I got this from a friend at work... WOW!


An Open Letter to President Bush
February 24, 2004

Dear Mr. President,
This morning you felt compelled to introduce an
amendment to the Constitution of the United States
defining marriage as existing only between one man and
one woman.

You say that this will create “clarity.” I would like
you to share this clarity with my first grade daughter
on her school playground, when the children, imitating
their role models as they always do, will take up the
issue. Because I dread those conversations with every
fiber of my being.

Challenged by another child, my daughter will declare
forthrightly that of course her two moms are married.
After all, we have wedding photos in our home, as any
couple does. They show her two moms, fifteen years
ago, in front of our Unitarian Universalist
Congregation. Smiling, with many of our friends and
family members around us.

You see, we have not yet discussed with this seven
year old, precocious as she is, the distinction
between civil and religious marriage. She knows
only that we are her parents, the only ones she’s
known. She knows that we got married in our church,
as her aunts and uncles did, and that our
neighborhood and church, her school and social circle,
involves a significant number of kids with two moms
and a few with two dads. She knows that we provide
the only stability, the only bedrock, that she has
ever
known.

Of course she knows that there are people who say that
two men or two women cannot be married. She knows
that, not very long ago, some people said that no one
could marry someone of a different race, but now of
course we no longer believe that. But I haven’t yet
been able to break it to her that some people want to
change our Constitution to say that our family isn’t
part of “We the people.” I just haven’t found a way
to fit it in between soccer and karate and church.

Tonight I will sit her down, after we’ve done her
homework, and have the conversation that I hoped I
could avoid. I will tell her that you, the President
of the United States, have decided that only a man and
a woman can be married, and that you want to make that
part of our Constitution. Yes, the document she
adores from watching Liberty’s Kids and reading Magic
Treehouse books. I will tell her that I don’t believe
this change in the Constitution will happen, not
enough people will vote for it. But it does mean that
people may say very mean things to her at school about
our family. She will be afraid. I will project
confidence and good humor, but I will be afraid, too.

I do not want to teach my daughter that the President
of the United States does not include our family in
the people he serves and protects. I do not want to
say to her that the very flag she loves will be waved
by people who believe that it does not belong to our
family.
Please, Mr. Bush, tell me how I should conduct myself
“without bitterness or anger” at this time, as you
instructed me today. Come over to my house
tonight: you look at my daughter’s eyes as they absorb
the fact that you, the first President she has ever
known, thinks she can no longer be included in the
very Constitution of this land. You tell me how to
“conduct this difficult debate in a matter worthy of
our country.” Because I am at a loss.

Sincerely,

The Rev. Meg A. Riley
Unitarian Universalist Association
Washington, DC