North Carolina Amendment One: Shame on us

If some of what will, can, can’t or won’t change,
you may or may not be who you think you’ll be.

Could you not really know some of what you think you know?

Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.

Frank Leahy

Some of what you know, you don’t know you know.

What you don’t know you don’t know is more than you think.

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant

I could hardly stand to have the old man around.

But when I got to be 21,

I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.

Mark Twain

If what you think effects what you do,
which effects what you and others think afterwards,
and what others do effects what you think, which effects etc…,
should think before do get farther faster with less risk,
than do before think?

What others think was, is and may, might not be what you do.

A great many people think they are thinking

when they are really rearranging their prejudices.

Edward R. Murrow

If thought is both logical and emotional,
what you do is too.

You didn’t, don’t or will think everything you could,
should or shouldn’t.

Of what you think did, didn’t or is,
some are more likely than others.

If some falsely told they were to receive more pain than they actually did
described more than administered,
and others given more pain than led to expect thought it was less,
can some of what you believe to be true, be true to you,
until you think otherwise?

You’ll benefit from contributed causes,
or be deterred by imposed effects.

If not thinking isn’t,
and it’s not about what could’ve been or what may someday,
is it about what you think and do now?

If life needs sustenance and a temperate climate, is want everything else?

Is attachment suffering
and/or can suffering be attachment to nothing?

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill,

keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt,

chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench,

care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner.

Tao Te Ching

Are you as happy as you think?

Does what you think determine how you feel?

We are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine.

La Rochefoucauld

If positive thought outperforms negative,
can faith in open doors be better than fearing them closed?

Is feeling 44 years young better than 44 years old?

Does possession = Identity?

Are those who fail as unhappy as feared?

Are those who achieve as happy as expected?

Lives based on having are less free

than lives based either on doing or on being.

William James

Could living for the moment
be the only way to live happily ever after?

Do you already have everything you want,
if you choose to think so?

If you think you need less, is it easier to take care of?

Can want be eliminating unneeded?

If non-material want can provide a high quality of life,
while material want doesn’t necessarily create happiness,
is it better to be miserable with a high standard of living
than unhappy and poor?

People who have what they want

are fond of telling people who haven't what they want,

that they really don't want it.

Ogden Nash

Should long term need be sacrificed for short term want?

Can threatened need or want alter thought?

If want isn’t how much but how happy,
can Wealth = Happiness?

New York Times: "Bigotry on [North Carolina's] Ballot" - "driving “a wedge between gays and blacks.”

"...lawmakers got careless with the wording of the measure, known as Amendment One.

It would constitutionally prohibit recognition not just of same-sex marriages, but of other legal arrangements like civil unions and domestic partnerships.

That could harm all unmarried couples, imperiling some children’s health insurance benefits, along with child custody arrangements and safeguards against domestic violence.

...One of Amendment One’s most vocal opponents is the Rev. William Barber II, president of the state chapter of the N.A.A.C.P.

Mr. Barber draws a strong link
between the proposed amendment and struggles against racial unfairness,
an appeal with special resonance
following the publication in March of memos from the National Organization for Marriage,
one the most prominent groups fighting same-sex marriage,
about driving “a wedge between gays and blacks.”

...public opinion continues to move steadily toward marriage equality.

In 2001, Americans opposed same-sex marriage by a margin of 57 percent to 35 percent.

Today, 47 percent are in favor and 43 percent opposed...

Opponents of marriage equality have never been able to show any evidence
that any harm is caused to heterosexual marriages
by granting all American adults the right to marry as they choose
— because there is no such evidence.

With little more than a week to go before the May 8 contest,
and early voting already under way,
North Carolinians need to consider
whether they really want to inflict this gratuitous bigotry
on their fellow citizens and their children."

NYT

On North Carolina Gay Marriage: Vote Against Amendment One?

Why were women denied the right to vote until 1920?

Natural Law is derived from divine law

Charles Davenport

List of animals displaying homosexual behavior

Marriage shall not impede a man's right
to take concubines in addition to his wife or wives.

II Sam 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21

.

Are people gay because they choose to be
or because it’s biological?

A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin.

If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed.

Deut 22:13-21

Marriage of a believer and a non-believer shall be forbidden.

Gen 24:3; Num 25:1-9; Ezra 9:12; Neh 10:30
.

If a married man dies without children,
his brother shall marry the widow.

Gen 38:6-10; Deut 25:5-10

Could the use of Mr. Davenport's definintion of Natural Law
violate the US Constitution?

No State shall make or enforce any law
which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law;
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

.

"Their lifestyle choice should be opposed
only when they lobby for public approval"

Charles Davenport

.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,

or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,

or of the press;

or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,

and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

.
First Amendment to the United States Constitution