Letters on same-sex marriage, voting lists, Brownbackistan, Hamas

Matrimony about becoming a mother

The term “matrimony” is derived from “mater,” the Latin word for mother. It describes the situation where a young woman seeking to become a mother bonds with a man who will make her a mother and will share her joy with motherhood while helping raise their child to adulthood. This institution has existed from the beginning of time and served society well.

Practical regulations become attached to this lifetime bond. Incest and cousin marriages are prohibited in order to prevent developmental anomalies. Disputes are resolved with the assistance of judges, who are expected to master the language of the culture and have a knowledge of human biology. The institutions of matrimony and the judiciary have remained the foundation of society from time eternal.

Sadly, today we find judges who cluster together contradictory phrases when speaking of matrimony and appear not to understand human biology. If they are unable to mend their way, society may suffer an irreversible blow and slowly deteriorate. To state this in simple terms, judges cannot join together two people, neither of whom can become a mother, in matrimony. Let us pray that we can return to the wisdom that has sustained society for centuries.

We’re ascending

Those against marriage rights for gay couples (the conservative religious right and the homophobic) are not unlike those who felt that the races should be kept segregated. Where are we on that now? Get on the right side of history, please.

We evolve. That’s how it works (or is supposed to). Those who resist change and want everything to stay as it once was need to move over and get out of the way.

It’s ironic that those in the religious right wail that our beloved nation is “going to hell in a handbasket” when we do things like let gays marry. They fail to see the “timber” in their own eye. It is their own entrenched, outdated and fearful ideas that are being replaced with tolerance, compassion and love – the very thing the Bible promoted (well, if you take out all the vengeful god and killing stuff). It’s easy to see how people all over the world have used their holy book and the “inerrant” word of their “god” to justify oppression and inequality.

We are ascending (not descending), whether you like it or not. You are either part of the solution or part of the problem.

Voting lists OK

I was horrified when I read the Nov. 14 Opinion Line comment from a poll worker who was disturbed by voters who brought a list of candidates endorsed by a pro-life organization. Is not a poll worker’s primary job to assure that an election is being carried out according to the law? I do not believe that a poll worker should be concerned how a voter chooses the candidates to vote for, much less make a public comment about it.

I am certain that many people bring lists with them to make sure they vote for the candidates they have decided on. If this poll worker finds it objectionable that people want to vote for pro-life candidates or candidates endorsed by any organization or party, then perhaps it would be best not to work the polls.

All who voted exercised their constitutional rights, and although we have many political differences, we Americans have the freedom and the right to vote for whomever we wish when most of the world does not.

On our way

The state legislative plan to turn Kansas into Brownbackistan is coming along nicely. We are slowly acquiring all the features of a banana republic. Widening income inequality? Check. Deterioration of social services, infrastructure and public education funding? Check. Christo-corporatism as the state religion? Check. Lackluster economy and increasing budget deficits? Check. Earthquakes (from fracking)? Check. Now, when do we get all the luscious fruit and gorgeous beaches? Perhaps that will come with climate change.

Didn’t seize power

A letter writer seems to think that Hamas seized power in Gaza and this gives Israel the right to kill Palestinians in Gaza (“Hamas occupation,” Nov. 15 Letters to the Editor). Regardless of the repressive and reactionary nature of Hamas, this idea is false.

In 2006, the Palestinians, encouraged by the United States, held an election. This is under occupation, don’t forget, so I am using the term “power” loosely. Also don’t forget that Hamas had originally been supported by Israel in the late 1980s as an alternative to Fatah. Hamas got the most votes not because people wanted to kill Israelis but because they were rejecting Fatah, which had shown itself to be corrupt and ineffective in opposing Israel’s occupation.

Israel and the United States decided this election result was not to their liking, so they conspired with Fatah to keep Hamas from gaining from the election result. They succeeded in the West Bank, but Hamas defeated this move in Gaza and remained in “power” there. So a displeased Israel, which already controlled the borders, airspace and sea coast of Gaza, as it had since 1967, instituted an even more draconian system by blockading Gaza. This is collective punishment, pure and simple, and civilized people should not support that.

This story was originally published November 20, 2014 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Letters on same-sex marriage, voting lists, Brownbackistan, Hamas."