Historical Injustice

     The U.S. Constitution once held that blacks counted for 3/5 of a person.  The United States stands alone as the only country on our Earth that continues to sentence juveniles to execution.  During colonial times, those who did not attend Sunday masses would be sentenced to death and other religious persecutions. Supposed 'witches' would be burned alive, townspeople tortured to death for stealing a vegetable.  Until 1986, being gay was considered a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of  Mental Disorders (DSM).  Today, in 2010, gays are not allowed to be married.

      There have been times in our past when it has been wrong to be black, female, Jewish, non-religious--different.  
For the most part, many of these prejudices remain a part of our past, especially from a legal point of view.
     However, many lives were lost or ruined before we changed our ways.  Slaves have died, women oppressed, young girls burned at a stake for practicing witchcraft, these are all mistakes we have made as a country that can never be undone.  Yes, we have moved on from them, but how many lives are lost or ruined before something is deemed unconstitutional?  Too many have experienced wrongdoing in our precious Land of the Free.
      Why aren't we getting these memos on time?  Aren't we supposed to be civilized? It's 2010.  We've been wrong before.  We've seen it happen, we've seen these changes occur.  Yet, we cannot get these lives back.   Slavery and religious persecution were unconstitutional way before we recognized them legally as such, and these wrongdoings can never be compensated for. Murder is wrong whether illegal or not.  We know these things innately.  And despite this, we emotionally, physically, and irrationally maltreat those who are our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and friends for nothing more than being exactly who they are.  We cannot undo the things we've done.   However, we can learn from them.  Or can we?  Are we?
      We've outlawed any kind of persecution in the workplace based on sex, race, gender and orientation.  And yet gays continue to be scrutinized by this country as a whole.  We've got a history of bad mistakes not too far behind us.  Let's remember the Civil Rights Movement did not take place all too long ago.  Blacks have fairly newly been created equal.  And they, get this, can even be married.  We're getting closer; you're beginning to catch on, America.  Now, in 2010, all men are created equal -- except for the gay ones.  It's unfair, it's disgusting, and it's wrong.  That's a fact.  And maybe in the next ten or twenty or fifty years, the law will agree.
    
      Prejudice never dies, it merely changes venues.  Welcome to the Free World.