As happy as I am about the outcome of the presidential election, I would have considered yesterday flawless if Proposition 8 had gone down in defeat. I am very very pleased with 47.8 percent of Californians. The rest of you, please move to another state where your intolerance will be appreciated and accepted. You may make your selection from one of the following: Utah, Florida, or Arizona. I've heard Arizona has a dry heat, for those of you with hair frizzing issues.
For the rest of us that will remain behind, those that voted against Proposition 8, it is time for all of us to do a some soul searching to figure out why our once reliably blue state seems to be turning a sickly shade of purple. We've elected a Republican to our highest office, and now we have passed two bans on gay marriage. What's next? Are we to become one of those dreaded swing states? I don't support partisan politics. I believe in electing the right man for the job, regardless of party affiliation, but this trend towards ultra-conservative thinking has me worried. Hasn't it always been conventional wisdom that as goes California, so goes the rest of our nation? Is this the charge we want to lead? This is the dawn of a new a more hopeful era for our nation. It makes me sad the sunrise has to be marred by the smelly smokestack of intolerance on our state's horizon that represents Proposition 8.
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4 comments:
I see the potential for a compromise here. The Mormons let us do same-sex marriage and we make polygamy legal after establishing a reasonable minimum age of consent.
Oh, oh! Maybe we are on the edge of a slippery slope here. What about sibling marriages, including same sex., and you've already suggested the dog domino.
Actually, I think the slight majority in favour of Yes on 8 simply shows that Californians aren't quite ready for same-sex marriage. I have no doubt that it will be the law of the land in 10 or 15 years, perhaps less, as it already is in a number of more politically advanced countries like Canada, Holland and South Africa. I probably would have voted against it myself if you had asked me 25 years ago.
The big problem would be if Prop 8 is enshrined in the state constitution. I expect that the courts will throw it out in a few months and when the far right tries again in 2 or 4 years they will be trounced emphatically. In the meantime, I feel sorry for those loving couples who didn't get the knot tied in time.
The only other blot on the landscape was the election of Michele Bachmann, another flaming example of religious intolerance in this country.
There are people who will always be firmly opposed to the idea of same-sex marriage. But I also think there's a large number of people who just haven't got their minds wrapped around the idea yet. Honestly, if you had asked me whether I supported it ten years ago, I think my answer might have been different. Not from any sense of prejudice, but because for anyone over a certain age, it requires a pretty radical shift in your view of how "things are" and what's "normal." My point is, I think people will come around - it'll just take a little more time.
Yeah, people will "come around"...but just because the majority of people think it is a "good idea" does not mean that it truly is. Most people also think soda is an acceptable beverage for daily consumption. What is right is not always popular or easy. Like it or not, we do legislate morality. The real question is whose morality are we going to follow. Whose is truly the best, and how do we determine this? Is a majority vote based on personal preferences the way to decide moral issues? The majority of people used to believe in a moral law giver whom we were (are) all accountable to; now the majority feels uncomfortable with such an arrangement and feels they are best suited to decide for themselves. (Note the use of the word "feels" rather than "thinks".)
We have seen great shifts in culture over the past century, and it is not all for the good. Like it or not, it is the way it is. I don't envy you living in CA. Perhaps I have spent too much time here in KS because I have come around to their ways of thinking - something I never imagined happening. I don't regret it though. I finally feel like I have a stable framework for interpreting the world in which we live in, one that doesn't fluctuate based on my personal perceptions or feelings, one that is comprehensible and sound. I feel like a frog who has been rescued from a vat of heated water.
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