Dear Readers:
I am departing from my usual types of features to share with you a letter I am e-mailing to our U.S. President Barak Obama. The reason will become obvious as you read it, and I am sharing it with you so that those of you who support the thoughts contained herein will have the opportunity to inform the President accordingly.
I am departing from my usual types of features to share with you a letter I am e-mailing to our U.S. President Barak Obama. The reason will become obvious as you read it, and I am sharing it with you so that those of you who support the thoughts contained herein will have the opportunity to inform the President accordingly.
President Obama and the DOMA
The Honorable U.S. President Barak Obama:
Your recent action in refusing to support the Defense of Marriage Act and informing the Justice Department to do so also is out-of-order. The U.S. President is charged by the U. S. Constitution with the enforcement of the laws of the United States.* It is the job of the legislatures to make and pass our laws, and the job of the Supreme Court to interpret them. Your job as chief executive is to carry out existing laws, whether you agree with them or not. You may want to change them, if you think they are wrong, but you not have the right to refuse to support them, as long as they are existing law. Think a moment: What kind of role model does this make you for the children of this country? If you can disobey laws you don't like, can't they also? Don't you see the harm done here?
Incidentally the DOMA is needed for far more important reasons than to discourage gay marriages. Marriage is NOT as civil right, as many claim and would like to think. It is not a right at all but an institution--the foundation stone of any society that wants to provide emotionally healthy stable families for children to grow up in. The traditional family has taken many hits in recent decades. Ask any anthropologist and they will tell you that the gradual deterioration of healthy family life and structure in the past several decades is bringing more and more chaos in society. Case in point: just look at the skyrocketing divorce rate and the detrimental affect it has on the children involved.
Do what is right, Mr. President. Gay persons need their personal rights respected and supported, yes, but this does not include marriage. To have a strong people, we need strong, emotionally healthy families. We need the DOMA.
A concerned citizen,
Margaret Houk
* Funk & Wagnalls Standard Reference Encyclopedia
Your recent action in refusing to support the Defense of Marriage Act and informing the Justice Department to do so also is out-of-order. The U.S. President is charged by the U. S. Constitution with the enforcement of the laws of the United States.* It is the job of the legislatures to make and pass our laws, and the job of the Supreme Court to interpret them. Your job as chief executive is to carry out existing laws, whether you agree with them or not. You may want to change them, if you think they are wrong, but you not have the right to refuse to support them, as long as they are existing law. Think a moment: What kind of role model does this make you for the children of this country? If you can disobey laws you don't like, can't they also? Don't you see the harm done here?
Incidentally the DOMA is needed for far more important reasons than to discourage gay marriages. Marriage is NOT as civil right, as many claim and would like to think. It is not a right at all but an institution--the foundation stone of any society that wants to provide emotionally healthy stable families for children to grow up in. The traditional family has taken many hits in recent decades. Ask any anthropologist and they will tell you that the gradual deterioration of healthy family life and structure in the past several decades is bringing more and more chaos in society. Case in point: just look at the skyrocketing divorce rate and the detrimental affect it has on the children involved.
Do what is right, Mr. President. Gay persons need their personal rights respected and supported, yes, but this does not include marriage. To have a strong people, we need strong, emotionally healthy families. We need the DOMA.
A concerned citizen,
Margaret Houk
* Funk & Wagnalls Standard Reference Encyclopedia
