No on Prop 8

As an aspiring journalist I've grown to learn that without the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, I basically have nothing. I love my freedom of speech, my right to peacefully assemble, my right to petition the government and my right to practice any religion I like. The First Amendment is probably the only great thing about this country outside of the NBA.

On November 4^th (or earlier if you're voting absentee like me), we all will have the opportunity to have our voices heard and we'll have some pretty important decisions to make, especially out here in California. On the ballot this year, there is a Proposition in line set to take away some of our most fundamental rights as citizens. Proposition 8, if passed, will take away a minority group's First Amendment right of freedom of expression.Taking away the rights of gay and lesbian citizens is just the first step in taking away the rights from the rest of us. If one can say that the First Amendment doesn't apply to those who aren't heterosexual, who's going to stop them from saying that the First Amendment doesn't apply to me? If we can't fight for their rights now, there will be no one to fight for ours later. This isn't about whose religion says what, it's about interpreting the constitution the right way. Let's all grow up and do the right thing. Gay and lesbian couples are not going to stop you from practicing your religion. Your priest or pastor is not going to have to perform gay or lesbian ceremonies – and most importantly, your children are NOT going to be taught gay marriage in public schools. Hell, they don't even teach regular marriage in public schools.

I think it's imperative that we, as a state, make the right decisions when voting just days from now. When we look at the underlining of Proposition 8, we have to consider everything that minority groups have had to go through in the past. African Americans had to struggle just to become citizens in this country. Women had to struggle just to have the right to vote. 18 year old men had to fight for the right to vote while they were being sent off to wars and now we think it's a good idea to say that men and women don't have the right to marry who they want to marry.

Obviously, a man marrying a man or a woman marrying a woman isn't the "traditional" marriage, but really, who gives a shit? In a society where the number of "traditional" divorces per year consistently hovers around 1,000,000, why should we be worrying about gay and lesbian couples tying the proverbial knot? More importantly, who decided that banning certain groups from being married is constitutional?

We live in a country where the citizens have the wrong idea about how this country was founded. We tend to assume that this country was built on Christianity when it clearly states in our constitution that this country was built on the freedom of religion – which also means the freedom from religion. As U.S. citizens, we have just as much a right to not practice Christianity as we do, so why should the union of two people who feel they are in love be based upon one particular religion's views? The short answer is, it shouldn't. As much as one might not like the idea of a gay or lesbian union, it's unconstitutional to revoke the right to marry from anyone.

Become media literate, read something and go out and vote. Stop feeding the bullshit, starve all of it. This shouldn't be a controversial issue. It's 2008.