Wow. Just... wow.

This is the reprinted text of an e-mail sent to Andrew Sullivan, one of over a thousand e-mails he has been sent on the topic of marriage equality:

FROM A SOLDIER IN SPECIAL OPS: "Well ... And so it now begins. My more liberal friends told me a day like this would come, and now I am forced to eat crow. Words cannot express the hurt and anger I feel for the man's blatant constitutional and moral attack on a segment of our population. And for the still wobbly among us, make no mistake ... this is an attack... I realized long ago I am (was) a Republican solely for foreign affairs. But that's not good enough anymore. I've helped feed the Kurds in Northern Iraq, I've slept in the mud and rain to enforce peace treaties in eastern Europe, seated in 100 percent humidity in southeast Asia, and I dodged too many bullets and remote controlled bombs in and around Mosul to count. But I gladly did this (and will do it again) to protect the rights and liberties of ALL Americans, not just those of my family.
I voted for this man ... despite what my family said, despite how many times I was smeared because I am African American and (was) a Republican, despite his joy in being an anti-intellectual ... they warned me, they warned me and I didn't listen ... and now I am ashamed of myself. By all that I hold Holy it will never happen again!"

There are quite a few e-mails going to him from Conservative Republicans who are appalled that Bush would desecrate the constitution by codifying bigotry into it for the first time in our history. Several of them even go so far as to say that they will be voting for the Democrat. Some have even gone so far as to say that no person of good will can support a Constitutional Amendment to strip a segment of our society of one of the most fundamental rights, nor a President or Congresman who supports it, but this one really moved me.

Tom DeLay is distancing himself from the Amendment, calling for caution and study. Bush may have miscalculated. We can pray it is so.

I think this bears repeating, though, and I'll take it even further: No person of good will can support a Constitutional Amendment to strip a segment of our society of its rights, nor a politician who fails to vigorously oppose it.

Some may take me to task for putting it in such stark, divisive terms, but there comes a time when divisiveness is a virtue and unity a vice.

Some good news, at least..

It appears that the Bigotry Amendment is a non-starter in the Senate. The discussion I link to starts with a list of 34 Senators (6 of them Republian) who are on record opposing the amendment, and adds more as people called up and asked.

Of course, this is politics, so nothing's certain until the vote is taken, but it is a good sign.