Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 09:27:44 -1000
From: GOCAROLYN@aol.com (by way of lambda@aloha.net (Martin Rice))
Subject: Words of Wisdom

Last week Joe Souki, House Speaker, cut off the debate before  Rep. Ed Case
had the opportunity to address his peers.  He shared this with me today and
the words are so touching they need to be shared.  "This vote is for you"
section is my favorite!  Enjoy!  C[arolyn] G[olojuch]

	FLOOR REMARKS IN OPPOSITION 
	TO HB 117

	Representative Ed Case
	Thursday, January 23, 1997

	Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to House bill 117.

	Mr. Speaker, it is clear that, at least in this House, the die is cast.  My
remarks on the this floor of March 5, 1996, which I incorporate by reference,
still stand.  The Chair of the Judiciary committee is to be commended at
least for crafting a bill which comes closer to passing constitutional muster
than last year's version.  But I cannot get on this train.

	Let me share some deeply personal thoughts.  As a husband, father, person,
do I not have deep personal misgivings about homosexuality generally and
same-gender marriage specifically?  Yes.  Did the religion in which I was
raised condone either? No.  Would my heart not stop if my child told me he
was gay? Yes.  And do not I feel the temptation, the rationalization, the
almost irresistible pull to vote with the majority? Of course.

	But, fundamentally, I must vote otherwise because I believe it is not for me
to impose my personal beliefs, my value system, my religion, on others, even
if, and perhaps especially if, I am in the majority.  Two sayings come to
mind.  "Live and let live."  "Judge not, lest ye be so judged."

	But, equally as important, I believe in an allocation and separation of
powers, a mutual agreement, which has been the single defining characteristic
of our country.  For over 200 years our constitution has stood for the
proposition that minorities need and are entitled to protection from majority
will, and our courts, not, for the most part, our executive an legislative
bodies, have been the guardians o of that protection. Without that basic
protection, as tense and controversial as it often is, many of our social
ills would never have been overcome, and we would have been indistinguishable
as a country from many others that are long gone.

	We in Hawaii have availed ourselves repeatedly of the companion protection
in our own constitution.  Yet now that our Supreme Court has acted to protect
an especially controversial minority, we rise up in indignation and say that
we no longer want to protect this particular minority against the fears of
the majority.

	That the specific issue today is same-gender marriage is not, to me,
material; it is the precedent we are setting that is of vital importance.
 What will be the next minority deserving of protection, and who will protect
them?  Will it be us, for the majority?

	So, to the black children of Arkansas in the early 1950s, whom the majority
didn't want to attend white schools, this no vote is for you.  To the
Japanese-American internees of World War II, who should have been protected
by our constitution from majority America, but at least has a constitution
from which to seek protection, this no vote is for you.  To al the
interracial couples of the past, present and future, whom the majority didn't
want to marry, this no vote is for you.

	To the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii, the United Church of Christ, the
Zen Buddhist, Lutherans, Congregationalists, Unitarians, Baptists,
Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Jews, Quakers, Methodists, and others whose
Gods and religions preach tolerance, this no vote is for you.  To those great
religions whose God considers homosexuality generally and same-gender
marriage specifically an "abomination," this no vote is for you, for those
inevitable times when your God will call upon you to stand firmly in the
minority.

	To the respected minority members of this House, who only days ago so
eloquently defended the rights of the minority--themselves--against the
majority will, this no vote is for you.  To those who fear the rise of the
thought police and the drive to homogenize a country and state whose greatest
strengths are their diversity, this no vote is for you.

	To all of the minorities of the past, and to those minorities of the future
whose circumstances we cannot even imagine today, this no vote is for you.
 This not vote is for us all.