Fascimile

Don't worry, it's misspelled for a reason.

So many Americans spend time talking about how wonderful our country is and how we stand for freedom and liberty and all that stuff. But those same people will turn around and embody the exact opposite of those terms they throw around so easily.

See, when you attempt to force someone, by law, to believe the same way you do, there's a word for it. Fascism. And supposedly America has tried to fight against that. And yet somehow, the ones who claim to be the most patriotic, the ones who supposedly believe truly in America, or claim to, (the far right), have turned into fascists.

Listen, I'm absolutely fine with something that is voted in democratically. If you want to ban gay marriage in your state, and you can get the votes for it, then so be it. I don't agree with you on it, and I think that the government has no business going around enforcing people's religion for them, but hey, that's democracy. But if your state votes it in, democratically, and it's not actually affecting your freedom in the slightest, then you can't expect the government to change its mind, simply because it makes you uncomfortable.

Because here's the thing. Gay marriage does nothing to affect those who don't agree with it. It's not like gun rights or environmental laws. Gay rights doesn't make you have to marry someone of your own gender. It doesn't make preachers have to agree to marry gay couples. All it does is make you a little uncomfortable, which is no reason to act like an idiot over it. You know what else made people a little uncomfortable? When they ended slavery. And one hundred years later, everyone's fine with that.

And guess what. In another one hundred years, the homophobes who stood against gay rights are going to be remembered in the same light as the people who supported slavery. You won't be remembered as some big champion of the faith. I'm not even sure that homosexuality is a sin. Jesus never mentioned it at all. Paul did, but Paul was also a sexist who said women were too stupid to talk in church. He also hated marriage and carnal relationships of any form. The only other place it's talked about as a sin is in the Old Testament, where it also says that if a woman gets raped, the guy who raped her just has to pay her father the money she's worth and it's cool. Oh, unless she's a servant, in which case it's her fault for tempting the man and she should be put to death.

My point is, is that you cannot expect the government to enforce your moral laws for you. It's not their job. If you want to make your beliefs the backbone of the country, then rally your churches and your people and get them to the box on voting day. Elect representatives that line up with your beliefs. What you don't do, is throw a temper tantrum, saying that the government should fix everything simply because you want them to.

I believe in this country. I don't believe in some past romanticized vision of our founding fathers, nor do I have much hope for our current state of affairs. But I see the way our country could be, if our ideals were carried to their logical conclusion. Freedom for all, as long as it didn't interfere with someone else's well-being. I believe that's what makes a patriot. Not a dedication to the right or the left. Not a need to return to the policies of the past. But a striving to make the country everything that it is able to be.

To make the country of the United States of America, great.