Now that I’ve had time to process the same-sex marriage discussion in Brattleboro, I have a few thoughts that I’d like to share.  There is no wisdom or special insight in this article, just a few thoughts that seem to me to be the right thing to say.

First, to get the political thing out of the way: I’m still pissed off at Governor Douglas for saying that same-sex marriage is “divisive” while, at the same time, using the issue to fundraise.

That said, I want to talk about the hearing itself.  I don’t think anyone went into that hearing expecting to change their mind, and I doubt anyone did change their mind.  What happened, however, at least from my point of view, was transformational in a very different fashion.

People who had supported civil unions at the time now feel as though they’re inadequate and now think that they’re helping to perpetuate an unjust system.  People who had been willing to accept civil unions as an incremental step have simply moved beyond that and if that room was any indication, we’ve got the real energy to say “this is absurd.”  The people who support full legal rights for same sex couples were so vibrant and clear last night.  The people who oppose them?  They didn’t show.  Not a one.

So we had dozens of speakers, one after another, saying why civil unions aren’t enough and why marriage rights are so necessary.  And no, my mind was not changed– I agreed with every one of them.

But I was really moved by this, in a major way.  The stories were so personal and I’ve heard so many of these stories that I really thought I was beyond being moved by them.

I’m not.

I listened to people talk about history, about love, about commitment, about their children, about their parents, about their spouses and their ex-spouses and everyone in that room was just such an important part of that.

Something changed for me last night.  I’m not sure what it was, but for the first time, I think, I see same-sex marriage as inevitable.  Not “likely in the next 20 years,” not “possible in the next decade.”  

Inevitable.

And it’s really simple why: it’s true.  it’s real.  There was a time when I thought the law was a way to propel society forward, that having same sex marriage will make people recognize it.  That may still be true, but now it’s the law that’s behind the people.  Same-sex marriage is real and it’s happening today and it’s the law that needs to catch up with it.

We, in Vermont, are better than to have second class citizens.  A law which specifically and intentionally carves out a place for some of us to be second class diminishes all of us.  Laws which are designed to “protect’ marriage are laws based in fear and they, instead, demean marriage, making it seem to be something weak, brittle and frail.

Laws which treat Vermonters as though we need to be protected from same-sex marriage, as though it is a threat to us?  These are laws that should embarrass us all.  

We are better than this.

We are stronger than this.

And when same-sex marriage finally does come to the state of Vermont, just as will happen when it comes to the United States as a whole, the reaction will not be one of shock or dismay.  It will, quite frankly, be five short words:

“What took you so long?“

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

Here's an invitation to add your thoughts on the current unraveling of the mortgage crisis. Today the Bush administration took a first step toward alleviating a worst-case, somewhat likely scenario. But some leading financial institutions don't believe today's action goes far enough:

Barclays Capital … estimates that only about 12 percent of all subprime borrowers, or 240,000 homeowners, would get relief. 

Things get intriguing below the fold: 

What's intriguing to me is how careful the administration describes the steps they are taking in order to hold off a huge economic disaster as, loosely paraphrased, “not a government bail-out for speculative investors.”  A bail out?  Isn't that when the federal government throws money at the problem?

What's intriguing is how American consumers — almost as a group — are being depicted as speculative investors who acted with fraudulence against loan providers.  As if they were savvy to the ins and outs of some of the most speculative, financially esoteric, and predatory loans that even the banks wouldn't hold as a liablity for very long.

What's intriguing is how American consumers are being attacked as if they had access to the same type of financial and lobbying power corporations and banking institutions wield on Wall Street and K Street.

Someone made an interesting comparison to the Banking & Loans bailout not so long ago, when these institutions made some very, very poor speculative decisions.  Not only did the federal government step in, they also applied American taxpayer dollars to bail out the industry.  Today's steps to negotiate with mortgage holders to freeze interest rate hikes doesn't come anywhere near in scope to this type of bail out.  That's intriguing, isn't it?

Then there's the post dot com era with corporate and accounting scandals.  The government didn't bail out Enron, but once again it was American consumers in the form of investors and employees who footed the bill for corporate chicanary.  What's intriguing about responses to today's actions includes this one:

In some ways it's worse than a taxpayer bailout,” said John Berlau, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the institute. “It pressures an industry to essentially alter the terms of millions of contracts, and it's going to make investors think twice about investing in America again.”

So now the corporate think tanks are worried that an interest rate freeze is going to inflict worse investment damage than the Enron meltdown,  America's national debt, the declining dollar, or even the sudden lack of liquidity American consumers will have to invest in the stock market.  Remember, most of the real estate investment dollars that went into real estate starting in 2000 was being pulled or diverted from the stock market's burst bubble.

Yep, it's those darn American homebuyers.  They're out to wreck America once again.  The same folks holding up Home Depot, the auto industry, the insurance industry, and a good chunk of the global economy.  Don't let them off the hook because they bought into an ultra-complicated predatory home loan that even most professional finance officers would have a hard time deciphering.  

What do you think?  Is it time for American consumers to form a Wall Street corporation of their own?  And maybe a K Street lobbying firm, too.

I'll bet 220 million modest united against this kind of malarky in the form of corporate and lobbyist representation could muscle together enough money to take on big business and corporate funded policy makers.  

Open discussion.  The forum is yours.