Our local paper, The Cabinet, last week including a rather scathing editorial, admonishing Milford residents for voting in favor of the Constitutional amendment regarding gay marriage, or more precisely, for voting in favor of letting the people vote on the issue. The writer mentions our “republican” form of government and how it is impractical to expect that voters can vote ” on everything” and that some issues are better left to our elected officials to decide. An interesting time in American history to be advising us taxpayers to leave the important decisions to our “elected officials”. They might better ask…”how’s that working out for you…?”
New Hampshire is one of the last bastions of personal freedom and we pride ourselves on it. For generations, our creed of Live Free or Die has been the envy of other places. We live it here. Property rights, personal liberties. For years I have defended our state to outsiders who buy into the notion that we are a redneck or racist or homophobic state. What I have witnessed, as a second-generation native, is very much the opposite.
What we do abhor, however, is being told what to do, say or think. That, I believe, is the issue that most riles the electorate. For the record, I believe marriage is between one man and one woman. I wear a ring, I am married, and I expect with good reason that the ring signifies that I am married, to a woman, not just to someone. It is a centuries-old institution and now we find ourselves in the unenviable position of having to defend our rights. At some point, the gay-marriage movement becomes an infringement on my rights, and I believe we have reached that point.
I will spare you the “I have gay friends and relatives” argument, although I do. I wish them a happy life and a right to live together with the same protections and security that marriage offers, by virtue of a civil union. I truly don’t understand the war over the word “marriage”. It almost seems although it is designed to inflame, to rile up the masses, to stir up the argument. The gay community would have everyone believe that if you are not gay, you are a homophobe. What nonsense.
Perhaps, in keeping with Yankee culture, some of us prefer that personal proclivities and sexual orientation be kept private.
You may have noticed, there is no “Heterosexual Parade”, or “Heterosexual Pride” day. I have never felt the need to discuss my sex life, marriage, or anything of that nature in a public forum. It may be hard for some to believe, that most of us really don’t care what you do in the privacy of your home, until it affects the rest of us. This is akin to New Hampshire’s long standing, though mostly unspoken, attitude towards property rights. You are free to do with, and on, your property what you wish so long as it doesn’t affect your neighbor or their ability to enjoy their homestead. Isn’t the gay marriage issue much the same? We don’t care…we just don’t want to be told how, or what to accept, and how to accept it. You can lead us to water, but you can’t make us drink.
I guess I’ll never understand why it’s not good enough the way it is. I can’t think of another country more accepting of everyone, than America. Is there anything you can’t do here? Take a walk through Manhattan or San Francisco and tell me rights are being squashed. If, indeed, there are any rights in jeopardy, it is the rights of average Americans, still working and raising their families in the tradition we were brought up with. Who ever would have thought it possible? It is us…we have become “the enemy”.
Tags: Gay Marriage NH, Marriage