As I suspected, the ban on gay marriage passed overwhelmingly, in spite of the fact that it is grossly unconstitutional. I thought I'd seen the height of disgusting where rape of the constitution was concerned. I guess I need to raise my standards a little.
Do you think that I'm maybe just a little tired of hearing about narrow-minded people trying to tell other people how to live their life based upon a belief system that other person may not care about? Nah. I probably just got up on the wrong side of the bed today or something.
Sadder still, however, is the fact that those displeased with the results (which very obviously infringe upon the civil rights of a significant portion of the population, albeit a minority) have been rather uniformly restrained from voicing their opinions. A significant example of this was recently publicized on our local news station. This station reported that a webmaster of a small city's website was fired after he posted an editorial voicing his opposition to the ban. His editorial was, of course, removed from the site as well.
I can understand that the editorial would have to be moved if he had put it someplace inappropriate, such as plastering it across the site's main page, but the whole idea that his opposition was completely stifled just sat badly with me and left a sour taste in my mouth. I certainly hope that this isn't indicative of a resurging trend towards strangling dissenting opinion. I realize people in this area of the country are particularly inclined to fear that which they do not understand, but I am constantly amazed that they continually wave the flag and tout their "patriotism" while simultaneously denying people rights they are entitled to under the Constitution of the country they love. It seems so ludicrously hypocritical to me.
Incidentally, I think this will be the last "tirade entry" for a while. While I do enjoy encouraging critical thought in others and challenging people to think "outside the box," I don't want to offer you all the impression that I am "down" on society or overly cynical. It just happens that there have been a number of issues in the past few weeks that caught my attention and issues which I felt were worth commenting on. You will likely see more commentaries such as these at a later time, but I don't want my entire online journal to sound like an angsty teenager constantly harping on the injustice of "the system." That is so not my style!! ^_^
Copyright 2005 S.L. Olson
