Three Steps Foward, Two Steps Back

A Canadian Humanist Perspective on the November 4th 2008 U.S. Election

by Dave Mabee (2008)

As I sat watching my television on November 4th I noticed for most of the evening that I had a large smile on my face and was sometimes even brought to tears when I allowed the moment to set in as I savoured the historic event I was witnessing. For a few hours that night I was able to stop worrying. It was quite apparent that the world's superpower would soon be reengaging in a foreign policy of diplomacy and peace seeking, as opposed to fighting wars, fear mongering, applying torture, destroying the environment, and ignoring the constitution as the administration of the past eight years has done. The new President Elect had shown extraordinary temperament, good judgment and an unprecedented ability to inspire people, myself included. Barack Obama had taken the election with 364 Electoral College votes, crushing Senator John McCain easily surpassing the necessary 270 votes to clinch the victory. The two-year campaign had come to an end and it seemed that the world was better off for it.

Most of the cable networks were discussing the history of the moment with a humble retrospect for America's history of racial injustice. Through slavery and the Civil War, which enabled Abraham Lincoln to abolish the inhumane practice, on to the rights for African Americans to vote (a full vote, not 3/5 of one), and then to desegregation. Lyndon Johnson passed the much overdue Civil Rights Act of 1964. This was clearly the culmination of all of these milestones. It was even clearer that Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medger Evers and many of the other civil rights leaders who perished in fighting for these opportunities did not die in vain. They were instrumental in supporting this cause and getting it to where it had to go. They all knew what was at stake, and that it was so much greater than themselves. It was the summit of the movement and another huge breakthrough in this often too tragic battle.

The celebrations of November 4th went on into the early hours of the following day, but I went to bed that night proud to be a citizen of this planet. I am a cynic and events like this, in the world we live in, do not happen nearly often enough. I realized what this event meant to so many African American children. This event will inspire them, and everyone else, and show us that walls can be torn down and that with perseverance and organized effort, truly anything is possible. It was a much-needed step for America. The hindrances today are not nearly as prevalent as they were to generations past. Children in America are not going to deal with many of the obstacles that held back their parents and ancestors. This was a great day for optimism, and above all else, hope.

I spent the next day watching the cable news networks, as well as reading through the blogosphere. Most pundits and writers were still talking about the history of the night before and its significance for humanity across the globe. As I looked on something got my attention. I discovered that Florida, Arizona and even largely liberal California had all passed ballot initiatives to ban same-sex marriage. Now 30 states had succeeded in efforts to not allow gays and lesbians to marry their partners. As a Canadian I sat there initially stunned. We have allowed gay marriage for some time now, and it does not appear to have corrupted our society, only making it better and giving a lot of us peace of mind and assuring us that we are all entitled to the same things, be it black, white, straight or gay. I realized in that moment how I took things like this for granted. The more I read the more I was bothered by this apparently successful attempt to take away this groups right to marriage.

This put America in an ironic juxtaposition. We were witnessing a civil rights milestone while at the same time we watched a group of people lose the right to marry the one they love. People voted this down because they believe they have the moral authority to determine the definition of marriage for everyone. They determined homosexual relationships are not worthy of the institution of marriage.

The California ban is the one that bothered me the most. In May the State Supreme Court sided with gays and said that banning their marriage was unconstitutional. Gays and lesbians celebrated across the state. A lot of high profile gays and lesbians in California were married soon after the decision. They were liberated, they were given something that everyone else in America has, but for some reason people decided that they should have that right taken away.

When some of the demographic results came in about the voting, I was surprised to see that African-Americans in California voted 70% in favour of the ban. The same people who were jubilant and proud with the Obama victory, and what it meant for people who were different, had on the same ballot voted to take rights away from other people that were different. The American Constitution was set up to protect minorities, but on this day and with this issue, the tyranny of the majority had prevailed.

