On May 8, 2012, I am going to a polling station in Charlotte, NC, to cast a vote against taking people’s rights away. That’s right, there’s an amendment on the ballot designed to remove certain rights from certain people and the only way to stop it from happening is to vote against it. How something like this is even up for a vote in America in 2012 is beyond me.
I’m not going to write about which people this proposed amendment discriminates against, because, unless you live under a rock, you probably already know. But the fact that North Carolina is now in the business of identifying certain citizens as unworthy of basic rights makes me embarrassed.
Everyone I know is against the amendment. But then, I live in the largest city in a southern state. A state that voted Democrat for the first time in a million years in the 2008 Presidential election – largely due to the turnout in Charlotte. However, the sad fact is that even if we get the entire population of Charlotte to vote against Amendment One, it’s still likely to pass. And the reason will be a combination of ignorance and power.
When NC went to the Democrats in the 2008 Presidential election, a lot of people were angry. Not in Charlotte, mind you, but in most other places. This is the South, by God, and we like our politics conservative. Just like how we like most every other thing in our lives conservative. We don’t need any fast-talking Yankees telling us how to do our business down here. 2008 was an anomaly. And one way to prove that is to rise up against one of the common enemies of conservatism and remove the rights of people who aren’t like us. It’s a harbinger of what will happen in November – despite the DNC party in Charlotte.
Look, everyone wants to think they’re right about most decisions they make in life. Me, you, everyone. So when things don’t go our way, based on what we believe is right, it feels like we’ve lost control. Another term for this is powerlessness. Powerlessness is not an easy concept for most of us to accept – and power (or fear of losing it) is a major reason why almost all (ok, all) politicians undercut each other instead of working together. Vote for me because I’m more conservative than the other guy. Vote for me because I’m going to battle the other party tooth and nail. Vote for me because I’m just like you and share your views on the world. I’m sorry, but NO ONE you vote for is like you. They’re all rich kids who learned how to game the system and say the right things to get you to vote for them. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is. It’s a power play. And for the most part, these political power plays are here to stay in America. We are not a nation of compromisers. We’re a nation of fighters – so when we don’t have a common enemy, we turn against each other. And on May 8th, we are going to turn against a minority of the population to ensure that the sanctity of conservative thinking remains intact. We don’t care about how it will affect the minority; nor do we care what removing the rights of certain people could do to a workforce that may be on the fence about coming to this state to contribute to our mutual livelihood. We don’t care. We just want power. And we want to know we’re right.
I’m voting against this bullshit on May 8th. I can’t believe I even have to do this.
***
Steve K.
Apr 30, 2012
You don’t even have to wait until May 8 to vote AGAINST this bullshit. Early voting run through May 5. I already voted. AGAINST. Thanks, Jim. Good word, brother.
Mary Kathryn
Apr 30, 2012
Thank you. I even took my daughter to vote No.
Vincent Ammirato
Apr 30, 2012
Even more so – the idea that a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT is being voted on in a PRIMARY ELECTION that is known to have extremely LOW VOTER TURNOUT – galls me. The people who wanted this to pass didn’t want the whole state to vote on it.
Jim
Apr 30, 2012
Agreed! How is this even legal?
Jeff
Apr 30, 2012
When I see ballot initiatives like this, I react in three ways:
The satirist in me thinks about proposing other ballot initiatives based on biblical texts. Statewide shellfish bans, ritual baths installed in all community centers, death penalties that require two people to question (at length) the purity of the motives of the killer.
The optimist in my promptly dies.
The idealist thinks how important history teachers are and should be. People talk about these issues as though they are something new. That every society in the history of ever has been bound by our moral code. That conservatism is built on taking away the freedoms, not on preventing rapid change. Our historical consciousness is so low that most people forget our countries atrocities only 100 years ago (or 70, or 30, or even 5).
But, like you said, everyone wants to think they’re right. Including me.
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Devon
May 8, 2012
Myself and twelve others from my office just went and voted FOR it. You’re either married or you’re not. Liberals love their creative manipulation of words. “Committed couples” is the best one. “I’m COMMITTED to someone.” LOL! I lived committed to roommates for 15 years, never once did I expect any rights that married couples have.
Liberals, please stop the nonsense and insanity.
Jim Mitchem
May 8, 2012
But dude, an issue like this shouldn’t even be up for a vote by people who hate each other like liberals and conservatives. Especially when this whole thing is driven by greedy corporations who are just trying to save a buck on paying benefits to couples. What if my wife and I weren’t Christian and didn’t go to a church to get ‘married?’ (which we didn’t, by the way). Are we officially ‘committed? Under God? What if it’s a different God than yours? Is that official? You see, the rich and powerful have turned us against each other USING the gay thing as the lightning rod. They couldn’t come out and say what they really want to say – which is to help them save money on paying benefits to people (so the 1% can buy cheap real estate and have mansions overlooking the Gulf.) So they found something that liberals and conservatives can bash heads over while they get their way. Dude, they OWN you and me. So yeah, let’s fight about semantics while the rich continue to get their way. Nice.
Devon
May 10, 2012
Pretty much agree with you. On the other hand why are “committed couples” or “homosexual domestic partners” so relentless on going after the word “marriage?”
You said your just as committed. Gays say they are just as committed. What’s wrong with that? Nobody is bothering you? Marriage is “the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law” and if your religious it brings God into the definition.
So you or the gays do not fit the definition of marriage. So what? You have a right to do what is required to fit the definition and legally be married. You choose not to. I had a girlfriend for 5 years. We decided we wanted to be officially married so we did what was required to be legally married.
We don’t go around trying to change the institution or the word. Be happy with your choice and don’t go around trying to change a sacred institution.
Amendment One Over, Lunch | Obsessed with Conformity
Jun 26, 2013
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