Prop 8

Before I post another blog post on the subject of gay marriage, I'd like to frame the presentation by starting off with a quote from Fredrick Douglass. Someone who knew the deepest and most vile forms of tyranny against the liberty we held so dear, even as we violated it and allowed it to persist:

I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery-the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate, I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, shall not confess to be right and just....

In that light, hopefully one can appreciate the scorn and sarcasm blatant in the following post from another local blogger:

Why do conservatives hate history?

Via Pharyngula, I found this conservative nitwit complaining that the Left is being discriminatory because ... they're opposed to discrimination:

Do the Left not understand that the majority of Californians want to keep the definition of marriage as it has been since the beginning of time?

From the Only True Bible(TM), 1 Kings 11:

And [Solomon] had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.

"Beginning of time" does not mean what you think it means, dumbass.

For those who consider liberty the ultimate goal of both government and man to defend, with their life if necessary, it is time to abandon the selfish and immoral desires to influence our government to cherish the abolition of liberty of others to defend their morality against those with a differing opinion. Their claims of tradition fall on deaf ears. Their claims of religious righteousness are as corrupt as their dedication to liberty.

To claim that one is an adherent to the Constitution and the limits upon government to which it limits to secure the blessing of the greatest gift that man could ever achieve, by natural law, right, or that of the divine... regardless of where you believe such blessings originate, allow such debates to continue in the Church, in your community, among your fellow man about the propriety of your differences. Stop and look in the mirror on what you hold most dear. Is it the liberty you claim to cherish, or the power to force others to adhere to your point of view?

Shall we be free, or shall we go down the beaten path of authoritarianism, fascism, and theocracy that empower their government to enforce an opinion, antithetical to everything that liberty stands for, that free men have little reason to prohibit, even if they disagree?

Gay men and women are fighting for the right to DIE to defend your liberty. They are crying out for the basic tenets of the Constitution you claim to love, to secure the blessings of LIBERTY, that you claim to so dearly cherish... just so that they may enjoy the same legal protections and entitlements as their peers.

You can fall back on claims of tradition, but they will consistently fall upon deaf ears on the subject of marriage as tradition has often precluded interracial, international, inter-religious, and even inter-tribal marriages depending on when and where one looks. We have shaken loose the chains of oppression on many a tradition long before this current petty debate. All who cherish liberty should quickly see through the semantics being employed to derail the fundamental argument that demands that justice be blind to the circumstances and our prejudice. The blatant favoritism for one tradition over the beliefs of others has absolutely no place in government. And if you cannot bring yourself to end the favoritism of one class, you must share it to all. The slippery slope is your burden, not the burden of gays. You are welcome to repair it, but absolute not welcome to continue it.

For all who gladly exclaimed, "Country First!" I must demand you consider the fact that we are separating dedicated military men for sins as petty as being born or choosing to be attracted to those of the same sex... even if they are vital to our nation's defense.

For all those who rallied against those they believed were trampling upon our Constitution, whose intent put primacy on liberty over all other considerations, why should we enforce our viewpoint on those of others and cry about the injustices being done to us on far less explicit clauses in the document we claim to cherish?

For those seeking a new direction for their battered party, I have one timeless solution: side with liberty... side with liberty fully. Continue to disagree and argue and espouse the values you hold most dear... but put primacy on the value of liberty for those that disagree. Fight for those that are pressing for the right to fight for you. We can disagree to our last breath, but we can all agree on the liberty to disagree and live our lives in disagreement.

If we fail to do so, we have hardly earned the right to claim any love or devotion to that we falsely claim already. The right to say we fought against injustice and fought FOR liberty of all, even those we disagreed with, often passionately. We lose the right to our claim on an ideal that has driven a nation to greatness. We will have lost our claim to that beacon of liberty that we hold so dear.

We will have become irrelevant in a world of self-interest, a purgatory from idealism. I cannot imagine a god so forgiving as to forgive such injustices against our countrymen and allies in the pursuit of liberty. I could not wish a more grievous death upon my enemies than such ideals being opposed in life... only to be regretted upon our death beds.