REALITY- This week, The United States Supreme Court has been hearing cases having to do with the fate of marriage equality in America. One is a challenge to California's Proposition 8, an amendment to the California state constitution that was passed by voters in 2008 which restricts marriages to "one man - one woman couples". The other argument before the supreme court is over the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act or "DOMA" which denies couples in same-sex marriages the basic rights that other husbands and wives enjoy. Simple things like being able to see your spouse when they're unwell and receiving social security benefits.
The Supreme Court won't have a verdict on either case until late June, the tea leaves seem to point to a split decision where DOMA is rightfully struck down and Prop 8 would be referred back to The California court that had already ruled Prop 8 to be unconstitutional. That would allow California to correct it's mistake without having SCOTUS set legal precedent on the subject.
That is great progress. Twenty or thirty or fifty years late but progress none the less.
Why is it that some people have such trouble being seen as people by some other people?
The answer is simple and exceedingly complicated. People fear what they do not understand, this is well known and used to it's fullest potential. Rush Limbaugh would be out of business were it not for the fear of the unknown and different that he stokes like a flame that he and those like him would watch burn into eternity. The tiny flame of fear exists inside all of us. Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity are paid handsomely to fan that flame of fear, make it grow until it burns the inside of your eyes, then they tell you of whom to be afraid. They tell you whom to hate. They tell you who it's alright for you to hurt.
Children learn whom to hate from their parents and their peers. The racist or homophobic attitude starts in childhood, when kids decide whom they can treat differently. At that young age the attitude of hate manifests itself in the form of bullies. Bullies are everywhere and while there is some national attention being brought to the practice of bulling locally no one really does anything to stop bullies. A bully is just the lowest form of a racist or homophobe. A bully picks on what he perceives to be weaker or vulnerable targets.
Vulnerable not only because of lack of size or musculature or popularity status but vulnerable because the bully need not fear any retribution or consequences as a result of his bulling because his target was different. Be it because the target is black, latino, white, Asian, of mixed heritage, alternative political beliefs, or because the target is or may be perceived to be a homosexual or gay person. Kids are cruel goes the old saying I say cruel children grow up to be cruel adults.
It is no great revelation to say that gun violence is out of control in this country. What may be here to fore unknown, or at least unspoken, is that gun owners who fail to understand and respect the terrible power of their personal firearms enough to the point where they would be in favor of background checks are likely the same racist bullies who still hate gay people and quietly encourage their children to bully others. Perpetuating the cycle of violence.
Let me be clear I am not in favor of the government taking everyone's guns away. I would never trust The U.S. Government to that degree. But even the most zealous, sane, non-violent, law abiding, gun owning citizen or American soldier would have to, at this point, be in favor of at least background checks before firearms can be purchased, if for no other reason than reducing the odds that they themselves would have need of their guns to protect themselves and their families from some one who got their gun despite the fact that they had been known to shoot people with it in the past.
The attitude of hate held by the gun-happy killer, the bully, and the racist - homophobe is the same. The attitude that says 'I can do whatever I want to you because I perceive you to be weak, or different, or because it has been demonstrated to me that you are a socially approved target. Acts of violence, degradation, or discrimination against you hold no consequences for me. I can act with impunity. I don't even have to feel bad about it.'
With the gun-happy killer these thoughts end in gunfire as the did in at Sandy Hook elementary school. My thoughts continue to be with those lost and their families. Unimaginable anguish to go from wrapping your child's Christmas presents imagining the little smiling face to burying your child instead.
The bully mostly ends thoughts like that with punches, pranks, or words of hate either screamed into a teary eye or whispered past it from three lunch tables away. Sometimes though the bully is so untouchable and unrelenting that his prey sees no way out besides taking their own lives. Making the bully a murderer too whether the law will call the bully that or not.
The racist - homophobe is liable to become either the gun-happy killer or the quiet bully that whispers behind their neighbor's backs. With the encouragement of a Rush Limbaugh or a Bill O'Reilly, who calls upon his viewers to act as something he calls "culture warriors", the racist - homophobe is that much more likely, in my opinion, to become the gun-happy killer.
Republicans even now argue for keeping the discrimination legislation that they worked hard to force onto gay people who want to get married. The Republican Party even now argues, with the voice of the N.R.A., that any old James Holmes, Gerald Lee Loughner, or Adam Lanza still aught to be able to buy guns in America.
Where does it all end?
It ends when the American people want it to and when we the people have the political momentum to make it happen. It ends now.
And As Always,
Ps. Being anti-marriage equality is just the new racism, the new sexism. People in power have always looked for ways to distract the people away from the obvious spectacle of their corrupt behavior. Forcing us to focus on our differences has always been effective. Though it's been said before, it's only when we as human beings ignore our slight variations and focus instead on what makes us all the same that we will come together as one people and we will all have peace.
http://youtu.be/cgps85scy1g
http://youtu.be/NyR_b98weiQ
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