With the advent of one of the most incontrovertibly profound court decisions of our generation, namely, that which legalizes homosexual marriage and all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto in Massachusetts, it is important that both advocates and opponents of said right acknowledge some important historical truths. Gay marriage seems the next manifest destiny of this country, in the same way that female suffrage, Black civil rights, and accommodations for the disabled have been and continue to be. Historical evidence suggests that, even in spite of public opinion to the contrary-lest we forget such events as Emancipation, the Civil Rights Movement, and the legalization of abortion-when presumably oppressed minorities (be they races, genders, or, simply, ideological perspectives) struggle for equality and justice, they inevitably win. Consequently, the question is not* whether the Supreme Judicial Court has overstepped its authority; or whether a constitutional amendment could remedy the situation; or even whether both the de jure* and de facto* ramifications of the Court’s decision amount to utter moral depreciation, on the scale of legalizing pedophilia, bestiality, and polygamy. Rather, what begs reply is: how long will it be before the public accepts the decision? And, if such events as Vietnam and public school desegregation have taught anything, it is that the public, however immoral or obstinate, does not have a particularly high capacity for staying the fight. Alas, to the point, then: unfortunately, for all of you niggar-killers, anti-Semites, and homo-haters, as well as your counterparts in future conflicts of the sort illustrated by the aforementioned epithets, proelium perditum est*.
David Blanding CAS 2006 617) 216-6885 Note: asterisk(*) = italize word or Latin phrase