The Blog of Photographer Jacob Vorpahl.
Ya know, God has a funny way of telling you things. I’ve actually written this post once already and when I went to save it, my site temporarily crashed and the whole thing was erased. I’m guessing it was a little too harsh and mean sounding, so I’m going to tone it tone it down for this one.
I consider myself to be a reasonably calm person. I say reasonably because there aren’t that many things that get me fired up and angry. But I do have a temper, just like everyone else, and today I was reminded of that. When we vote on November 4th, besides determing the next President of the United States (God, please help us on that one), each state will likely have a number of other things on the ballot that need to be decided. Here in Florida, we have Amendment 2. If passed, it will state that marriage is legally the union of ONE MAN and ONE WOMAN. Nothing else.
Personally, I support it. You don’t have to, that’s why we vote. Majority rules. Now, we can argue about it, and I would, but you’re still entitled to your opinion. No one can take that away from you. Another thing we have, thanks to the First Amendment of our U.S. Constitution, is the right to free speech. I can say what I want, within reason and appropriateness (i.e. no racism or hate speech), and you can do the same with those same standards. It’s our constitutional right and we cherish that. It’s lets us be ourselves.
Well, to show our support for Amendment 2 where I work (I will note I work for a Christian organization), we put out signs on our property that say “Yes on 2″ and “One Man, One Women”. Note that this is PRIVATE property. Well, since we’ve put them out they’ve been knocked over, ripped apart and stolen. That really rubs me the wrong way, but what happened over the weekend has really gone too far. I came to work this morning to find our constitutionally protected signs on our private property mangled, on the ground, and replaced with these:
Now, even as I rewrite this, I’m trying to keep a cool head. It’s getting me angry all over again, but, I’ll try and stay mellow.
What burns me up about this is that the people who did this are the same type of people who will sick the ACLU on anyone who even THINKS about violating their free speech. If I were to do this to someone who had signs up against Amendment 2, you better believe that they would make a media circus out of it and I’d end up getting sued if not arrested. It’s ok for them to exercise their right to free speech, but it’s not ok for me. So since my world views don’t line up with their world view, it’s ok for them to violate my constitutionally protected rights.
I have a lot more I’d like to say and get off my chest, but, since it would probably just turn into an angry rant that would not help anything, I’ll stop here. If you are against Amendment 2, but haven’t done things like this, you deserve a pat on the back. I have no problem with you except our obvious difference of opinion. However, if you’re the person or type of person who would do this, and that includes doing the same thing to someone exercising their First Amendment rights against Amendment 2, you’re part of the most ignorant and useless part of our society.
Oh, and since I do have free speech and this is my site, please check out Yes2Marriage.org for information on Amendment 2. No signs to trample on here.
