DEVAL PATRICK STATEMENT ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION AND MARRIAGE EQUALITYThis is what John Edwards should be saying.
Boston – January 2, 2007 – The following is a statement from Governor-elect Deval Patrick on today’s Constitutional Convention:
“I believe that adults should be free to choose whom they wish to love and to marry. The SJC’s decision in Goodridge affirms that basic human right, and I support it.
“Above all, this is a question of conscience. Using the initiative process to give a minority fewer freedoms than the majority, and to inject the state into fundamentally private affairs, is a dangerous precedent, and an unworthy one for this Commonwealth. Never in the long history of our model Constitution have we used the initiative petition to restrict freedom. We ought not start now.
“For practical reasons as well, it’s time to move on. Whatever one’s views of marriage equality, all can agree that we have far more pressing issues before the Legislature and the Commonwealth. It serves no public interest to focus more time and attention on this issue when there are under-served and under-performing schools, an infrastructure showing signs of sustained neglect, gun and gang violence on the rise, jobs and people leaving the state, a growing homeless population, soaring health care costs, a looming deficit and a score of other serious challenges crying out for the attention and the creativity of the government and the people. We cannot in good conscience ask these unmet needs to wait while a few individuals try to insert discrimination into our Constitution.
“I favor ending this petition initiative promptly. If adjournment can accomplish that, so be it. If the Constitutional Convention chooses to vote on the merits, I want to be utterly clear that I believe a vote to advance this question to the 2008 ballot is irresponsible and wrong. Given the significant challenges we face on so many other fronts, I would be deeply disappointed in such a vote. It would do nothing more than condemn us all to more years of debate and expense on a matter that is legally and practically settled.”
And BTW, this statement should be on the Deval Patrick website, in a blog post with a permalink, so I wouldn't have to repost the entire thing here.
If you find it somewhere on his site let me know and I'll link to it there.