Amazing America

Amazing America 

We’re pretty amazing us Americans; pretty amazing indeed.

We live in our society where you can get married in Vegas by an Elvis Presley impersonator. It’s all legal. That marriage certificate is good in all fifty states.

If you have enough money you can probably rent or donate to any large church and get married at one of those. That however would be a marriage without Elvis being in the building.

Of course you can also just get married by a judge or, as in the case of our state, by some county clerk.

Now if the marriage doesn’t work out there are legal provisions. In all likelihood you will want a lawyer. A court will ultimately rule and then you either remain married or are divorced. Divorce like marriage is all very legal, not always neat and tidy, but always very legal.

There is the property division and child access rights to consider. It settles issues like who buries who, who visits who in the hospital, who signs what papers etc. Divorce and marriage are all very legal. It is all very amazing.

It is sometimes hard to believe women had so few rights back in my grandmothers’ day. We sort of take it for granted now that women are legal equals. They vote, own property free and clear and these rights of women seem to have helped to form a better American ethos. Pretty amazing that in the past they didn’t have those rights; actually pretty amazing we haven’t ratified an equal rights amendment in this country yet either.

And gee didn’t civil rights make a big step when Truman integrated the military ranks back in the late forties. Just recently a Korean vet mentioned how it was no big thing to serve along side each other. Pretty amazing that just ten years later the whole civil rights movement enjoyed impetus when white youth started showing up to march in troubled and segregated places. Pretty amazing that this man King could rise and shine a light toward greater equality in America. His words remain like a beacon for all of mankind.

We are so amazing that now we even debase our state constitutions with discriminating language. For example next year the people of Minnesota get to vote on some fellow citizens’ equal right to judicial redress.

It is all very indirect this vote on citizen rights since the vote is on a constitutional amendment to define the term marriage. And what is really amazing is that there exists no legal definition of man or of woman.

There are legal dictionaries of course, but no real legal language in statute that says for example, “a man shall have two descended testes” or some such language. There is really nothing for us to test by because even genetics has some boundary conditions as is the case with the chromosomes of hermaphrodites. We are pretty amazing so maybe we could come up with a legal test of gender down the road.

So the proponents are saying they want to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman but there is no legal test for which is which. America is truly amazing that it would even entertain this non-sequitur definition for marriage in law.

If this amendment passes, as it has in so many states, then the majority vote prevails and our constitution reflects a change to define something where the two predicates, man and woman, are undefined in law.

After all, what will be the test to make sure that it is indeed a man and indeed a woman applying for a marriage license?

For ten years I was a female on my MN driver’s license. Oh, I renewed it twice but the correction didn’t make it into the DMV system until the second time. Good thing I didn’t try and marry within that time span; it would have been illegal. The lesson learned is an identity card would be a poor choice to prove gender.

Some argue marriage is thing of tradition which is certainly true. But we also have a tradition in this pretty amazing America of testing rights before the courts. So we have two traditions to account for in this vote. One of these traditions is within the realm of constitutional law and the other is in the realm of anthropological science.

Others wrap marriage in the biology of procreation. This is another factual argument that can’t be denied. Nor can it be denied that there exist fertility clinics to assist with impregnation. We are pretty amazing at using science to enhance and enrich our America.

Then there is the sanctity argument which seems to fall away quickly when considering an alcohol soaked Vegas Presley marriage. Even the stand in witnesses will need to be tipped. And how does this sanctity apply to the atheists who marry? Sacred to some and not so much to others is the truth of the matter.

Let those of particular creed call marriage as they see fit. Let them under their religious freedom as citizens define marriage as “sacred unions” or any language they choose. It is a lot easier for people of faith to change a definition for their purposes than to ask an entire society based on law to kowtow to their definition. We agreed a long time ago to separate church and state and that is pretty amazing. In fact that is why Elvis can marry us.

It seems no matter how you slice it or dice it in the end marriage is a legal thing. And as a legal thing we regulate one law with another law as in the case of DOMA.

As such the parties being denied access have a right to ask the courts why and on what legal basis are they being denied. Let the courts decide, for that is why we have them, to decide things like constitutional rights.

If DOMA stands in the eyes of the court so be it. That is how we do things in this pretty amazing America.

Marriages fail at a high rate. Some say as many as fifty per cent fail. We all know someone with multiple marriages. Citizens get in and out of them all the time. We have lawyers who specialize in divorce which testifies to its frequency and legal nature.

In any other area what do we care of the genders of CitizenA and CitizenB?

CitizenA and CitizenB can enter into legal matters of property, they can enter into legal matters of sale and they can enter into all types of contractual obligations without regard to gender. Pretty amazing we would make such a big thing out one specific type of legal arrangement called marriage.

It is only a matter of time now. DADT is gone and the military has moved forward on a social issue the civilian world continues to fumble with in its legislatures. It is pretty amazing indeed that it will probably take a decade for public to catch up with the military.

We could save a decade here in Minnesota and wouldn’t that be pretty amazing. We could vote this marriage amendment down with a NO vote. We can say define a man and define a woman first, then lets consider the marriage definition. We could give these fellow citizens a chance to ask the courts for the reason why their Elvis marriage cannot stand if their genders match in some currently undefined way.

After the vote America will still be pretty amazing either way. We have made mistakes before and we have corrected them. It is all pretty amazing isn’t it Elvis?