Second thoughts on recent banner headlines . . .
Not even the north has come to terms with this past. Jim Crow was practiced in the south and tolerated and enabled in the north, in Congress, in pulpits, in academia, in corridors of power everywhere, and in editorial pages that viewed segregation “with concern” while advising its enemies to go slow so as not to vex the segregationists. If southerners marvel at how much the north seems to care about their precious flag now, one reason for that is how little we cared then, when a coffee cup bearing the battle flag and the legend “Forget Hell” was a perfect keepsake to bring back from a family trip through Mississippi.
The most cogent legal argument for legalizing same-sex marriage—Judge Richard Posner’s opinion in the Seventh Circuit—tells us why. Gay marriage does palpable good, Posner reasoned, but no palpable harm—indignation aside. This means there’s no legal justification for forbidding it. As indignation wanes—in five years, or five months, or next week—it’ll be hard for anyone to remember what the fuss was about.
