“We're trying to say you cannot just take away people's rights without being held accountable for that.”
--Rev. Gary DeBusk, pastor of Christ Church of Peace, who with the help of MA-based KnowThyNeighbor.org created a public database of the names and addresses of over 400,000 petitioners against gay marriage in Florida.
“… Obviously their intent is to intimidate voters in Florida, as well as Massachusetts.”
--Kris Mineau, president of The Massachusetts Family Institute, a sponsor of that state's amendment banning gay marriage, voicing his displeasure with KnowThyNeighbor.org to The LA Times.
“Won't you be my neighbor?”
--Mr. Rogers
If anything could have made Mr. Rogers throw up on his cardigan sweater, the behavior of both Massachusetts and Florida marriage amendment petitioners and KnowThyNeighbor.org might have been it. Although all involved in this particular battle of the gay marriage war are acting legally--anti-gay marriage petitioners are exercising their democratic rights, and KnowThyNeighbor.org has the right to publish the names and addresses of those petitioners online--their conduct is, nonetheless, suspect at best, ugly at worst.
Can you say un-neighborly?
In Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, diversity and individuality ruled, everyone was welcomed and socialization was encouraged. Fred Rogers took great joy in elevating the human spirit, not in crushing it. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he had the opportunity and the clout to condemn homosexuality, but he never did.
Rogers had one very simple message for everyone, off air as well as on: “ You've made this day a special day by just your being you. There's no person in the whole world like you. And I like you just the way you are.”
Pity we all don't think like Fred did.
Although we don't live in Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe, the gay marriage issue sure has a dream quality to it--a bad dream, that is. The debates have brought out the worst in people and, as they progress, it becomes more and more obvious that there will be no true winner in the end.
It's sad and even contemptuous that in the battles over civil and human rights in Massachusetts and in Florida, there's not only a lack of humane behavior, but also very little evidence that the collective conscience of one side or the other will rise above the gross occasions and scream, “Enough!”
I admit that even as I type this I struggle to wrap my brain around the bigotry of petitioners and the organization that is bullying them by using new media to fight fire with fire. My mind is at odds with my gut. Is my conscience working overtime? Am I not mad enough? Is all fair in love and wars over love?
I don't know, and I'm open to hearing what readers have to say and being convinced otherwise. But as I witness the questionable behavior snowball under its own momentum, I fear little can be done to stop it, and all we can do is learn from it.
The amendment petitions bring to light a very basic democratic truth: Any registered voter may participate in this type of democratic process. Petitions don't discriminate the educated man from the uneducated, the decent from the indecent, or the bigot from the fair-minded. They don't demand that petitioners take stock of their own moral fortitude prior to signing.
It matters not if a petitioner can spell or define ‘discriminate,' or if he signs his name with the hand he just beat his wife or child with, as long as he signs. The petitioners' goal is to get the signatures required by state law.
That said, the petitions also present a pathetic probability: People are signing these papers without giving the issue proper consideration. While I'm sure there are voters who think long and hard before signing such important documents, it's extremely likely that some are giving the marriage amendment petitions less thought than they would petitions for more prompt garbage removal or pothole repairs.
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