Mark: My Words.

[captainsblog]

ETA from Thursday morning: No idea what's going on with this entry. I can edit it, but clicking on it, or trying to access the comments, gives me this:

Content Encoding Error  The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.

   
    *   Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

So continue the comment threads, and I'll post any updates, in the next one, which seems okay.

Dear Senator Grisanti:

Since I've had occasion to remember lawyers from my past practice in recent days, I can say, with far more happiness than some news I got yesterday, that I remember a case with you, also back around the end of the century. You represented a claimant in a Chapter 11 case that I filed for a non-profit. You were tenacious but decent throughout the process, and when I saw you taking on the local incumbency machine in last year's election, I remembered that tenacity.

Now's the time for you to bring some of it back. Because it's pretty much all come down to you now. A near-majority of your fellow Senators are aligning with the increasingly recognized sentiments of the state's electorate, making this week's historic vote on same-sex marriage virtually one that you, and nobody else, will decide.

I've heard you interviewed on Capital Press Room and I've read some of your statements on the issue. I know you have religious issues which weigh heavily on your decision, but that's a decision that you, and every one of your constitutents, should be free to make in your own lives about your own marriages (or choices not to marry) free of the prejudices of others. Nobody is going to force a priest to marry a couple of any combination of genders, any more than they can force a priest to sanctify a marriage of two non-Catholics. Nor will any Knights of Columbus Hall be compelled to book an event contrary to its purposes.

Some Catholics, and members of other faiths and even of no faith, are just made uncomfortable by the sight of two people of the same sex committing their lives to each other. There was a time that I was one of them. As that famous homophobe Paul said in his most famous single chapter, When I was a child, I thought like a child, I spoke like a child and I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. So, too, have I, and I now see the love of two people for each other as transcending gender as much as, within just the past 50 years, it finally transcended race. I am far more offended by serial adulterers like Gingrich and Limbaugh than I am by the blessings of society on couples who merely want to proclaim the same commitment, and exclusivity, and monogamy that I was blessed to do in the eyes of both God and Mario Cuomo almost 24 years ago.

The Supreme Court unanimously decided Loving v. Virginia 44 years ago this past Sunday. This week marks your chance to speak out with as strong a voice, and cast as important a vote, for another class of citizens who only want to be treated as equals.  I urge you to vote that way, and make this State a welcoming place for all within its borders.

Sincerely,
Ray

I am copying this from my work email address to the Senator. I'll let you know if I get a response. Meantime, you can send your own to  buffalo.grisanti@gmail.com

Comments

[firynze.livejournal.com]

That is a lovely, lovely letter.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It's easier to stick to the high road when you know, for a fact, that you're on it.

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

Nicely said, friend.

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

This is a great letter!

And you know, these are the kind of arguments that were really pushing him forward a few months ago. He was definitely on the edge until activists started publicly counting their chickens in the media before they were hatched, and then he backed off a bit. It's arguments like these ones that will really push him to making the right decision, I think.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Jenn. If there's even a hint of a chance that I could influence his decision, I'll put name and reputation and anything else to it.

[audacian.livejournal.com]

Well done!

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Thank you, my friend & ally.