Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) -- I wonder if black people would be still in the fields picking cotton today if the 13th Amendment -- the one abolishing slavery -- was placed on the ballot back in 1865.
I wonder if Hillary
Clinton would be at home baking cookies instead of serving as secretary
of state if women's suffrage was put to a vote back in 1919.
In other words, I wonder
just how far along we would be as a society if the oppressive majority
held all of the legislative and judicial power over the oppressed
minority, essentially yanking the teeth out of Congress and the Supreme
Court.
I'm sure you've heard a
lot about the gay agenda, but may not know what's in it. Here's what you
do: Download a copy of the United States Constitution, read it.
Everything the LGBT community wants is in there.
Sounds like an oversimplification?
It's not.
There's not a single
issue regarding the LGBT community that has been covered in the media or
deliberated in courts that is counter to the articles of the
Constitution. On the other hand, the fact that in 29 states it is legal
to fire someone just because they're gay flies in the face of the 14th
amendment, particularly the passage that says "No State shall make or
enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of
citizens of the United States."
That may not be consistent with one's religion, and that's fine. But the Bible and the Constitution are not the same thing.
I can't think of a
single major civil rights victory that came by way of a general election
and so I am not surprised that all 32 states that have voted on
marriage equality, voted against marriage equality.
It is human nature to
resist change, especially change that may bring significant
inconvenience to the vast majority of the people, those who are enjoying
the spoils of the status quo. "If it's not broke, don't fix it," was
never said by the community that was demanding their rights.
It was always the mantra
of those who liked their slaves; who liked their women barefoot and
pregnant; who felt uncomfortable working next to someone with cerebral
palsy; who get squeamish at the thought of two men falling in love.
We elect members of
Congress to lead us, not appease us. This is why our history has so many
civil rights victories come by way of Congress or the courts and so few
if any civil rights victories by election. When it gets right down to
it, culturally we're like children who have to be forced to eat our
vegetables.
We like the Constitution
when it can be used to endorse life the way we think it ought to be and
we ignore it, or vote against it when the Bill of Rights or the various
amendments challenge our world view or force us to make accommodations
-- however big or small -- for others.
This week election
officials in the state of Washington announced that a referendum seeking
to nullify the recently passed law legalizing same-sex marriage has
qualified for the November ballot.
Washington joins
Maryland, Maine and Minnesota as the next round of states that will put
the civil rights of some of their citizens to a vote. Early polls
indicate that at least one of them will indeed vote in favor of marriage
equality, which is a victory for the 14th Amendment of the
Constitution.
Though it's a bit of a shame that the Constitution needs such victories and that history has taught us nothing.
1 comment:
WISE WORDS.
Thanks great post.
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