I have several good
friends who have adopted or been adopted.
Some of those adoptions have been within extended family. One was a bit unique. He was raised by an Aunt and Uncle as if he
were their own but there was never a formal adoption until he was going into
the Military. He only ever new his aunt
and uncle as mom and dad and he wanted to make sure that his military survivor
benefits would go to them.
Of course I don't
know all the details but it has caused me to wonder Why did it have to be his
legal parent? Why could he not put her
name down? Perhaps this was a control
that was put in place to prevent Fagans from preying on the vulnerable and then
signing them in the military in hopes of collecting?
That led me to
further wonder why the government is involved with marriage. I think the reasons are fairly obvious. The
society and individuals in it, generally benefit when children are reared in a
home where mother and father provide stable environment and moral
teaching. It's been many years since I
read The Lord of the Flies but I recall it being a very stark example of the
opposite.
I have not read the
entire opinions in the recent Supreme Court decision. But the excerpts that I have seen from the 5
judge opinion and the resulting celebrations seemed to focus on the idea that
Love has somehow triumphed. That frankly
surprises me. How in the world can
anyone think that the government can or should have anything to do with
legalizing love? Who can even agree on a
definition of what love is? My reading
of the Constitution of the United States is pretty clearly absent of any
reference to love, marriage, or sex.
Some will say that is included in the phrase "life, liberty &
pursuit of happiness." However,
that phrase is NOT in the constitution, but rather the Declaration of
Independence. What does show up in the
constitution is that the purpose of it is the protect "Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity"
Some were worried
that the unalienable God given rights were not adequately protected in the
Constitution and so the Bill of Rights, the original 10 amendments to the
constitution were created and ratified.
This with no mention of happiness, love, marriage or sex (except where
the word sex means gender). No, not all
rights were specifically spelled out.
Some had to be added later. But I
think that is exactly my point. Those
rights, or rather the protection of those rights, were added. And until they were added (sometimes late)
they were reserved to the States.