The Globe reports that our Secretary of State is worried about the safety of children on field trips at the State House tomorrow, during the Constitutional Convention on the marriage amendment. See "Pupil tours to feature democracy in action: But steps planned to skirt protesters" (6-13-07).
The unexpected confluence has prompted Secretary of State William Galvin to take steps to ensure that the impressionable youngsters will not be exposed to any mischief or chaos that may erupt during the intense debates and large demonstrations. Unlike most other State House visitors tomorrow, the children will enter the building through a rear door and be greeted by park rangers who will provide security and shepherd them through the building ...
"I do think it can be a constructive lesson, if both sides, the activists for and against gay marriage, are civil to one another," Galvin said. "We anticipate that the adults involved in the debate will be respectful to each other and also to the guests at the State House who are students. ... It's a classic, classic example of free speech and action on a controversial issue, no matter which side you are looking at," said a statement he issued yesterday.
Now this seems very odd to us. First, why are passions so high on the street? We don't see anything like this surrounding budget debates, do we? It's not a "classic example of free speech and action on a controversial issue." Our society has never seen anything so lunatic and perverted parading as legitimate political speech. (But the students will not be exposed to that viewpoint.)
This is really about a fringe minority forcing an insane change of the definition of marriage on society. That is what's dangerous to children. It's the people with the rainbow flags and the damage they are doing to society. Yet the Globe story makes it sound like bad things could emanate from either side in this "debate" tomorrow.
Maybe the schools should have cancelled their field trips. Would we want kids observing demonstrations for the legalization of polygamy and prostitution, or lowering the age of sexual consent? Surely those issues will all be pushed by the rainbow-flag group in the next few years. (See the Gay Rights Platform from 1972, which calls for all of these goals.) We already have a lobby for "transgender" rights. But just now, most Massachusetts citizens, asleep as they are, might still object to their kids being immersed in demonstrations for those "rights".
But tomorrow we'll see school officials blinking at -- or speaking favorably for -- sodomy-based marriage. They believe it's perfectly OK for the kids to think about what a same-sex "marriage" bed is all about. This is just a normal day at the State House, the schools will tell their pupils -- it's just a debate about "love" and "equal rights". The colorful rainbow flags will draw the kids in. And our Secretary of State pretends to be worried about the safety of children.
