“Just who do we think we are?”
That’s the anguished question Chief Justice John Roberts asked in his dissent to the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage.
He wrote: “…the Court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the States and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia, for the Kalahari Bushmen and the Han Chinese, the Carthaginians and the Aztecs. Just who do we think we are?”
Well, Mr. Chief Justice, we clearly are not the Kalahari Bushmen and the Han Chinese, the Carthaginians and the Aztecs.
Just who do we think we are? We’re Americans. And we’ve always had this funny idea about freedom and liberty. We like ‘em. A lot. And we consistently expand what those words mean in our republic.
We started by throwing out the King and his cronies. We fought a Civil War over freeing the slaves. Blacks fought for civil rights. Women fought for the right to vote and to be full citizens. We fought global wars against imperial and fascist tyranny and terror. We fought communist tyranny. We fight against terrorism.
People fought for the right to marry people of other races. Now people have fought for – and won – the right to marry people of the same sex.
Yes, that upsets a lot of good people. That always happens on the march to freedom.
But, Mr. Chief Justice, you might reflect on a certain document that we celebrate on the Fourth of July. It reads:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
That’s just who we are. Happy Independence Day.
“Just who do we think we are?”
That’s the anguished question Chief Justice John Roberts asked in his dissent to the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage.
He wrote: “…the Court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the States and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia, for the Kalahari Bushmen and the Han Chinese, the Carthaginians and the Aztecs. Just who do we think we are?”
Well, Mr. Chief Justice, we clearly are not the Kalahari Bushmen and the Han Chinese, the Carthaginians and the Aztecs.
Just who do we think we are? We’re Americans. And we’ve always had this funny idea about freedom and liberty. We like ‘em. A lot. And we consistently expand what those words mean in our republic.
We started by throwing out the King and his cronies. We fought a Civil War over freeing the slaves. Blacks fought for civil rights. Women fought for the right to vote and to be full citizens. We fought global wars against imperial and fascist tyranny and terror. We fought communist tyranny. We fight against terrorism.
People fought for the right to marry people of other races. Now people have fought for – and won – the right to marry people of the same sex.
Yes, that upsets a lot of good people. That always happens on the march to freedom.
But, Mr. Chief Justice, you might reflect on a certain document that we celebrate on the Fourth of July. It reads:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
That’s just who we are. Happy Independence Day.