A moment of silence, please

‎"All the fools in town are on our side—that's a majority anywhere."
–Mark Twain, The Man Who Corrupted Hadleysburg

Put on your black arm band

"A setback for human rights and dignity," as a headline in today's Durham Herald-Sun put it. Sixty percent of North Carolina voters had somehow voted for "Amendment One," or the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA).
    In the column beneath that heading, Chris Fitzsimon, the executive director of North Carolina Policy Watch, explained the outcome this way:

Polls showed that the amendment would pass in large part because the vast majority of voters did not understand what the amendment actually would mean, how many lives it would affect, how many laws it would threaten, how many families it would hurt.

    Judging by the many Bible-thumping letter-writers who got their diatribes printed in newspapers in the weeks leading up to Tuesday's election, I think it's fair to say that the voters they represented didn't give a jot or a tittle about any of that.
    If the amendment didn't pass because of ignorant (intellectually aberrant) voters, it may have passed because of the Bible-adherent, morally abhorrent ones.  (Hmm, enough rhymes here for a limerick or two....)
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Mr. Fitzsimon's text can be found on the NC Policy Watch website under the title "The morning after and the morning after that," dated yesterday.
    Thanks to my friend Mr. Tom Lowe for the Mark Twain quote.