Better And Better

If you don't draw yours, I won't draw mine. A police officer, working in the small town that he lives in, focusing on family and shooting and coffee, and occasionally putting some people in jail.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The things we do.

My wife and I shop for food. We shop for clothes. We prepare meals for ourselves and for the family. We help prepare lunches for the kids. We clean up after meals. We oversee our children's cleanup of the house. We direct our children in matters of hygiene. We tutor our kids in schoolwork. We take our kids to school. We do home maintenance. We go to our jobs for our paychecks. We pay our home bills. We obtain and distribute cell phones to the family. We buy and distribute gifts. We put together family get-togethers. We put together vacations. We visit the doctor. We take our kids to the dentist. We attend recitals and concerts and competitions and meets and matches and contests. We attend to sick kids. We fight (verbally). We laugh. We discuss. We watch shows together. We garden. We sleep together (in snoring repose). We tend to animals. We eat together. We deal with the everyday problems and surprises and expected drudgery of life, when living with another person.

I'm missing something.

Oh, yeah. We also occasionally have sex, as married people will do.

If the amount of time that we spent on this last thing were even one half of 1% of our time together, I think that we would be a very unusual married couple, after 15 years of marriage. I certainly could not characterize that as being an identifier of the state of wedlock.

If it's teh ghey seks that makes opponents afraid of gay marriage, then I submit that they have a seriously skewed view of what a marriage actually is.

I'm not much of a joiner. But maybe there are things worth standing shoulder to shoulder about, regardless of whether you're concerned about being regarded as just doing what the others are doing.
If you hadn't realized that I believe in equal rights for all, then you haven't been paying much attention to me.


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12 Comments:

At Tuesday, March 26, 2013 11:04:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm inclined to think that Government should not be in the marriage business at all. Civil union for any two consenting adults, marriage thru their church.

 
At Wednesday, March 27, 2013 8:58:00 AM, Blogger plblark said...

You left out the estate planning, taxation, medical decisions, and other reasons that are also behind this push.

Currently, same sex couples who are life long partners and take part in all the shared activities you mentioned don't even have the "separate but equal" status afforded freed slaves before the Civil rights movement.

 
At Wednesday, March 27, 2013 9:06:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm with Farmist. Provide civil unions for those who want to have the legal benefits (and tax liabilities) of being married. Provide church marriage for those who believe in church marriage (or temple, or mosque, or sacred grove [but only one spouse at a time, please]).

LittleRed1

 
At Wednesday, March 27, 2013 11:12:00 AM, Blogger Matt G said...

I get that the government should stay out of our marriages. I do. I don't see why the government should deny a third party the right to be part of a marriage.

But since governments give status to spouses, and since marriages exist, why do we have to create a separate class of people, if only by terminology? The whole "I just don't want them to call it marriage" thing smacks of "let the black folk have their own water fountains" Separate-But-Equal thing, to me.

 
At Wednesday, March 27, 2013 4:19:00 PM, Blogger J.R.Shirley said...

Yeah, same-sex couples seem to be fighting for their rights, the way non-whites (especially blacks) had to fight for their rights 40 years ago.

 
At Wednesday, March 27, 2013 4:20:00 PM, Blogger J.R.Shirley said...

Yeah, same-sex couples seem to be fighting for their rights, the way non-whites (especially blacks) had to fight for their rights 40 years ago.

 
At Wednesday, March 27, 2013 10:42:00 PM, Blogger charlotte g said...

Just posted the same symbol on my Facebook.

 
At Thursday, March 28, 2013 6:33:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Matt, my difficulty with multiple spouses is because of the culture currently associated with the modern practice of polygamy. Child marriage, religiously sanctioned spousal abuse, intolerance of homosexuality, those are some of the secondary problems associated with the current numerically dominant polygamous culture. If there were some way to keep the government out of relationships and keep those cultural practices out as well, then I'd be a lot more comfortable with things.

I apologize if this is too longwinded, and feel free to delete this if you so choose.

Sincerely,
LittleRed1

 
At Friday, March 29, 2013 8:55:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Matt, Bonnie and I had the same response: "that is outstanding." Do you mind if I repost to Facebook or elsewhere?

 
At Saturday, March 30, 2013 8:09:00 PM, Blogger charlotte g said...

People who say they should have civil services but not religious ceremonies are trying to tell the rest of us what to do. Not satisfactory.

 
At Sunday, March 31, 2013 8:40:00 AM, Blogger TBeck said...

One of government's legitimate roles is to enforce contracts freely entered into by consenting adults. Since marriage is such a contract, government needs to be involved in marriage. However, government should not discriminate about which contracts it will and will not enforce.

 
At Monday, April 01, 2013 3:59:00 PM, Blogger Matt G said...

Sorry it took so long to get back to you, lettersfromthestreet. You are more than welcome to use it, though a source cite would be appreciated. :)

 

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