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Everyone is yelling back and forth.
Conservative guy: “Marriage is traditionally between a man and a woman, and same-sex marriage threatens the sacred institution.”
Liberal guy: “Really? Who defines marriage? And why should the state have the right to sanctify a religious institution?”
With steam coming out of his ears, conservative guy glares at liberal guy, whose nostrils are flaring. They can’t contain the rage and start charging towards each other, geared up for a brawl.
That’s politics. Everyone gets so heated. The fight never ends, and this scenario isn’t far from what is constantly happening in the political real world.
Lately, I’ve been trying to make sense of the relationship between my politics and thoughts on gay marriage. I have read about both sides, listened to both sides and considered both sides. Still, I was left scratching my head. After considerable contemplation, I couldn’t figure out what I think the government should do about gay marriage. I was ready to abandon my post as a Graphic Perspectives editor.
“Dear Graphic staff, I lost my opinion on the government and gay-marriage issue, so I must leave. It was fun while it lasted though. Keep in touch.”
But before I dropped the letter in to the Graphic mailbox, I decided to backtrack a bit. Maybe if I mentally retraced my political steps, I could gain some clarity again.
It didn’t take long for me to get to America’s founders. I thought about how much I admire them, how I base most of my beliefs on the fundamental values that they intended our government to uphold and protect. Naturally, I got to liberty: freedom from governmental control. Jefferson and his gang were looking out for us. They created a fine-looking framework for what kind of power the government could have in our lives. Because liberty was the root of their master plan, the government wasn’t supposed to have a chance to get its hands too dirty in terms of our personal lives.
Well, that was the plan. Many people seem to have forgotten what the founders intended. Now the government has its hands in everything. Those hands are so damn dirty, it’s going to be a hard, maybe even an impossible, feat to get them clean again. But the least Americans can do is go back to liberty and consider the freedoms that have been increasingly diminishing as the government gains more power in our lives.
After considering America’s roots, I began to realize why I was having so much trouble understanding the government’s involvement and place in the gay-marriage debate. The founders must be rolling over in their graves seeing what kind of power the government holds in individual’s lives. Jefferson is probably screaming at the top of his lungs “Don’t let the government get involved with this!” But nobody can hear him because he’s six feet under.
Government is necessary and good. But it is only good as long as its powers are limited in the ways the founders intended. The gay-marriage issue is a perfect example of the government overstepping its power boundaries set by our founders. If Americans followed the founder’s principle belief in liberty, there would be no political battle about gay rights issues. They would realize that their natural rights should give them enough liberty to kick the government out of their sex lives.
Submitted 09-22-2005
MALIBU, CA
