My knee-jerk reaction is to welcome him and other Mormons to the world of many of the rest of us. This nation is filled with second-class citizens. However, this line of thought is unproductive and even falls short of being self-serving.
Perhaps for the first time in our history it is possible that someone other than a white male will be elected president. Will the big break come for people of color or women? Or will white males continue their hold while a break comes to the Latter-day Saints?
I look forward to the removal of some group from the ranks of the marginalized; however, regardless of the outcome in the 2008 election, many Americans will still be second-class citizens. If Mr. Oman really thinks that Mormons are second-class citizens he should try on the shoes of a homosexual, an agnostic or an atheist for a moment.
According to a February 2007 Gallup poll, 72 percent of Americans would vote for a Mormon for president. This does place them behind Catholics (95 percent), blacks (94 percent), Jews (92 percent) and women (88 percent) but far ahead of homosexuals (55 percent) and atheists (45 percent).
Apparently an atheist cannot be elected even if his/her platform best matches the needs and hopes of all Americans. Given this distrust of atheists, an obvious question arises: If Mormons are second-class citizens what are atheists?
According to Mitt Romney's speech on religion, atheists, as well as agnostics, have no place in America, as "freedom requires religion." Romney's speech was an exercise in pandering to those who would marginalize him while marginalizing others.
What some of us found in that speech is that Americans do not want to be discriminated against and do not want to be marginalized, but Americans are still willing to discriminate against and marginalize others. This is why we still have a problem.
Members of the LDS Church are right to point out bigotry against their religion that we've seen work against Romney during his campaign (though there are many reasons that people might choose not to vote for him that are not based in religion).
However, these same members, and their leadership, worked with others to ensure that homosexuals are treated as second-class citizens not only in spirit but also in the letter of the law. It is as if people do not understand that we are all in this together.
There is simply no way out of our current predicament unless we recognize that we do not have the right to ask to be treated with respect unless we grant respect to others. If we do not wish to be marginalized we must not marginalize others.
We should not be content until we see the poll results I previously mentioned replaced by results that are uniformly high for all groups. I'd love to suggest that they all be 100 percent, at least regarding the willingness to look at the candidate's platform, but there will always be some jerks. We simply need to decrease the number of jerks by recognizing our own hypocrisy and removing ourselves from their ranks.
Mr. Oman is correct when he states that Romney's experience in this election is "a cautionary tale for members of any other marginal American tribe seeking the privilege of being judged as an individual."
What he failed to explain is that all members of all marginal tribes are to blame for this. So long as we seek to marginalize others we not only expose ourselves to marginalization, but actually deserve to be marginalized. Whatever our divisions, we must tackle this culture of marginalization together.
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* TY GARDNER is an instructor of human anatomy and biology at Snow College in Ephraim.
