We at The State Press aren't in the business of predicting the future. But a few years from now, we might look back and remember Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2004, as the day the fabric of American society as we knew it began to unravel.
"Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," proclaims the inscription on the Statue of Liberty.
If President George W. Bush and his team of reactionary cronies have their way, we'll have to append that passage with "as long as they're not gay."
Tuesday, Bush announced he was supporting a constitutional amendment banning marriages between couples of the same sex. He made his announcement in the White House's Roosevelt Room -- named, appropriately enough, for the president who once commented that "Americans learn only from catastrophe." If that is true, the citizens of this country are about to get a crash course in intolerance.
Bush used the same buzzwords he's been using since this debate began. "Activist judges." "An issue that requires clarity." "The fundamental institution of civilization." And they all rang as hollow as they did the first time his speechwriters busted them out.
At the heart of the matter, beyond all the posturing and political maneuvering is this: How is it American (or, for that matter, moral, ethical or just) to deny some American citizens the rights granted to others?
It is that question for which no one in the Bush White House seems to have an answer. They repeat their tired old lines in a pathetic attempt to pander to the religious right, as if Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and their ilk are really considering voting for anyone else in the coming election.
And we can't help but be reminded of some other "fundamental institutions" of American civilization that turned out to be, well, not so "fundamental." Slavery was once considered a "fundamental institution." For that matter, let's see if any minority, woman or non-land-owning person in this country doesn't think he or she deserves the right to vote.
Not all that long ago, those things were the norm in this country. But things changed. The country changed, and its citizens changed with it. Barring two people, regardless of their sex, from codifying their relationship is but another example.
The country is changing. We're in the Information Age, and as a result, things change faster than ever before. Outlawing same-sex marriage serves only to obstruct the relentless pursuit of progress on which this country was founded more than two centuries ago.
Maybe somebody should offer George W. a faster Internet connection. Because when it comes to progress, he's got a lot of catching up to do.
