WORZALA'S WEDNESDAY WORD 11-8-06

Today's Wednesday Word is "defended" as in "We sure defended marriage yesterday!"

In 1788, when the Constitution was ratified, Article I, Section 2 said that black people were only worth 3/5 of a white person. This was the result of a massive compromise between the Northern states and the Southern states. Southerners needed to be able to count their slaves as people so that the North wouldn't overwhelm them with representatives in the House. At the same time, neither the North nor the South was rushing to recognize blacks as human as it was kind of hard to rationally explain beating, enslaving, raping, etc your fellow human beings. So the 3/5 Compromise was proposed by James Wilson and both the white North and the white South went home more or less happy. Blacks didn't get much of a say in the matter. I'm sure they were happy just to be slowly inching towards "human".

In 1857, Dred Scott lost his case against Sanford, with a decision that said not only were black slaves not considered citizens of the United States of America, but free blacks were not considered citizens either. Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote in his majority opinion that "all men created equal" did not, in fact, refer to "all men" but rather white men, who were the ones that "framed and adopted this declaration". Freed blacks, abolitionists and the word "all" were understandably upset by this ruling.

In 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery. Fortunately the Klu Klux Klan started up the same year, to make sure blacks didn't enjoy their new found freedom too much. Three years later the 14th amendment would grant citizenship to all Men born in the U.S. *cough*exceptIndians*cough*. Maybe if Sitting Bull, Geronimo and the like had gotten themselves made into slaves, they would have been free by then. That's really poor planning on their part.

In 1896, the Supreme Court said that blacks and whites didn't have to co-exist, as long as things were equal between the two. For some strange reason black equal and white equal would never quite see eye to eye.

In 2006, we as Americans look back on these acts with shame. At least we should. We enslaved, tortured and dehumanized our own brothers and sisters because in our minds we were able to justify it, either through the Bible, or through pseudo-science. We were scared, and so we acted out of fear and hate, to preserve "our" way of life.

I am blessed to have a wide circle of friends who are all smarter than I am. One of them, Craig, mentioned in the weeks leading up to this election that just as we now look back with horror and disbelief at the way our forefathers treated non-whites, future generations will look back at this day and age and feel the same shock and anger at our treatment of homosexuals.

Just some recent examples:

In 1993, homosexuals, who were willing to voluntarily enlist in the military to defend our country, were told "Sure, sign up! But you better pretend you're straight for your entire term of service, or we'll kick you right out." This was considered a step forward. Before this you were asked if you were heterosexual when you enlisted, and if you said no, you were not allowed in. Because, as we all know, being gay affects your ability to follow orders, carry a backpack, or fire a gun.

In 1996, President Clinton signed into effect The Defense of Marriage Act. This was a great boon for marriage, which had been getting the crap kicked out of it by homosexuality for quite some time. The act stated that no state was required to recognize a same-sex marriage, even if that marriage was recognized elsewhere. Vacation plans for same-sex couples suddenly became much more of a headache to plan out.

And now in 2006, Wisconsin, along with South Carolina and Virginia, has passed a state amendment to limit marriage to only one man and only one woman. This prohibits legal rights for both same-sex couples as well as different-sex couples who are not married. So, if you're homosexual and sick, you should probably marry your partner's sibling so they can still visit you in the hospital.

Wisconsin. Good old Wisconsin. We agreed to "Defend Marriage" by more than 58%.

I don't understand how this happened. Wisconsin is the state that gave the country the Republican party. A party committed to a) stopping the spread of slavery and b) smaller government. Republicans talk about getting government out of people's business, but apparently when they say "people's business" they actually mean "business" and not home life as well.

Wisconsin is the state that helped kick off the Progressive movement. "Fightin'" Bob LaFollette was our governor. We passed the nation's first worker's compensation law in 1911. Our state motto is "Forward!"

Wisconsin elected Russ Feingold to the Senate. Russ Feingold was The Only Senator to stand up to the Patriot Act and say that something was wrong with a bill that strips away people's civil liberties in the name of security. Wisconsin re-elected Russ Feingold by 12% over his conservative opponent 3 years later in 2004. Wisconsin has two Democratic Senators, a Democratic Governor, an openly gay female Representative and a partridge in the gosh darn tree. But almost 3 out of every 5 people in this state don't believe that homosexuals should be allowed to be married.

Is it the word marriage that scares people? Several times when I hear arguments for defending marriage it seems to sound like Pastor Earl Vorpagle out of Ashwaubenon, "I have no problem with people having equal rights under the law. I just don't want it termed marriage."

Why? Why the hell not? It's a word, just a silly little word. We sure don't take it seriously as heterosexuals judging by the 40% divorce rate this country has, so why should it become such a big deal when gays and lesbians want in on the action? Are people afraid it will make them less special if everyone is allowed to say "I do"? I don't know, I wish I did. I wish I could tell you all "this is what we need to do" and then it could be done and everyone would be happy. But I can't. I couldn't even if you clicked on the ad every day (yes that was a plug, but it's still good advice).

People like to say "Hey, I've got nothing against anyone. But the Bible says homosexuality is a sin." Ohhhh right. I forgot. The Bible. You're not a racist, God told you to keep the black people in chains. You're not murderers, God told you the entire country was just for the white people. You're not homophobic, God told you to hate homosexuals.

God freed the Israeli slaves from the ruling power of Egypt. God blessed the barren with children. God sent down 10 Commandments to live by. God sent his son to dine with whores and thieves and thugs. God sent his son who said "The greatest of these [commandments] is love." God did a lot of things. But God did not write the Bible.

What's that? "Blasphemy!"? Okay, okay, you're right. I'm wrong. God wrote the Bible. And we should follow it word for word. So remember don't touch the skin of a pig. And remember to not eat dairy and meat in the same serving. Remember to send all the women out of town when they're having their period. Remember every 10 years to put all of your possessions into a town-wide pile for equal distribution. Remember to only have sex for procreation and to only have sex with your married husband or wife.

And remember "what ever you do to the least of these, you have done to me."

Hopefully it won't be another 200 years before we finally figure that out.