The Rocky Mountain Progressive Network has issued the following challenge to those state politicians backing the Federal Marriage Amendment, including Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), who introduced the amendement into Congress:
I, __________________________ (name of lawmaker), pledge to the People of _____________________________ (jurisdiction that lawmaker represents), that as a supporter of the Federal Marriage Amendment I am committed to upholding fidelity in marriage. I firmly believe fidelity is essential to the institution of marriage and that each person who violates that commitment undermines this institution.
Accordingly, as an elected leader in the State of Colorado I pledge my commitment to uphold fidelity in my own life in order to lead by example and to preserve the institution of Marriage.
________________ (Signature) ______________ (Date)
None of the named politicians have signed. Atrios and Geraldine Sealey at Salon (by subscription or day pass) think this campaign should go national. If conservatives are going to push the FMA, I couldn’t agree more. (Disclosure: the rabbi mentioned in the press release linked above is my dad. Go Dad!)
UPDATE: meanwhile, Oxblog has a running tally of those senators who are for and against the FMA. As others have been saying, looks like the amendment is already dead in the Senate.
I actually kind of think that in a way this is the sort of thing every married person should sign, completely aside from the FMA. But maybe that’s just me.
I agree with Russell (as so often). And imagine, if we did, what the Senators who refused to sign it would look like!
Well, apart from the bit about supporting the FMA.
Just for the record, Harry, I don’t support the FMA. (As one conservative blogger put it—and on this issue, I agree with pretty much everything in his post (here: http://gideonsblog.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_gideonsblog_archive.html#107766694970283117)—the FMA “is more a cry of anguish than a proper piece of legislation.”) No, it’s the idea of public examples and declarations of fidelity that I like.
No Russell — I know you don’t; my post was meant to refer to the wording of the proposed pledge (which has ‘Supporter of the FMA’ in it). Sorry, should have been more careful.
Yeah, Oxblog already has 33 definite “no”s and some of his “unknowns” voted against the DoMA. This is going to be like the flag-burning amendment — the most important political issue on everyone’s mind right up until the moment that everyone forgot about it.
Classics
The Virtual Tophet
Michael Hendry
David Meadows
Religion
AKM Adam
Ryan Overbey
Telford Work (theology)
Library Science
Norma Bruce
Biology/Medicine
Pradeep Atluri
Bloviator
Anthony Cox
Susan Ferrari
Amy Greenwood
La Di Da
John M. Lynch
Charles Murtaugh
Paul Z. Myers
Respectful of Otters
Amity Wilczek (biology)
Theodore Wong
Physics/Applied Physics
Trish Amuntrud
Sean Carroll
Jacques Distler
Irascible Professor
Michael Nielsen
Chad Orzel
Math/Statistics
Dead Parrots
Christopher Genovese
Moment, Linger on
Jason Rosenhouse
Vlorbik
Peter Woit
Complex Systems
Cosma Shalizi
Bill Tozier
Chemistry
"Keneth Miles"
Engineering
Zack Amjal
Chris Hall
University Administration
Frank Admissions
Architecture/Urban development
City Comforts (urban planning)
Unfolio
Panchromatica
Earth Sciences
Our Take
Other sources of information
Arts and Letters Daily
Imprints
Political Theory Daily Review
Science and Technology Daily Review