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This nation's founders set the course of the U.S. and it has wandered through its brief history with the steadiness of a drunken sailor, lurching from the abomination of slavery to the bloody conflagration of the Civil War that ended it, from the shameful cloud of cruel genocide of the American Indians, from which it never emerged, to an uneasy détente to the belated an begrudged liberation of its women.
It lurched through the tyranny of the Jim Crowe laws, a legacy of the Civil War to the Civil rights Act of the 1960's.
Now, once again, a minority languishes in the grip of America's odious history of oppression. According to the self righteous right, lesbians and gays are less equal under law than other Americans. So once again those without the slightest understanding of the founders' intent, who wrap themselves in the flag and use it to deny the rights of others, let me say to you; NO.
No, you will not turn MY country into an authoritarian theocracy. No, you will not prevail. As long as there is one person who understands the true meaning of the Constitution, we will fight you to the death. I am a real American patriot who loves my Country and will give my life to protect not only my rights but, the rights of every American. We are NOT A DOMA NATION. DOMA WILL NOT STAND. PROP 8 WILL NOT STAND.
Because the Constitution of the United States is the Supreme Law of the land, no State can pass a law that supersedes the Constitution. Period. We fought a Civil War to establish that very point. Any law that violates an individual right is null even if the State or States in question pass laws that directly violate the U.S. Constitution.
"Marriage" is a semantic devised to deprive individual rights just like the "Separate But Equal" laws (Jim Crowe) that were passed after the Civil War to continue to deny the rights of blacks in the South. We settled that issue in the sixties and passed the Civil Rights Act that did away with those "laws." If the law deprives anyone of an Unalienable Right, it's a bad law and it will be challenged, and it will eventually be struck down. Like it or not.
My question to you is, What do you gain when you deny someone else a right you claim for yourself? Certainly you must realize that in America everyone is equal under the law and that is the true American ideal. Freedom and equality under law. That was and is the true ideal that the founders shed their blood for; not some Rambo right wing fictionalized machismo bullshit. Without that, America is just another rudderless ship-of-state adrift in the world and nothing very special.
By the way, originally "marriage" was a contract that conveyed the woman in the union to the man as his property; she was his chattel. There was nothing "holy" about it, and it was usually arranged to strengthen political alliances or to consolidate wealth. The woman had little or no say in the affair; it was strictly a business deal. Frankly, it has meant different things to different people, especially women, throughout history. The word "marriage" is no excuse to deny anyone's rights.
Would you really deny someone else the ability to make a legal contract that binds their life to someone they love? I understand that you may feel squeamish about the subject based on your personal beliefs, but how can you in good conscience be so petty as to strip another's rights to protect your personal idea of right and wrong.
That's why the founders wrote the Constitution -- so that we are not subject to the whims of others. This is not a debate that can be won; it is a moot point. Prop 8 is unconstitutional as is DOMA; neither will stand. It is right wing sophistry to argue otherwise.
Copyright © Michael Weber
