Well, well, well...

An interesting thing happened recently in my adopted home county (Doña Ana County, NM). The County Clerk decided to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. A local minister from some off-beat religion agreed to perform marriage ceremonies. As you may expect, same-sex couples from throughout the region flocked here to be married.

But, the boom may be ending... the County Clerk of Bernalillo County (Albuquerque) has agreed to do the same. Albuquerque has an airport served by many carriers and is much more accessible.

(UPDATE: Eight New Mexico counties are now issuing same-sex marriage licenses.) 

NM Governor Susanna Martinez is not pleased. She thinks we cannot have a situation where the legality of marriage varies county by county. She wants a vote of the people to settle the question on a statewide basis.

While I oppose same-sex marriage, Technically I agree with both the Governor and the County Clerks.

Recently, August 18, we observed the 93rd anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protected the right to vote, irrespective of gender: Woman's Suffrage.

The 19th Amendment was good - enumerating that right, but was not really necessary. The 9th Amendment assured that enumerated rights did not deny or disparage other rights. The 10th Amendment went a step further; it says that unless something is specifically prohibited by the Constitution, that right is retained to the states or to the people. Nothing in the U.S. Constitution specifically prohibited women from voting, so they always (at least since March 4, 1789) had that right.

The New Mexico Constitution has similar provisions. Article II, Sec. 18 says: "Equality of rights under law shall not be denied on account of the sex of any person."

Article II, Sec. 23, "Reserved Rights", has language identical to the 10th amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Thus, it does not specifically deny the right of same-sex couples to marry.

Then, there is that other matter; custom. or, the good of the many. Our second president, John Adams, commented, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Why did he say that? Because the very nature of immorality is to deny moral accountability to anyone but one's self! Immorality says, “I will do what I please”; morality says, “I will restrain my behavior for the good of myself and the good of the many.”

Recently, NY Senator Charles Schumer made the absurd statement that 'none of the Constitutional Amendments are absolute. You may not falsely yell "Fire" in a crowded theater'. As per John Adams' premise, surely no moral person believes the 1st Amendment was written to protect the right to falsely yell "Fire" in a crowded theater!

Marriage, between one man and one woman has been the custom throughout recorded history. As  British Historian, Paul Johnson said, “The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.”

History also tells us that homosexuality has existed for eons. Is not the current trend of same-sex marriage one of the 'glib assumptions' Johnson referenced?