Call It What You Want...

...You are still discriminating.

We had reached a point in recent history where I was starting to feel positively about the United States.  Our newly elected president is not causing catastrophic fail, unless you are a staunch conservative or someone who has no idea how the economy actually works, our efforts in the middle east seem to be doing something that in a change of direction is not completely bad, and the economy has started to clot where some of the larger wounds were previously bleeding.

I felt especially good when it was announced that Iowa had decided to recognize gay marriage and the rights contained therein.  I never questioned the motives rather I was impressed by the hearts and minds of the residents of Iowa who could have stood up and fought.  I expected that they would have but they impressed me and shamed me in their openness and tolerance for something that far more "liberal" states had refused to embrace.  The shame, of course, came courtesy of the fact that I live in what should have been one of the first states to set in motion such an act.

In the past, I have stated that the word marriage is not important and I do mostly believe that but I also understand that it matters to others.  I see that some people want to be married not simply in a civil union.  For some it may be about the ceremony but for others it is a validation of their very lives and their personal struggle with who they are and their acceptance in a society that historical fights against change.  Hope and change, only months ago this was the battle cry of a nation.  Where has that hope and change gone?

Scott McKenzie once sang that there were gentle people in California.  I have always been shown that there is a solid base of acceptance and tolerance for the different to the absurd there but that seems to have changed.  When California's Supreme Court upheld Prop 8 they struck a blow against the rights we hold dear.  They have violated countless US, taxpaying, citizen's rights.  Every man woman and child in the United States has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  I often rail against the idea that people replace the idea of pursuit with some entitlement to happiness.  In this case I am railing against the fact that the very body put in place to protect the pursuit has put a boot on its throat.

Overturn Prop 8.  Let people pursue their happiness with someone they love.  Please, stop telling us in 6-1 decisions that fear and ignorance steer this country and show the world and posterity that we took a stand against blind fascism in 2009.  For those who pin their hate mongering on God:  He told us to love one another and not to judge, why are you above that command?  Give others the freedom they deserve and that they would gladly give you.