Same-sex marriage issue shows that we are not free

EDITOR:
At work, an argument was taking place during the lunch hour, and the comment was made that "this is still a free country!" I thought a moment about what that comment truly meant, and it occurred to me that the United States is NOT a free country! To be sure, people pay lip service to the idea of freedom, but that's all it is, lip service.
A movie came out of Hollywood, of all places, that pretty much summed up freedom. In it, the actor made the statement "freedom is you defending my right to do something that you disagree with." A profound statement if you think about it. A perfect example would be burning the American flag. The Supreme Court has held that burning the flag, as distasteful as it is to me and most every American, is a protected act under the First Amendment. So it must be a great country if a citizen can destroy the symbol of that country and be protected by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Constitution and the amendments to that document detail the rights of the American citizen. They grant us freedoms, not take them away. (The Prohibition amendment took rights away, but it was repealed.)
Now the issue of same-sex marriages is threatening to amend this great document, the Constitution, with an amendment taking rights away from a segment of the population -- not the country as a whole, but a group of people that happen to look at life a little differently than the majority.
Now the statement made in the movie makes a good argument that this is NOT a free country after all. How can the union of two men or two women be a threat to the institution of marriage? Any more so than the fact that the divorce rate in this country hovers near 50 percent. Please! It's like burning the flag. We may not like it, but how is it harming me or anyone else personally?
If I choose to do something that harms no one or anything, why should it be anyone's business but my own? If this were truly a free country, the people in it would defend the rights of a group of people to enjoy "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Now we have a clamor of people in such a hurry to outlaw something that hurts no one, just because they disagree with another person's lifestyle. Where does it end? Suppose someday that enough people decide they don't like Jews. Wait ... been there, done that. Point made! Which brings to mind a statement I've come to see as a true threat to the freedoms in this country, granted by this Constitution. "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups!"
TOM HALL
Lisbon