In my heart of hearts, I am a curmudgeon. I love that word! I saw it in a book I was reading and now I use it as much as possible! But really, I am a conservative curmudgeon. I start thinking about all the things I want to change in the world and I start sounding like Billy Graham. Better, stronger families, less violence, peace with our creator-the list goes on. And then on the radio this morning I hear that the governor of Washington State signed some legislation protecting homosexuals from discrimination. This frosts me. My views on homosexuality aside, why do we have to waste time and money legislating we be polite to people? Why can't we be polite to them on our own? Are we as a society that pathetic that someone else has to MAKE us be polite? I am not saying you have to agree with a lifestyle, accept a choice that makes you uncomfortable, or bow down and kiss someone's patootie. But regardless of moral views, we are suppose to treat each other as we want to be treated. We are suppose to respect each other. How hard is that?
As a college student, there was a guy who was friends with someone in my group and very infrequently he joined us for lunch. I couldn't stand "Joe". A blowhard with an ego the size of the state, he was quick to tell you if you were wrong. He was fun. Anyway, he joined us for lunch and I chatted on. After all was said and done, and we were on our way to class, someone said to me "Hey Dena, I thought you didn't like Joe, and yet you were so friendly to him. What made you change your mind?" I didn't change my mind!!!! He was a jerk that day, just like any other day! But I don't need a piece of paper and a congressman/woman reminding me of my manners. Joe wasn't coming over for Christmas or joining for a camping trip-he didn't even know where I lived. But for the short time he was with us, I could put on my best game face. This is where I become a curmudgeon-I want the rest of the world to be like me.
As society gets more diverse, this type of legislation will come up again and again. It started with skin color, moved on to religion and ethnicity, and finally we are looking at the person beneath the skin. Just because we disagree with someone for whatever reason, do we have the right to treat them like shit? Regardless of whom we are trying to protect, the bottom line is that if we were more polite in the first place, maybe we wouldn't have to be forced into it.
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3 comments:
I completely agree with you in that I think we should all treat people with respect and dignity. We shouldn't need the government telling us to do so. But if the piece of legislation you're referring to is Washington State's new domestic partnership law, I have to completely disagree with your sentiments. If manners were the only issue at stake, that would be one thing, but they aren't. Without this law, if Tania is laying in the hospital dying, I can be barred from seeing her and being with her. If she dies, I have not legal right to inherit anything she legally owns. These are just a couple of the rights that straight couples who marry automatically enjoy and that many probably take for granted. With this new law, Tania and I can finally enjoy a few of the same rights that you and the rest of my friends have. Until this country stops discriminating against people simply because they don't like the way they live or the color of their skin or their, this type of legislation is essential.
I know, I wish that people could just mind their manners, too...I WISH...but I do wish that I'd sought some legal council when I was trying to get into the teaching program the first time at college, when the head of the education department told me I wasn't chosen that year because, "well...frankly, you are not a minority...if you were say, hispanic or a male, then you probably would've been chosen." If I had been more legally savvy in those days (if only, if only), I could've done a lot about that comment, and have saved a lot of money by getting through college a lot sooner...Not everyone is fair, and everyone has a different idea of fair...so, if it ultimately protects the rights of people, I think it is probably good...but then...I'm still not so legally savvy...you know me.
Hi- Matz gave me the link - nice work!
+1 on Jill's sentiments - I don't know much about the bill, but if it enables gay married to actually have rights that start to approximate that of straight married couples, that would be a good thing.
-1 on the trojan horse aspect. I have seen bills *like* this one, and there always seem to be some inevitable language that tries to legislate hate language or, as Dena puts it, "Legistate Manners". Much in the same way that the porkmeisters in washington get bridges to nowhere buried inside of "support the troops" spending bills - it creates a situation where you can't politically oppose the bill, despite some really heinous parts of it.
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