Land of the (un)Free

I want to post some thoughts on the recent events surrounding Constance McMillen, the lesbian teen whose high school canceled the prom when she asked to bring her girlfriend as her date and to wear a tuxedo. I won't re-hash the story; anyone competent using Google or another search engine should be able to find out the details of the story for themselves.

The only contribution I have to add to the whole business is this: McMillen's case, and others like it where questions of the basic Constitutional guarantees of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are at stake, expose the hypocrisy and idiocy of American society at its basest level.

How can we, as a society, claim to believe in the rights of the individual, when we won't let two girls go together to a school dance? What are we "protecting" there? Nothing. What are we violating? Supposedly "unalienable rights" -- those of a person to live her life, enjoy her liberty, and pursue happiness in the way she found most fitting.

How can we claim to be the "land of the free" and then tell some people that they're less free than others?

How can we call ourselves the "home of the brave" when, in reality, we're cowards -- racist, sexist, religionist, homophobic, bigoted cowards?

My only hope, I suppose, is this: that McMillen's case, and others like it, will continue to expose the hypocrisy and idiocy of American society at its basest level. Only by first acknowledging the problems will be able to begin to redress them.