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Wednesday, June 7, 2006
When will same-sex marriage be allowed?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage failed to pass in the Senate. However, Republicans plan to take the issue to the U.S. House of Representatives, so the gay marriage issue is sure to be front page news for some time to come.
The way the GOP uses the same-sex marriage issue to strengthen its political base is masterful. I am convinced that the best smoke-and-mirrors show is not performed on stage by a magician anymore, but instead on the political stage, by a vulnerable GOP as Election Day nears.
In 2004, the GOP effectively used the issue of gay marriage to deflect from its shortcomings on the war in Iraq and an ailing economy. Now in 2006 — with the war in Iraq still looming, gas prices escalating, and the aftermath of Katrina with the devastation of New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf region still fresh — they again seek to use the gay marriage issue as a tool to redirect Americans from focusing on what matters most.
What befuddles me is how easily so many Americans fall for the ruse. Americans purport to be a people who believe strongly in free choice, marriage and family. But when it comes to two same-sex people sharing in fundamental American values and customs, many of us seem to lose our ability for fair play and reason.
While growing up, I was taught that there was nothing more natural and sought- after than love, marriage and family. So it seems reasonable to me that all adults, regardless of sexual orientation, should be able to enjoy equal access to marriage and family.
Moreover, when gays and lesbians are denied legal marriage, they are also denied other rights that most of us take for granted — such as the right to transfer and inherit wealth from and to our spouse, make medical decisions for our spouse, and an array of rights concerning child welfare.
Almost 40 years ago, in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that anti-miscegenation laws, which barred interracial marriage, were misguided and that love is colorblind. I believe that opposition is always strongest right before a breakthrough and that in the next decade many Americans will begin to see that love is also blind to gender.
But in the meanwhile I remain puzzled by how many otherwise good and decent Americans can be so easily distracted from substantial political issues by the GOP’s red-herring use of the same-sex marriage issue.
Why is love and commitment of two same-gender loving people such a contentious matter? When do you think gays and lesbians will have equal access to marriage in America?
Permalink | Comments (283) | Categories: Beni Dakar
Zero tolerance for ‘zero tolerance’ in school?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Zero-tolerance policies in our school system are the rash created by the disease of ignorance in our society.
I was reminded of this when I read about the Mill Creek High School student who was transferred to an alternative high school because his belt buckle looked like a gun. Previously, there was the girl at Peachtree Ridge who was suspended for changing the words to “On Top of Old Smokey.”
Remember the little kid with the Tweety Bird key chain? The student who was suspended for bringing a butter knife to school? The six-year old who was suspended because he kissed a classmate on the playground?
What bothers me most about all of this is the abdication of common sense.
Look, school officials are charged with the daunting task of protecting our children. It’s a thankless job in which they can seemingly do no right. Safety issues are compounded by fears of litigation for doing the wrong thing. All of which demands a perceived necessity for the extreme enforcement of rules.
No principal wants his or her name on a lawsuit. No administrator or school system wants a catastrophic incident covered by the news media comparing their situation with Columbine. I can almost sympathize with their extreme caution. Almost.
A belt buckle? A key chain? Something comes to mind about cutting off the nose to spite the face. In the end, taxpayer money ends up getting wasted in litigation because those who work within the school system fail to exercise the education and ability to reason that they are trying to impart to our children.
I guess, then, that school officials are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. It’s more bearable to be laughed at than to bear the guilt of a student who was hurt or killed on their watch. At least Gwinnett schools spokesperson Sloan Roach gets to earn her salary on a regular basis.
The school system, however, is not the only one participating in this theater of the absurd. Parents are informed, at the start of the school year, what is acceptable and what is not. Parents know (or should know) what kind of world we live in. They know (or should know) that schools are paranoid, that they are looking for a reason to deal harshly with “unruly” students.
No-Child-Left-Behind dictates that schools must maintain discipline. There’s a lot of money involved here, so schools are going to err on the side of the ridiculous when it comes to enforcement of discipline. The federal government gives them a financial incentive to do so. Parents should know that. Students should know that too.
Should the Mill Creek student be transferred to an alternative school? For this, no. He, his parents, and school officials should simply be required to take a remedial class in common sense (taught, I would hope, somewhere besides Mill Creek).
Should the Peachtree Ridge student have been suspended? Yes. Not for the song, but for the lack of respect that she showed to her teacher and to school administrators. People get fired in the real world for doing exactly what she did, so consider it a lesson learned, and a relatively cheap lesson at that.
Should the girl with the Tweety Bird chain or the boy with the butter knife have been suspended? Please. In my day, the teacher would have taken the offending object, called my parents, and that would be the end of it (if it even went that far). It seems like a no-brainer to me.
And therein lies the problem. People just aren’t using their brains. Given that we are talking about public schools, I think that’s a serious indictment, on both the public and on the schools.
I don’t know what the answer is, but maybe you do. What do you think?
Permalink | Comments (68) | Categories: Bill Allen
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