Jack IngramIt is a good thing that discrimination doesn’t exist. When I heard the other day that Gov. Schwarzenegger recently vetoed the Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Protection Act (a.k.a. A.B. 849), thus denying homosexuals the same rights as heterosexuals, I was worried that some people might be discriminated against. Then I remembered that discrimination doesn’t exist, and I felt a lot better.
Apparently there are people, citizens no less, who perceive certain laws, especially marriage laws, to be discriminatory. What are these people thinking? From 1850 to 1977 California marriage laws were gender neutral, that is, marriage laws had no reference to “man” or “woman.” But in 1977, California lawmakers decided to amend marriage laws to include the words “man” and “woman,” thereby prohibiting homosexuals from engaging in marriage. I mean, come on. This is America.
Perhaps California lawmakers were confused. Do they believe that under current law same-sex couples are not able to marry the person of their choice? Maybe lawmakers think that same-sex couples are denied thousands of rights entirely on the basis of whether their partner has a vagina or a penis? As if.
Obviously, these lawmakers have forgot some basic grammar school history; America is not a discriminatory nation. America does not even have a history of discrimination. Allow me to illustrate a few shining moments in our nation’s non-discriminatory past:
1857: In a case known commonly as the Dred Scott Decision, the U.S. Supreme Court finally ended the long debate over the legality of slavery, declaring that A) Mr. Scott was not a person and B) that he is a piece of property. This famous decision thus prevented a civil war.
1920: In what was known as the suffrage movement (called suffrage because women were forcing men to suffer by not allowing them to vote) white, married males were finally given the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment.
1944: During World War II, thousands of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast “voluntarily” decided to move to “internment camps” for a “vacation.” A disgruntled man named Korematsu sued the United States claiming that his “vacation” infringed upon his civil rights. The court ruled that individual civil liberties outweigh national security interests, especially in time of war, thus forever ending government infringement upon individual freedoms and the debate over civil rights.
It is clear from this brief overview of history, that if discrimination ever did exist, it doesn’t anymore, especially not among the homosexual community. Lawmakers should just quit wasting time and taxes on efforts to outlaw fictional problems like “discrimination” and “equal protection.” Instead, why don’t our lawmakers focus on real, non-fictional problems, like finding Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction?
-Oh, wait.
Comments or ideas? Maybe you just have something to say. Get on the soapbox and talkback with Jack at Jingramster@gmail.com. Next Tuesday I will present a new topic for debate.