Tuesday we have an opportunity to exercise our right as citizens of the United States to vote. I think voting is not only a right, but a responsibility. The fact that so many choose not to participate for whatever reason saddens me.
I will cast my vote for the persons who most closely represent my views. In this election, that means Jim Webb and Phil Kellam. No, I don’t agree with either man 100%, but given that I’m not running, they are the best choice for me.
On Ballot Issue #2, I’m voting yes. On Ballot Issue #3, I’m voting no. My reasons are spelled out in this post.
As for Ballot Issue #1 – I went in search of an appropriate Thomas Jefferson quote. What I cam across was this page, the top of which says:
Morality is intimately related to a nation’s government, for as James Madison wrote, “To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people is a chimerical idea.” Morality refers to conduct that is proper between members of society. Respect for the equal rights of every citizen becomes the foundation of morality and justice in a free society. Rightful government necessarily reflects this proper relationship in its policies and in its dealings with its own citizens and with other nations.
I don’t know who is responsible for writing that heading on the page, but it certainly sounds right to me. On this topic, Thomas Jefferson himself wrote:
God… has formed us moral agents… that we may promote the happiness of those with whom He has placed us in society, by acting honestly towards all, benevolently to those who fall within our way, respecting sacredly their rights, bodily and mental, and cherishing especially their freedom of conscience, as we value our own.
Voting NO on Ballot Issue #1 is the only moral choice.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Yes, go and vote people!
For Freedom.
(You’ll want to send this to pretty much everyone you know, I bet.)
Voting NO on Ballot Issue #1 is the only moral choice? On what basis? Consider your own words in response to a comment from me on one of your November 5 posts, “Voting NO: a couple more”.
“This is a democracy, not a theocracy, and was founded as such. Those of you who want to inject YOUR definition of religion and morality into the laws of this nation conveniently ignore that basic fact.”
To bolster your moral conviction that the Marriage Amendment is immoral (or evil), you quote the Founding Fathers. These men considered same-sex sex an abomination. What do you think they would have considered same-sex marriage? How do you ignore the irony?
Well, it’s all over but the lawsuits.
To citizen_tom, um, you must not be paying attention. Why do we need this overkill?? There are already laws which prevent gay marriage and laws which prevent gays from bestowing unto each other their wishes in situations where they are unable to speak for themselves (you just TELL ME how the latter is justifiable!! People are legally precluded from designating someone to attend to one’s life concerns?? This would be okay with YOU if you were in this situation with a significant other? The law tells you that your choice of guardian is unacceptable??).
This amendment, regardless of the advertising, has not one thing to do with “protecting” marriage. If marriage were to be “protected”, the amendment would say something like “when two people choose to unite in marriage, there will be no circumstance that will tear them asunder.” THAT’s what would keep marriage intact!!
Tell me, just TELL ME, how this amendment is PROTECTING marriage. How? Protecting it from what? From people who want to take care of and protect each other? From people who care so deeply about each other that each gives to the other his or her total faith and trust? How does it stop people who married from trashing their committment to each other?
And what skin is it off your nose if two people make a contract, call it whatever you want, that says I place this person in charge of me if something happens to me and that’s what I need?
The Constitution is about protecting rights, not removing them. Why should this hateful and vindictive amendment be added to it?
Sorry for the diatribe, the voting is over and it is going to be what it is going to be.
But the thinking that sticking this very ill-thought-out rights-denying amendment into the once-revered document known as Jefferson’s Virginia Constitution just says to me that those behind it and those who support it have missed some very important history classes.
In the short term. I expect troglodytes like you and Tom and other Yes voters will be shown to be the moral failures, in the long run.
With nearly 90% of the vote in, “Yes” is up 58%-42%. As a “Yes” poll worker, I’ll sleep well tonight. 🙂
HMR, you and me both!
The Washington Compost has it as 65-35 with 95% of the precincts reporting. I guess 65% of Virginians are social conservatives.
I am disapointed in the results of the vote.
I am proud of the work Vivian put into this.
Not social conservatives.
Bigots.
Be proud in that label, Jack. You and every other other moral cripple that voted for it.
This lawyer and his $$$ in tax revenue? Looking at the front door.
Fuck you and your ass backwards people.
And no, I don’t apologize for that language. You don’t respect me as a human being? I don’t respect your pointless fucking sensitivities.
Hmmm. Someone earlier on this blog said
“Those voting YES: Social Conservatives
“Those voting NO: Everyone Else”
Respect for you as a human being does not mean we have to condone your behavior.
Pat, the legal institution of marriage is not about religion. The legal institution of marriage protects the rights of children. The legal institution of marriage does not exist to endorse various types of sexual relationships.
The marriage amendment protects the legal institution of marriage from a lawsuiting minority (comment # 2) using the courts to effect changes for which the majority sees no justification. The marriage amendment will not take any skin off your nose or mine.
Vivian- I apologize to you for the language in that post. This is your forum, and I don’t mean to disrespect you.
But Jack, and Tom? Words don’t begin to reflect the obscenity of your actions.
Thank you, MB, but Tom and I cannot claim all the credit. There were also the 1,321,175 other Virginias who voted for this amendment, not to mention the two million registered voters who decided the issues and candidates were not even worth the time to vote.