Celebration and Sorrow

The Senate’s confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court should be a cause for celebration. That she is eminently qualified, both by disposition and intellect, cannot be disputed by reasonable people. Her elevation to the Court represents another important first in American society’s progress toward full equality for all citizens.
But that is also the first sorrow. It is disheartening that such firsts are still so prevalent and, in many cases, unattained. We should be beyond the point that the election or appointment of a Latino/a, African-American, Asian-American, Native-American, person with a disability or woman to any position would be headline news because of ethnicity or abledness or gender. It’s not an excuse that all progress takes time. Why? Why should it? What’s wrong with hurrying it along? I would argue that far from being a virtue, patience is a criminal folly.
I loved and love my University, but it staggered me then and staggers me now that I attended a school that had been integrated for six years and admitting women for two when I enrolled. The later lead to occasional confusion. As I was helping a friend move into her dorm room, her mother excused herself to use the restroom. She was back in the suite almost immediately, hands on hips, snarling: “I know that sort of thing goes on, but do they have to make it so easy for them?” Meeting blank stares she continued, “There are urinals …” As the only one able to raise his eyes from the floor it fell to me to explain that the dorm was built before the university admitted women and that the urinals were intended to keep undergraduates from pissing off the balcony.” I did not tell her they were unsuccessful.
I would make the argument that the courts, especially the California and United States Supreme Courts do more to promote progress under law than all the legislatures and referenda in our history combined. I give you Brown v. Board of Education. Absent Brown, my University might still be waiting to admit its first African-American student. I give you Loving v. Virginia, handed down in 1967 at a time when 72% of Americans opposed interracial marriage. If we had a national proposition recall system, President Obama might have been the son of criminals. But at least the wisdom of the people would have triumphed over activist judges.
On the day that President Obama was elected last November, an election that I celebrated briefly, the voters of the great State of California approved Proposition 8 which overturned a California Supreme Court ruling that had legitimized gay marriage (you see my reverence for the wisdom of the courts) and enshrined in the Constitution of the great state of California the admirable sentiment: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
Particularly painful in the passage of Prop 8 was the revelation that the proposition was supported by 53% of Latinos and 7 in 10 African Americans, an almost eerie reflection of the 72% opposition to interracial marriage in 1967. Suggesting most clearly that no group has the market cornered on ignorant bigotry. Further suggesting that the moment any group perceives itself as climbing up the ladder, its first response it to put its foot in the face of the next group below.
My disillusionment with President Obama didn’t begin with the passage of Proposition 8. Although that was a shaky time. His response to Proposition 8 seemed to be that he didn’t think it was necessary but that he didn’t disagree with a word of it.
My disillusionment with President Obama began with his selection of Rev. Rick Warren, ole’ Saddleback Rick, to give the invocation at his inauguration. Rick can prove he’s not homophobic as “I’ve eaten dinner in gay homes.” Rev. Warren evidently regrets being 40 years too late to toss off “Some of my best friends are Negroes.”
Now I do understand Rev. Warren’s appeal to President Obama. Both Rev. Warren and the Obama Justice Department equate gay marriage and incest. But at least this wasn’t hypocrisy. I am not aware of Senator or Candidate or President Obama ever saying “Oh no, gay marriage is not just like incest!” I am aware of candidate Obama’s campaign commitments to do away with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and to support expansion of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Perhaps he’ll get to them in his 104th hundred days? I do fear that the Obama policy will be called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Wed.”
Beyond the courts, the real hope for those who want to give their children a fair education, or swim in a neighborhood pool, or receive equal pay, or marry the person they just happen to love, are the brave individuals who say enough, no more, and bring their lives before the scrutiny of the courts and the harsh judgments of their fellow citizens.
I hope that I will live to see the day when the generous words of the brave and private Mildred Loving come to fruition:
Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the "wrong kind of person" for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights.