The Death of Democracy

I've been sick the last few days. Monday morning, I awoke at 3:30 with a migraine. I then realized that I couldn't move my head from side to side. I sat up in bed and couldn't even bend my head down. I thought it was all connected to the migraine. I felt nauseated and clammy.

I didn't even try to go back to sleep because I knew it would be pointless. I was too miserable to sleep. I rested in bed for another 45 minutes, then decided to get in the shower thinking that the warm water would help. It didn't, but it did feel good. I got ready and went to work.

After 9:00, I called my doctor's office and asked when I could get in to see him. I was lucky. They asked if I could make it at 1:20pm that day.

I show up at his office, and I'm feeling very tired. I felt that was normal since I woke up at 3:30 and didn't get much sleep. After waiting for 10 minutes in the waiting room, they called me back. After taking notes on my symptoms, taking my blood pressure, etc., the assistant put me in this room and said the doctor would be in shortly. I was sitting on this padded examination table. It was hard to stay away, and I was in a fair amount of pain from not being able to move my neck. I caught myself half way dosing while sitting on the table. I eventually laid down on the table, waiting for the doctor.

He finally came in after twenty minutes of waiting. We talked for a bit while he reviewed the notes that she wrote down. He then tried to turn my head and asked if it hurt. I screamed out in pain. He said, "Wow, I guess you do hurt." He then called the nurse in and asked her for an injection of something. I asked what it was for. He said, "I'm going to give you something for the pain."

She returned with the syringe and he gave me the shot. He turned out the lights and said that he'd be back in 15 minutes after it had time to work. After a few minutes I could feel some relief in the pain. I found myself feeling like I was floating on a cloud. There was music coming from the speaker in the ceiling. It was Imagine, by John Lennon. I never actually thought much about the song, to tell you the truth. But, with nothing else to do while this drug did it's thing, I listened to the words. They made a lot of sense to me:

Imagine there's no countries,
It isn’t hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

It occurred to me, as I'm lying there on the table, suddenly feeling so much better, that religion is what is causing so much pain, intolerance, bigotry, death, isolation, suicide, and mayhem in the world today. Not only religious fanatics such as Osama bin Laden, but the Religious Right in general who, through their religious beliefs, somehow feel that that gives them a license to make others suffer because of what they believe.

I think of people like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart, Gary Bauer, and many others, and I wonder, are they any better than Osama bin Laden? That may seem outrageous to you. Osama bin Laden is killing people he feels are "infidels" based on his religion, to achieve his goals. The people I mention above are doing the same thing, in their fashion. They don't kill people directly, but they do kill their spirit. They dehumanize them and make it easier to devalue what contributions the "infidels" contribute to society.

They do this in a variety of different ways. In the most recent examples in the news on gay marriage, they make arguments that if we allow homosexuals equal access to marriage, before long we will have to grant marriage to someone who wants to marry his goat or his dog. That, my friends, is dehumanization. Suddenly, by making that statement, they are saying two things; 1) the marriage of a homosexual couple isn't worth as much or at the same standard as theirs, and 2) if homosexuals are allowed access to marriage, it's only a matter of time before they will want to have relationships with an animal. They call this the slippery slope theory.

But those are just words, and we are taught as children that words can never harm us, right? I suppose that is a good thought to tell children, but we all know that words can hurt more than anything else. Words are very powerful, as are actions.

The tools that Osama bin Laden uses are guns, planes, and bombs. The tools the Religious Right and various members of Congress use are words. It's hard to know which one is stronger. For example, just one week ago, the House of Representatives actually passed a bill called the Marriage Protection Act.

Marriage Protection Act of 2004 - Amends the Federal judicial code to deny Federal courts jurisdiction to hear or decide any question pertaining to the interpretation of: (1) the provision of the Defense of Marriage Act that provides that no State shall be required to give effect to any marriage between persons of the same sex under the laws of any other State; or (2) this Act.

That is the power of words. That short passage states that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is off limits to ANY court in the land, including the Supreme Court. And finally, let's look at the "or (2) this Act". What does that mean? It's the most dangerous of all, and the most unnoticeable.

The Act includes itself as being placed beyond the scrutiny of any court in this land. In other words, it can not be ruled unconstitutional since the courts do not have the authority to touch it.

Is that Constitutional? Many think not. The bill outwardly violates equal protection and access to the courts. It also singles out a specific group of people (in this particular case, gay people) for second-class status, also unconstitutional.

The danger here is not singling out the gay community. We are used to that and we will fight the bigotry the best we can. The greatest danger is the undermining of the Constitution itself. If the courts are conveniently denied access to rule a law unconstitutional, where does it end? Which group or cause will be in the cross hairs next?

If this is allowed to succeed, we will lose much more than our right to marry. America will have lost democracy itself.