As many of you may already know, the Republicans are once again pandering to the bigotry wing of their party by entertaining the Marriage "Protection" Amendment, which would ban same-sex marriage on a federal level and write this piece of limiting rights in the "freest" country in the world into the Constitution.
In concert with this bill, the Religious Reich is burning on all cylinders, declaring June 4th as Marriage "Protection" Sunday (more like Marriage Discrimination Sunday), and will have its own version of "Just Us Sunday" just for gay-bashing.
The amendment is not expected to pass; it's undoubtedly a cynical move on the part of Republicans to once again fire up the Talibangelist base to turn out and vote Republican in the midterms. Nevertheless, we on the REAL marriage protection side of the aisle, so to speak, are obligated to speak out.
More on the flip.
IMO, Democrats and other progressives should not turn the other cheek and remain silent on this issue (again). I thank God that Russ Feingold
has shown some courage on this issue and wish more leaders in the Democratic Party would follow his lead.
Until then, it's up to us to stand up to these Religious Reich cretins and let them know in no uncertain terms that government- and Constitution-sanctioned discrimination is NOT okay with us fellow Americans.
The DNC has a nifty tool that allows you to write your own LTE, about any issue, from a Democratic standpoint (just key in your ZIP and click Participate at the top of the screen). Using this tool, you can select the check boxes for one local or national newspaper, or select multiple check boxes if you want your LTE to go to more than one paper at once. With our party making it so easy for us, there's really no excuse NOT to use this tool--for whatever issue or concern about which we want to use our voices.
Feel free to extrapolate/paraphrase/plagiarize my own LTE if this issue moves you like it does me, a straight, homeowning, flaming-liberal Christian who's pissed off about how much her religion is being misused.
Dear Editor,
As a concerned American Christian, I am angered and dismayed at the continual intrusion of the Religious "Right", yet again, into the personal lives of their fellow Americans. The latest efforts of Religious Right leaders are to declare June 4th as "Marriage Protection Sunday" and to mobilize fundamentalist and evangelical congregations across America, to pressure Congress to put forward an amendment to the US Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. I am a straight, married Christian who is frankly appalled that the Religious Right again continues to belittle and demean another group of Americans with whom they disagree.
It is frightening how much influence that this band of theocrats has in our federal government. The U.S. Senate is scheduled to take up the same-sex ban amendment on June 5th and vote on it the next day. Given the many crises facing our nation at the present time--including a war overseas gone horribly wrong and the economic plight of lower- and middle-class Americans here at home--I am amazed that our government would put discriminating against consenting same-sex adults who love each other and want to spend their lives together as an urgent priority.
Could it be that our Republican-led Congress is so inept at managing the business of our country that it misplaces its legislative priorities so absurdly? Or are the Republicans' motives more sinister--that, in this mid-term election year, the Republicans hope to curry favor with the bigoted, hateful wing of their party by discriminating yet another group of Americans for Republican partisan gain?
Take heed, America--the Constitution is a document that protects American freedoms; it should never be amended to take away rights from Americans. To do so would be to abuse the powers and the freedoms we Americans all should never take for granted.
Thank you for hearing my concerns, and God bless.
[real name]