Marriage Protection Amendment – We lost but we have not quit
Marriage Protection Amendment:
Many thanks to all who gave their support in thought and prayer! Those who are promoting the amendment believe that important issues were discussed in the public forum and that progress has been made. Though the defeat is regrettable its supporters are not going to give up; indeed, a quite different dynamic is at work here.
James Dobson’s Focus on the Family organization has strongly supported the amendment. This is its evaluation of yesterday’s events.
Dr Lisa Nolland
June 7, 2006
by Stuart Shepard, managing editor, Focus on the Family
Marriage is too important an issue to abandon.
The federal Marriage Protection Amendment (MPA) was killed by opponents in the Senate this morning before it could get to an up-or-down vote — in clear defiance of the will of the American people.
I watched the debate unfold over two days, and it struck me over and over again how those who supported the MPA spoke the truth, backed it up with facts and, frankly, just made sense.
Those who opposed the amendment most often said it was all about “politics.” I call that a “parts-bin” argument. It’s one legislators use when they really have no cogent argument to make. I mean, what action ever taken in the U.S. Capitol can’t be hit with that? It’s meaningless.
Then I heard opponents called supporters ugly names. Sen. Ted Kennedy said flatly, “A vote for this amendment is a vote for bigotry, pure and simple.”
That’s still not an argument. It’s just a schoolyard bully trying to scare the kindergartners.
Repeatedly, Kennedy and Co. opined how the Senate should be discussing something more important, such as (fill in the blank) — the war in Iraq, high gas prices, prescription drugs, psoriasis, ring worm, dandruff — anything but the sanctity and tradition of marriage. Still, they presented no argument on the issue at hand.
But what really set me off was when they said — repeatedly — that the American people simply don’t care about this issue.
That was the biggest lie of all.
I know firsthand, because for the past week I have watched over the system that sent your faxes to Senate offices. CitizenLink subscribers, listeners to the Focus on the Family broadcast and others who came our way sent 55,000 faxes in support of marriage to their senators in just a few days.
That’s an average of 550 per senator.
If you could manage to stand each one upright, end to end, it would be the height of 40 Empire State buildings. Higher than commercial aircraft fly. Nine and a half miles straight up.
And on top of that were thousands of e-mails, letters and phone calls. One of our readers shared that the staff of one of his senators (who, incidentally, voted against having a vote on the amendment) said they were getting so many calls, they could not take names, they were just keeping a running tally of opinions.
So, do not stand on the floor of the U.S. Senate and tell me that Americans simply don’t care about this issue. We care. We care deeply. And we are offended when you dismiss us.
Tuesday, the people of Alabama voted to become the 20th state to approve a constitutional amendment to protect marriage from activist judges. It garnered 80-percent support.
Americans simply don’t care?
What member of the Senate wouldn’t love to receive 80 percent support on the first Tuesday in November?
Simply put: More Americans support protecting marriage than support the senators who voted against it today. It is more of a winner than they will ever be.
So, now what? Do we quit? Do we whine about it? Do we walk around wearing a nametag that reads, “Hello, My Name is Bigot?”
No.
We dust ourselves off. We rise above the ugly characterizations tossed our way. We realize that we fought hard. And that we will fight again.
Protecting marriage from gay activists and rogue judges is too important a battle to abandon.
And we will find a way to win.
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