Late this afternoon, the husband and I and a number of friends went and saw the movie "Loving" that follows the case of Richard and Mildred Loving and their prosecution by Virginia authorities for their violation of Virginia's miscegenation statute and the Loving's subsequent legal battles that culminated in the United States Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia, which struck down state bans on interracial marriage nationwide. For those who have not seen the movie, it is exceedingly well done and is a must see. Indeed, it ought to be required viewing in high school government classes. The film was a vivid reminder of just how horrible non-whites were treated in Virginia not really that long ago, not to mention the inhumanity often meted out by the majority against those who look different or believe differently. The film was also a harsh reminder that many of Donald Trump's supporters, including the 81% of evangelical Christians who voted for him, would like to return America to the days prior to the Loving v. Virginia ruling and the civil rights laws enacted in the 1960'2.
Meanwhile, Trump has talked out of both sides of his mouth on the issue of same sex marriage as he has sought to prostitute himself to the evangelical Christian and professional Christian sets. Mildred Loving made a statement before her death in 2008 that ought to be the guiding rule on marriage. Here are highlights via The Advocate:
"Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the 'wrong kind of person' for me to marry," "I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry."
Meanwhile, what was one of the justifications used to support Virginia's ban (and other states') on interracial marriage? Religion, of course, that great pestilence that throughout history has been used to justify so much death and evil. If one needs a reminder, here is what Caroline County Circuit Court judge Leon M. Brazile wrote when he first convicted Richard and Mildred Loving:
Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.
Frighteningly, it is judges like Brazile who Trump may now nominate to the United States Supreme Court. That prospect ought to terrify decent, moral Americans.
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