California judges dismiss wishes of state’s people in recent vote

Just a few years ago, the citizens of California voted 61 percent to 39 percent to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman (Proposition 22). Now, in one of the worst-ever examples of judicial tyranny, seven unelected judges have voted 4-3 to wipe out this mandate of the people. What did Lincoln write?
Wasn’t it “of the people, by the people and for the people…” that Abe wrote in the Gettysburg Address in 1863?

I understand that in their 161-page opinion, there was almost no mention of children, nor was there any admission that approving gay marriage opens the door to all kinds of other “definitions” of marriage. Four judges are attempting to discard the votes of 4,618,673 Californians who approved the state’s “Defense of Marriage Act.” In so doing, one writer has observed, “The California Supreme Court has taken a jackhammer to the democratic process.”

Bill Murchison on Town Hall notes that “… one of the dissenting justices, Marvin R. Baxter, wrote in this case, ‘(A) bare majority of this court, not satisfied with the pace of democratic change, now abruptly forestalls that process and substitutes, by judicial fiat, its own social policy views for those expressed by the People themselves.’”

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U.S. taxpayers do a lot of discretionary spending on non-essentials just like many of our politicians do. For example, software sales for computer games hit $9.5 billion last year, an average of nine games sold each second. Financial expert Dave Ramsey has observed, “Do we really have a gas price crisis, when $500 million is spent on a computer game to teach you how to more easily steal a car (Grand Theft Auto IV) in just its first weekend of sales?”

Even at $4 a gallon, $500 million would buy 125 million gallons of gas. Even one-half of the total for game sales ($9.5 billion) would buy almost 1.2 billion gallons of gas.

Considering essentials versus non-essentials, “the poor” is a term often used but seldom defined. Having clothes to put on, having a heated place to live and being fortunate enough to have adequate (not excessive) food to eat are three essentials that should at least merit some agreement as the minimum necessities. Working hard over time here in America most often advances citizens far, far beyond these minimums. The number of citizens for whom this has worked in the past is practically unlimited.

There are those who would like to extend the list of “necessities” (even for “the poor” and especially at government expense) to include cradle-to-grave subsistence, food that is far beyond adequate (and often very unhealthy), free college attendance and houses that are larger than the living space of average taxpayers (average, not the poor) in Europe.

While not yet expected to be included at taxpayers’ expense, are multiple TV sets, multiple cars and a few expensive computer games are fast approaching to be included in “the norm” of necessities? All these aforementioned things can come with hard work, certainly, but their attainment is made much more difficult with a victim mentality or an “I have a right to these things” attitude.

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The two currently showing films, “Iron Man” and “Prince Caspian” are well worth seeing. Some of the former takes place in Afghanistan. The latter is another C. S. Lewis classic.

Dr. Malcolm Cutchins is an emeritus professor of engineering of Auburn University and writes a column for the Opelika-Auburn News.