What's the Harm?

Ah, the lessons we learn about ourselves when we are in pain. Hundreds of thousands of “no on 8-ers” are puzzled and hurting, struck by what they perceive as a resounding slap. In utter sincerity, they ask, “Where is the harm in it?” They cannot see the pitfalls, and because they can’t, they shrink in revulsion and swallow the proffered lie that a “yes on 8” vote means a “no” vote for gays as people. Their painful question resounds: “Where’s the harm?”

Yet less than 48 hours since Proposition 8 passed in California, the answers to that plaintive question begin to emerge. A people who’ve longed to be seen as harmless and peaceable came forth en masse and disturbed the peace of those who also voted from their hearts, just as passionately, and with just the same desire to promote right. With the first angrily-scrawled picket sign, ugly seeds were strewn; and they’re quickly taking root.

Heedless of the needs of innocent drivers and their schedules and worries, people swarmed into the street, effectively proclaiming, “My needs trump yours”. That was a small selfishness, but it was a beginning. It grew. Police resources were siphoned away from averting existing dangers, and who can catalog the pain that ensued when cries for help went unanswered, or when help was delayed?

Some protestors marched on the short access road to private property: a holy place for millions, some of whom chose to vote no on 8. The crowd spat. They profaned. They shouted and raged, but no matter, because the people they bullied disagree with them. And so it became acceptable to mock and malign.

They came back the next day, emboldened and angry, although there had been no retaliation, no rebuttal in kind. (In fact, the opposing campaign was markedly void of contention, derision, or hate.) Shrieking and hurling obscenities, even making a mockery of things sacred to others, they flung their vitriol at peaceable people who spoke no ugliness but who simply stood up for their beliefs and voted their consciences.

Watching the news, we could quickly see the harm; and nothing in their behavior demonstrated anything else but the intent to force into our lives their “rights’, even if those rights infringe on children’s rights to innocence, parents’ rights to teach the things they embrace as sacred, or workers’ rights to refuse to perform actions and speak words that are in violation of their beliefs. It speaks volumes when someone, even in rage and pain, is capable of viciousness, of force. In the moment that they turned their anger into active, undulating hatred, their true colors emerged. If within hours of an election people use brute force and intimidation to further their agenda, then what else will they do? What else will they demand? Who else will they terrorize into compliance? The forecast is tragedy.

If people are so quick to denigrate, deride, and blame an entire ethnicity that was but a tiny part of a vote, then what hypocrisy! The insistence on silencing those of opposing views borders on fascism. I stand stunned, because this mob mentality is in stark contrast to the gentleness I thought I’d felt from the gay community. So, to those who sincerely ask, “Where’s the harm?” I answer sadly, “It’s in the headlines”.