state's wrongs

The newest biggest thing in politics is the catch phrase, “individual states rights”. Suddenly the United part of the States of America seems to be tarnished and each state wants to act as a subsidiary of one.

As with the successful denial of same sex marriages by the individual states who felt that equality is not really equal, there is a movement that wants to press for laws and regulations which can deny anyone freedoms that the Constitution of the UNITED STATES insisted be included to make this country just and democratic. The individual biases, fears, delusions seem to be greater than the sum of the whole. And the minority, the smaller voice, the at risk populations are being cock blocked and discriminated by the vocal bunch of self loathing mean spirited men and women wanting to drown out fair and right.

Government is too big the Tea Bag Brigade scream, we don’t want oversight, we don’t want government to take responsibility for our every day existence, we don’t want people we perceive who don’t look like us, sound like us, hate like us to tell US what to do. It is not a democracy when those we hate are in charge.

By what standards are we to abide when it comes to too much government in this country. Is it too much government when states are flooded or tornadoes wreak havoc, or oil spills and destroy the livelihoods of fishermen and the federal government intercedes? Was it too much intervention when the federal government decided that inter-racial marriages were legal and not a curse from the devil? Is it too much interference when the federal government sets safety standards for baby furniture, automobiles, and food products? Was it too much government oversight when the government decided separate but equal was not equal and blacks in this country could drink from the same water fountain as whites?

By whose choice should liberty and justice for all be removed from the Constitution of the United States? Can some states decide that their state will only be a Baptist state or only welcome born again evangelical Christians? Can some states decide to disallow gays and lesbians from working as teachers, social workers, nurses, doctors? By whose choice is it that laws protecting minorities are no longer valuable because they do not suit the so called majority’s interests?

When we become fixated on us, and decide they are the enemy no one is safe. When the greater good is no longer valuable and is replaced with the selfish few desires, tyranny triumphs.

It started long ago with the Witch Hunt Trials of New Enland. It sifted over to the 19^th century with the Civil War, when the Southern States felt it was their right to own slaves. No federal government could dictate values. It seeped into the southern states later in the next century when white only laws were what each sovereign state government felt was just. It found its way in the 70’s when predicated on a misinterpretation of the Bible, (because then as now some states seem to think the Bible carries more weight) the LGBT communities were the demon seed and many states denied any right to this demographic. It has crawled into the 90’s when suddenly some states felt the Institution of Marriage would teeter and fall if anyone but one man and one woman wed. It is now amassing in Arizona where if you look like an illegal or a Mexican or brown skinned you must be one.

States rights seem so wrong when the right they wish for always seem to deny many of the freedoms and fortunes as described in the Constitution of the United States. Wonder who is next in being told we don’t like your kind in this state? Wonder how many independent countries can be made from 50 states?

I worry when state's rights turn out to be so wrong.