Whenever an election rolls around, at least in my lifetime, it seems that the issues which cause such derision are the ones that have to do with religion and sex. Here's why this scares the living dead zombie lights out of me:
1) The forefathers of this country knew mixing religion and politics was a bad idea. It's like mixing business and your personal life or asking a family member to be your power of attorney. It's not a good idea, because emotions and thousands of years of tradition cloud your judgement and inhibit your ability to make rational decisions. We have some faults in America, but being the youngest kid on the block actually allowed us to learn that mixing religion and law ends in some serious mo-fo bloodshed. Using your religious beliefs as a reason to vote or not vote for someone or something means that the rich folks holding the puppet strings have successfully convinced you that religion will play a factor in governing this country, when, in fact, the First Amendment expressly prohibits it. High treason I say! Tantamount to burning the flag.
2) Democrats believe in more laws and Republicans believe in less laws, right? Well, I can't say that I've ever seen evidence of this. I think they both create the same amount of laws, probably not as many as they used to be able to when there wasn't so much bi-partisan bitching. What I've witnessed this year is a lot of frivolous law making in order to scare the piss out of people. Voter IDs, abortions banned unless it's because of an "actual" rape...or not (again?!) and marriage amendments? C'mon. That's like shining a giant flashlight onto vaginas and gay people, far away from climate change and the economy. "Guys, hey, look over here!" "Ooo, shiny!"
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Now that I got that out of the way, I think we really need to take a deep breath before we walk into that little booth on Tuesday. Regardless of which religion you call your own, remember that this is about LAW, not RELIGION. As long as we keep it that way, we all get to keep going to whichever church we want.
If you don't think gay people should get married, then continue to go to a church that won't allow it, and just don't invite me to join you. Call me when you're done and we can have a beer or something. I hear a lot of people say that this is a personal belief thing and that they wouldn't make me feel bad for my beliefs; we are all allowed to vote whichever way we want, it's true. In fact, I love that about this country! Cheers to us! However, for the record, I hope that if I ever backed a LAW that discriminated against someone because of who they love (something they can't control) that you would, by all means, make me feel bad. Stand up to me. Write a blog post about it. I promise I'll read it.
Now that we're on the subject, boy have the flashlight shiners done an excellent job with this gay marriage thing in Minnesota. I've seen more signs in lawns on this subject than anything else, and I am all for the fervor we've all gotten into over it because when one group is being discriminated against because they're different, we as Americans stand up for them and fight along side them until things change. See: World War II and civil rights. But don't you ever just sit back and say "Wow. Are we really spending all this time and money on preventing consenting, taxpaying adults from...loving each other? sharing a home? starting a family?"
I've said it a few times, but boy. We just had the hottest summer on record. There are people who don't have enough to eat. Rape is still the most unreported crime. And we're worried about our neighbors loving each other and wanting to make it legal? And, I'm off my soapbox. Let's have that beer next Sunday. Because we can. Even if we disagree. That's the beauty of this place. Cheers.
