Thanks, Wisconsin, for voting 'yes' for marriage amendment

Posted November 17, 2006
Fond du Lac Reporter

Commentary: Thanks, Wisconsin, for voting 'yes' for marriage amendment

On Nov. 7, Wisconsin voted "yes" for marriage. Predictably, bitter liberals are already spewing venom.

A recent letter declared that discriminatory fascists were "who (we) are as a people." The writer revealed his own closed-mindedness by declaring that "yes" voters had "no good logical argument."

The amendment doesn't "discriminate against someone because (we) don't like who they are."

Despite Fair Wisconsin's claims (a group better suited to the title "Fraud Wisconsin" for the dishonest campaign that sunk Wisconsin politics to a new low with last-minute, deliberately confusing autocalls,) it won't destroy visitation rights or domestic violence protections for unmarried couples. Nor is it an effort in "keeping people from loving each other," as another letter absurdly claimed.

Gays can still live together, and in a liberal church, they can even "get married" in the eyes of their congregation, if not the law.

Every single Wisconsinite is still treated equally. Rights lie with individuals, not relationships. Everyone has the individual right to enter the institution of marriage with someone of the opposite sex. Gays don't like that choice, which may be an argument for same-sex marriage, but not for the idea that gays are second-class citizens.

This idea that equality demands same-sex marriage is based on a misunderstanding of marriage. Its purpose is not to say any one couple's love is more "real" than another. Our increasingly secular, gratification-centric society may have forgotten, but marriage has meaning and purpose. The meaning is the union of a man and a woman. The purpose? Canadian scholar Margaret Somerville said: "Through marriage our society marks out the relationship of two people who will together transmit human life to the next generation and nurture and protect that life."

Children need influence of a mother and father to grow into mature, well-rounded adults. Studies and common sense tell us that motherless and fatherless homes are detrimental to a child.

Please listen: I don't doubt the love or sincerity of many gays. The vast majority of conservatives understand that many really want to give children a loving home (despite what demagogues might tell you, monsters like Fred Phelps enjoy no support from the political or religious Right). But parenting is about the ingredients, not the numbers.

We speak of the sanctity of marriage because it is sacred; it has a role in our society that every American ought to revere, a role that deserves unique societal recognition. Simply put, marriage is the nucleus of the family, which is the foundation of civilization itself.

True, modern marriages often fail to honor this lofty description. Divorce, casualized sex and encouraged youth experimentation result in broken homes, broken hearts, and far too many children growing up without the love and guidance they need.

Yes, by and large, we have failed to protect marriage. But the claim, advanced in another letter to The Reporter, that social conservatives "do not seem to mind" things like divorce and sham celebrity marriages, is a lie.

For instance, just go to the Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org)or the Family Research Council (www.frc.org) and you'll see that we examine these issues a great deal. Furthermore, distorting it to encompass homosexual unions would be a further failure to defend it. If we are ever to pull this sacred institution out of the hole we left it in, we have to put our foot down now to the gay marriage lobby's attempts to sink it deeper.

Thank you, Wisconsin, for rejecting Fair Wisconsin's deceit and demagoguery and voting "yes" for marriage.

Calvin Freiburger lives in Fond du Lac.

Let me add my thank yous also. Thank you who voted correctly and said yes to marriage being between only one man and one women.