Cheap Political Leadership

Married couples receive 1,049 federal benefits and in the state of New York, 700 state rights unavailable to same- sex couples. These are secular, civil rights bestowed upon the union of two people by governments, not from religion. Mr. Bush, conservative politicians, and narrow-minded religious leaders conveniently are only willing to discuss marriage and the proposed constitutional amendment in terms of religious meaning. They refuse to discuss any solution to the civil rights and benefits that are only available through marriage and remain inaccessible to gay Americans other than to say they would leave it up to each state to decide. These are the same states whose court decisions they fear and use as their justification for said constitutional amendment.

Separate but equal. It is a way of treating a segment of the population differently. It is illegal and immoral, and it is a painful reminder of injustices from our recent past. As late in our nation’s history as 1963, most communities segregated whites and blacks in schools, public transportation, and restaurants. Discrimination prevented many from receiving equal consideration for employment and education.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 sought to legally prohibit and punish these injustices. Since then laws continue to be updated and there is a specific branch of the FBI charged with investigating cases of infringement of Civil Rights. Perhaps the White House is unaware of what has been recently written into law? Title 18, U.S.C., Section 241, Conspiracy Against Rights

“This statute makes it unlawful for two or more persons to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person of any state, territory or district in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him/her by the Constitution or the laws of the United States, (or because of his/her having exercised the same).

Bush administration officials and Republican conservatives say they fear “activist judges”. But the courts cannot create new laws allowing gay Americans to marry. Their fears are really based on the knowledge that as a matter of existing law, incorporated into legal statues on Civil Rights and within the Constitution itself, if forced to provide a ruling the courts could not allow recognition of an inequality that limits a segment of the population from having access to the same civil rights and benefits as everyone else. All Americans are created equal.

In the original version of a speech prepared for the March on Washington, in 1963; John Lewis an African-American who later went on to become a U.S. Congressmen asked questions that need to be answered yet again:

"For the first time in 100 years this nation is being awakened to the fact that segregation is evil and that it must be destroyed in all forms. Your presence today proves that you have been aroused to the point of action. We are now involved in a serious revolution. This nation is still a place of cheap political leaders who build their career on immoral compromises and ally themselves with open forms of political, economic and social exploitation.

What political leader here can stand up and say ‘My party is the party of principles?

We all recognize the fact that if any radical social, political and economic changes are to take place in our society, the people, the masses, must bring them about. In the struggle we must seek more than more civil rights; we must work for the community love, peace, and true brotherhood."

At the time, it may not have been easy for every American to accept the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Stereotypes and institutional forms of discrimination are difficult to change. But as uncomfortable as some may have felt about this process of change and despite personal prejudices, the majority of Americans at that time seem to have understood that there was a moral injustice, an inequality, which had to be corrected. Today, this generation faces a similar values challenge. If we cannot move our society forward and choose to remain frozen in the same place, or even consider taking a step backward in granting equal civil rights for all, we cast our lot in with those whose views are pictured in the photo illustration at the beginning of this post.

Are you that much more comfortable with their views representing your country? Would you join them?