I happened to buy a newspaper today and there on the front page, under the fold, I see the article about our US Senator from Ohio, Republican Rob Portman, and his announced reversal of his stand on gay marriage.
OK, great. But I am somehow less than impressed.
The article goes on to say that Sen. Portman has a 21-year-old son who is gay and that, “it was not a choice, it was who he is and that he had been that way since he could remember.”
Again, great. I am glad to see that Sen. Portman reaffirmed his love and support and did not throw away a perfectly good son through ignorance or prejudice. But the next paragraph was what I found to be disappointing.
The article goes on quoting Portman:
It allowed me to think of this issue from a new perspective and that’s of a dad who loves his son a lot and wants him to have the same opportunities that his brother and sister would have – to have a relationship like Jane and I have had for over 26 years.
So let me get this straight, Sen. Portman. Your son is gay – so that got you to thinking. Am I to assume that if your child was not gay that you would be incapable of understanding that millions of others are, and that they would deserve the same respect and opportunities you wish for your offspring?
What if your son was not gay, but your neighbor’s son was? Would your empathy and compassion be able to stretch that far? And since you have expressed your understanding of the “overriding message of love and compassion that… [ you ]… take from the Bible, and especially the Golden Rule,” I am sure you understand what Jesus meant when he used the term “neighbor.”
Maybe I’m just being too much of a crank. This is after all good news – especially for the Portman family. But I can’t help but to see this story as underscoring the callous, uncaring nature of the willful ignorance that is the received Republican orthodoxy. Someone has already expressed the sentiment that now we need some Republican’s kid to “come out” as being poor.
The Bible forbade the worship of idols in part because those who worship false, vile gods tend to become like the cold stones they serve. It seems Republicans, in their worship of the cold heartless bitch, Ayn Rand, must demonstrate their heterodoxy by becoming just as uncaring and self-absorbed
.
So, Sen. Portman I am happy for you, but an altruism which is kindled only by one’s immediate family is no altruism at all. I expect better of those elected to serve the public interest.
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