserving of basic rights then the homosexual? When did the homosexual become less important than the murderer? Less important than the rapist? Less important than the child pornography viewer? When did the standards of the American people sink so low? When did the association of sentient thought exclude the American people from their decision on whether or not people deserve basic human rights? I was brought up on the image of America is the land of opportunity, this law has disillusioned me. Democracy is a government of the people, by the people, for the people. That would be for all the people, not for those whom we like and not for those whom we don’t. This is not democracy that has spoken. This is theocracy that has spoken. People are often opposed to gay marriage because it is against their religious beliefs, this is understandable, but when did the bible become the basis of American law? When did the church decide what was and was not legal? If Martin Luther understood that church and state should be separate parts of people’s lives than why can’t we as a whole? This is something I would grieve every day for the rest of my life, if the Christian Bible or any other religious text becomes the basis of our laws. If scripture replaces freedom in the hearts of Americans, I will be proud to count myself as a member of Canada, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, or any other country who does not show the hypocrisy of claiming to have freedom and then take it away from its own citizens.
I cannot stand by and watch as the men and women who sacrificed their lives to ensure that this land remains the fortress of equality that it was and should be are let down by this legislature. I thought that it would be fitting to mention this because if you ask any volunteer in the armed forces if there should be segregation in the united states whose freedoms they are defending, you would get a resounding no, of that I have no doubt. They are over there defending freedoms, which we are taking away, rendering there sacrifice meaningless. After all, if you die to defend a democracy that does not exist, than what did you die for? If you die to defend freedoms people don’t have, then was your sacrifice meaningful?
I do not wish to spread a message of hate however. The election of Barack Obama has shown that people can come a long way in defending freedom and equality for all Americans and I hold the same optimism that one day the same tolerance and acceptance will be applied to the people of America and the world regardless of any such choices and circumstances of a persons being. The people who support proposition 8 are not to be treated any differently than those who oppose it, for that would be to descend to a level at which I and any other people who would profess to love freedom should avoid. I love this country and the freedoms which living within it have provided me, I only wish to ensure that many other people who also love the country can enjoy as well as I have the freedoms which are supposed to be guaranteed to them.
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