Dear Editor:
In reading Randy O’Connor’s letter to the editor about the
constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriages, I realized
that although the message of the letter was clear, the underlying
philosophy of the argument is much more complicated.
Dear Editor:
In reading Randy O’Connor’s letter to the editor about the constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriages, I realized that although the message of the letter was clear, the underlying philosophy of the argument is much more complicated. I would like to discuss the underlying philosophy of Mr. O’Connor’s argument, and look at the result of embracing such an ideology.
Mr. O’Connor made a statement that summed up the main idea of his argument: “The idea of restricting the rights of others because of what we feel is right or wrong or – sinful‚ is plain intolerance.” This “don’t push your morals on others‚” type of statement is a pretty typical argument used by people supporting many various causes; however, it is not so much this statement, but the underlying philosophy of the statement that interests me.
With this philosophy, legalizing gay marriages is just the beginning; after all, according to this particular argument, is it not plainly intolerant not to extend the right of marriage to people who want to marry their own family members, multiple partners, animals or anything else that they consider to be a suitable mate? It is impossible to use this argument in defense of gay marriage without also defending the legitimacy of other various sexual preferences. The logical conclusion of this argument is the legalizing of any form of marriage‚ that a person believes is okay for them.
In addition to its frightening conclusion, claiming that we should not restrict rights based on what we feel is right or wrong is just plain ridiculous. All of our established rights and laws are based on morals, after all, what other reason does the government have for enforcing anything? Why has the government made XXXX illegal? Because we believe it to be morally wrong to commit XXXX, therefore the government makes laws based on that moral belief. The root of ALL law is morals, so to say that we should not restrict the rights‚ of others based on morals is foolish.
With these things in mind, let us understand exactly what we are dealing with. Marriage and the family system are the foundation of our entire society. When we decide to mess with marriage, we are not simply dealing with some unimportant issue, we are messing with the very fabric of our society. So, feel free to fight for whatever cause you choose, but realize that ideas have consequences, and these consequences will seriously affect the most foundational part of our society.
Ben Whittaker, Gilroy
Submitted Sunday, March 7 to ed****@****ic.com
