An inter-faith rally vs same sex marriage

Tomorrow, Aug.22nd, an Inter-Faith “UNITY PRAYER RALLY FOR THE FAMILY” will be held from 2:30PM to 5:30PM at the SPFY Covered Court at the Archbishops Palace Compound. This rally was supposed to be held at the Fuente Osmeña, but with a possible inclement weather being predicted, rally organizer Dr. Rene Bullecer moved it to the SPFY Covered Court so the inclement weather won’t disturb the activities of this prayer rally.

The aim of this rally is to send a message in the strongest term to the government of our common stand against gay or same sex marriage. This Inter-faith event was approved by his Excellency Archbishop Jose Palma of the Cebu Archdiocese where he sent a circular to all Catholic organizations to participate in tomorrow’s rally. The issue on same-sex marriage was magnified when last June 26, 2015 the US Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in all the Federal States of the United States of America.

But conservative Americans are fighting back with slogans, which reads, “When slavery was legal in America, it was immoral. Today abortion is legal, but it still is immoral. So legalizing same sex marriage doesn’t make it moral.” I fully concur with these observations… that legal luminaries may enact laws to make immoral things legal, but legalizing them still doesn’t change the fact that something immoral despite its being legal cannot make it moral.

In her book, “The Abolition of Marriage” by Maggie Gallagher said, “The evidence is now overwhelming that the collapse of marriage is creating a who le generation of children less happy, less physically and mentally healthy, less equipped to deal with life or produce at work, and more dangerous to themselves and others.” A lot of our friends say that they are against same-sex marriage…but these are mere words. Those who truly say that they are against same sex marriage, let them be counted from amongst those who would be attending the Inter-Faith Rally at the SPFY cover court tomorrow.

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Kudos to the new CITOM Operations Chief Atty. Rey Gealon for he listened to our suggestion on what to do at the Fuente Osmeña. Since time immemorial, cars always parked parallel along Fuente Osmeña; after all, the buildings there never had any parking areas, since these were not yet required in those days. But with traffic getting worse every day, parallel parking is just eating up too much road and has shrunk the width of Fuente Osmeña.

Short-lived CITOM Operations Chief Vic Caindec was the first to do something in Fuente Osmeña by still allowing parallel parking, but moved it one road width making way for vehicles like taxicabs to load or unload passengers. It was good from the start, but when taxicabs no longer used that reserve roadway for loading and unloading and started getting passengers behind the parked cars, it reduced the width of Fuente Osmeña. I should know. I pass there every day.

But last Wednesday afternoon, I was surprised to see the CITOM maintenance team painting the roadside in Fuente Osmeña. Those people still recognize me as I stopped to ask what they were doing and they confirmed that henceforth, there would be no more parallel parking along the Fuente Osmeña. If listening to people were the attitude of Atty. Gealon, he would go a long way in helping us with our traffic problems.

Here’s one more suggestion for Atty. Gealon in order to produce a smooth flow of traffic. Look at the areas where there are hardware stores or water refilling stations along the main road that do not have any parking available. These are the spots where many of their customers with cars would turn on their emergency blinkers because these ignorant motorists believe that by pressing the emergency blinker, it would prevent traffic enforcers from apprehending them because this would give the impression that they are in an emergency.

But in truth, they misuse that blinker to park illegally. Believe me, they are all over the place. I dare say that it is time for CITOM to propose an ordinance meting out stiff fines for vehicles or motorists who turn on their emergency signal lights for purposes of parking illegally. Such an ordinance can easily be implemented because the blinkers themselves will catch your attention when motorists use them.

More often than not, we enact laws that are just unenforceable. Take the case of the new law signed by Pres. Aquino meting out stiff fines on motorcyclists who allow children to ride their motorcycles. While I do not contest that this law has a noble goal, however it is unenforceable.

Just go up to Busay or anywhere outside Metro Cebu where the motorcycle is the principal form of transportation with whole families riding on two wheels? How can anyone enforce this? If you ask me, this law is not only unenforceable, it is anti-poor because only the poor can afford a small motorcycle and it is their only family vehicle.

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