Originally posted by Tattoos N Scars
Not to get off topic with this strawman argument, but there were more black people killed in the U.S. prior to the Civil Rights movement. If you consider the post Civil War reconstruction era and the introduction of Jim Crow laws, then you'll notice a heavier trend in violence toward African-Americans than during the Civil Rights movement itself. I'm sure there are hundreds, maybe thousands of instances where Negroes were just strung up by a noose because they drank out of a white water fountain..or were caught messing around with a white woman. Many were strung up without doing anything..other than just being Black. The Civil Rights movement was just the culmination of all of that. Yet, even after the Civil Rights movement, many people still consider blacks inferior to whites. Racial divisions will ALWAYS exist...it can not be permanately cleansed.
And your point is...? I was saying that just because protesting was dangerous never stopped people who truly desired to create change. You definitely were going off topic here.
Originally posted by Tattoos N Scars
On the same note, homosexuality will NEVER be accepted by ALL of the population....even if forced by LAW. In fact, homosexuality is a more tender subject than African-Americans and the Civil Right's movement. Being black is not a sin...yet homosexuality IS considered to be sinful. As long as this country continue to has evangelistic roots, Civil Rights for gays will be much tougher to pass through legislation than it was to accept the equality of African-American's.
It may never be accepted, but it's going to have to be tolerated. And I think you much underestimate the number of beatings, deaths, and jailings the civil rights movement went through (and the Indian independence movement went through even more) in order to get the change passed. The important thing is that the attitudes will never change unless pressure is put on that FORCES it to change, both on the government and civilian levels.
Originally posted by Tattoos N Scars
In the Army..one of it's core values is to "Place the Mission First". If troop morale is put into jeapordy with any type of gay rights legislation, then the Army would view the "Mission" as being put in jeapordy. If you've ever served in the military, then you know what I'm talking about. If straight soldiers have a problem serving with gay soldiers, then the mission could be at risk..and the military will not have that. The Armed Forces care more about the success of a mission than the individuality of its ranks. They want a functional team. The only way gays could work right now is to separate "gay" companies or batallions, but then trouble would arise if they happen to be attached to another division as support personnel.
Again, this same logic was applied for why the military should be segregated by race. Nobody would support that policy or think it was anything but backwards, but somehow you see it fit to actually apply this same flawed argument and ignore the facts that history teaches us.
Originally posted by Tattoos N Scars
There are too many variables...I don't see it succeeding right now..even with legislation.
And what do you see changing in the future, if the issue is not forced?
I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.-MLK Jr