Dignity is the New Fairness

Ok, I’ve been busy.

Over the past handful of years, my writing skills have been funneled into pursuits other than blogging, such as professional reports, technical responses on forums, and still - yes, still - my decades-in-the-making, sci-fi-fantasy epic. So I’ve not been blogging much.

But yesterday, that button got pushed. You know that button. The one that makes you go “Whaaaaa? That can’t be right!” and after you read it for the fifth time, you boot up your laptop and righteously just go off. That’s what I did when I heard a portion of Justice Clarence Thomas’s dissenting opinion regarding Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark US Supreme Court decision which has granted legal status to gay marriage throughout the nation.

It’s not just Thomas that has me going. There’s consternation aplenty to be found within the dissenting opinions of all four members of the SCOTUS anti-rainbow coalition. John Roberts, for example, insists that inter-state recognition of marriages “should rest with the people acting through their elected representatives.” I might find this quaint, were it not coming from the mouth of a 21st century Chief Justice. I mean, I’m sure he went to law school somewhere, so perhaps he knows more about such matters than I do, but haven’t we seen over time that “the people” don’t always have the best interest of everyone else in mind? We’ve left to “the people” such questions as whether or not a person can own another person. Or if it’s reasonable to lock workers on the tenth floor of a fire trap to ensure productivity. Or whether a woman should be allowed to sign contracts and have nice things like bank accounts and property. Unless she’s married, in which case her fully-enfranchised husband can cover those bases for her. Unless, of course, he’s a different color than she is, in which case he can’t be her husband. To extend Roberts’ premise, such issues were working out just fine, thankyouverymuch, when they were left to the collective wisdom of the local majority (including, I suppose, the question of whether or not that majority should include people with vaginas).

But the thing that brought me to my now-smoking keyboard is this particular harrumph from Justice Clarence Thomas:

When the Framers proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” they referred to a vision of mankind in which all humans are created in the image of God and therefore of inherent worth. That vision is the foundation upon which this Nation was built.

The corollary of that principle is that human dignity cannot be taken away by the government. Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved. Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity because the government confined them. And those denied governmental benefits certainly do not lose their dignity because the government denies them those benefits. The government cannot bestow dignity, and it cannot take it away.

(Although most coverage of Thomas’s opinion does not include the earlier paragraph, I added it as context for Thomas’s reference to “that principle.” But I’ll set aside the whole discussion on the legitimacy of citing the Declaration of Independence in a dissent on a constitutional matter, or on how much Thomas misses his own point regarding the vision upon which our nation was founded. Except to say - WTF??)

To distill it down into its basic elements, then, Justice Thomas is saying that no matter how egregiously the government treats you, so long as you’re a sport about it, it’s all good. Seriously, just hold your head up, and don’t go making a federal case out of it, because - you know - dignity is the new fairness.

So yeah, lock me up in chains and ship me off like cargo, in my own filth and sickness, so you can sell me as property and use whips to compel me to work myself to death. In my heart, I know I’m human, whether you recognize that by law or not, so what’s all the fuss about?

And sure, round up my family, and put us into barbed-wire camps, and treat us like prisoners because we have those funny-shaped eyes, and when you let us go, remind us that our homes now belong to someone else. But you can’t take away my dignity, so no skin off my nose, right?

And while you’re at it, government, go ahead and keep me out of law school, and forbid me to sit for the Bar, and tell me I can’t marry a white woman, because you know what? I’ve still got that dignity around here somewhere. As long as I keep singing “No, no, they can’t take that away from me,” then all of those unpleasant things that are legal to do to me aren’t really all that appalling.

The fact that Obergefell v. Hodges was such a squeaker, and that we are still hearing refrains of “let the people decide about rights” from persons in such elevated positions, should tell us that we can’t put away our marching shoes just yet. Gay rights, women’s rights, civil rights of any kind, all remain subject to re-examination. So yes, we have cause to celebrate, but it’s not over. It’s never over.

In the meantime, in one final irony among so many, Justice Thomas seeks to console the Hodges of this land by reminding them of their own dignity:

[The court’s] rejection of laws preserving the traditional definition of marriage can have no effect on the dignity of the people who voted for them. Its invalidation of those laws can have no effect on the dignity of the people who continue to adhere to the traditional definition of marriage.

So in the end, it’s all good. Right, Clarence?

__________________________________________________


I must add:  I heartily recommend reading George Takei's submission to MSNBC on this topic. Mr. Takei has been married to his husband Brad Takei since 2008, which gives him an obvious interest in the cause of equal marriage rights, a cause for which he has fought many years. But when I read Justice Thomas's words "Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity," I said to myself "I sure hope Uncle George weighs in on this!"

Yep, he did:

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/george-takei-clarence-thomas-denying-our-rights-denies-our-dignity?ts_pid=2

.