I have been doing a slow burn since last night. Watched Lou Dobbs on CNN, and he did a quick little drive by piece about how in Mass (the state I can’t spell) failed to pass the initiative to send Gay Marriage to the Voters there. (see Comment ‘Some Sanity At Last‘) Seems that Mr Dobbs was upset that the Legislators didn’t send the issue to the People. He claimed it was a ‘blow for Democracy‘ which is what has me steamed.

To begin with, Marriage for same sex persons was deemed legal by the Courts. Right or Wrong, it is the courts that interpret the laws, and to say that the People should decide whether or not I am entitled to the SAME RIGHTS as others, is in fact not Democracy. Courts exist to rule on these issues, simply because People cannot. It is the last check and balance in a Real Democracy. To simply over rule a Court, makes having them a mockery. Why have them if you going to simply rush out and pass laws to make what they rule no longer valid?

In a perfect world, there would be no need for Courts to decipher laws, and there would be no need for people to sue or take things to a court to get settled. In a Perfect World, equality, freedom, would be automatic. Unfortunately the United States isn’t that Perfect World that Mr Dobbs imagines. Fact is, the people cannot be trusted to do what is right.

If they could be trusted, then why would there be all the fuss right now about Immigration and Securing the border? If the people could indeed be trusted to do the right thing, how come George Bush is President? In fact, if the people could be trusted, how in hell is there one single member in the Senate or Congress that is a Republican or Democrat? Given their track record over the last decade, how can there be one single incumbent?

The rights of a minority cannot be entrusted to the will of the people. Specially when you have bigots like Mitt Romney, George Bush, and the late Jerry Falwell running things. Look around, and see how well Civil Rights are being managed by the people. The people don’t care to grant equality to those they oppose, yet that is true democracy. To defend those whose opinions, whose lifestyle you abhor, except of course as it applies to Homosexuals and Terrorists.

Courts have consistently ruled in favor of same sex marriage, and yet the vast majority of states have rushed out and had the people pass amendments to deny those rights to us, a minority. Sorry Mr Dobbs, but democracy isn’t just about some skinheads rushing out in their white sheets to vote against equality, it is about Courts forcing the people and those they elect, to actually adhere to the principles of Democracy.

When Martin Luther King had a dream Mr Dobbs, when the Courts ruled against the policies of the Southern States, where were you demanding that the people decide? Where were you back in the 1860’s when the Southern States seceded from the Union and the North went to war to keep them as part of the Union? Was there any national referendum to see if that was the will of the people? Then or in the 1960’s?

This is about rights being denied. The legislators in Mass. did what was right. They adhered to the court decision and so have supported the very Constitution and Bill of Rights you hold so dear. They did more than you, they righted a wrong.

In a perfect world, Mr Dobbs, there wouldn’t be any secret prisons, secret wire taps of the population, in a perfect world Mr Dobbs, there wouldn’t be approval ratings of Congress at 23%.