LETTERS: Marriage is a fundamental right, and more
Marriage is indeed
a fundamental right
Michael Butler wrote: "It's worth noting that the word 'marriage' does not appear in the Constitution difficult to argue marriage is a fundamental right" .
Not all recognized fundamental rights expressly appear in the U.S. Constitution, i.e., the right to choose a parochial school for your child; freedom to learn any language; abortion; freedom from discrimination (age, gender, religion, etc.). In 1967, marriage was declared by the Supreme Court as a fundamental right emanating from the Bill of Rights.
The Supreme Court has struck laws barring marriages on the basis of an individual's race, to those delinquent in child support and to correctional inmates. Moral or religious conviction notwithstanding, in the United States, marriage is a constitutionally protected fundamental right.
Barbara M. Weltsek
Mount Sinai
Editor's note: The writer is an attorney.
Our government and society have chosen to endorse the stability brought to families and our society by incentivizing the institution of marriage with many tangible economic benefits. Discriminating between who is worthy of receiving such economic benefits and who is not is what has run afoul of the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Paul G. Landaw
Floral Park
Public opinion
no guide for judges
Two letter writers argue the idea that Judge Vaughn Walker overruled the majority votes of 7 million Californians in his decision to overturn Proposition 8 .
This made me ask myself: Since when do the interpretations of our Constitution put forth by federal judges rest on the opinions of the general American public? Isn't it a design of our Constitution, put forth by our founding fathers, that federal judges in this country be given lifetime appointments to ensure that their duties - to interpret the Constitution as objectively as they are able and without partisan influence - are never swayed by the political process, or by the popularity of their decisions? We are fortunate to live in a country where the constitutional misinterpretation of 7 million California voters can be recognized and nullified by an educated, qualified judge without fear of losing his seat in the next elections.
Were this not the case, the Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., might still be practicing segregation.
Chris Burcheri
Domestic violence and the economy
It's frustrating to read that experts blame the economy for the rise of domestic violence in both Suffolk and Nassau counties .
If this is the best theory that experts can come up with, then we are nowhere near finding a way to prevent this ongoing issue. Officials and experts need to focus more on the laws and consequences of domestic violence. We need to realize that people who have the potential to become violent toward their domestic partner or child will do so whether they are having financial difficulties or not.
Megan Tedeschi
Holbrook
Video chats no match for real, live parenting
The story "Skype visitations ordered in divorce" describes a divorced Long Island woman in custody of two children who was permitted by a State Supreme Court justice to move away from Long Island, as long as she sets up a videoconferencing camera.
The judge who made this decision must have never been a parent.
Part of a parent's connection with a child is based on physical interaction. By allowing this woman to move far away from Long Island, the judge is harming the social development of the child-father relationship.
Videoconferencing programs like Skype are useful, but they have no place in situations like this. For the father, just talking to and seeing his children is not enough. He needs to be with his children.
Shannon Wetzler
On hallowed ground
To build a mosque just two blocks from where 3,000 people were murdered shows insensitivity on the part of Muslim leaders . If organizers really want to show how much they care, they can sit down with Gov. David A. Paterson and look for another site.
In my opinion, it's a shrine to those "martyrs" who murdered innocent people, and not a mosque and community center. They are laughing at us and telling the world that not only can they attack us, they will build a shrine on top of hallowed ground.
Bob Schiller
Holtsville
For years, we have heard the liberal chant of separation of church and state, whereby we must ban the mere mention of God from schools, protect children from possibly hearing Christmas carols or, God forbid, experience the sight of a crèche at Christmas time.
Now, with the argument over the building of a mosque near Ground Zero, we have these same people trying to patronize the Muslim community with their support of this building, under the guise of being good Americans in total agreement with our First Amendment right of freedom of religion. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.
James W. McCrann
It's insulting that some Muslims take offense when anyone points out that those who committed the Sept. 11 atrocities were Muslims acting on their belief of Islamic Jihad. Invariably someone will complain that Christians weren't judged for the crimes of Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City. I don't recall that McVeigh ever said he was blowing people up in the name of Christ.
He was hunted down, arrested, tried, found guilty and executed. In contrast, Osama bin Laden and the other vermin behind the Sept. 11 attacks have been hidden and protected by their coreligionists.
Philip Fries
No place for animus
For so long we have been trying to decide what to include in a memorial to honor those who died on Sept. 11. Somehow, more hatred and exploitation is wrong.
I can see all of those victims, now in a place not tainted by hatred, desiring a memorial that is inclusive of all faiths and all peoples, and true to the beliefs our founding fathers gave us. They know, and it seems we still must learn, that only this will keep such a terrible day from ever happening again. Arguing over a mosque's presence on the site, two blocks from the site, or 10 miles from the site is an insult to their memory and to our heritage.
Linda Bartunek
Calverton
Sarra Sounds Off, Ep. 15: LI's top basketball players On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Newsday's Gregg Sarra and Matt Lindsay take a look top boys and girls basketball players on Long Island.
