Sitting here sort of watching Supernatural, surfing the net looking at interesting news stories with the occasional foray into the realm of smut and keeping a tab open to a live steam of the New York State Senate as they vote on whether my gay brothers and sisters can be treated equally in the marriage department. The marriage bill has passed.
All citizens in the Empire State will be allowed to get married and participate in all the benefits therein. Actually no they won’t. Federal law will not recognize these marriages.
I will be able to get married in New York in about 30 days which will mean absolutely nothing because I live in Pennsylvania.
Which begs the question: Are we a nation or are we a confederation? A confederation was rejected in 1789 and yet it is an issue that this country still struggles with.
The civil war was fought over what was more supreme; the individual states or the federal government. The federal government won, sort of.
Most of us thought the issue of nullification was resolved when Lee surrendered to Grant.
Then a black man was elected President and suddenly southern state governors were discussing the right to nullify federal law and one of them Perry of Texas mentioned the right to succeed from the union.
Should we not have one standard though out the nation?
A child in Virginia is taught a different version of our nation’s history than a child in Maine.
What passes for a healthy school lunch is different in Minnesota than it is in Florida.
Clean water rules are different in California than they are in West Virginia.
Worker safety protections are not the same in Georgia as they are in Maryland.
The price of gas is cheaper in New Jersey than here in Pennsylvania and we have to pump it ourselves.
We will not truly be a nation until the notion of state’s rights is dead and buried.
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