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| SUPREME COURT: Forcing us to make own decision |
Because
I suspect there are many people on our local political scene who acted in ways
that I believe meant they wanted to get away without ever having to take a
stance.
I
BELIEVE THEY were desperately hoping that the high court would issue a ruling
that would resolve the matter altogether. Perhaps they wanted the court to
strike down the concept so boldly that they would never have to consider it
again.
Or
even those who may want marriage to be a legitimate option for gay couples but
have their own yellow streak where their backbones ought to be located. Perhaps
they wanted a hard-hitting ruling that would settle the issue once-and-for-all!
We’d
have gay marriage, and they would never have to vote on it.
But
the Supreme Court’s ruling Wednesday morning, when broken down to its basics,
says essentially that this is an issue for each and every state to have to
resolve on its own.
THE
PEOPLE WHO tried to strike down California’s efforts to legitimate marriage for
gay couples lost – meaning that the issue has some legitimacy. But our national maps are going to become the equivalent of a checkerboard – with some states
allowing the concept and others going out of their way to express their
hostility.
In
our case, State Line Road is likely to become a serious point of demarcation
between where friendly and hostile forces exist on this issue.
Of
course, there are so many other issues where the regions of our nation differ.
We probably can predict which states will ultimately accept gay marriage – and which
will be hostile until the day that some sort of federal order comes down
imposing the change upon them.
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| ILLINOIS HOUSE: Whose lead will they follow? |
Then
again, maybe this issue will turn out like the whole civil rights debacle that
also was created by the Supreme Court earlier this week – with the federal
restrictions imposed on southern states to crush segregation were lifted on the
grounds that they’re obsolete and no longer necessary.
EVEN
THOUGH I suspect some people have been waiting for decades for the chance to
have the restrictions lifted so that they could start subtly nudging the nation
back in their ideological direction.
Wishful
thinking on their part, but I also suspect there will be some people who will
be eager to rant and rage when it comes to gay marriage.; hoping that if they 'hold out' long enough, they will get their way! We’re already getting
statements from many Catholic officials trying to downplay the significance of
the Supreme Court’s ruling by saying the issue is now in the hands of the
legislatures.
Actually,
they’re right!
If
the Illinois General Assembly continues to be as weak-willed on the issue as it
was this spring, then there will be no significant change. We will continue to
lag behind Iowa on this issue; AND could wind up being paired up with Indiana
as the last holdouts among the Great Lakes states.
I
DON’T KNOW how they’re going to behave on this issue come the fall veto session
– which is when some people said this spring the issue should be postponed
until. Soon enough, we will get to re-live this spring's rancid rhetoric.
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| MADIGAN: Doomed by issue? |
I
just find it amusing that the people who serve in our state Legislature are
going to have to take a stance on the issue – it’s not going away. The
pissed-off activist-types who are threatening to take down the potential
gubernatorial aspirations of Lisa Madigan (who as a state senator and state
attorney general has been among their supporters) as payback will ensure that
we hear about it.
Even
though the religious-types who want to think they’re being morally superior are
also going to keep up their rhetoric until we all have a headache and are sick
of hearing about the issue.
I’m
sure the Supreme Court of the United States left some of our Illinois House
members quaking in their pants – they’re going to have to figure out this issue
for themselves and take a stance! Which is supposedly the reason we send them
to Springfield in the first place.
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