the rix mix

"I believe that marriage is between a man and woman,” Gingrich said, the Des Moines Register reports. “It has been for all of recorded history and I think this is a temporary aberration that will dissipate. I think that it  just fundamentally goes against everything we know.”

This had me scratching my head. I tried to think of some things from the past 100 years that fundamentally went against everything we thought we knew. Einstein's Theory of Relativity, for a start.  The farther back we go, the more we find that went against everything we knew, from considering slavery a universal evil, to women's rights, to the concept of linear history itself that Newt relies upon to make the statement. Marriage equality is one more step in elevating the dignity of the individual, & I'm not being an egghead when I write that: until a few years ago I believed the matter could be sidestepped. It's like the civil rights movement. People want something & after awhile you run out of reasons why they can't have it. Now it's down to "temporary aberration."

I sort of understand what the anti-marriage equality people feel. Until a few years ago, I believed The United States of America did not engage in torture. That was for the Nazis & the commies & all the end justifies the means people. We got through some terrible wars without countenancing torture, although our enemies did it. Then it came to light that we were doing it, we argued about whether it was or was not torture, but the general attitude seemed to be, "Well, we're already doing it, & they're doing it to us, & we're not torturing Americans, so......"  Wait a minute! That's not what I was taught. Even in all those gung ho WWII movies we didn't do it. John Wayne didn't need it.