When I learned the news I felt like I wanted to always remember where I was and what I was doing at this historic moment.
Alas I was doing something trivially mundane when I learned the news - checking my Facebook page, from which I in fact learned the news.
At that moment I felt jubilant, proud to be an American, happy for my gay brothers and sisters, my fellow citizens who are finally being granted this certain unalienable - and wonderful - right.
I was wishing I were out somewhere, celebrating with someone, maybe in front of the the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington, or even just walking around downtown Columbus looking for a crowd of celebrants.
But I was at home alone. I called Tom, who's in Cleveland taking care of his father. Then I called my sister. Then my daughter. Everyone was working.
So I celebrated in spirit with my Facebook friends, liking their posts and pictures, commenting, posting my own thoughts, sharing, as it's it's done in the internet age, a historic moment:
No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right. The judgement of the Court Of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed. It is so ordered. |
By this morning Facebook was offering the option to show support by have a rainbow filter transposed over one's Facebook photo:
And I believe that's what yesterday's decision was all about.
And why we should all be celebrating.