And so it is finished. 


After nearly 48 hours straight of consciousness, I have calmed down enough so that I can go to sleep. Oh, and President Bush won reelection and the American people need to grow up vis-a-vis gay marriage. 



59,054,087: The largest number votes for any presidential candidate in the history of our great republic.

Something happened yesterday and it startled the world, either into a sense of relief and satisfaction or into a sense of bafflement and rage. Record numbers of American voters in this election allowed our President to seal the deal, this time, in both the Electoral College--an extremely useful institution--and in the popular vote. Although the pundits are pollsters were expecting record amounts of new voters in the 18-24 year-old demographic, the same amount of people in that age bracket actually cast a ballot. It appears that rocking to the vote was fun to do for about a year straight, but rockin' on down to the fire house or to the school--sometimes even when given a TWO WEEK-long window in which to do it--was just too much to ask.

The youth of this country, the people who, supposedly, wanted most for the President to be usurped from his "false" throne, my classmates and friends, did not manage to sway the vote toward their only alternative, Mr. Kerry.

I voted. I voted at 7.20a which was the time that I managed to finally cast my ballot after standing in a line for nearly an hour and when I had an exam a mere hour later. (That's dedication. We'll just have to see how I actually fared on that exam, eh?) I enjoyed the experience as it was my very first time voting for our nation's top office-holder. I felt a sense of pride and involvement even though the state would have gone--and did go--handily to the President. Many of my friends have been bothering me over the past few weeks by saying that, "Well, I'm voting, but because x is going to win or y is going to lose, it won't matter anyway." That's hogwash. If everyone had that attitude there would be no votes to count and then where would we be? Besides, I continue to maintain that if you can't manage to drag yourself out of bed or the house or wherever to vote then you don't have the right to complain about the results of everyone else's participation.

Lastly, before I completely deactivate, let me say something about the gay marriage "bans" that so easily passed in 11 states. The US Constitution, the supreme governing document of our land and the source of our immensely strong and robust system of government, PROVIDES for rights, and does not RESTRICT them or take them away. The ingenious piece of work even states (in its Ninth Amendment):

"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

This amendment was included in the Bill of Rights in order to placate those delegates who were not going to approve the Constitution because it did not explicitly name every single fundamental right that the people of their new country would enjoy. So, they basically said that just because a right is not named in this document does not mean that the people do not have it. Do you see it here? The Constitution PROVIDES for and PROTECTS rights and does not RESTRICT them.

The only time that it restricts individuals' rights is in the Eighteenth Amendment--the alcohol prohibition amendment--which was repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment only 14 years later. The people of 1919 found a moral stance upon which they decided to stand and they incorporated a ban on liquor into the very document that says that one can speak freely without fear of reprisal, own a weapon without the threat of being unjustly disarmed, and not be searched without just reason. Did such an amendment belong in the Constitution? No. Does an amendment so silly as to define the word "marriage" belong in it? No.

We can figure this out in another way. We can call gay marriage "calloomba" for all that I care, as long as the couples who decide to take it upon themselves to partner up under the law are treated equally under it as are their straight neighbors.

Equality for everyone under the law is a principle that I believe in extremely strongly. It would allow for gay couples to file joint tax returns, have visitation rights in the hospital and would allow both to be legal parents to their child. Equal treatment under the law would also get rid of "Affirmative Action" and like programs, and would make sure that all laws apply to any and every individual in the same way.

Some people say that if any government, local, state or federal, were to allow same-sex couples equal protection under the law or would allow them to "marry" would be endorsing homosexuality. Just because the government allows the sale and gains tax revenue off of the sales and production of pornography does that mean that it endorses it? Does it mean that everything that you are allowed to do within the privacy of your own home is automatically endorsed by the government otherwise it is illegal.

No, no and no some more.

We are a country based on the rule of law, not the rule of man, and we should realize that to fully live up to the principles listed in the Declaration of Independence "...that all men are created equal..." we must treat everyone equally. The amendments placed on several states' ballots on Tuesday were, in many cases including in Georgia, worded deceptively (the one in Georgia asked whether marriage should only be defined as the union between a man and a woman, but the actual amendment also prohibits civil unions with the same or similar rights as unions of marriage) but they passed with flying colors because people are scared. They are scared that somehow, in some way when homosexuals are allowed to commit themselves to each other legally and when they are recognized as a couple legally that their marriage or lives will somehow be put into jeopardy. Tell me how. Tell me how on earth allowing a loving couple to write their taxes off together or inherit a dead partner's property is going to deprive you of your right to life, liberty or property. It will not but you are just scared of change and of something that is different. Get over it.

I could write a lot more about this (including about Article IV, Section 2 of the US Constitution) but I will not because it's curtains for me.

Long live the United States of America and may it continue to progress to be the shining beacon of liberty of the world that it has been since its inception so many years ago. 

Posted: Wed - November 3, 2004 at 11:38 PM          

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