Upon looking a little bit deeper into this issue I found some more things that were troubling. I discovered that the Mormon Church was leading the fight for the gay marriage ban. This organization invested twenty-five million dollars to support Proposition 8 (which banned gay marriage). Personally, I find the Mormon Church's support for a movement to take rights away from someone to be preposterous, but when you review their history it becomes quite obvious that this is the business that they are in. As recently as 1979 the Mormon Church refused to allow African Americans to obtain the status level of Elder or Deacon within the church. Up until that time the Mormon Church was a racist organization, and many of the people championing this fight against same sex marriage were members of this church at this time. Does that not beg a question of their credibility? Let's also look at the original Mormon stance on marriage. Polygamy was a fundamental Mormon belief and is still practiced by some Mormon fundamentalists today in America. This has led to some instances of child abuse, oppression of women and many more culturally destructive issues, not to mention a great deal of beliefs within the Mormon religion that are incredibly absurd. The Mormons clearly have no right to the moral high ground on this issue. History shows us that when we need help making decisions like this, the Mormon Church is not the voice we should be listening to, it is instead one of the voices we should be tuning out and opposing.

Regardless of their faith, I believe that any objective person would see that people taking away this right to marriage are going to be on the wrong side of history. One who can apply reason to this situation should be able to see that gays and lesbians deserve this right just as much as everyone else. Some would contest that homosexuality is a deviant behavior and a choice made by those who are gay. To insist that these people choose to be homosexual, and therefore should have their freedoms taken from them, is ridiculous. Homosexuality can be found all throughout the natural world and is something that will never be cured because IT IS NOT A DISEASE.

As I kept looking into these matters, I discovered movements in 16 states to not allow same-sex couples to adopt children. The self-righteousness of this movement and its supporters I find utterly appalling. The proponents of this movement express opinions such as 'every child should be entitled to have a mother and a father' or that the same-sex parental environment is 'not a natural one.' They believe both of these characteristics are damaging to families and ultimately to society. It is so sad that the gall of these people encourages themselves to think that evidently a child with no parents is better off than a child with gay parents. In a world where we are constantly divisive and always splitting people up based on religion, ethnicity, race and all sorts of other unfair traits, it is a great failure not to recognize the immense power of love. Any child brought into the world should be a loved child and these people are telling us that the love of gay people is some how not worthy of a child. The fact that there are enough people to get this kind of a proposition put on the ballot in some states is a profound disappointment of humankind.

It is fair to say that most people on the side of these regressive movements are on the 'right' side of the political spectrum. Many of these people cloak themselves as 'defenders of the family'. They are often found protesting gay pride parades and/or abortion clinics, while somehow thinking in their warped sense of morality that what they are doing is scrupulous and honourable. It is hard to give credit to those people passionate about such causes, while they claim to have society's best interest at heart. They attack gays and abortions while they sit mum on real important issues that adversely affect the family unit. Issues like divorce and adultery. More than half of all marriages end in divorce, and adultery leads to many of these divorces. Yet, you don't see their passion combating these things. Where is their compassion for the children from broken homes? Gays and pro-choice people aren't the ones that need the attention. Their opponents anger is misguided, and their efforts, if they truly were scrupulous and credible, would be devoted to making the world a better place and bringing people together, not tearing us apart. The bottom line on this issue seems to come down to a tragic level of ignorance, and it is about time that we turn the page on this sad chapter of our ever-changing social zeitgeist. It is infuriating to see so many of these groups blindly, hatefully and pathetically, trying to take these entitlements away from people. If reason can win out in this battle, then I am sure I am on the correct side of this argument, but if anything is clear it is that these social conservatives on the other side of this issue are prepared to be unreasonable and for that, I pity them.

For me it had been a bittersweet week. We saw monumental progress while at the same time seeing some deplorable circumstances. We saw people all over the world dancing in the streets thinking about what this type of historic change could bring. It's great to think about how many new doors opened for a lot of people, but we also saw some doors slammed in people’s faces, because they aren't like the majority in America. Let us enjoy this great moment in civil rights history, but let us not forget that this battle is far from over.

Over forty-five years ago President John Kennedy said:

So, let us not be blind to our differences - - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future.

The 2008 United States Presidential election results show us that progress in overcoming differences is being made, but the results in some States show us that there is still a ways to go.