dear senator

I cherish our right to petition our government to address grievances -- the language is from the 18th Century, but the idea is embedded in the essence of being an American that continue to be inspiring.

I don't petition my government much. In fact, I usually take this right as a responsibility to work or support candidates that will be more favorable to the issues that I believe in.

There is something cranky about writing letters or emails to anybody to complain or urge some behavior (vote yes or vote no). Steven Allen used to poke fun at people who write letters to the editor, by reading them in a half-crazed, angry and indignant voice.

Donald Kaul called such letters an act of passion for WASPs.

I don't think threats count for much (if you vote this way, I will never support you again). But sometimes communication to our representatives are an indication of community support or apathy or the work of a well organized political campaign.

I hear that the Family Research Council and others are flooding Washington right now with calls in support of Bush's Federal Marriage Amendment.

Today I called my senators offices in Washington to urge their rejection of the FMA. The line was busy at one, and the voice mail at the other was full, according to a cheerful automated voice that then told me that she was hanging up and goodbye.

So I wrote Lugar and Bayh emails.

Senator Cornyn, the junior senator from Texas, was quoted as saying that supporters of the FMA were doing it neither to be hateful nor hurtful. I cannot judge the degree of hatefulness that Cornyn and the other supporters of this amendment have, but must challenge his assertion about the consequences.

The hurt such an amendment would have is not the pain of losing a political battle or disliking the success of one's political opposition.

The hurt is re-ordering the Constitution to reject equal protection for families, to order state compliance with this point of view, forever stifling this country to legally deal with equal protection for its gay citizens. And at worst, it places second class citizenship at the core of American values.