As promised, we're back with the results of your comments regarding North Carolina's upcoming vote on the Marriage Amendment. I have to make a small modification to the way in which I am going to present your comments. I had a literal swarm of replies via email this weekend and when I tried to compile them to give every single individual their say, Blogger fussed at me for attempting a near Biblical sized post and told me to shrink it down a bit. My solution is going to be pretty simple. We'll post in summary. Here we go.
The Pros - Voting for the Amendment
The responses in this category were much more varied and ranging than I expected. Some of the more vocal proponents of the Amendment felt it was a moral issue and that they were proud of their state for trying to block something they felt to be "wrong" and/or "disgusting." A number of responses focused on the religious side of the argument, citing Biblical references against homosexualtiy et al. Several of the more impressive and well thought out arguments for the Amendment boiled down to a protection of the status quo, i.e. same sex marriages are not recognized now, why should that change. One rather long reply contained the following nugget which I found has some degree of merit, although I may not agree with its application: "This is not an issue of the legality of marriage at its core. This is an issue of whether or not the State of North Carolina should take a stand and establish its moral center now and in perpetuity." There were several responses that felt this vote would give "those people" the right to further behave against God's law and good taste. Hey, I said I'd try to give everyone their due and I will. There was one response which even went as far as to cite some (dated) statistics about the failure rates of same sex marriage versus traditional marriage and cite that accelerated rate as an additional strain on taxpayers.
The Cons - Voting Against the Amendment
Emotions ran fairly hot in this segment of responses, even moreso than in the previous. A large number of responses here had a similar theme of anger against government imposed morality and the deprivation / persecution of citizens over what is perceived as a "choice of lifestyle." One rather eloquent post described the Amendment's definition as between one man and one woman as just as wrong as defining marriage as between two people of like race. The angriest post of all in the con side of the argument was also the most simplistic: "Why am I not allowed the right to marry the woman I have loved for thirty years? I pay taxes, I own a business, I am not a criminal. Yet my reward for being a good citizen is that my state will allow me the American dream with exceptions." There were even several responses that were against both the Amendment and same sex marriage. In summary most of those stated that while they didn't agree with other definitions of marriage outside the traditional, they also felt that the Amendment itself was either too broad in language or too overreaching in some of its concepts.
Thank you to all 72 of you that voiced your opinions. This is not an easy question but it does have an easy answer. Yes or No. The great part of our democracy is that your vote does count for something. Whether it passes or not this issue is a big one and it is going to take all of us doing our duty and casting a vote to make this issue and its outcome legitimate.
I beg all of you to go out tomorrow and vote in the North Carolina Primary. Don't let someone else's vote make decisions for you! Don't let someone else's ideas become law without having your opinion heard!
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