Resign,
Santorum!
Providence
Journal, April 27, 2003
Letters
In 1857, the US Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott
case that blacks “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”
In 1896, the court upheld the “separate but equal” doctrine of racial
segregation in the Plessy case, keeping America in the moral Dark Ages as it
prepared to enter the 20th Century.
In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education reversed that
decision, but 50 years later and several years into the 21st Century few would
say that racial equality has been achieved.
The philosopher Santayana remarked that “those who
cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Yet despite centuries
of painful lessons we are indeed in danger of forgetting the past, as Sen.
Rick Santorum’s recent disgraceful remarks make clear. Discrimination based
on sexual orientation is no different than discrimination based on skin color.
Can we now learn from our experiences and recognize and
protect in law the basic human rights of gays and lesbians, without multiple
Supreme Court cases and centuries of needless hatred and suffering?
Santorum’s remarks are an affront to decency.
The senator should resign from, or be stripped of, his
leadership post, and should think strongly about leaving the US Senate as
well. That institution has no room for his kind of bigotry.
Bryan Macedo
Providence
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