Very briefly I would like to take a moment for a bit of a political rant. I don’t need to link to the absolute uproar regarding the potential construction of a Muslim community center because it’s all over the news and the internet. If you’ve missed it, I recommend Google.
The very people condemning this are the same people who support sending out military force to fight for democracy and the freedoms that we love as Americans. If this is something that you earnestly believe, then I highly advise at least briefly skimming over the document that sums up our rights. It’s titled “The Constitution of the United States of America.” You may have heard of it or possibly studied some portions of it in junior high school.
I’m not the kind of person who is going to don a star spangled bikini on the 4th of July while sipping a Budweiser (give me a Guinness any old day) but I love our Constitution. I fucking love it. It means that there is a free press that exists outside of government control even if I don’t agree with what happens to be popular with the public. I still have the ability to seek out multiple sources. It is not censored by the government, it is limited by capitalism and that is far, far better.
It means I can speak freely, and no Dr. Laura, that does not mean without being held accountable for my words by the public. It means that I won’t be hauled off to jail if I decide to burn a flag in front of the White House in a bear suit. It does not mean that people won’t tell me to go to hell while I do so. It means that there can be pride parades and neo nazi marches. It’s a marketplace of ideas and unfortunately some are more popular than others. It does mean that we have a chance to speak before the public.
It means I can vote, even if my peers decide en masse not to do so.
It means that I can learn how to handle a gun and own one if I so choose.
It means that I have the freedom to practice my own religion even though I am an atheist. It means that other people can follow their scripture in peace. It does not mean that any one religion is better. At any given time and in any given place there will be a predominant religion but it will not be alone. Freedom of religion means that you can practice freely, not force it upon others. In the case of same sex marriage, two people who want equal rights do not in any way infringe on anyone else’s ability to practice their faith. Citing your faith as a reason why other people can’t marry is not protected by the constitution. This is why we have a separation of church and state as well. People came to this country because the predominant religion in their homeland did really mean things like forcibly jail or kill them. That’s bad news.
My position is very clearly stated in the Constitution. I don’t need to say or do anything else but point to it. When we fuck up as a country, it usually has something to do with cherry picking through that document or having the misguided belief that it only applies to certain people. Those rights apply to all Americans, period, end of discussion. You aren’t promoting America when you curtail someone’s rights because that is not what we were founded to do.
On top of this, I don’t even believe in invisible men or women or animals governing my life. I’m not spiritual, I’m not religious. I believe that humanity has tremendous power for good and for evil. I don’t need gods to explain that, I can walk down my street in Oakland and see both. But I also believe that if a group of people want to set up a community center in an old abandoned Burlington Coat Factory that they should be able to do that in the same way that I believe my special interest group should be able to open a dungeon, a sex shop, or a bookstore.
This isn’t a departure from sexuality at all, really. The pursuit of happiness is a broad term and we all have something we’re pursuing. If people want something to get outraged about, why not try the fact that for the first time in the history of humanity we can put an end to the vast majority of needless deaths around the globe but we don’t and that is far more obscene than the time I put a who-knows-what in my who-knows-where.
Damn right.