//Religion
How about about a history lesson?
I’m not going to tell people that their vote on Prop 8 was wrong or right. I’m just going to point out a couple of parallels in history that today are universally understood to be very dark times for civil rights in the US, but at the time were seen as justified just as Prop 8 may seem to some people now.
My hope is that people will look beyond their personal agendas, justified as they may seem, and see the bigger picture.
First up, denying marriage for one segment of the population:
In 1913, 30 states enforced laws banning marriage between whites and non-whites. In 1924, Virginia joined them when its legislature made marriage between white persons and non-white persons a felony. These laws remained in effect until 1967, when the US Supreme Court found them to be contrary to the guarantees of the US Constitution.
In 2007, 26 states had constitutional amendments explicitly barring the recognition of same-sex marriage, 18 of them prohibited the legal recognition of ANY same-sex union, and 19 more had legislation narrowly defining marriage to exclude same-sex partners. On Nov. 4th 2008, California, Florida, and Arizona joined the list, bring the total to 48.
Further back in history, another uncanny parallel:
Prior to 1835, the Supreme Court of North Carolina upheld the constitutional right of free men of color to vote; in response, the people voted in an amendment to the North Carolina Constitution removing this right by a majority of 55%.
On May 15, 2008, the Supreme Court of California overturned an unconstitutional ban of same-sex marriage; in response, the people voted in an amendment to the California Constitution removing this right by a majority vote of 52%.
It took until 1870 (a generation later) for government endorsed discrimination to be overturned by the 15th amendment, and another century before equal rights for all were guaranteed by law. Those ideals are once again under attack, the Constitution that once protected all Californians from discrimination and granted all people the same rights has been rewritten to single out one group of people for discrimination.
In both historical instances mentioned above, the justifications seemed reasonable to the majority at the time but are now universally seen as wrong.
Will America find a way to embrace equality once and for all, or must we leave it to future generations to prove us wrong once again? Will our children look at what this generation of voters has done in the name of tradition and hang their heads in shame?
Regardless of your religious beliefs or your personal feelings about your fellow Americans, equality is equality, is equality. Protect equal rights under the law in ALL THINGS for ALL PEOPLE.
You can help make a difference, do a little research and make your own choices:
Lambda Legal Defense Fund: http://www.lambdalegal.org/
Equality California: http://www.eqca.org/
Human Rights Campaign: http://www.hrc.org/
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We’re Ready for the World to End
So as of this writing, the first few gay couples in Los Angeles and San Francisco are counting down the last butterflies-in-the-stomach minutes before they officially tie the knot and start rocking out some marital bliss.
But before the moment of truth, I wanted to go on record with a preemptive ”I told you so” before the sun rises tomorrow and we find ourselves living in a new kind of hell on earth, flush with fire, brimstone, and probably a few folks who have fallen down the slippery slope and opted to marry their house pet instead of a human (thanks for the warning Rick Santorum!).
Of course, if none of that happens tomorrow, then I guess I’ll have some egg on my face. Like if it turns out to be just another day wherein people go to work, bitch about gas prices and the war, then go home with some take-out chinese food to watch a marathon of The Deadliest Catch, then I suppose we’ll all look pretty stupid for complaining so much about gay marriage.
But really, come on. Let’s be realistic. It’s obviously gonna be the fire and brimstone option I’m sure. We’re totally overdue for some of that stuff. Seriously. How could it not end in a hell on earth with all the damnation and the whatnot?
Fingers crossed!
ShareFor Those Still Intent on Citing Einstein in their Dogma
So while Richard Dawkins has done an excellent and admirable job of deflecting the oft-cited argument that Albert Einstein was a religious man, it seems we’re now fortunate enough to hear from the man himself more clearly than ever. In news straight from The Guardian UK, it seems a letter penned by Einstein in 1954 states quite definitively that he believed faith in God to be a “childish superstition”.
As Dawkins would also remind us, this is not a revelation since Einstein made any number of public statements which should have made it abundantly clear that he did not believe in any sort of “God”. Still, perhaps all the hubbub over this letter is worthwhile since it seems to leave absolutely no doubt as to his convictions on the subject.
Now if only we could convince Francis Collins to read a little bit more Einstein, perhaps he’d be swayed by a fellow man of science.
ShareOh, Janeane, if only we’d listened….
“I’m feeling a little nostalgic for a time when we didn’t yet know how shitty things were going to be….”
This aired a month before the Iraq war began. I know this is old news, but I’m feeling a little nostalgic for a time when we didn’t yet know how shitty things were going to be, when we could only guess at it.
The language Brian Kilmeade uses perfectly sums up typical right wing belligerence; this kind of verbal obfuscation and unmitigated arrogance has stymied this country for eight years and contributed to a national inability to hold a meaningful dialogue with someone with an opposing viewpoint. Please note his insistence on the missing Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Highlights from “Real TIme with Bill Maher”
Okay, we’ve got Janeane Garofalo, Salman Rushdie…and Rob Thomas?!?!
Lastly, the sound is out of sync on this but Maher makes some excellent points about organized religion so I’m going to post it anyway. For the record, Maher has always struck me as awfully smarmy and arrogant and I really hate those qualities in people; though it seems in this day and age that arrogance is now needed simply to stand one’s ground:
ShareEvolutionary
“If we look at the innumerable species of animals who exist or have existed, we see many, many failures.”
Evangelicals point to mutualism and say, See, proof of Intelligent Design. And it truly is a marvelous, even miraculous, thing.
But I firmly believe that things like mutualism is proof of evolution, that these beneficial associations exist because they have enabled these species to survive. Without the perpetuation of the species, there are no beneficial associations.
We can point to the shrimp and the goby as a success story, but if we look at the innumerable species of animals who exist or have existed, we see many, many failures. Unintelligent Design, if you will.
As with people, history is written by the winners.
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