At last something good happens.
Overnight the Whitehouse shown with rainbow colors after the Supreme Court of the US ruled in favor of marriage equity for all.
There have been few times when I've been proud of my country's actions. One was when Barack Obama was elected. In this, I know I was joined by many others. President Obama's time in office has not been filled, strictly speaking, with actions I felt happy about. There have been many decisions that I felt were terrible. I do give him credit for trying, and I do know that the President can't always do the things he promises because he has to work with a bunch of other people. (I held myself back from saying "goons."
But yesterday I could not stop crying happy tears because the right thing happened. The right thing was made to happen by so many. Reading the decision of the Supreme Court made me cry. Really, it was the first time I felt the Justices were actually human. The language of the law does an amazing job of concealing humanity in its formality and precision. But love and empathy could not be disguised, even by legal language, in this decision.
Justice Kennedy wrote: "It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions."
Often as a progressive American, falling near the lower left of the Political Compass, both socially and fiscally liberal, I feel like no one wants the kind of future I want. It's very isolating at times. Watching from outside my country, I often feel utterly foreign to it and ashamed of it. I feel afraid to share my beliefs in actual freedom, freedom that is for people instead of for money. But yesterday was not one of those days.
Yesterday was magical.
There have been few times when I've been proud of my country's actions. One was when Barack Obama was elected. In this, I know I was joined by many others. President Obama's time in office has not been filled, strictly speaking, with actions I felt happy about. There have been many decisions that I felt were terrible. I do give him credit for trying, and I do know that the President can't always do the things he promises because he has to work with a bunch of other people. (I held myself back from saying "goons."
But yesterday I could not stop crying happy tears because the right thing happened. The right thing was made to happen by so many. Reading the decision of the Supreme Court made me cry. Really, it was the first time I felt the Justices were actually human. The language of the law does an amazing job of concealing humanity in its formality and precision. But love and empathy could not be disguised, even by legal language, in this decision.
Justice Kennedy wrote: "It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions."
Often as a progressive American, falling near the lower left of the Political Compass, both socially and fiscally liberal, I feel like no one wants the kind of future I want. It's very isolating at times. Watching from outside my country, I often feel utterly foreign to it and ashamed of it. I feel afraid to share my beliefs in actual freedom, freedom that is for people instead of for money. But yesterday was not one of those days.
Yesterday was magical.
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