With Liberty and Justice for ALL

I'm torn.

For the first time in my life I know what patriotism is. I know what it feels like to be proud of your country, to want to sing your national anthem at the top of your lungs, to let everyone know that yes I am an American. We are making progress.

Then again, that giant leap forward can not overshadow the fact that intolerance is still an issue. The passage of proposition 8 is an insult to the progress this country has made in terms of human equality. I have no doubt in my mind that we will get there. We will mature in our thinking and even reminisce in disbelief that there was a time when we banned two people who love one another from marrying. The time will come. This bump will lengthen the journey but the end will be the same. The "truths" of our founding fathers will prevail...

...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Let us end with a few words from John Locke taken from "A Letter Concerning Toleration"

"Nobody...neither single persons nor churches, nay, nor even commonwealths, have any just title to invade the civil rights and worldly goods of each other upon pretence of religion."


"...let us see what the duty of toleration requires from those who are distinguished from the rest of mankind...whether they be bishops, priests, presbyters, ministers, or however else dignified or distinguished. It is not my business to inquire here into the original of the power or dignity of the clergy. This only I say, that, whencesoever their authority be sprung, since it is ecclesiastical, it ought to be confined within the bounds of the Church, nor can it in any manner be extended to civil affairs, because the Church itself is a thing absolutely separate and distinct from the commonwealth. The boundaries on both sides are fixed and immovable,"