Apparently seeking to placate the more vocal members of the LGBT community, the President signed a memorandum granting a few domestic partner benefits to federal employees-health and survivor benefits not among them.
I have a few problems with this scenario...
First, the action only affects a very few people...
Second, Obama used a memorandum...for those of you who don't know...memorandums are only in force for the lifetime of Obama's presidency...
In other words, if he should fail to be re elected in 2012, the memorandum dies...If he is re elected then it's good until 2016....
Memorandums come with a sunset clause....much like the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which must be renewed every 25 years or it expires...
Sunset Clauses are typically used by Presidents and Lawmakers to get the opposition to compromise...as in....”sign off on it now.... harvest the goodwill, now...it will go away later....”
Now I'm assuming, optimistically, that Obama thinks he can get things taken care of by 2012-meaning he can get DOMA repealed and DADT off the books and therefore all he needed was a memorandum today and the future will take care of itself...
I know he has only been in office for 150 days. I know that in order to spend political capital, you've got to make some first. In other words, he needs help changing this massive agenda so he has to quietly placate certain people in order to get them to go along with him.
However, while I still counsel younger community members to be patient, I am a little ticked.
Check that....I'm a lot ticked..
I've been waiting all my life.....and like Fannie Lou Hamer said....I'm sick n tired of being sick n tired...
I am ticked off at the President's silence....He needs to utter something other than tired platitudes.
And this not only includes the LGBT community...but the Black community as well...
Unemployment nationwide may be only 10%....In the Black community it is double that easily...
“last hired...first fired” is still in operation..
I'm sorry Mr President....but right is right.......
He has admitted the laws are wrong....He is the one who chose to do something about it...yet.. he remains silent...
There comes a time.....Like Lincoln and like FDR...like Truman...
When as President..you have to say....damn the law.....I will do what's right....like you promised...
Obama needs to remember that if Lincoln hadn't done what was right and just...Obama's Daddy's ancestors would only have seen the shores of America by disembarking from a slave ship...
Obama needs to remember that his mother and father literally broke the law to give him life....
It was right and it was just...
All these years...he has been chasing his destiny....Now that he is where he should be..in the White House...
He hesitates....I don't understand....
The Department of Justice equating same sex marriage with incest....cuts deeply...it is indefensible and completely wrong....
The White House defense of an indefensible act...is an insult to my intelligence and has me second guessing my vote back in November....
I remain in Obama's corner....
But today....I'm just too ticked to be a fan...
"We only want, we only ask, that when we stand up and talk about one nation under God liberty, justice for everybody, we only want to be able to look at the flag, put our right hand over our hearts, repeat those words, and know that they are true."
...Barbara Jordan, Late, Great US Congresswoman and member of the LGBT community.
I wouldn't vote in favor of gay marriage but I'm curious about the details of DOMA.
ReplyDeleteWould it just outlaw gay marriage or would it just protect a church's right to refuse to perform the srevices?
Perhaps it's just my personality, but I feel so guilty. So many of my LGBT friends believed the hype, and campaigned so ardently on his behalf and now this foolishness. I feel as though I need to apologize to them and offer them a refund.
ReplyDeleteNow, I don't envy his position. I know that practically every decision he makes has some political implication.
But I also know that it seems as if he's taking for granted those votes he sees as sure things (this includes the black vote) while catering to a wishy washy few.
I just hope he gets it right.
DOMA stands for defense of marriage act...it has been law since 1996...it says legal marriage in America can only happen between a man and a woman...There is no law on the books that can force a church to perform same sex marriage...that was a scare tactic put forth by conservatives in order to get DOMA passed in the first place...
ReplyDelete