(no subject)

This is about three paragraphs from completion, but I wondered if folks might take a look at it.

Thanks,


Bill

          At the beginning of the movie “Gettysburg,” long before he calls for the bayonets at Little Round Top, Col. Joshua Chamberlain of the 20^th Maine regiment is addressing a group of soldiers from the 2^nd Maine. Their regiment is being disbanded, and many want to go home.

            Actor Jeff Daniels, playing Chamberlain, gives an impassioned recounting why he and his soldiers joined the Noble Cause, including this line:

            “Many of us came because it was the right thing to do.”

            Chamberlain went on to become the governor of Maine. Last week, nearly 146 years after Gettysburg, another Maine governor gave an impassioned speech and said much the same thing.

            After Gov. John Baldacci quickly signed a bill and made Maine the fifth state to allow Gay Marriage, his statements included this line:

"I believe that signing this legislation is the right thing to do.”

            The trouble with that sentiment is, of course, that both sides in the gay marriage debate believe they are doing the right thing. Those who support it say that believe it is a constitutional right and that people who love each other should be able to marry, regardless of gender. Those who oppose it feel it violates religious and moral issues.

            In the movie, after the battle at Little Round Top, Chamberlain and his men are sent to somewhere “safe,” the middle of the Union lines, near the historically famous “clump of trees,” that is recognized today as “the high water mark of the Confederacy.” Pickett’s Charge gets to those trees, right at the Union line, but never breaks through. Had the charge succeeded, the Confederates might have won the day, and history would be written very differently.

            Consider for a minute that the November success of Proposition 8 in California might well have been the high water mark of the campaign against gay marriage. Remember, too, that there are pending court cases that could overturn that anti-gay marriage amendment.

            Massachusetts and Connecticut had already approved gay marriage by judicial decision, and in the last six weeks, Iowa’s courts also found in favor of gay marriage, and Vermont and Maine approved it through the legislative process, another major step forward. The District of Columbia joined seven states when it passed a domestic partnership law

            New Hampshire’s legislature has passed a gay marriage bill, which Gov. John Lynch can sign it or let it sit for five days, after which it becomes law. If Lynch vetoes it, the legislature will likely be unable to override.

            That brings us to New York, where the latest activity sees Gov. David Paterson ready to sign a bill if he gets it and the Assembly is poised to pass it. The state Senate, always the sticking point, is closer than ever, and a single vote could make the difference.