NATURE AND IDEALS

EDITOR: The Press Democrat, as is it wont every so often, feeds us a

splurge of articles and cartoons supporting same-sex marriage. The latest came

July 4, as a cartoon and a column by Ellen Goodman.

Your editorial policymakers do not seem to get the idea of marriage. It is

the combination of nature and ideal. Nature uses sex to reproduce a species.

However, nature does not always act as a responsible parent. Some creatures

eat their young, others drive out weaklings, others abandon offspring to fend

for themselves. But we are not rabbits, wolves or alligators. Among humans,

nature and the ideal demands responsibilities for the progenitors to nurture,

train in mores and teach survival skills much more complicated than those

required by lesser animals.

Proponents of the new pop culture ''marriages'' use the ''right-wing

religious'' as straw-man opponents painted as Bible-reading witless

scarecrows. Yet, for ages the family was described as the cornerstone of

society. It was understood as a responsibility. It was a sacred trust.

However, sex -- being no longer considered an element of responsibility and

family ideal -- is now viewed merely a form of entertainment, with marriage

for all approving harmful aberrations known as such since the dawn of human

history.

The extention of marriage for some far out idea of equality or natural

rights serves society no purpose other than to sanction sex as legal

entertainment.

TERENCE M. GARVEY

Petaluma