[Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] Bambi in public debate

[Ricky Baldwin]

Thanks for posting this, Karen.

It's certainly an important struggle, as all civil
rights are, but actually I wouldn't anticipate this
discussion being either "thought-provoking" or
"entertaining".  Maybe that's just the old grouch in
me.  

The issue is pretty clear, I think.  The State should
not exclude certain classes of its citizens from
participating in equality before the law, regardless
of whether individual religious groups in the country
are willing to help.  Any other position gives state
sanction to one religious faction over another.

And that's exactly why it was a useful hobby horse to
turn out the Religious Right for our Torturer-in-Chief
last election.  

Silly and anti-intellectual arguments about "Adam and
Steve", extinction of the human race (we are not
increasing as fast as we could, you know), or how many
same-sex sexual/parenting relationships among how many
other species of animals would make it okay - or not -
for humans to follow suit, as if such a thing could be
legislated or harassed away, seem to me beside the
point but much more likely to arise in the discussion
than anything pertinent.  Oh- and the Clinton Admin's
"sanctity of marriage" nonsense is sure to come up,
too.  Ugh!   

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to anyone willing to
sit through this, but I'd rather have a root canal or
argue about whether the moon is made of green cheese. 
Sorry.

Ricky

--- Karen Medina <kmedina at uiuc.edu> wrote:

> Bambi (John Bambanic of the Daily Illini) will be in
> a 
> debate this evening, opposing gay marriage. 
> 
> Thursday, April 20th, at 7:00pm
> Illini Union Room A
> 
> "We anticipate a thought-provoking and entertaining
> night"
> 
> ---- Original message ----
> >There's going to be a debate on gay marriage in the
> union 
> this Thursday at 7.
> >
> >Gay marriage is one of the most divisive issues
> facing this
> >country and our campus community today. In order to
> 
> stimulate discussion on this issue, the Illinois
> Student 
> Senate (ISS) is holding a debate on the issue on
> Thursday, 
> April 20th, at 7:00pm in Illini Union Room A . The
> debate 
> will be based around audience participation and will
> feature 
> two students on each side of the issue. Opposing gay
> 
> marriage will be Leo Buchignani of the Orange & Blue
> 
> Observer and John Bambenek of the Daily Illini.
> Supporting 
> it will be Coleman Evans, a graduate student in
> Educational 
> Policy and Women's Studies, and Brian Pierce of the
> Daily 
> Illini. The event will be moderated by the chair of
> the ISS 
> Cultural & Minority Affairs Committee, Zenobia
> Ravji. We 
> anticipate a thought-provoking and entertaining
> night and 
> encourage you to attend and voice your thoughts on
> this 
> important issue today.
> >
> >Brian Pierce
> >Junior, Political Science
> >University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> _______________________________________________
> Peace mailing list
> Peace at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace
> 


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