What a Friday for the
history books. In short order, the
United States Supreme Court endorsed gay marriage in all fifty states, writing
in the majority opinion:
“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest
ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital
union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the
petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may
endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they
disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect
it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope
is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of
civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of
the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
Even as this decision
was being celebrated all over America, President Obama was giving the eulogy at
the funeral of Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, one of nine people gunned down in cold blood by white supremacist Dylann Storm Roof during a Bible study session at
the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on
Wednesday evening, June 17th.
According to witnesses, Roof joined the group in study until he suddenly
began firing his .45 caliber handgun, killing his victims with multiple shots
and a diatribe of racial language. Allegedly,
Roof planned to use his final bullet for himself but miscalculated and realized
too late that his gun was empty. He left
the church precipitating a statewide search which ended across the border in
North Carolina when he was stopped by law enforcement while driving his black
Hyundai Elantra with its distinctive Confederate flag license plate decoration.
Roof purchased his gun
legally with money given to him for his birthday last April. Of course, this set off the usual talking
heads on media outlets about the need for gun control or the need to preserve
the Second Amendment and the right to own a gun in America. Is it ironic, ridiculous, or just plain
stupid that in this case we have the right to free religious expression
embodied in the First Amendment versus the right to own a gun, which could be
used to kill people during that religious expression? According to the shooter’s own statements, he
killed the Bible study group because they were black in a historic
African-American church, which adds another layer to the travesty that has become
American life. Racism, murder, religious
persecution, gun control, and raging ignorance, all rolled into one case.
President Obama gave possibly the best speech of his presidency at the service. His rage and sorrow bled through his words
and in one, heart-rending moment, he broke into song—“Amazing Grace”—and the
congregation quickly joined in. It was a
soaring moment in a day of celebration and grief across America. The service had barely finished when calls
went out across the south to remove the Confederate flag from statehouses and
government buildings. Major retailers
like Walmart and Sears vowed to remove Confederate flag merchandise from their
shelves. Politicians across party lines
stepped up—arguably a little too late—to urge the flag only be displayed in
museums of American history. The people
who disagreed claimed the flag represented southern history and heroism as the
men who died for the colors did so out of patriotism for a country being torn
apart by the issue of slavery. I would
say to those people, those men may have died for patriotic feelings, but
keeping a human being in chains and brutalizing him is not a just moral
cause. They died for an aberration in
history. Do we allow the Nazis flag to
fly over government buildings in Germany because it was a part of their history?
So here we are on the
day after. Marriage must be a right
guaranteed to all people. We are not
talking about religious views, but civil sanctions, and in the shadow of a
country founded on the principle that all [people] are created equal, all
people have the right to enter into a marriage regardless of sexual
orientation, race, or any other categorization.
People—in mosques,
churches, temples, and chapels—must be allowed to practice their faith and
study their sacred texts without fear of being gunned down in the
sanctuary. Overt symbols of racist, bigoted
views, symbols commemorating murder and brutality and enslavement, they must be
preserved in museums so we do not forget their divisive and bloody history but
beyond that, they should be burned in the furnace of their own ignorance.
And finally, we need
to truly take on this issue of guns in America.
They are not necessary, even for sport, and in the end, we must measure
the health of our country over the desires of gun enthusiasts. The days of hunting are over. Arming ourselves against those who want to
harm and victimize us has not proven to lower crime. Get the guns off the streets and things will
change. And recent events have shown us
that arming people on both sides of the law can lead to needless deaths. If the cops did not have to fear that every
person they encounter was armed, we could reduce the number of accidental
shootings. As we have seen in other
countries like the U.K., gun control means that law enforcement needs less
firepower to do their jobs. The average
street officer in London does not carry a gun.
I remember several years ago watching a street cop in central London
handle a drunk man in a situation that could have easily escalated into
violence. The officers handled the
situation with poise and control. The
man was subdued, the ambulance was summoned, and everyone lived to see another
day.
It was, indeed, a
historic Friday, embodying profound grief and merciful joy. Hopefully, the events will spark discussion,
debate, acceptance, and most importantly, unity, across the country. There will be great struggles ahead, but we
must continue to find ways to make America better educated, less violent, and
more enlightened as we prepare for our 239th birthday.