Moving into the future

Here’s the thing: The right-wing conservative believes American’s should be the ones who vote for gay marriage, not the “activist judges.” Think back to the general presidential election of 2000. Without the Electoral College, George W. Bush would have never been elected president, because the popular vote, the will of the people, would have swept Al Gore into office. The GOP defended the College for doing what it should do, whether that was good or bad is not up for debate. 

Here’s the thing, I believe they should if only because the people make irrational, emotional decisions based on little regard for reality. Seriously, has anyone seen who votes for whom on American Idol? It’s a popularity game show designed not for the talented folks of the world, but about people who can be packaged, labeled and sold to an American audience who are awash in mediocrity. This is why no one on that show has had a sustainable career outside certain niche markets, which is as it should be. It's a microcosm of why sometimes the will of the people need to be trumped by a judicial decree.

As a nation, we’ve moved on from our simple beginnings, we’ve evolved because nature, time and tide moved us forward whether we like it or not (some will argue we’ve moved too fast, but who decides that?). The 20^th Century alone showed a world that moved from the most basic car, Model T, to men walking on the moon; to space probes hunting the origins of the universe when that century started people still believed there was nothing beyond this little marble of a world. We also went from being tethered to our phones (and computers) to ones where it (almost) matters not where you are. We’ve moved forward, because we had people who knew that the key to growth lies not in the past, but in the unknown future. 

I understand that gay marriage undermines certain religious views. The question remains why we’ve let these views color how a state, a country, a world manages its people. I’ve no doubt religion is a good idea, offers light when darkness surrounds the soul of the people, but it should remain a personal thing, kept out of politics, kept out of secular laws of this nation. 

Ah yes, the second most dirty word the conservatives think is destroying America, secularism (liberal is another word, but it’s basically the same meaning to them). 

The way I see it, we’ve always have been somewhat secular nation, but because the religion was able to suppress people, use blackmail and ignorance of the nation to prop up its views, the few forward thinking people were kept out, called heretics because their views went against state policy. But as fast as we’ve moved from horse and buggy to supersonic airplanes, those forward thinking people have moved from the fringe to center stage, which has scared a lot of religious people who’ve had it good for generations. Their power base is breaking apart like the nation’s infrastructure, and it frightens them because they only solution they can up with is increase the fear factor. Yes, conservatism has always played on fear, but it also thrives on lies and dishonesty. Conservatism hasn’t given us anything we didn’t have and it wants to take away our freedoms, because they’ve not given us any sort of stable social order, or a peaceful home life, or a respect for law and order. 

We’re at the crossroads now, and whether we survive as a nation is up to a handful of people who think by accident of birth and circumstance, they were meant to rule the world and those who did not agree would suffer. They need to be swept aside to move forward for we are a species who cannot abide stagnation. Change has always been at the heart of what we are. 

I can see that our Founding Fathers never thought beyond their own lives, though, leaving complex issues like this in the hands of future generations. As a people we never look for what’s in front of us, mostly because it scares us. Living in the past makes us happy, because it does not require much thought; we’ve always done it this way, we should always then do it this way. It’s backwards thinking and it’s destructive, because as a nation we would never have evolved beyond our puritanical roots had not some stood up and said “what if.”

Is 200 years too short of time? Should we sit and debate a simple issue as this for another 200? Should we go through committee after committee because a bunch of religious folks who feel their power slipping through their fingers like sand can’t get over an “ick” factor? 

It’s all fun and games to claim that the only reason we live is to reproduce, but the fact is that as species, we are living longer and longer than when this nation (alone) was founded.  Problems these Founding Fathers could never think of, like the huge population growth that has happened even in my lifetime (I’ll be 50 in September, and the population has grown more in those 50 than the previous 50), are creating new problems that require new solutions. So be it the evolutionary aspect of said species or a healthier lifestyle or a combination of both, mathematically this planet will not be able to sustain us all if we don’t figure out a logical solution to this problem. But today’s leaders don’t want to worry about the future, they’ll let the next, next, next generation deal with it. And that, my friends is stupid. 

I believe in gay marriage because of what it stands for: it brings two people together to form one and bring up (if they choose) another generation. Marriage is good, and to stop a man from marrying another man, or a woman marrying another woman is ridiculous. We all want to be loved, and have people see that love. And we can reproduce, be it a surrogate or adoption, so we just do it differently. Is that so wrong? And the fallacy that people will want to marry dogs, cats, cows, buildings if gay people are allowed to wed is nothing but the empty rhetoric of a defeated dictatorship. It’s smoke and mirrors to cover up bigotry and hate, one the most ruthless traits of the human race. 

And I believe the solutions lies in science and not prayer, I believe that as a nation, we’ll solve these problems only if we retain logic, compassion and a soul. It’s become clear that the conservative movement is on the wrong side of history, and I think deep down they know it. And I suppose like any good fighter, they’ll battle until both sides are hurt, wounded, and dead perhaps. They’ve made it clear they want no accommodation from me or anyone who opposes their backwards view.