A waste of Senate time

At work I sometimes listen to C-Span.

Yes, really.

In case you haven't been watching the news, the Senate is currently debating the Federal Marriage Amendment. The little patience I usually have for this particular topic is clearly gone after just a few hours of this debate. The following is a comment I sent to Senator Kennedy after signing his petition to defeat this amendment (if you'd like to sign as well, go to http://www.tedkennedy.com/RejectTheFMA). I'm not sure how clear it is, or how well written, but I do think it gets my point across.

The states are dealing with this in their own time in their own way. And that is as it should be: marriage is a state issue. Marriage is not a federal issue. Marriage has NEVER been a federal issue.

I've been listening to some of the Senate debate on this issue. Some of the senators who support this amendment say that basically, this won't change anything. That the states are already outlawing same-sex marriage and that this amendment won't affect civil unions. Which leaves us with just the one question: What is the point? They're basically saying that this won't change a single thing. So why is it being discussed? Why is the Senate wasting its time on this?

I've also seen Senators pointing to the percentages by which their states passed similar amendments to their own state constitutions. They are incredibly foolishly stating that all of the people who voted for the state amendments are also for the FMA. That's ridiculous. Many of the Americans who voted to outlaw [same-sex] marriage in their own states want no part of a federal marriage amendment. These voters know that this is a state issue. These voters know that this is NOT something that belongs in the federal Constitution. What's more, many of these people recognize that the state amendments do indeed restrict people's rights and they recognize that such a thing should never be a part of the federal Constitution.

So as a Democratic senator said today (and I'm sorry that I don't remember which senator it was), "why are we talking about this when there are people bleeding in Iraq?"

And yes, I feel the same way about the flag burning amendment that's up for discussion soon.

These are divisive issues that are allowing the Republicans to turn the Senate floor into their own personal campaign trails. We all know that these are exactly the kinds of things that bring the extreme right wing out of the woodwork and to the polls. And as the Republicans are currently running scared, they've brought a couple of hot, completely frivolous, topics to the forefront to try to get a few votes back.

It's a disgusting use of our tax dollars. I don't want to pay all of you to discuss the definition of "marriage" while we still don't have an exit plan for Iraq; while the administration appears to be approaching Iran much the way they did Iraq; while the interest on my student loans rises as my chances of a job after graduation continues to plummet; while I continue to try to get my health insurance to pay up for the biopsy I had a year and a half ago (they're concerned a breast lump was perhaps a pre-existing condition!!!); while my grandpa leaves the pharmacy without his medication because it was so expensive; while the government is moving toward taking my right to decide what happens to my body away from me; while more and more children are left behind; and while there are more issues that are just as critical, just as important, I can't go on any further right now because it's simply too depressing.

My comment to this Senate is this: keep the campaigning off the Senate floor and get back to the real work.

And to whatever Republican senator commented essentially that you all really can walk and chew gum at the same time: when you're wasting your time on the Senate floor with this ridiculous debate, you are NOT getting any real work done. You can be as flip and cute as you'd like, but as long as you're up at that podium being flip and cute, you're not meeting with your committees or your constituents and you're not discussing anything real that can actually HELP Americans and you are not getting any real work done.