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Thursday, March 4,2004
Oregon Daily Emerald
COMMENTARY
Editor in Chief:
Brad Schmidt
Managing Editor
Ian Tobias Montry
Editorial Editor
Travis Willse
BOIXORIAL.
San Francisco
took unlawful
steps to grant
gay marriages
The past few weeks have been immeasurably busy
ones for activists on both sides of gay-rights issues, not
to mention for many homosexual couples in certain
U.S. counties.
This Wednesday at 10 a m., Multnomah County —
Oregon's most populous — began issuing marriage li
censes to same-sex couples after County Attorney Agnes
Sowle contended that denial of licenses would violate
the state constitution.
"The Oregon Constitution prohibits the county from
discriminating against same-sex couples when they are
applying for marriage licenses," Sowle explained, "be
cause that kind of discrimination based on gender and
based on sexual orientation is not allowed in Oregon."
Sowle specifically referenced Article I, Section 20, of
the Oregon Constitution: "No law shall be passed grant
ing to any citizen or class of citizens privileges, or im
munities, which, upon the same terms, shall not equally
belong to all citizens."
And Sowle's argument, though not airtight, is at least
tenable. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 106 is am
biguous on the point: "Marriage is a civil contract en
tered into in person by males at least 17 years of age and
females at least 17 years of age, who are otherwise capa
ble, and solemnized in accordance with ORS 106.150."
The county's constitutional interpretation and subse
quent policy ruling is just the latest in the gay marriage
imbroglio. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., as
serted that "We simply will not let activist judges rede
fine tli at definition of marriage." In light of some coun
ties' recent decisions to sanction gay marriages, Frist
warned "the wildfire will begin and in many ways it al
ready has begun... .It is becoming increasingly clear that
Congress must act."
Just weeks before Multnomah County began doing
so, San Francisco city authorities started issuing mar
riage licenses to (and subsequently marrying) same-sex
couples, too. New Paltz, N.Y., followed suit, compelled
by what Mayor Jason West says he considers a "moral
obligation." The conduct of San Francisco's authorities
differs from their Multnomah County counterparts in
one important way: It's unambiguously illegal. One of
about 38 states that has a so-called defense of marriage
art, California's voters in 2000 approved a ballot meas
ure that defines marriage explicitly as a union between a
man and a woman.
Regardless of how anyone feels about the same-sex
marriage issue, they can certainly agree that officials
blatantly violating laws (that don't immediately inter
fere with fundamental rights) they are obligated to en
force is an intolerable philosophical inconsistency.
Worse, these officials are using the power vested in
them by the state in good faith to commit those viola
tions. Were every official to violate actively and casually
every rule they oppose on principle, the government
would be an incoherent mish-mash of enforcement
and half-formed justifications, and would suffer from
a dearth of due diligence.
This sort of personal override resembles a judge who
arbitrates a case based on personal or religious princi
ple while ignoring established law, and that is simply
unacceptable.
EDITORIAL POLICY
This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald
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Steve Baggs Illustrator
Yeah, you laugh till your muthafuckin' ass
gets drafted,
While you're at band camp thinkin' the
crap can't happen ...
All this terror America demands action,
Next thing you know you've got Uncle
Sam’s ass askin'
To join the Army or what you'll do for they
Navy
You just a baby, gettin’ recruited at 18 ...
- Eminem
Compulsory military service has no
place in a free society. A war that cannot
be supported by volunteer fighters is not
a war we should be fighting.
If you think the draft will never be
reawakened in America then you need to
wake up: The draft is coming soon unless
we can stop it.
Prognostications like this have been
made in the past; before the 2000 elec
tion there was talk that members of Con
gress were concerned about drops in
young enlists and were considering dras
tic action. I dismissed it at the time as
media hysteria.
But things have changed. Back then we
weren't in Afghanistan and Iraq. Back
then we weren't fighting an undefined,
unending war against terrorism. Back
then we didn't have a policy of preemp
tion that could be used to justify war
against at least a dozen world leaders
who I can think of off the top of my
head. Back then we didn't have a presi
dent who would go on television and
proudly describe himself as 'a war presi
dent, ' as if it were an admirable quality.
I had the opportunity to interview
Dennis Kucinich in February and I asked
the congressman if young people should
be concerned about the draft.
"Oh, are you kidding?" he said. "They
should be very concerned. If we stay in
Iraq there is going to be a draft. There is
just no question about it.
'People don't get excited until they get
a notice in the mail. But let me tell you
something. Do the math: 130,000
troops; they are keeping people more
and more past their time; look at all the
guards persons that were called up, all
the reservists that were called.
"The longer we stay, the longer we are
going to be there and the deeper we are
getting into it. You have got to realize,
David Jagernauth
Critical mass
100,000 Iraqis marched through the
streets of Baghdad a few weeks ago in a
show of solidarity opposing the United
States position. Our soldiers are being
asked to protect a policy which the Iraqi
people are in revolt against. This is
dangerous.
"So are we looking at the possibility of
a draft? Yeah, we are. And it's very dan
gerous. Very dangerous.*
If you think the Democratic Party is go
ing to save us from the draft, you are living
in Liberalia, the land of liberal fantasy. The
call for a draft is bipartisan. Democratic
congressmen Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., and
Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., introduced legis
lation, in the Senate and the House respec
tively, that would reinstate the draft for
both men and women, dubbed the Uni
versal National Service Act.
Rangel is one of the good Democrats in
Congress and I sympathize with his posi
tion. The men and women who sacrifice
their lives for this country are dispropor
tionately poor and lack political power.
Those who fight for our freedoms have the
least to gain from those freedoms. And as
long as the elites can shield their own fam
ilies from military service, they will be will
ing to send America to war for less than
admirable reasons.
But reinstating the draft is not the an
swer. Let us have a draft for political fam
ilies alone. Putting all the nation's young
people through a military experience is
not the answer. Filling jails with antiwar
activists is not the answer. Watching
many of our citizens attempt to flee from
their homeland is not the answer. I hate
to say it, but anyone, including Rangel,
who is in favor of the draft should be vot
ed out of office for this unforgivable act.
So wake up: The draft is coming. And
it would be very different than the draft
of the past, writes Maureen Farrell.
We would not see college deferments
like we saw during the Vietnam War.
That practice ended in 1971 when re
forms were enacted designed to make
the draft more equitable. Were a draft to
be reinstated, students could defer serv
ice only until the end of the semester, or
for those graduating, the end of the aca
demic year.
Moving to Canada to escape the draft
would be more difficult than in the past
thanks to the Smart Border Declaration.
This anti-terrorism measure has the
added effect of helping to keep draft
dodgers in the country.
We need to stop the draft before it
starts. It is up to us to make our voices
clearly heard and to push this issue to
the forefront of the election season. No
politician — not Kerry, not Bush — is go
ing to advocate it before the 2004 presi
dential election. That would be political
suicide. But, as Kucinich said, any candi
date without a plan for getting U.S.
troops out of Iraq is flirting with the
draft, whether Democrat or Republican.
Contact the columnist
at davidjagemauth@dailyemerald.com.
His opinions do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.