There are two things I'm very passionate about in life. One is peanut butter M&M's, the other is same sex marriage. OK, I'm passionate about more than that, but these damn M&M's are just so good, I can't stop eating them! For real though, the issue of same sex marriage is extremely important to me. Obviously, I'm not gay. I am happily married to my absolute best friend, Nichole. No, my reasoning is because I believe in equal rights, no matter what color your skin is, what religion you follow, what year you were born, or who you sleep beside at night. We are all equal. Sure, some have better athletic abilities, or superior public speaking skills, or the ability to do math without a calculator, but at the end of the day, we are all human beings, and deserve the same love and respect as everyone else.
This week, the Maine Attorney General, Charlie Summers, approved the language of the citizen's initiative to allow same sex marriage in Maine. I know, we've been down that road before, just a couple of years ago, with the effort falling short at the hands of the Maine voters. Well, I think it's time to try it again. New York just passed a law allowing same sex marriages to be legal, and I'm hopeful Maine will be able to do the same thing. This much I know for sure, I'll do my part to help collect signatures and spread the word.
Now, I'm sure some of you are thinking ill thoughts right now. That's fine, I know not everyone feels the same way as me on this subject. That being said, let me just toss some ideas out there for you to chew on. How does the marriage of two people you do not know have any bearing on your life? According to the National Center for Health Statistics, in 2005, 2.23 million people were married. How many of them did you know about? You should be outraged, all those weddings really affected you 6 years ago, right? What's that? It had no bearing on you whatsoever? Oh, that's right. So, why is it that two people of the same sex bothers you?
One argument I've heard is, what happens next? If we allow two women to marry, what's to stop someone from marrying their dog or their truck. They love their truck, why can't they marry their truck? OK, besides the fact that this is just ludicrous, I'll offer you this. When your dog, or your truck can sign their name on the marriage certificate, you feel free to marry your dog or your truck. Until then, that is just a nonsensical argument, and I am not able to take you seriously.
Look, this issue appears to be very left vs. right. Democrats, for the most part, want this to pass. Republicans, for the most part, want this to fail. Based on that, I have a question. Republicans continuously claim that they want government to get out of their way and stop restricting them. Then, in the same breath, want the government to ensure that marriage equality is outlawed. So, which is it? Less government restrictions, or just certain government restrictions? I love the argument for smaller government. All that means is smaller government for things you don't want. It'll be status quo or larger government in areas you are concerned with though.
Why do we care what ANYONE does behind closed doors? Seems to me, this would be for each individual to decide for themselves. If two people are happy, who am I to tell them they can't have everything that I have? With a divorce rate of 1 out of every 2 marriages, who the hell are we to say that two loving, consenting adults can't marry? No, let's not let that happen, but if Newt Gingrich, mister family values himself want to get married again, that's totally fine. Come on, this is a silly argument. We are all equal members of society, regardless of who we lay our head next to at the end of the day. It's time that we treat each other equally.
I'm going to close by quoting two musicians, with much different backgrounds. I've got a very diverse music collection, and this will prove that. My first quote is from the song "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye. In it, he says the following:
"You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today"
while the other line is from "Changes" by Tupac:
"I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere unless we share with each other.
We gotta start makin' changes, learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers."
See, the point of each song is to point out that there is no difference between you and me. We need to stop demonizing people because they don't act or look like us, and remember that we are all humans, and at the end of the day, we are all brothers and sisters. Deep down, we all want the same things, and you know what, we deserve the same things. I'm just saying...
About Me
- Mark
- I've always wondered if people actually read this stuff. I never do when I'm on other pages. Well, in case, for some strange reason, you find it necessary, I'll give you a little knowledge. I was born in The County. For those of you who don't konw better, that would be Aroostook County. For those of you who do, your jokes won't work on me, they are lame. I'm the son of an investment banker that squandered his every penny on tuna fish sandwiches in the late 80's, and my mother was the lead singer for the Bangles. Neither of those is true, but again, I'm convinced nobody is reading this anyways. I met my wife at a carnival, and we were married by the bearded lady in front of the entire clown brigade. I have a daughter who is training for the 2012 Olympics where she will compete in the Triple Jump and Javelin. We live in a nice little shanty in the woods and are hoping to one day have running water. Any questions?
