I am totally stunned. Well, ok, since I’m used to people making complete and utter fools of themselves on the blogosphere (including yours truly, I expect) I shouldn’t be stunned.
My local PBS station has a show called “Editor’s Roundtable” where the most-usual guests include:
* Bob Kittle, editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial page.
* Tim McClain, editor of San Diego Metropolitan Magazine.
* John Warren, editor and publisher of San Diego Voice & Viewpoint.
Homeboys were inna house today. Host Gloria Penner spent the initial segment on the gay marriage issue; as most know the Cali Supreme Court struck down anti-gay marriage law recently. So counties statewide are issuing licenses and hosting same-sex marriages. [hopefully the podcast will eventually appear here; Update: This should be the podcast]
Now typically, Bob Kittle is the most conservative voice on the roundtable, unsurprising given that he edits the right-wing U-T. John Warren typically strikes a more lefty tone, particularly on issues related to class, economic policy and the rights of minorities. Not today my friends, not today.
Warren came out full throated against same-sex marriage on “moral” grounds…hilarious comment about how the people’s opinion didn’t matter because “well if you asked the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah…”. Unsurprisingly, Warren outed himself as some sort of minister. And then he went on and on in some nonsensical screed that failed to offer any insight other than “my view of morality is agin’ it!”.
Kittle, otoh, struck the no-big-deal, this-will-all-pass and opinion-is-clearly-shifting tones. I happen to think he’s right.
Now here’s what really gets me going is that Warren didn’t really have any decent points other than “my religion is against it”. And nobody really pinned him down. That’s what kills me about the show. Gloria Penner should have devoted the whole show to this issue if she was going to raise it. Interest ran high after Warren’s idiotic opening salvo because the phone lines were instantly clogged. (Lucky me, I have a blog to vent :-))
And what really, really, really, really….ELEVENTY!!!1111!!!!..really gets me going is, surprise, surprise, Warren is African American. D00d.
What gets me going about these African American nutjob moralists who are against gay marriage is …what in the FUCK is different about being against gay marriage and being against interracial marriage?!!?? Loving decision strike any chords? Warren, bless his heart, actually alluded to it briefly while saying “it’s different”.
No, it is not “different”. Not in the minds of those for/against anyway. What people like Warren need to be fronted with is not the current reality of whether inter-racial and same-sex marriage is viewed as “different”. What they need to be fronted with is what the anti-miscegenation arguments were then. Back when it was still an issue. Because the argument was indistinguishable from the current one against gay marriage. Morals, tradition, unnatural, God’s will, pseudo-scientific wankery, unbelievably blind evaluation of history…all leading to the high-volume assertion that change was going to RUINZ EVERYTHING!!!!!!! (including the economy).
Guess what? They were all completely, utterly and totally wrong. And the people who love Obama, Tiger, Halle, JLo….the list goes on and on and on of mixed race tanfolk who the public can’t get enough of. Not to mention your friends, neighbors and colleagues of the tan persuasion. Many of these people are the product of inter-racial marriages. Which clearly failed to ruin everything. Those marriages went along just like anyone else’s. Some happy and lasting. Some failed. Mixed-race couples went along with their lives just like anyone else, being good neighbors and citizens. Contributing to the world, not fucking it up.
So John Warren and your moralizing cotravelers. The burden is on you. Because the evidence so far suggests that you are completely full of crap. Letting people who love each other build a life together is a damn good thing. Even if you don’t happen to like ’em. Not one of your anticipated bad outcomes is plausible, never mind likely to occur.
I mean, frankly, I don’t like your bigoted asses that much either. And really, I’d rather you didn’t get to reproduce or pass your idiocy along to innocent children in any way . Perhaps we should run your hateful ass out of teaching positions, out of the clergy, out of the Scouts and deny you the right to adopt for good measure.Then we could get on with the business of living our lives and making things good for as many of our fellow Earth citizens as possible.
‘course, I’m kinda liberal so I can’t say shit like that.
Sun Dappled Forest 
I missed the show today, but loved your recap. Pleasantly surprised to hear Kittle’s reaction on the issue.
Thanks for stopping by Chuck…and CONGRATULATIONS!
Dunno what Kittle’s dealio is. He ever slightly so often makes sense. McClain was essentially MIA except for some lame platitude about how this was going to be a Big Change.
I doubt it, I really do. The dominoes are falling and I picture maybe 2-3 more noisy stands and then they’ll all STFU and the states will do the right thing and we’ll all move on.
to the important shit like digging this country out of the fucking bushrovian hole we’re in.
I also am against same sex marriage, just because I AM !
So don’t fukking have one! And but out of other people’s affairs! We have had gay marriage where I live for about five years now and you know what has changed? More people who love each other can establish families, be at the bedside when the other is ill, and generally have a stable, recognized relationship. So chill out.