Soliliquy #1

It seems to me, that somehow, what happens to us very much depends on what kind of judge a case gets in court.

With the case of Prop 8 here in California and how the voters decided one way, and they took the case to the court and a judge decided another way, it just seems to me that it is all so arbitrary. I am not going to focus on the merits of Prop 8 at all, but the process is alarming.

First of all, I don't understand how California has this proposition system for voters to vote in the law. Not that I am saying I want politicians to make laws either (do remember, that I don't actually have any solutions, I am only writing as the peanut gallery.) So people voted. The people have spoken, for better or for worse. And the case goes to a judge? And that one person decides?

Not too long ago, the people in Utah voted against raising taxes. The case got taken through the court system, and the judges there decided that actually, the State really needs more money, whatever, they are going to raise taxes.

Then this week, the case about stem cells went to see a judge, and that judge decided that new grants shall all be frozen.

What?! It seems to me that issues are being decided whether a 'conservative' or a 'liberal' judge hears the case? Is that really how it is going to be?!

I read The Sister Wife: Brides of Gabriel Book One by Diane Noble while on vacation. It is a story about Mary Rose, who converts to Mormonism, marries the love of her life, becomes a missionary to Illinois, and then is informed of plural marriages. The story explores the ambivalence within her, about how her ideas are in conflict with the teachings by the Prophets, yet she is utterly powerless to leave her marriage or to stop her husband from marrying her very best friend. Instead, she chooses to encourage her husband to take on more wives, because if she can't have her husband's love exclusively, she does not want him to love any other woman, definitely not the second wife, not the third...and imagine, all the rest. To find out for sure though, I am going to have to read Book Two.

The story got me thinking about these judges, we disagree with them, yet they alone make the rules, in the end.

Bummer.

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and does not understand the judiciary process at all. I am just a mostly-law-abiding, tax-paying citizen, who is paying the salary of the law makers and the judges.