TEA just gave me a call.
He is writing a letter to President Obama and Governor Cuomo.
He was doing a packet from school about the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and had some questions about how laws are made. He asked his mother, who is good at this type of thing, and they talked about where laws come from and if something is right, why it isn't a law. His mother explained that sometimes it is difficult to convince large groups of people to agree on the same thing.
He then talked to his mother about the issue that was bothering him.
His mother helped him with the letter and then called me.
This is my best recollection of what he said, as my eyes were welling with tears and my heart was swelling with pride.
Dad, guess what I am doing! I am writing a letter to the President and the Governor because gay people should be allowed to get married. They shouldn't listen to the priests because Jesus and Martin Luther King died so all the world could be free. So that white people and black people and gay people could be happy. I am writing this letter because I want the President and the Governor to change the law...
Naturally, my pride was immense in my son.
Then I asked his mother how this came about. I was asking not because I thought that Ami prompted this as a project or because of his stance on this hot button issue (I wouldn't have had a problem with either of those.) but just because I wanted to know TEA's mindset when doing this.
His mother stated that TEA's ideas were sui generis in their inception and she did not prompt them.
So...what does this say?
This says that an eight year old can see through the bigotry of the various factions who fight the idea of marriage equality as a concept as abhorrent as terrorism. More to the point, it shows that my son has a better understanding on what it means to be an American than people like Carl Kruger, Joseph Addabbo, and (wait for it...) Ruben Diaz. (Remember, there were eight members of the
Senate Democrats who voted against the Marriage Equality Bill in 2009. Yeah, three lost, one was expelled from the Senate, one chose not to run, and these three "Heroes" were re-elected.)
My eight year old son has more compassion for his fellow Americans than people like the Secretary of State, and former junior Senator from the Empire State, who has once again
come out against Marriage Equality.
And my eight year old son has a better understanding about the teachings of Jesus than some local men of the cloth, who make the claim that "
God hates."
TEA, you are my son and I will always be proud of you and love you, but it is moments like this that I am proud to be your father.
Keep writing those letters, keep fighting for what is right, even if it isn't popular, and keeping living with the belief that one person, even if they are eight, can make the world a better place.
