If Dubya Didn't Trouble You Before ...

He has nominated an evangelical Christian to be one of nine arbiters of  civil rights in America.  This evangelical Christian is a member of  a small, "non-denominational" church that rents airport space in Dallas for its Sunday service.  I'm not going to say that a  Christian can't be an intelligent and fair-minded person.  Heck, lots of folks are Christians, attending Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Unitarian, Episcopal, Methodist AME, and lots of other brand-names of Christian church.

The concerning word is "evangelical."  The online Hyperictionary (http://www.hyperdictionary.com/)  defines "evangelical:" 

"1.  [adj]  marked by ardent or zealous enthusiasm for a cause ; 2  [adj]  of or pertaining to or in keeping with the Christian gospel especially as in the first 4 books of the New Testament ; 3  [adj]  relating to or being a Christian church believing in personal conversion and the inerrancy of the Bible especially the 4 Gospels; "evangelical Christianity"; "an ultraconservative evangelical message"."

If Ms. Miers believes in the "inerrancy" of the four Gospels, it is difficult to believe that  she can separate her beliefs to insist on religious freedom for all.  How will she act if faced with my belief that same-sex couples are fine people deserving of the full contract rights we heterosexuals take for granted?  If, as Dubya says, she is conservative and her views will not change, how can she protect my religious right to believe that my soul is in no danger for letting same-sex couples into the club with legal partnership rights?

That's just one out of many rights on which the fervent Christian narrowly interprets through religion.  I can hope that this lady can separate her religious views from civil ethics, but do I trust that ability?  Hell, no.  Dubya doesn't get religious freedom.  Why should I expect a difference from someone whose "heart" he "knows?"

Now, if nominating a woman of "ardent or zealous enthusiasm" for views based in a narrow reading of the Christian Testament wasn't enough to scare me, Dubya's reaction to avian flu sure was.  Dubya is discussing martial law enforced by the U.S. military!  Yes, you read me right – martial law.  Folks, martial law is declared in war zones and in small nations taken over by their military leaders.  Last I heard, we don't do that under the Constitution of the United States.

Call it quarantine.  Yes, even base it in a public health issue.  States have quarantined ill people in outbreaks before.  This, though, would be a federal quarantine.  It means handing over our freedom of to a military force under Dubya's command.  There would be no functional judicial review or oversight; we could be caged and given pillows.  Heck, it works with suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan.  We can use it here for public health.

Are you comfortable with that idea?

Is the Air Force going to shoot down commercial airliners when fever is reported in first class?  Or will pilots only shoot down charter planes and "one class" airliners? 

Will we encircle states with razor wire to keep desperate sick people from crawling to the nearest border hospital?  Will we give "regular Army" MP units "shoot to kill" rules of engagement for delirious patients staggering out of infected neighborhoods? 

Will the Navy launch cruise missiles to sterilize heavily infected neighborhoods? 

Will the Marines land on the beach at Hyannis to storm the Kennedy Compound, eradicating that liberal reservoir of infection?

Are you comfortable with any of those ideas?

Somehow, Dubya has seen the efficiency of the military in recent hurricane relief functions and decided to use them in any possible emergency.  He has taken a mental leap from one situation to a very different concern.

If you weren't troubled before, you should be now.  A president who hardly ever answers the press has offered us a Supreme Court nominee who will certainly filter your rights through her restrictive viewpoints.  A president who hardly ever answers the press has proposed martial law in the United States of America.

Be troubled.

Copyright © 2005 by Gregory P. Lee.  All rights reserved.  For a collection of Mr. Lee's prior opinions on the Same-Sex Marriage Debate, go to http://books.lulu.com/content/88961 to buy Dear Lilburn:  A Straight White Man Harangues Against Creed-Based Bigotry.