Thinking of July 4th: I learned yesterday that the phrase “American Dream” seems to have first appeared in a 1931 book by James Truslow Adams called “The Epic of America.” It’s a key idea of the book, discussed throughout, but Adams initially calls it “that American dream of a better, richer, and happier for all our citizens of every rank which is the greatest contribution we have as yet made to the thought and welfare of the world.” He writes about it beautifully and with real humility and sensitivity. I feel like I’ve found a new friend.
Categories: General
The American Dream has been a wonderful aspiration for all sorts of people. It is now in grave danger for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is the failure to extend equal rights to all of our citizens, including gay men and lesbians and their families. In this regard, I was struck by your testimony in the Perry case that were same-sex marriage adopted in this country, we would be more American. Too bad you spend such effort in unAmerican activities (as they used to be called).
Abolishing income tax would probably make the country more American too.
Jay, if you want to be taken seriously on this forum you’re going to have to present some arguments rather than just trashing others.
Tom, it is hard to have a serious conversation with you, who equate same-sex marriage with marrying trees and dogs, or with John Howard, who obsesses about males reproducing with each other. I do think it is worth pointing out the contradictions of someone who says that permitting same-sex would make us more American, yet argues against same-sex marriage while also waving the flag. I pledge allegiance to a flag that represents a country in which there is allegedly liberty and justice for all. I use the term allegedly because in reality we do not enjoy equal protection under the law, either now or when the pledge of allegiance was written. Nice fiction I guess.
Jay I categorically deny your condemnations.
The fact that you willfully misunderstand me is no surprise however. You also slate David Blankenhorn at every given opportunity without giving a moment’s thought to genuinely trying to understand what he’s saying. I don’t necessarily agree with what David’s saying, but I know a hatchet job when I see one and it upsets me.
Your particular experience is very rare, and you have a great deal of valuable contributions you could make to this conversation.
You could tell us your own personal story or you present your side of the argument, which you presumably know very well by now. However, you have refused to do either of those things, and you just throw out unsavory accusations left, right and centre. In your latest smear you don’t even try to avoid sounding like Senator McCarthy.
Your appeal to equality does not stand unless you can state what you think equality means and provide it with some justification. The reason that I don’t buy your simple assertions of “equality” is that banning polyamorous marriages also violate the principle of equality. It seems that society is quite happy with marriage being one area in which a blunt concept of equality does not hold.
You care deeply about this subject so you must have some strong arguments on your side. Don’t keep them to yourself. I’m eager to learn!
If you choose to stay and debate you will find that I am a considerate, caring and understanding person who is eager to discover the truth.
Yeah Jay, good point about Blankenhorn’s “gay marriage would be more American” thing. When I read this post, I wondered if he was thinking that same-sex procreation and genetic engineering are examples of American Dream advancement to a better, richer, and happier life, more American conquests of natural limits, more American Individualism and Self-Reliance smashing away the requirement of co-operating with someone of the other sex to have children, and then inheriting all these bad genes, instead of being able to create better children by going to commercial labs and professional experts to lift your family above the rabble who might be stuck with low-tech defective children.
As I said before, we don’t want to be that American anymore, we want to be less individualistic and competitive, and more cooperative and caring.
Who wants to start a bet on where David Blankenhorn stands on allowing genetic engineering and same-sex procreation? We’ll find out someday.
Tom, I have spilled my guts out about my marriage and my child. You, instead, want to equate my marriage with that between a man and a tree. Really. How can one have a mature conversation with that. Or with John Howard twisting every comment to something about whether people of the same sex can procreate. As for David Blankenhorn, my attitude toward him is more of sorrow than scorn. I feel sorry for him because he so wants to be thought well of; yet he also loves the money or prestige or whatever he gets by being a hired gun for those who would invalidate my marriage. He seems genuinely hurt that Frank Rich called him a bigot and many of us agree with that assessment, based on what he actually does as opposed to what he says. He admits himself that we would be “more American” if we had same-sex marriage across the land, yet fights against same-sex marriage because of some vague fears that, as David Boies demonstrated, are incoherent and inconsistent. On July 4, it is well to remember that equal rights are at the heart of the American dream though far from its reality.
Fair enough Jay, we’ll leave it at that.