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Gay marriage – no problem for me

I’ve been married to my wife for 20 years. I can see no reason whatsoever to deny gay men and lesbians the joys of marriage. Allowing people who love each other to share their lives is what makes the world go around. To take any other position is to make a mockery of the institution itself.

Furthermore, it is the height of hypocrisy to use a twisted belief in God to deny anyone the chance at marriage. The Bible says that man was created in the image of God. Reread it. It doesn’t say some men, most men or straight men. It was an all-inclusive statement, just as marriage should be an all inclusive institution

Scott Correa
Mount Vernon


U.S. responsible for repairing Iraq

The AP article “Congress wants Iraq to pony up,” published April 15 in the Skagit Valley Herald, would be laughable if it were not so tragic.

It says Republicans and Democrats are united in “looking at Iraq’s surging oil income and saying Baghdad should start picking up more of the tab, particularly for rebuilding hospitals, roads, power lines and the rest of the shattered country.”

It is the U.S. that is responsible for destroying Iraq. As long as the occupation continues, there will be no end to the destruction of infrastructure — whether that comes from terrorism, U.S. actions (military or contractor), sabotage by resistance fighters or attacks between ethnic groups that the administration has so effectively inspired.

The U.S. bears a responsibility for funding the rebuilding of Iraq because of the damage we have done, but this will be a hopeless effort until all U.S. troops and contractors have left the country.

And this says nothing of the millions of Iraqis displaced, the millions injured and the more than 1 million killed by the U.S.-led aggression and occupation.

Roger Wechsler
Bow


Nation’s ‘values’ of yesteryear

It warms the soul to read laments about our nation’s wickedness for abandoning the “traditional Christian values, in which this country was founded upon.”

One of those traditional Christian values was slavery, since through silence the original Constitution not only sanctioned slavery but also, for apportioning taxes and congressional representation, graciously counted slaves each as three-fifths of a human. There was not just a sop for the South but also for most northern states, where many such 60 percent persons toiled in bondage.

(The nation’s largest Protestant domination, the Southern Baptists, did not formally give up finding Biblical justification for slavery until 1995.)

Another founding traditional Christian value denied women the right to vote or hold legislative or other high office and in many jurisdictions the right to own property in their own names. Today’s semi-emancipation of women has helped lead us to where we are, ethically speaking.

Yet another 18th century value was forcing children, often as young as 5, to labor in coal and other mines, in factories, on farms, and as indentured servants leased out to strangers, for five- and 10-year terms.

When the nation formed, few religious people took umbrage at hanging 6- and 7-year-olds for picking pockets or stealing bread, or at least giving them a good bareback flogging before tossing them into prisons to amuse adult felons. No doubt the reinstitution of these spiritually salubrious practices would improve our country’s morals.

One could on, as Ambrose Bierce did to “My County, ‘Tis of Thee,’” of “… land where my fathers fried,/Young witches and applied/Whips to the Quaker’s hide/And made him spring.”

But who in today’s sinful, valueless world would sanction that?

John (Jack) de Yonge
Concrete


A president must engage in talks

Why would we hire a new CEO/president for the U.S. who refuses to do the job? How hard is it to sign on only for the friendly visits — off to talk to the Brits or to hang out in Paris or to take a tour of Berlin?

For eight years, this notion has allowed the current president to have more paid vacation time than most Americans ever think of getting and more than most other presidents have ever taken.

I don’t recall noticing that conflicts are resolved when people or nations refuse to talk. I can’t remember the last Nobel Peace Prize being awarded for avoiding opportunities to address the issues.

Of course, talking to the leaders of other countries will mean hard work.

A hardworking president engaged in the world has a nice all-American sound to me.

Truman, Carter and even Reagan knew how much it mattered to show up for the conversation.

Kathy Reim
Sedro-Woolley