Missive on Marriage

Get them wagons ‘round in a circle! 

Rip up them petticoats, use ‘em as bandages. 

Git all the women and children inside! 

There’s a whole passel o’ them damn activist judges on the rampage! 

And them lousy varmints are trying to legalize “homosexual marriage.” 

That’s right, pardner, homosexual marriage. Land o’ Goshon, Lord Almighty, the end is truly near. 

That’s what it says in blood red ink, plain as day, on the outside of a letter from California State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth. 

“ALERT: By 4-3, Supreme Court legalizes ‘homosexual marriage’ Help stop these activist judges!” 

The letter has a USA Non-Profit Org stamp on it. Presumably because California Renewal, the entity which has created ProjectMarriage.com, is a non-profit entity. 

Senator Hollingsworth, a likable and hard-working lawmaker, describes himself on the letter’s front as a “Marriage Amendment Official Proponent.” Good to see that he has achieved more than amateur status. 

An observant reader will note in the lower left-hand corner where it discusses ProjectMarriage.com and Project Renewal that major funding for this effort comes from the National Organization for Marriage California Committee, Fieldstead & Co. and Focus on the Family. 

It’s early in the November ballot ballgame so the Secretary of State’s homepage shows no contributions yet from Focus on the Family. There are no contributions from Fieldstone either, a perennial political player, mostly in conservative GOP politics. 

Fieldstone is the middle name of Howard Ahmanson, the heir of the Home Savings bank fortune. Mr. Ahmanson has lavished some of his fortune on entities like the Reason Foundation and politicians like former state senator Rob Hurtt. It would probably be fair to say Mr. Ahmanson thinks same sex marriage rates pretty darn near off the scale on the mortal sin-o-meter. 

The National Organization for Marriage California Committee has been busy, though. Its given $510,000 to the campaign that has successfully qualified an initiative for the November ballot that would enshrine the following 14 words in California’s constitution: 

“Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.“ 

Of its money, the committee reports $172,000 came from Terry Caster, the CEO of the aptly named Caster Family Enterprises – even their name is pro-family – which operates A-1 Self Storage facilities from San Diego to San Francisco. 

Another $125,000 came from the also aptly named Manchester Financial Group headed by – no kidding — Papa Doug Manchester. Papa Doug is a big wheel in San Diego real estate. He built the aptly named Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, the Manchester Business and Research Park, the Manchester Executive Centre and the Manchester Financial Building. 

He threw a fair chunk of cash at Mitt Romney but now sends checks to McCain. 

The hallways of the Grand Hyatt are littered with photos of Papa Doug and his family hanging out with other big wheels. The hotel’s meeting rooms are named after his kids. Papa Doug digs himself pretty hard. 

But Papa Doug is pretty much the piker compared to those lovable Catholic guys in the funny hats – the Knights of Columbus of New Haven, Connecticut. They’re in for $250,000. Guess the charities back there in New Haven have fixed up all the local social ills so the Knights can right wrongs here in the Golden State. 

Sen. Hollingsworth’s letter informs the reader: 

 “Quite simply, just four activist judges have trashed the votes of over four million Californians who approved Proposition 22 by 61 percent just a few years ago, which reaffirmed traditional marriage.” 

The underlining is that of Sen. Hollingsworth who continues by saying he thinks “this arrogant act of judicial tyranny creates a serious constitutional crisis for our government.” 

Damn. Couldn’t it be a humorous constitutional crisis? They’re so much more festive than the serious ones. 

Sen. Hollingsworth quotes from the judges on the losing side of the state Supreme Court’s decision declaring Proposition 22 unconstitutional who pronounce that the majority’s opinion results in a “cataclysmic transformation” of the institution of marriage by “judicial fiat.” 

Paraphrasing now, bad guys like the “major national homosexual organizations” are going to drop a lot of coin to advance their homosexual agenda come November. 

“That is why each of us must help level the playing field for the November election by contributing whatever we can afford to support the Marriage Amendment.

There is no time to spare, Sen. Hollingsworth says. Send money yesterday. 

“It is no exaggeration to say that the campaign for the Marriage Amendment will be our one and only chance to save marriage in California.” 

Sen. Hollingsworth signs his missive, “Very urgently yours.” 

In rebutta,l here is former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, whose political views make Sen. Hollingsworth seem like Fidel Castro’s soul brother. 

Sen. Goldwater was critical of the ban on gays and lesbians serving in the military: 

“You don’t have to be straight to be in the military, you just have to shoot straight,” he is said to have said. 

Sen. Goldwater argued, rather persuasively, that if conservatives really believe in less government, what the hell are they doing trying to regulate what goes on in people’s bedrooms? 

“There has always been homosexuality, ever since man and woman were invented. I guess there were gay apes. So that’s not an issue. The Republican Party should stand for freedom and only freedom. Free people have a right to do as they damn well please.” 

Thank you, Sen. Goldwater. You may step down. Your witness, Sen. Hollingsworth. 

Fundamentally, marriage is about love. Love is something that poets, preachers and just regular folk have tried to understand since man and woman were invented, to use Sen. Goldwater’s phrase. 

“How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important an biological phenomenon as first love?” wonders Al Einstein. 

St. Paul tells the Corinthians love is patient. Love is kind. No boasting. No rudeness. It keeps no record of wrongs. 

 Jesus is all about love. Love thy neighbor as thy self. Do unto others the way you want to be done unto, just to skim the surface. 

Riffing on the same melody, His Holiness the Dalai Lama says: 

 “When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.” 

The point is, as John Lennon said, all you need is love. It’s what makes this ride worth taking. 

It happens between two people. There aren’t boundaries about who can love whom or how deeply. Been pulled over recently by the Marriage Police for speeding? 

Love is rare and wonderful and weird and, yeah, sometimes painful. There should be a lot more of it around, not less. The more love you create, the more other people create too. 

So can someone explain the logic of people who don’t like Big Government advocating for the same entity that created CalTrans and the DMV to regulate what is acceptable love? 

Anyone? 

Maybe the voice with the answer can’t carry far enough from the moral high ground.

Have a care, the air’s real thin up there. 

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