For Or Against: Why?

Sometimes I wonder how we, as a nation, as a world, can see things so differently

Take same sex marriage.  Disclaimer:  I'm for it.  But those who are against it feel their opinion should be counted, too, and maybe we shouldn't brush them off as "bible thumpers" (see Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingraham feud), but as people who truly believe that it's not natural and offends their idea of what marriage really is.

Maureen Dowd  yesterday ran a letter written by a gay friend who's been in a relationship for many years, with twin daughters, fathered by both (a true miracle, each egg was fertilized by one of them), and even though I've never been against gay marriage, there were some heartbreaking points I never thought of, like feeling so much less than other people, being the last group to be officially (and legally) discriminated against, with rights available to every other heterosexual man on the planet not applying to them.

"Should my take-away be: I am not a man?" Dowd's friend Max asked in the letter.

Then there's abortion. While I am totally for a woman's right to make decisions about her own body, I must admit that, after two miscarriages, I didn't think of the fetuses as blobs of flesh but as my real children that would never be born.  I'm sure that's how many on the anti-abortion side feel.  But I feel outraged every time a state (most recently, Alabama and North Dakota, North Dakota) place restrictions on abortion clinics that may limit their ability to perform these services.

Even though these laws are clearly unconstitutional -- and would never stand up in court, where they're sure to go -- states (all run by Republicans) are still trying to rein in womens' rights.  Here's what I've always said to those who would call us "child killers"  -- why don't you adopt some of those children mothers weren't able to care for that you, in all your wisdom, made them have?  And made you right?

Who ever said men are the ones who should be choosing how a woman deals with a pregnancy?

And what about gun control?  Clearly, I'm on the side of limiting or banning assault weapons, making background checks mandatory for anyone buying a gun (yay, Connecticut!), and outlawing magazines that contain multitudes of bullets, but I still recognize that people who want to own guns and do it responsibly and safely should be allowed to do so.  (I just don't believe they need assault rifles, or huge magazines.)

So what to do?  I guess that's what this country is all about.  Live and let live.  But my problem is when some want to interfere with others' rights (I hear you, gun rights advocates) to prevent them from living the way they want to, and instead, try to make them live their lives.









http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/opinion/dowd-happily-never-after.html?ref=columnists

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