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Opinion 
Schwarzenegger Missing an
Opportunity to be a Real Hero
The annual reflection on the 9/11 attacks, the ongoing war in Iraq and the fallout of Hurricane Katrina have had a lot of people thinking about what constitutes a hero these days. Surely we can all agree that emergency rescue personnel who respond to catastrophic disasters deserve the title, even if they’re just doing their jobs. Also in the category of “just doing their jobs,” it’s safe to say that everyone considers soldiers who are willing to risk their lives in service to their country to be heroic, regardless of your thoughts on the reasons for the war itself.
There are even some individuals and celebrities who showed true heroic spirit in responding to the gulf coast disaster by pitching in and lending a hand to the recovery efforts. These folks were roused to action even if it wasn’t part of their jobs, and that is, in some ways, more heroic.
But there’s one celebrity who’s neither acting like a hero nor doing his job this month. And it’s a shame because Arnold Schwarzenegger used to be the very epitome of what we thought of when the word “hero” was thrown into a conversation.
This month, he plans to veto a historic bill passed by the California legislature that would extend marriage to same-gender couples. His excuse that he’s following the law of the land from a 2000 ballot initiative known as the Knight Initiative is shamefully transparent. He’s afraid. He’s afraid of losing support from a conservative Republican base in Orange County and therefore losing his political career.
Schwarzenegger claims the legislation is unconstitutional because it “goes against the will of the people.” Well, the will of the people changes and five years have passed since the 2000 vote. In that time, the state of California (and the nation) have further debated the topic as other countries have moved to make gay marriage legal, San Francisco saw thousands of gay couples race to the altar in February 2004 and Massachusetts made it official.
Schwarzenegger has every right to veto the bill. He must represent the people who voted him into office as he believes they would want him to represent them. What he should not be doing is claiming that the legislature acted unconstitutionally. We live in a republic, which means we elect people to make these decisions on our behalf. If Schwarzenegger truly believes that gay marriage is against the will of the people, it will be reflected in their voting choices at the time of elections.
But we elect people to make our laws because we assume they will uphold the principals upon which our country was founded (such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) and because we want people who can devote time to serious research and debate about the issue and not hyped-up hysteria spun by media-savvy talking heads. In short, a republic only works well if the people we elect are willing to look deeper than poll numbers and pass laws that may be unpopular but are ultimately the right thing to do.
No one wants to pay higher taxes, but somebody has to decide that schools need more money.
That’s why Schwarzenegger is missing an opportunity to actually be a hero instead of just playing one in movies. The California legislature has chosen to look deeper and discovered the truth: that gay marriage is a civil rights issue that has to do with fairness and equality for all American citizens. The legislators who voted in favor of the bill, even if it put them “at risk” come election time (according to popular wisdom), are just doing their jobs. Which makes them heroes, too. |
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