Marriage last bastion of American way of life
To the editor:
I will certainly vote for the constitutional ban on gay marriage. But my vote is not so much out of religious, political and sociological conviction, but it is a last desperate and futile gesture for American civilization, of which the sanctity of traditional marriage is one of the few remaining vestiges.
I have been cataloguing the decline of values, traditions and taste since the 1950s. Now, I freely admit that I am the product of a Victorian upbringing. My mother was convent educated in England before World War I and communicated to us, her children, the value and values of “polite” society, i.e., manners, table manners, avoid coarse language and those who spoke it, and proper respect for a lady and that every member of the female persuasion was to be treated like a lady.
The disintegration of American culture began with World War II during which the very standards of civilization and morality were challenged. There were great changes in society and its class structure. One great philosopher had announced that God is dead but others felt that the reports of Her death were premature.
GIs came home with the easy morality of foreign lands but I see the most insidious threat to culture was the advent of television. Innocuous at first in the “Father Knows Best” era, it predictably degenerated to the gutter in our living room. And things like “Playboy” filled that gutter and made immorality fashionable. Thus, our culture is under constant siege with illegal drug use, the sexual revolution, the pill, abortion, etc. Just go to the playground of the average grammar school to hear coarse language and four letter words that would embarrass a sailor. I am glad I am old and will not live to see the legalization of illegal drugs, pedophilia, etc.
And that is why I vote against gay marriage. I know that it is a futile gesture, meaningless to most but I think of a letter Czar Paul wrote his mother after being defeated by Napoleon; “all is lost save honor”.” Alas, today’s kids think honor is two words!
Peter Stewart Hare
Cape Coral