Columnist Leonard Pitts proved to be a gifted and thought provoking speaker during a recent visit to Lewiston.

I was impressed by his challenge to all of us to strive toward the full realization of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. As a society, we would all benefit if the goals of that decision were truly achieved.

Thus, I was surprised by Mr. Pitts’ response to a question about gay marriage. He answered only in terms of how gay marriage affected him personally, and that being not at all. The idea of the greater good vanished, having become a non-issue if something doesn’t affect one personally. Mr. Pitts went from being a man concerned about society and its future to seemingly not giving a rip.

Marriage between one man and one woman has been a basic foundation of every civil society throughout the course of history. Societies that have destroyed this foundation have eventually disappeared.

Studies indicate that children raised in a traditional family setting are more likely to have positive outcomes in nearly all aspects of health and achievement. It would seem that children need the complementing qualities of both a mother and a father. Deconstructing the traditional model for marriage will lead to an ambivalence toward marriage, and Mr. Pitts alluded to the difficulties and heartbreak experienced by broken families.

Mr. Pitts asserted that desegregation was, and remains, the right thing to do. Shouldn’t we uphold the foundation on which society rests for the same reason?

Lori Malone, Lewiston

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