For days I've been formulating this sophisticated, angry diatribe about the currenty fervor over the sanctity of marriage issue GW brought up when he embarassed himself in front of the world with his most recent speech. i find myself, instead, too angry and frustrated to write coherently or eloquently on the subject, nor am I able to laugh at the absurdness of the entire controversy.

it doens't matter if you are gay, straight, jewish, catholic, american, english, whatever. this is a human rights issue. marriage is nothing more than a civil contract between two consenting adults. that's all. you don't need a religious figure to marry you, only paperwork, a witness, and a judge. God/Allah/Yaweh/Vishnu/Whatever has nothing to do with the civil agreement binding one person to another for their lives. in every period of this country's history some group has been persecuted against because of religion, race, class status, sexual preference, etc. people came to this country to escape religious persecution, and make a buck, and did something amazing: immediately they became the first american hypocrites when they killed off the natives and called them savages. the puritans, they set the stage. we've come so far as to presume to judge the morality of another person based on one small factor, sexual preference.

recently gov. blagojevich of illinois said that he supported a bill to ban gay marriage in the state of illinois, but did not want that to cause discrimination against gays for jobs or housing. does the man not understand what he just said? we shouldn't discriminate against gays, but they shouldn't marry...how is the argument made by a rational person? president bush said gay marriage was destroying the sanctity of marriage and thus tearing at the moral fabric of society. WHAT?!? want to know what's ruined marriage? a plus 50% divorce rate among HETEROSEXUALS. Brittany spears is ruining marriage, not gays.

there's so much more to write here. john kerry may have a shot at challenging bush, but he's dangerously close to losing my vote for saying he doesn't think gays should be allowed to marry. bush wants a constutional ammendment...the same document decries that all people are created equal!!!! why is no one standing up for this? why is no one on television, radio, or in the paper condeming these people and supporting a person's right to a civil contract?

catholics, i've heard so many people say, "as a catholic, I don't think gay marriage is morally right..." you never hear someone say, "as a jew..." or "as a hindu..." religion teaches such tolerance that the vatican supported hitler's doings in WWII, refused to help the jews, refuses to do anything to its own sexually abusing clergy, went after jews in the Spanish Inquisition, and now declares homosexuality a sin that suspends a gay's rights to anything.

i don't care if anyone is gay or not. if they want to get married they should be allowed to contribute to the over 50% divorce rate. why a politician should decide who can and can't marry is beyond me. we have affirmative action but we can't get over the country's homophobia. i don't feel like voting. i'm shouting into the wind here to no one. we've come so far from those early puritans, haven't we?

protestors say that marriage is a foundation, a basic element of our civilization, and gay marriage would destroy the sanctity of it. marriage is a foundation for our society? how's that again? don't remember that lesson from my history book in school. General Clark recently said that he opposed gay marriage but was against discriminating against homosexuals...WHAT?!? What the hell is that? He contridicted himself and didn't even seem to notice! What happened to human compassion, tolerance, hell, rational thought? You can't have it both ways. Ask the African-American who were granted "Separate But Equal" rights if partial rights work. It must be all or nothing, full rights and recognition or nothing. There is no room for comprimise and no one should. You can't divy up the basic rights a person is entitled to and start classifying them.

I'm sure some smarter people than I will jump all over my arguments and throw something else at me, but bring it on! My generation hasn't had a good fight about anything major yet. Hey, aren't the republicans the ones who always preached small federal gov''t, more power to the states? aren't they the ones who said the federal gov't shouldn't be messing with the people's lives? our republican president passed the Patriot Act and threatens a constitutional ammendment for something as ridiculous as gay marriage...and sadly, it'd pass with harldy a "nay" vote. I can't listen to NPR any more because of all the close-minded people they have on, namely politicians, who are against gay marriage...they all know they won't get elected for anything by anybody if they speak out for gay marriage. meanwhile president teflon keeps making huge decisions that directly impact citizens lives, and people still like him. he lied to the american people last march when he promised and swore Iraq as a threat with enough WMD's to destroy the world. he appoints a committee to figure out why he lied. what the hell?!?

clinton did some bad stuff with kosovo and somalia and all, but he only got head...he didn't bitch-slap the UN, alienate the world, and threaten to change the constitution...at least I don't remember him doing anything like that.

I wonder how many people still believe this is the best country in the world.