​Our Opinion / The Supreme Court’s landmark 5-4 ruling on same-sex marriage rocked the country

Love is Love

SCOTUS on marriage equality

The Supreme Court’s landmark 5-4 ruling on same-sex marriage rocked the country and the message rippled out around the world. Hear, hear!

North Dakota is one of the states that had embedded into its constitution definitions of marriage to be between one man and one woman. That too, now shall pass.

The public reaction to this ruling, predictably, has been mixed. The younger generation, especially, is ebullient. They are our future and they could not conceive of such narrow and destructive embodiments of human conditions reflected in anti-gay sentiment, practice and law.

Others, particularly those who’ve realized they have LGBT friends, family, coworkers, neighbors and so on, are also celebrating the historic decision handed down last week allowing same-sex marriage. It was a rainbow week to say the least.

On the other hand, the high court’s decision in some regards has picked the scab off age-old, festering wounds. Their reactions are disconcerting, disturbing and troubling to say the least, and in the minds of some, harbingers of things to come.

It’s sad when people of the cloth espouse anything less than unconditional love and instead stand in judgment as if they were gods themselves and had no blemishes in their own lives challenging their own salvation. It’s sad when supposedly “Christian” people cloak their intolerance in the words of scripture and ignore the evolved teachings of Jesus in the New Testament, conveniently forgetting his teachings and admonitions. It’s sad when church and state are so intertwined so as to forget that’s neither the foundation nor the principles of our constitutional laws in these United States and in this America, land of the free, home of the brave.

While the momentary change in law opens marriage to consensual adults so choosing, we must not overlook the challenges those same people oftentimes face daily: prejudice, discrimination, persecution, risks to housing and employment, and equal opportunity.

The journey is not over. The hearts of the many need to further be won over so the few can truly feel safe and protected and out of harm’s way.

“Love is love,” people were saying last week. “Love wins.” And it does, in the end. Meantime, however, people on both sides of this issue have opportunity now to show respect and to honor each others’ dignity.

Diverse viewpoints, protected speech, the right to affiliate religiously, to assemble and to present a redress of grievances to the government are what make America America. The process works, yet it also takes time, generations of time in some instances.

SCOTUS on Obamacare

Some 14,000-plus North Dakotans are at ease now after the high court’s 6-3 ruling last week that tax credits for universally accessible health insurance are not at risk in states that did not create their own health exchange. Hear, hear!

We celebrate this victory in light of this issue also being one that is evolving. At least for the moment, millions of Americans, and thousands of North Dakotans, have access to health care insurance regardless of employment, pre-conditions and economic status. That’s huge.

But, again, we emphasize that this is only one step in the direction of the process. In the end, what’s truly needed is a totally revamped health care delivery system with a single-payer insurance system. We need reform that addresses once and for all the greed that has diseased America’s health care system, plain and simple.

Racism? Say what?

We are debating the Confederate Flag and its meaning, yet not clearly acknowledging the racism that still exists and permeates into daily behavior nationally and even locally.

One of the reasons gay rights have advanced so far is people have gotten to know gay people personally. The same cannot be said for the racial divide between whites and others of color.

People are people. Our planet is diverse and many-faceted. No one race is superior to any other. No one person more deserving than any other.

Even here in Fargo, we are color blind too often when it comes to seeing elements of crime. We tend to “see” violent crime committed by people of color more than such crimes perpetrated by white people. And then we lash out.

One solution we respectfully offer is to diversify our institutions. If the police department wants six new officers, our recommendation is that those six people reflect our demographic diversity. We also need to stretch this mindset into all public sectors, public schools, public works, public sector jobs, services and leaders.

It’s overdue. And we’ll all benefit.