Priorities

Our legislators have been busy this week, and I have to wonder about their priorities. The President called for a Constitutional Amendment Protecting Marriage that would legally define marriage as the union between a man and a woman. I'm sorry, but I didn't know that marriage needed protecting. From homosexuals? Oh, them, yeah, right.

The Senate didn't spend a lot of time, but more than was necessary to discuss how homosexuals are ruining marriage and children and everyone else and sending this country straight to hell. Attention Washington, how many heterosexuals are threatened by gay marriage? There are obviously a few, like James Dobson and his crazy crew in Colorado, but really, not enough to make this kind of fuss about it. In the end, the 49 to 48 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to end debate.

The Democrats said the vote was an attempt to muster conservative support ahead of the November congressional elections and divert public attention from more pressing issues like the war in Iraq that reflect poorly on Republicans.

I agree with the Democrats and I would much rather have the president and everyone in Congress spend their time figure out how to bring the troops home NOW! Our soldiers are dying while our legislators are playing games about the sexuality of this country.

Also, Congress voted this week to increase the indecency fines ten times for television shows that may not air obscene material at any time, and may not air indecent material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. when children are more likely to be in the audience.

"We're not going to stop until marriage between a man and a woman is protected," about the Marriage amendment and "This is a victory for children and families," said Senate sponsor Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. "The higher fines were needed, he said, "in a world saturated with violent and explicit media." about the indecency fines. I'm glad Senator Brownback is worried about violence on TV, which may be why photos of the war are not shown, but that's another subject. (26 soldiers from Kansas have been killed in Iraq since the war began)

"We simply cannot strip marriage of its core that it's a union between a man and a woman," said Arizona Republican Jon Kyl. (58 soldiers from Arizona have been killed since the war began)

Rep. Kevin Brady, R-TX, said the House will proceed on what will be a solely symbolic vote on gay marriage ban "because it's important at times to let everyone be on the record on where they stand on key issues." (222 soldiers from Texas have been killed since the war began)

I could go on, but really, our legislators need to pay attention to the public. The numbers of people who disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the situation with Iraq is in the 60 percentile. With 2484 US casualties in Iraq, our legislators need to work on ending the war instead of whipping up a frenzy about a non-issue like sexuality.