The Buck and Mike Blog

I encountered this excellent piece in the Cambridge Chronicle yesterday. The author, David Ertischek, shares my strong belief that something as important as the right to marriage equality is much too important to let the citizens decide.

Much has been made about how the state Legislature has refused to forward an amendment from the consitutional convention so residents can vote in 2008 on whether marriage would be defined only as a union of one man and one woman.

There should be no vote on same-sex marriage. . . and here is why. Read the story.

Many Americans have the mistaken notion that the majority should have their way on everything. In a stroke of genius, the Founding Fathers saw the danger of that view and created a system of checks and balances in our Constitution. We the People can vote on a President of the United States, but neither the President nor the People interprets the law. If the People got their way, the schools in the South would still be segregated. The courts ruled that something as important as equal rights is not a decision up for popular vote. That principle has never changed and, God willing, never will.

marriage equality, same-sex marriage

The American tradition of Thanksgiving grew from a celebration which the Pilgrims and Wampanoag held together at Plymouth in gratitude for the Pilgrim’s first harvest in 1621. Thanksgiving is now observed each year in the U.S. on the fourth Thursday of November.

Buckley and I love Thanksgiving, and we love giving thanks. This year, we’d like each of you to say what Thanksgiving means to you. Over the coming weeks, we ask anyone who cares to, to write what they are grateful for in their lives as a comment below. May your blessings and bounty be plentiful, and may there be enough love to go around every table.

Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, Wampanoag

On July 27, I had PRK laser eye surgery performed on my left eye. Since my right eye was already naturally fine for reading, the surgery in my left eye gave me monovision. » Read the rest of this entry »

PRK

Andrew Sullivan is a die-hard conservative, a gay British national who has lived in the U.S. for many years and has long been a proud and vocal member of cheerleader for the Republican Party. In recent months, however, while he remains a staunch conservative, he has written about his feeling that the Republican Party has gone off-track, and has abandoned what it has long stood for. » Read the rest of this entry »

Andrew Sullivan

You may think that it doesn’t matter if you vote when all odds are against you. But your vote is like a candle in the darkness. It’s like that first flower you see poking through the snow in spring. Your own vote in a place where you may be well outnumbered is a glimmer of hope, and lets others like you know they are not alone. It gives others who vote differently from you something to think about: Maybe I don’t have to be like everyone else, maybe I can think for myself, and the world won’t fall apart. It lets politicians know that someone out there cares about what that politician is doing, someone is willing to speak up for their beliefs. One lone vote against all odds, one well-considered vote, is the second most patriotic thing anyone can do. The most patriotic thing is to vote, period. The most un-American, unpatriotic thing is to think that your vote doesn’t count so you don’t even bother. » Read the rest of this entry »

• In 1845, one vote brought Texas into the Union. (Source: Texas State Library and Archives Commission)
• In 1876, one vote gave Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency of the United States. (Source: www.historychannel.com)
• In 1960, one vote per precinct elected John F. Kennedy the President of the United States. (Source: John F. Kennedy Library and Museum)

» Read the rest of this entry »