Little Pink Houses

Once again, the President is gearing up to defend our country and our values from the hideous threat of gay marriage. Congress is slowly working its way toward a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay couples from marrying or forming civil unions, and the President is a driving factor behind it, assuring us that he wants to protect the "sanctity" of a "sacred" institution. Never mind that the measure is unlikely to pass the Senate by itself, let alone the Senate, the House, and then the ratification of 38 states (that being what it takes to amend the Constitution). No sir, they are using their time to debate and try to pass this critical legislation before they bother with any of those small items like health care, Social Security, the budget deficit, or the myriad of national security and war issues we face.

People are tools. Not even very effective tools, but more like a worn hammer with a cracked handle. So to all you nail pounders out there:

First and foremost, declaring things to be "sacred," or insuring their "sancitity" has never been, and should never be, the role of government. Churches and other religious organizations "sanctify." The government rubber stamps contracts. I don't want my church ruling on the law, and I equally oppose the government ruling on what's "sacred." Remember, once they start ruling on religious issues, they can rule on any religious issue they want. Today, marriage, tomorrow, confession, communion, baptism.

Then, of course, there is the terrible joke that marriage is in the US. Sacred? When I can get a drive through wedding in Vegas, and get a divorce almost as quickly, I would hardly call the institution, as presided over by governments both state and federal, "sacred." Every year, hundreds of thousands of straight Americans enter into marriages that will be ended, often leaving children suffering the aftermath. Where's the call to end easy marriages? To require pre-marital counseling, or for that matter, pre-divorce counseling? How can we say that gays will ruin something that so many straight couples never showed any respect for?

In the end, I doubt this amendment will pass. If it even makes it out of the Senate, I will be surprised. But even that is beside the point, because the truth is this: the President and a large proportion of Congress are fucking the American people. Gays aren't the reason you woke up with a sore ass this morning. Think about what exactly gay marriage will do to most of you who are not gay. Now think about what failing to fix Social Security, failing to address health care issues, or the cost of perpetual war and deficits will do to you. And your children. And their children.

Hitler had the Jews. Stalin had the anti-revolutionaries and capitalists. George Bush and the Republican Congress have the gays. There are two crimes being attempted here: one is denying gay couples equal rights and protections under the law, and the other is the way that they are being used to distract all of us from how bad of a job our own government is doing. In the end, we will all pay for both crimes.