California Prisoners: Mr. Kelso's VIPs?

So, I blogged about the incarcerated men in the USofA on June 25. Big time! I thought of not writing another one on the topic, but I am appalled with the news (Pasadena Star News, Aug. 14) that Clark Kelso, the Federal Court Overseer, asked a judge to seize $8 billion from California treasury to improve the medical care at state's prisons. To make it more shocking, Mr. Kelso also asked the court to hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state comptroller in contempt of court if they don't allocate the money soon.

California is cash-strapped. In fact, couple of weeks ago, hundreds of state employees were in Sacramento, the state capital, to protest against the plan of the governor to lower their salaries to minimum wage rate, because there's very little money to disburse.

What is Mr. Kelso thinking? While the law-abiding constituents are having problem getting medical emergency care (with closures of many E.Rs, most have to travel many miles and wait for at least 4 hours, before they could be seen by E.R. doctors), having problem refilling their prescribed medication (many have to even cross the border to get cheaper refills), having problem convincing the state not to cut more on the educational budget and not to lower their salaries to minimum wage, he has the nerve to ask a judge for such drastic and preposterous action.

Certainly, those people at the pen needs medical care, but they should not be treated special. They are at the pen to be punished. They are there to be deterred from committing more crimes. They are there to be incapacitated. They are there to be rehabilitated. To give them best services is incongruous to these four objectives of the criminal justice system. Why not just provide them their basic needs and use that $8 billion to Californians, who are outside the pen? Thousands of law-abiding citizens can barely make both ends meet. Consequently, more and more of those outside the pen are now resorting to OTC (over-the-counter) medication, just taking analgesics for undiagnosed pain, because they are uninsured and cannot stand the travel to and long wait in emergency rooms.

Mr. Kelso should have asked the court to seize that money for the sake of Californians, who are outside the state prison. They are the ones who really need help so that they can continue paying taxes to keep felons off the street. Yes, felons in these 33 state prisons have constitutional rights for better medical services; however, the law-abiding citizens have more rights to be served better.

CULTURAL SIEVE AND SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

In the book, Mirror of Man, anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn describes culture as a sieve. Any new idea has to pass through it. Since same-sex marriage is fairly new idea, and a very delicate, sensitive, and complex issue because it affects the core (spiritual) value of many, it is not surprising that it would not easily pass through in many cultural sieves.

For nominal Christian, non-Christian and radicals, same-sex marriage is just part of a cultural dynamics. They will not consider it difficult to adapt and integrate to their existing way of life. However, for traditionalist and biblically-rooted Christians, this cultural mesh is more stringent. Any profane idea would take awhile or will have difficulty passing through it. Why? It is because another mesh(the biblical norm) is superimposed to the communal mesh.

As a non-homophobic Christian sociologist, who is living in California, I seriously have thought of same-sex marriage ever since the San Francisco Mayor allowed it in 2004, where 4,000 marriage licenses were issued, albeit invalidated when California Supreme Court struck it down. Now, that the same court has changed its position, hence, has legalized same-sex mariage, effective on June 16, in the state of California, stirring protest and further court battles, I have to think some more about it.

I am torn between three overlapping sets of cultural sieves: communal sieve is my culture A as a member of the society,in general; carreer sieve is my culture B as a member of the 'social science world' obligated to try one's best to look at a phenomenon bias-free, and spiritual sieve is my culture C having been born, raised, and with faith that is deeply-rooted in biblical dogma.

The problem is that marriage is not only a socially approved mating relationship, it also is a sacrament of the church. In the Scripture, it is specifically a mating relationship between man and woman. Mating outside such relationship, is considered an abomination. To impose same-sex marriage on the traditionalist and biblically-oriented citizens is like forcing,tearing or wounding that spiritual mesh, and beyond that, rubbing too much salt onto it. This problem wouldn't be easy to resolve.

Possible solution to the problem:
1) Rather than passing a ballot measure in November that would effectively overturn the court's decision by defining marriage as "between a man and a woman", a ballot measure that reiterates the subclassification of marriage must be passed. Since the term 'marriage' is the center of conflict, ( that's why the term,legal partnership, is considered unfair and for second-rated citizens) why can't we not just adhere to two specific classifications: Sacramental marriage ( define as a church scrament to symbolize the unity of a man and a woman as into one body.), Ceremonial marriage ( a ceremony performed by any licensed or authorized officials, other than the religious leaders. Maghos, the origin of the English term, marriage, which, according to Joseph Shipley, seems likely to come from Greek, Cornish, Lithuanian, etc., means virgin, of either sex.
2) Non-nominal Christians to just consider same-sex marriage as a sign of the end-times. If same-sex marriage is unstoppable, we should consider it as a motivation to stengthen our faith for the end time is near. Rather than wavering our faith, we should bridle our eyes and look up for that glorious appearing. There are things that are beyond our control, but it is part of God's plan. Having such marriage is a force to test our faith. Having such marriage is a test that will determine who are the "Jezebels" among us, most especially, among the religious leaders.

Following the thoughts of Theodore Mills (The Sociology of Small Groups, 1967:108) same-sex marriage has disrupted the existing structure of emotional and normative relations. The affected are the traditionalists and the non-nominal Christians; the goal-seekers are the pro same-sex marital groups. I just hope that this issue would be resolved very soon.