It’s time that we have a discussion about the actual subject on several issues. I really believe that people get around issues by reframing the issue, and obscuring the subject. The first is “Gay Marriage.”
To me, we’re not discussing gay marriage, we’re discussing gay rights. Marriage is a spiritual commitment between two people who commit to live their lives together. This has nothing to do with the government; the only thing that the government has to do with marriage is to give people, who enter in to this commitment, certain legal rights and privileges based upon their commitment. A civil ceremony is just a validation of this commitment; a church wedding is a spiritual consecration of this commitment. I don’t think that many in the gay or straight community are fighting to get church recognition of these unions. The vast majority of the gay community has split with their churches well before they get to the point of marriage. The government has no right or any inclination to tell the churches that they have to have these weddings. The thing that gay couples are looking for is the ability to move out of the shadows, and live their life in the open; they want the same rights and privileges as straights that have a union. The gay community shouldn’t be considered second class citizens just because of their lifestyle; they should be given the same legal rights by the government as others. As far as I’m concerned, they should have the same legal standing as other couples, the churches should have the right to not bless these unions, if that is their belief. By not recognizing these unions are we going to change the lifestyle? I think not, the gay lifestyle has gone back to Biblical times, and been discussed in the Bible, so I don’t think it will, or should go away.
My second concern is the “Torture” discussion. Is there any doubt that we shouldn’t torture enemy combatants? We signed off on the Geneva Conventions and agreed that our expectation was that our soldiers wouldn’t be tortured, nor would we torture others. What has changed to make this different? I realize our Homeland was hit on September 11th, and innocent individuals were killed, but in all wars in the past, innocents have been killed by all sides. We have never had someone bring war to our shores. Since terrorists have hit the Homeland, does that make it O.K.? As my Mom always said, two wrongs don’t make a right. We need to continue to hold the beliefs that we have had in the past, and keep our pride. The people that have died defending our rights did that so that we could keep our beliefs. Part two of this discussion is what constitutes torture? According to the Geneva Convention is weatherboarding torture? Are the other “Enhanced Interrogation “techniques torture? If they are we shouldn’t do them, and the people who ordered them should be held accountable. Didn’t we hold the Nuremburg Trials to address these issues in WWII in Europe? If the techniques aren’t torture, by the rules, then we were right to use them. The enemy did far worse things to our people and I have no problem going to the wall to fight them.
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