OK, I’m suckered into responding to a right-wing, smoke-screen issue. I’ll forget, for the moment, that the Republican regime in Washington has gotten the country into a quagmire war in the wrong place, with the wrong people – no Iraq connection to 9/11, none of the highjackers were Iraqis, no WMDs; that Bush’s regime has given most of the tax cuts to the multibillionaires; and even before 9/11, it had quickly squandered the Clinton surplus, putting the country hugely in debt.

So, now the big issue is “gay marriage.” Who do you think gay people should marry? Doesn’t it make sense for them to marry each other? If you are heterosexual, would you want to marry a gay person? I don’t. Years ago, when most gay people were “in the closet,” some gays would con heterosexuals into marriage because they were desperate to be what others said was “normal” and to avoid viscous discrimination. Such marriages were often disasters.

To tell gay people they each can’t, in any way, marry a true love, and aspire to a committed, monogamous, long-term loving relationship is rather like advocating the opposite – short relationships with lots of partners, as if we don’t have enough germs in circulation.

Marriage promotes monogamy. Call it a civil union, if you prefer. No one is saying churches should marry anyone but whom they want to marry.

The government should not tell unrelated, consenting adults who they can or cannot marry.

Gail Richardson, Lewiston