Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

                            Matt Dulin                             Tony Hernandez 
                Jim Parsons             Dusti Rhodes           Richard Whitrock

Not that simple

The text of the Federal Marriage Amendment is simple, but the question it is trying to answer is not.

The question is frustratingly complex: It is not only a veritable inquest into the morality of homosexual partnerships, but also a referendum on what is within the sphere of the federal government. The answer isn't a choice between "I do" and "I don't."

When the proposed amendment saw a vote on the Senate floor Thursday, Democrats killed the bill, 50 to 48. Unfortunately for the political process, most of the short-lived debate took place on a deserted Senate floor, according to a Boston Globe report. Did no one care?

Thursday's vote wasn't an answer to the challenge facing our society -- it was a cold shoulder.

Democrats did no service to liberty by simply voting against the bill. Without debate, no alternatives were explored, and no Democrat has proposed that the law should foster and protect gay marriage, rather than simply oppose its prohibition. 

Virtually no compelling conclusion has been reached in response to the second part of the question: should the law -- be it state or federal -- regulate marriage? On what basis? What right does the government have to deny one's right to wed another? These are serious questions that have been cast aside. 

In the march to "protect the sanctity of marriage," it seems many have forgotten what the government's role is. Shouldn't "protection" of marriage be left to the individual, to the family, as it has for countless generations?

It is our hope that our government attends to justice as much as it does democracy, and abandons the petty, fleeting politics that mar meaningful discourse. 

One benefit to the ban's demise is the opportunity to pursue just that. 

Before the nation commits to an "I do" allowing or disallowing gay marriage, it should pause and consider each facet of the question.