Regarding the "marriage" vote in VA
Dear Virginia,
I am yours, born and bred. I love you--hills, flats, pines, grapes, rivers, old stones, hairpin turns, cloud-strewn, hazy sky. I could never leave knowing I would not return. But now my heart has darkened and questions well up from my shaken roots.
Did you wrestle with your conscience before you voted this way? Did you consider the monstrous impudence of attempting to legislate love? Did you look with eyes of compassion at the courage, hopefulness and affection of men and women who work, live, love and travel the road alongside you? Who love their children as you love yours? Who look up at the same sky with eyes dazzled by the sun? Who feel the same pain from a knife-cut, from the death of a friend, that you do? Do you remember how you felt when you knew you wanted to spend the rest of your life with your beloved? Do you know your own heart? Do you presume to understand the deepest reaches of the hearts of even those closest to you? Are you without fear? Do you show your family, your friends, strangers in the street gentleness, openness, a brave and understanding mind? Do you know what brings you joy? Is it the same that brings joy to your friends? Does it not differ? Can you imagine a law written against the love you bear your wife or husband?
I had hoped you would do justice to your land, your own loves, your neighbors. I had hoped so, but my hope has gone and I am reaching through a cold darkness to try and comfort some of the people I love best in the world, people whose hearts and lives have now been trampled by the place I come from, the place I loved best in the world.
My Virginia, you have spoken and your words breed hatred, bigotry, intolerance, ignorance, confusion, sorrow. But I am still yours, and I have no choice now but to clasp hands with my friends as we set our foreheads into the wind and bare our throats to the growing cold, with courage to keep us warm.
Sincerely,
Lea Marshall
Richmond, VA