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I love it! Just got this in an email from one of my best friends.
Enjoy!
This is a letter from Bette Midler to President Bush
Dear President Bush,
Today you called upon Congress to move quickly to amend the US
Constitution, and set in Federal stone a legal definition of marriage. I would like to
know why.
In your speech, you stated that this Amendment would serve to protect
marriage in America, which I must confess confuses me. Like you, I believe in the
importance of marriage and I feel that we as a society take the institution far
too lightly. In my circle of family, friends and acquaintances, the vast
majority have married and divorced - some more than once. Still, I believe in
marriage. I believe that there is something fundamental about finding another
person on this planet with whom you want to build a life and family, and make a
positive contribution to society. I believe that we need more positive role
models for successful marriage in this country - something to counteract the
images we get bombarded with in popular culture. When we are assaulted with images
of celebrities of varying genres, be it actors, sports figures, socialites, or
even politicians who shrug marriage on and off like the latest fashion, it is
vitally important to the face of our nation, for our children and our future,
that we have a balance of commitment and fidelity with which to stave off the
negativity. I search for these examples to show my own daughter, so that she
can see that marriage is more than a disposable whim, despite overwhelming
evidence to the contrary.
As a father, I'm sure you have faced these same concerns and difficulties
in raising your own daughters. Therefore I can also imagine that you must
understand how thrilled I have been over the past few weeks to come home and turn
on the news with my family. To finally have concrete examples of true
commitment, honest love, and steadfast fidelity
was such a relief and a joy. Instead of speaking in the hypothetical, I was
finally able to point to these men and women, standing together for hours in
the pouring rain, and tell my child that this is what its all about. Forget
Britney. Forget Kobe. Forget Strom. Forget about all the people that we know who
have taken so frivolously the pure and simple beauty of love and tarnished it
so consistently. Look instead at the joy in the beautiful faces of Del Martin
and Phyllis Lyon - 51 years together! I mean, honestly Mr. President - how
many couples do you know who are together for 51 years? I'm sure you agree that
this love story provides a wonderful opportunity to teach our children about
the true meaning and value of marriage. On the steps of San Francisco City
Hall, rose petals and
champagne, suits and veils, horns honking and elation in the streets; a
celebration of love the likes of which this society has never seen.
This morning, however, my joy turned to sadness, my relief transformed into
outrage, and my peace became anger. This morning, I watched you stand before
this nation and belittle these women, the thousands who stood with them, and
the countless millions who wish to follow them. How could you do that, Mr.
President? How could you take something so beautiful - a clear and defining
example of the true nature of commitment - and declare it to be anything less? What
is it that validates your marriage which
somehow doesn't apply to Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon? By what power, what
authority are you so divinely imbued that you can stand before me and this
nation and hold their love to a higher standard?
Don't speak to me about homosexuality, Mr. President. Don't tell me that
the difference lies in the bedroom. I would never presume to ask you or your
wife how it is you choose to physically express your love for one another, and I
defy you to stand before Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon and ask them to do the
same. It is none of my business, as it is none of yours, and it has nothing to
do with the "sanctity of marriage". I'm sure you would agree that marriage is
far more than sexual _expression, and its high time we all started focusing on
all the other aspects of a relationship which hold it together over the course
of a lifetime. Therefore, with the mechanics of sex set aside, I ask you
again - what makes a marriage? I firmly believe that whatever definition you
derive, there are thousands upon thousands of shining examples for you to embrace.
You want to protect marriage. I admire and support that, Mr. President.
Together, as a nation, let us find and celebrate examples of what a marriage
should be. Together, let us take couples who embody the principles of commitment,
fidelity, sacrifice and love, and hold them up before our children as role
models for their own futures. Together, let us
reinforce the concept that love is about far more than sex, despite what
popular culture would like them to believe.
Please, for the sake of our children, for the sake of our society, for the
sake of our future, do not take us down this road. Under the guise of
protection, do not support divisiveness. Under the guise of unity, do not endorse
discrimination. Under the guise of sanctity, do not devalue commitment. Under the
guise of democracy, do not encourage this
amendment. \
Bette Midler
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