A Dog by Another Name is Still a Dog

If I had a dog, which I don’t, I could put it on a leash and take it around to all my friends and introduce them to my cat. That is, I could call my pet a cat. But my friends would all know that it was not a cat at the end of the leash, but a dog. And, perhaps, a fool on the other end of the leash. Calling a dog a cat doesn’t make it a cat. It is still a dog.

Out in California, the Supreme Court, made up of people who really should know the difference between a dog and a cat, recently called something by a name that it is not. And calling it by this name doesn’t change what that something actually is, or isn’t.

The court said that couples who want to marry legally may do so, even if they are of the same sex. The court called a dog a cat. The court called the relationship of two men or of two women marriage. It is not marriage, and calling it marriage doesn’t make it so.

Marriage is a legal, moral and social contract between one man and one woman. That’s what marriage is by definition. That’s what it has always been. Those who are now coming along and applying the word “marriage” to homosexual couples are just playing a word game.

You have to sympathize with the citizens of the 31^st state. They put up with a lot. They are home to the movie industry, for one. The industry may be full of talented people who know how to tell a good story, but many of them lack the skills necessary to properly distinguish one thing from another. Come to think of it, Hollywood people have always had a difficult time with marriage, even real marriages, between a man and a woman. They often could not keep those marriages intact. Now these people are putting their money and their talent to work to support the Court’s decision to legalize gay unions, even though many, perhaps even a majority, of the citizen’s of the state do not want gay unions authenticated as real marriages. Californians have a real opportunity to defend true marriage on election day, November 4. Proposition 8 simply states, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

That makes sense. In fact, it is a little disconcerting that such a fundamental truth has to be placed in a state constitution. For centuries, the simple words of Proposition 8 have gone unchallenged. No one needed to give them legal authority because they had common sense authority and were universally accepted by politicians and citizens alike.

That is, until some folks came along and tried to pass off their dog as a cat. Saying it doesn’t make it so.