So, the United States of America is definitely an experiment. First a bunch of rag tag colonies, then the first large scale representative democracy, everything has been an experiment. Our country has seen lots of change in civil rights, and is arguably one of the more progressive. We have a Bill of Rights, which protects us, and a government that is responsive, but due to the checks and balances not reactionary. We abolish slavery in 1865, minorities get to vote in 1870, women gain the right to vote in 1920, we decide to force integration in our schools, and now we have gay marriage. What's amazing is how often we've gotten it right. The vast majority of issues that have been made constitutional amendments have stood the test of time (Prohibition being the exception.)
Now we have gay marriage legalized in Massachusetts, and already there is an amendment being proposed to go the other way. Listening to NPR today for about 15 minutes, there was an interesting view raised that the US likes to experiment, so why not experiment? Brown Vs. Board looks like it was too idealistic if we look at school performance, but we needed 50 years to figure that out. So why not see where gay marriage leads us? Fifty years is a significant amount of time in one person's life, but in the life of a nation? Especially in one as dynamic as the US? We've been through so many issues these past 228 years, what's one more? I say let it go . . . yes it's a hot topic that people are strongly divided upon, but let's experiment and see what happens. We've seen how hetero-only marriages work (or don't), so why not try gay marriage and see what happens? Anyway, not really a thought out piece, just mental droppings . . .
