Elaine Graham’s declaration, “Traditional marriage is a traditional value” (Jan. 29) brings to light several popular misconceptions.

A common, though incorrect, belief exists in a single, unchanging tradition called marriage. Which “traditional marriage” does Graham reference?

Does she mean biblical traditional marriage: polygamy? Does she mean traditional marriage that, within memory, jailed or hanged a black person who married a white person? Traditional marriage that permitted abuse and rape as a husband’s prerogative? Could she possibly mean traditional marriage prohibiting her owning property, or writing a letter to the editor because only the husband could be spokesperson for the domicile – “domicile” as in the man’s home?

The fact is, marriage is a changing tradition.

The writer asks further, “Should sexual acts out of the norm be protected?” Whose “norm?” The writer’s? Who is anyone to demand that what is normal for others be changed or criminalized because it is not normal for them? The Constitution and the Supreme Court have made clear countless times the “full right to engage in private conduct without government intervention.” Why is this so very difficult for some to understand?

Why are the newly admitted so ready to lock the doors to others? Traditional Puritans came seeking freedom to practice their beliefs, freedom they extended to no one but themselves. Some traditions are best let die. Each generation in America has an opportunity to come closer to the liberty and justice for all that is our pledge. Let us seize it.

Lew Alessio, Greene