Denying Fundamental Rights
Your article failed to mention one of the larger issues surrounding the passing of the same sex marriage constitutional amendment, as well as this year’s election in general. I was surprised that you didn’t recognize religion, as it clearly plays a substantial role in how Americans from many Southern and bible belt states, including my own state of Kentucky, decided to vote on the Presidency and specifically on gay marriage. Yes of course we know it says in the bible that men should not lie with other men. In a conservative region of the country that fought to keep its slaves and is obsessed with its own Christianity and color, are we really SURPRISED to find that the majority are members of a largely white Christian political party following an Evangelical leader and trying to ban stem cell research, abortion, and gay marriage?
It’s true that it is hard to understand how people can use democracy to take away the rights of other people, but for some reason, there are those in this world who believe that murder is illegal, so naturally we should make homosexuality illegal too, because the bible condemns them both. Democracy’s biggest flaw is that it serves the wants of the majority. And the rest of the country just has to suck it up and deal.
But we shouldn’t fret. Amendments can be changed, and it doesn’t have to take a lifetime (see also Prohibition.) Presidents don’t stay in office (with a majority in both chambers) forever. But most importantly, in the United States, minorities wont be the minority forever. So unless a nuclear war breaks out and the world is destroyed before then, I think our generation has an exciting lifetime to look forward to.
Katie Rubinkr003k@mail.rochester.edustudying abroad in London this semester
